Mareh 14,1896





Record  and   Guide.





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TBLBPHONB,......OOBTLANDT 1870

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Vol. LVII.





MARCH 14, 1896





No. 1,461





The Rkcord and Gvivs will furnish you with daily detailed reports
of all building operations, compiled to suit yocir business speci.fically, foi
14 cents a dag. You are thus kept informed of the entire market for your
goods. No giiess work. Every fact verified. Abundant capital and the
thirty years' experience of Th^ Kkcord and Gvide guarantee the com¬
pleteness and authenticity of this servioe. Send to 14 and IG Vesey atreet
for information.

LONDON promptly became a seller on the announcement that
the Ohio Republican State Convention had decided for bi-
mettalism. Of course the people who drew this plank do not
know what they are talking about, but foreigners are justitied
in their suspicions of the securities of a country that has suf¬
fered 80 much from currency heresy and still coutains men promi¬
nent enough to control a party convention who will indulge in
such foolishness. If this is an example of what we are to look
to from the party whoso success at the polls next November is
said to be assured, we may also look for lower prices on the
Stock Exchange and hesitation in geueral business. What
gives the Columbus announcement the most importance is that
it is taken to represent the views of a prominent candidate for
the Presidency on the popular .side. Whether it is the convention
or Mr. MeKinley that is employing an import ant product of Ohio
to darken the vision of the other does not matter; tho business
publics here and .abroad will take it that the success of the
latter will mean a continuation of the absurd tinancial policy
that needs only time enough to ruin the country. It is a most
difficult thing to ruin a country, as history has proved ; but
there is no surer way of doing it thau through an unsound cur¬
rency. Everything goes to show that we canuot expect any¬
thing from the class of people who now dominate our political
life. This Congress, about which some favorable expectation
was indulged in last November, has been more hurtful to busi¬
ness than any of its predecessors, and n^w the party organiza¬
tions throughout the country are, with few exceptions, showing
themselves to be not very much better. The politician has
proved himself to be an unteachable ass and if the business men,
who have learned something from the events of the past two
years, want to get the legislation they so sorely need thev must
do more than sit still wliile the professional politician is passing

such resolutions.

-------•-------

THE Tonquin loan of $16,000,000 at 2I2 percent., guaranteed
by France, issued at a price to pay about 3 per cent on the
investment, was subscribed for twenty-eight times over. Since
the relations of the two countries have assumed a better char¬
acter, the trade between France aud England has very largely
increased. Latest advices from Germany are that the easy con¬
dition of the money market has imparted a strong impulse to
business. Trade being in a favorable condition aud the annual
reports of the leading banks, together with their dividends
giving general satisfaction, there is no scope for pronouuced
pessimism. It need not bu pointed out that this is an entire
change in the tone of reports from Berlin of late. The new
Anglo-German Chinese loan will help the situation materially,
and the opposition to the proposed new Bourse law is becoming
so strong that it is hoped that, if it cannot prevent it altogether,
it may lessen its severity. The report of the British South
Africa Company for the year ended March Slst last has ouly re¬
cently appeared, and, although ancient history, is interesting
owing to the prominence the company has in the public mind.
Income increased from $222,000 to $594,000, and ex|.endituies
from .$328,500 to $712,000. Itwill be seeu that income bad
not come up to expenditures. In spite of this fact the company
was enabled since the period with which the report treats to
issue 500,000 £1 shares at £3.10 each, so that the prospective
advantages of these sh.ares must be considerable iu the minds
of investors. Special reports relating to gold mining in the
Rand district indicate that the grievances ol which the mining
community has complnined are gradually being removed and
that the industry is being treated fairly by the Transvaal
government. Complaints of too plentiful money come also from
Australia, where deposits are beginniug to mount up while
enterprise continues to languish on every side.   The wool sales





