April 26, 1896
Record and Guide.
695
e^/ ^^ ESTABLISHED V::'/AAH.CH21'-i^ 1668.
Di/oTED to REA,LE.<T*rE.BuiLOlKc %CrilTECTURE,h(oUSEHOU)DE6Qf(AT10lf,
BasiN'tSS Alto Themes or GeHeraI Interest .
PRICE, PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Ciililishrd rrerg .sitliirdiiy.
TBLEIIIO.NK, ------ CORTLANUT 1370
Conmiuuicatious ?;Iiou!d be addressed to
('. W. SWliET, IJ-U; Vesey Street.
./, T. LJNDSl'jy, Business .Manager.
"Entered at the Post-office at New York, ,V. 1'., as second-class matter."
Vol, LVII.
APRIL •2->, 189(1.
Xo. i,4(;
The Uecohd and Guide ivill furnish you with daily detailed reports
of all building operations, compiled to suit yocr business specifically,.foi
14 cents a day You are thus kept iu formed of the entire market for you)
goods No guesswork. Every fact ver'ified. Abundant capital and the
thirty years' I xperience of TuK Rkoord and Gvidk guarantee the com¬
pleteness and uuthentic'iiy of this service. Send to 14 and lii Vesey street
for information.
WITU SUPPLEMENT.
CiON,lECTURES ou the .stiiudiiifi; (>f the Veue/.uehm (iiiflioii
'' were used to check the .a<lvaiice in the Stock Market and
break prices if possible. Tbe advance was checked, but the ef¬
fect on prices was very sinall. Still it appears somewhat re¬
markable to many Ihat the reassnring advices fioin Loudon and
Washiufi'ton have not caused a leucwal of the upward move¬
ment. The fact is, bowever, that belter nrices have brought
more stock and bonds on the niarUet than it can absoih at the
moment. Shonlil the owners of the securities Ihat are for sale
begin luakiuy conccKsions in their demands we shall see a very
decided reaction ; and, it may be lemarked, that is the usual
way out of a condition like Ihe present. In the event of a
break the market will be a better buy thau ever, because tlie
outside conditions all favor the bull movement. If anyone will
take the trouDle to run through the trade leports, he will tiud
that they uuiloriuly say that prices are tirm aud business, while
not increasiug largel.y. iu a stable aud healthy coiiditioD. This
conditiou of business is due to the continuance of a policy gen¬
eral among buyers uot to juovide for more than actual neces¬
sities. If such a policy can keep prices strong we may be sure
that the couditions are wholesome aud an.y change will be for
the better.
THERE is a dark as well as a bright side to the tiuaucial con
ditiou of Great Britain. The enormous reserves of cash
have helped home business, but they are keeping dowu mone^
rates ain\ puttiug up investments to prices on which only a very
sm.all return cau be made ; they, iu fact, represent an unwar¬
ranted coutinued timidity ou the pait of capital, which, if kept up
much longer, will iii.ruriously atfect Great Britain through the
loss of thos(! sources of income wliich came to her through the
flow of her surplus capital in every direction. There are,
itis true, uot very many channels opeu for that capital .iust now.
Government borrowiugs are light and the conditions do not
favor the attempt to place other loaus, exeept in isolated cases,
such as the Westralian gold tields, but these hoards must soon
have an outlet. If the United States declares for a gold stand¬
ard pure and simple, without auy toying and fooling with bi¬
metallism, which has come to be regarded as only a cloak for
free coinage of silver, the surplus capital of Europe will be its
to commaud. If iron is the sure barometer of trade generally,
theu Europe is flourishing, because the reports from all iron
ceutii^s, Briti-sh, Belgian, Austrian and German, are of increased
activity and better ]ii ices. In the tirst named it is (|ualitted by a
very depressed condition of the tiu-plale trade, due to what is
described as competition iu the Uuited States, or, as we might
put it, to the endeavors of the Uuited States to snpply its own
needsinsteadofreli ing upon the British manufacturer, which
have resulted iu reducing the exports oL the latter from some¬
thing over 0,000,000 boxes to about :{,000,000, aud with a
change in the tariff may stop these exports altogether, Ag.ainst
the loss of 3,000,000 boxes to the United Mates there has been a
gain of 1,000,000 boxes to other countries. An official report on
French foreigu tr.ade iu tho teu years from 1885 shows that the
policy of protectiou as applied in France has had little ettect on
the (piantities of wheat and wiue imported, those depending
upon the home crops, although dniies on each have been raised
several times. There were larger imports of raw materials and
smaller ones of manufactured goods. The exports of manufac¬
tured goods suttered from reprisive taritis imposed by other
countries, notably Switzerland and the United States. A sta¬
tistical report that is ot some interest on this side of the Atlantic
has been issued by the Government of Austria-Hungary and
relates to the production of beet sugar. Its main point is that
the production of this article from August to February iu
France, Germany and the country making the return declined
by .about .550,000 tons. Following the example at Niagara, the
great waterfalls at Gasteiu and those of Gelling, near Salzburg,
are to be utilized for the creation of electric power.