at Melbourne have resulted in much higher prices than were
obtained a year ago, by about $7 a bale, though $1.25 a baleleis
than in 1893. Chili is to come into the market for a loan of
$20,000,000, while Argentina is getting into a position where a
new loan will be very convenient if uot absolutely necessary.
The Italian government must tind comfort in its distress over ita
losses in Abyssinia from the prompt and generous oti'irs of the
pecuniary aid received from London and Paris. No one, h<iwever,
seems to recognize the title of King Menelek to admiration and
sympathy. Yet his policy towards his own people and his gener¬
osity towards his Iocs could not have been outdone by a Washing,
ton. Surely, Abyssinia has more to gain in hands such as his than it
would have from those of a set of mercenary whites, whose
only business there would be to get what they could out of it.
We will, probably, hear something soon of Turkish finances.
If in times of quiet the government's expenditures ran ahead of
receipts, as they undoubtedly did, what must they have been in
the past two years ! By the way, it is to this bankrupt oppres¬
sor ot Armenia that Great Britain is asked to surrender Egypt,





RAPID TRANSIT has taken another step forward to its
crucial point by the filing of the report of the Supreme
Court Commission favoring the routes laid down by the Rapid
Transit Commission. The report has to be approved by the
Supreme Court, and that authority has to decide the question of
the constitutionality of the Rapid Transit Act and other ques¬
tions heretofore raised at various times by opponents of the
measure. While the Court's apjiroviil of this report cannot be
taken for granted, yet it is well to remember that it was pre¬
pared by very eminent and capable men, and the grounds for
disapproval must be proved to be very s'^rious indeed before
the Court would decline to accept the opinion of its own ofiBcers.
The Commissioners put aside the injuries that will be done to
property along the route of operations wtien the road is built,
and the inconvenience that will inevitably be caused 10 some
part of the public, as 8m;ill in comparison to the enduring bene¬
fit that will accrue to the city at large by the construction of
permanent facilities for rapid travel. An expression of the
Commission's yiew of rights of property-owners in vaults is
given in another pliice ; it will not give much comfort to those
whose vaults are threatened by this undertaking. It may he
remarked, however, that there is nothing to show that, tbe
question ot the ownership ot the fee of the roadways below
14th street was inesentcd to the Commission as dififering from
similar ownership above that line. As to the main question,
whether rapid transit is needed, tbe report very wisely accepts
that as proved and un.ieeding of argument. As to the matter of
cost, with opinions so divergent and coming from such compe¬
tent men as gave evidence on this poiut before the C immission,
the uatui.al conclusion was reached that that was one that could
be best decided by the money test. That is to say that, if con¬
tractors can be found to undertake to build the road under the
conditions established by the Rapid Transit Act, giving a very
large cash security tor the due performance of their contract, it
may be rea.sonably assumed that the road can be built within
tlie estimate ot $50,000,000. That will be the crucial point of
the present ettbrt to secure quicker means ot passing between
the upper aud lower parts of the citj'. What we are pas.-ing
through nosv is merely preliinin:iry, and until we have reached
that poiut we have no ground on which to base our hopes for
relief. For this reason everyone will be anxious to see the pro¬
ceedings in the Courts expedited as much as possible,

A PETITION for the formation of a park on the E.nst River
front, in connection with the layingout ot Extericrslieet,
has been presented to the city authorities, and may be said to
come with exceeding propriety, notwithstanding the m.iny ap¬
plications that have been made for parks fre m different rails of
the city within the past year or two. For some time a benevo¬
lent associatiou, the East Side House, has maintained a small
park on the East River between Seventy-tifth and Seventy-sixth
streets, containing swings, a pavilion and seats, which has been
agreatboou to the residents of this distiict, especially to tbe
juvenile members. The laying out of Exterior street will cut
oft'a large part ot this park. With the prospect of the loss of
this valuable institution in view, nearly three hundred properly
owners and residents ot the district have petitioned Ihe city to
Lay out a park iu its place upon the vacant piece of land between
Seventy-sixth and Seventy-eighth streets aud on the East River
front. The petition stat' s thit this land cau be converted into
a park at very little expense, and so converted would be of great
benetit to the health of tbe neighborhood and would preserve
for the use of the public some portiou of the East River water¬
front. The locality for which this privilege is asked is oue rap¬
idly growingiu that class of population for whom parks iire a ne¬
cessity, the class that perforce lives iu the city all tbe year
round. The open spaces within easy reach, particularly for
children, are few, practically only the East River Park at Eighty-
sixth street, a very f>'<i*iii it^air and ono that hardly answer* th"