^<0, whether the constituent territories desire it or not, or,
^^ rather, as those territories do not desire it, we are to have
con.s(didatiou. The hope that Governor Morton will veto the
bill is ouly a faint one, even in view of the fact that the heads
of the two cities most concerned have refused their approval to
the bill, which has .just been passed over their vetoes. What
makes this hope so slight is the accuracy with which the various
movements on the bill have been i)redicted from the Fifth
.\venue Hotel. Onlv last .Monday oui-daily paiiers quoted the
oracle there as saying that the Asseinblv would jass the bill
over the vetoes of the two Mayors, and that the bill so ]>assed
would be signed by the Governor. As all the oilier jirophecies
on the measure from thati|uaiter have been fultilled, why should
we not assume that the remaining one « ill be? Vet Governor
.Morton has uot been kimwii through life as a man dependent
wholly ou the will of others, or likely to accept dictation from
persons who, while cominandiug high positions iu parly organ¬
izations, owe no res; ousibility to the public. Whatever may be
the Governor's present intentions or views toward consolida¬
tion, he ought to weigh carefully the ob,)eclioiis that have been
urgKl agaiust it. It canuot escape tho uotice of a man of his
penetration that so soon as the measure was submitted to judg¬
ments capable of hearing .md wei^'hing testimony the resulting
decision was adverse to the measure. To New York City the
matter involved is a very sericuis one. With its credit already
touched because of the enoinious obligations it has undertaken
for parks, railroad, docks and other necessary improvemeuts, it
is to be further biirdeneil by uuiou wilh a city liaviug a high tax
rate and a debt up to the constitutional limit, aud, in addition,
wilh a very large teriitory very lliinly populated and possessed
of next to no improvements at all. There can be only oue result
of such a uniou—an increased tax late and ta.\ valuatior. for the
wealthier part of the combined city. This is made absolutely
certain by the conditifui of ((|ual ta.xation and valuation, which
is to guide th(> Iramers of the charier for the (ireater New York
in carrying out their work.
ri^'HAT that will be the result there is no doubt whatever. It
•4 has become the case iu Chicago, where there was some pro¬
tection agaiust the burdens of the newer portions of the city being-
imposed upou the older parts. In the tirst place the bonded
debt of the city is limited to a small percentage of the valua¬
tion, and the method of reaching a valualiou is one calculated
to keep the tigures down. Impr<ivenicuts are cariied out by
special assessments levied upon the localities beuetited by these
improvements, aud the co.tributious for Slate and county are
levied upon and paid directly by the distiicts or towns into
which Ihe city is divided. Consolidation under such circum¬
stances could not be as obiectionable as in our own ca.se. The
bill passed iu detiance of the officially expressed wishes of New
York City and Brookl.yn imposes an equal and uniform valua¬
tion and taxation throughout the consolidated teriitory. Itis
as plaiu as the nose on nia'i's face that this means an increase to
the burdens of the owuers of property in New York City as now
constituted, ll also nie-'us that the work of improvement must
be curtailed or still further burdens assumed by the taxpayers
of New York City. Let us see what has been the results in Chi¬
cago, with ail its couditions so very much more favorable to
consolidation than those of New York. In 1888 Chicago had
.an area of .^(1.662 square miles and a population of bOi',(i61 ;
the value of its real estate was !fil23,y92,35S and its tax levy
$5,728,067. The following year it iucreased its area to 1150.-
884 square miles, in 1890 to 179.159 square miles aud in ISl'l
to ISO.llO square miles, where it slop)ied. lu 1894 its popula¬
tion was 1,567,727 ; the value of its real estate, to .$190,163,364,
and its tax levy, to $12,267,643. Its bonded debt reached the
legal maximum some years ago, aud has not beeu changed, ex
cept by the Lssue of $5,000,000 of bonds for the World's Fair in
1892. The tax levy giveu above represents only the amount
collected for city purposes. The result then, as far as taxes for
city purposes are concerned, was an increase in real estate valu¬
ation of ouly about 50 per cent, and au increase in the tax levy of
115 per cent. Now, what will the result bo where city and
State taxes, ineludiug charges for improvements, are made a
burden proportioned upou a valuation equalized over an area of
more than 300 square miles, 200 of which are farm laud '.'
IF a fear of increased taxation was the only objection to con¬
solidatiou there might be some reason for disregardingit, but
there are many more. There ought to be at least some compre-