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Record and Guide





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PRICE     PER   YEAR     IN   ADVANCE     SIX   DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday
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Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-lG Vesey Street.

J. I. LINBSEY, Business Manager.

••Entered at the Post Offlee at New York, A'. P., asseoond-elass malter."





Vol. LXI.





MAY 21, 189S.





1,575





THERE is a general awakening to the fact that the high
prices for grain and the disbursement by the Government
of some millions of dollars a day bave a beneficial effect upon
trade in geueral, though the war and other circumstances may
have adverse effects in particular directions. This awakening is
most and best shown in the continued strength of bonds under
investment purchases. As we pointed out sometime since, the
bond market affords a field for profitable operations conducted
with care. At present there is a tendency to cling around a
few issues that are put prominently to the fore by interested
parties seeking a market for their holdings. This is particularly
the case with the bonds issued in recent reorganizations—while
old-fashioned issues which have given proof, under the test of
time, of their worth are neglected. This comes chiefly from the
ignorance of the investor and the indolence of the average broker.
The investor does not know how to obtain information and the
broker does not want the bother of it. It is much easier for him
to execute an order in a bond that is active than to go to work
and investigate an inactive one before putting the customer into
it. Both broker and customer have the common liking for work¬
ing in the line of the least resistance, and this explains why so
many big mistaltes are made in Wall Street. It is the same with
stocks. The business favors a too limited list, often manipu¬
lated, of stocks of varying values, while some as good as any and
better' than others go begging. The curious thing is that Wall
Street is always so timid and will buy and sell oniy on the judg¬
ment of an altruist, known only through the news bureaus,whoae
only happiness ia supposed to consist in giving out pointers by
which other people can make money and thereby become happy
also. To make the present market a really healthy one it must
broaden and give opportunity to securities to sell more on their
merits and less, upon gratuitously proffered testimonials.





THERE is no doubt whatever that Mr. JefEerson M. Levy Is
doing a public service by asking the courts to relieve the
boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx from the burden of carry¬
ing the excess debt of the other boroughs in Greater New York.
Litigation is not a thing that anyone courts and, although one
who engages in it has his own personai ends to serve, if he at
the same time confers a benefit upon many others, they ought
not to withhold from him their support and gratitude. Some
doubt has 'been expressed of the wisdom of Mr. Levy's suit for
fear that it may result in disclosing the unconstitutionality of
the charter and thereby throw the government of the territory
affected into confusion. Property-owners in the old New York
City would receive such a disclosure with equanimity and find
consolation for any temporary confusion created in the practical
relief they would be afforded from burdens which were placed
upon them in spite of their repeated and earnest protests. Be¬
sides, they have become so used to confusion since January 1st
tbat a little more will not matter. In fact, if it was possible that
Mr, Levy's suit could be regarded as a suit on the part oi Man¬
hattan and the Bronx for divorce, based on pre-nuptial coercion
and deceit, it would take the form most satisfactory to the prop¬
erty interests of those two boroughs. Should it ultimately be de¬
cided that the antecedent debt of the several boroughs is a lia¬
bility only where it was made, the burden of futtire improve¬
ments would still have to be borne by Manhattan and the
Bronx, because it is only in those two horough-s that increased
tax valuations can be made of sufficient extent to meet improve¬
ment liabilities for many years to come. There are a great many
questions involved iu the relations of these boroughs with which
the lay mind will not attempt to deal, but at the same time it will
want especially to see one answered, and that one is: As the
constitution limits the debt of a city, how can the legislature
create a city that must as a consequence of its creation violate
the constitution?





MONEY abroad is still somewhat easier, but the close ap¬
proximation of outside rates to those of the rate-making
banks shows that there is no reason for believing that the ease
is anything but temporary. The gold demand from this country
is showing signs of ceasing, a great deal of money that was held
to meet government demands, tbe payment by China to Japan, for
ins'tance, has been released, and the Bank of England has again
put itself in a position of strength; but gold is in such demand
from various directions, presumably, in tbe expectation of politi¬
cal trouble, tharti a reversion to the low rates prevailing some
time ago is not to be expected. The mail brings us the much
heralded plan of the government to put India on a gold basis,
and which proves to be an elaboration of the old scheme to com¬
pel the country to purchase rupees from the G^jvernment with
gold, through a forced scarcity of the rupee. There is no need to
go into details. The plan is quite impractical and has already
been so condemned by the financial press that there is little or
no prospect of its acceptance, and American interests that would
be adversely affected by its adoption need have no further fear
of it. A summary of British railway results for 18S9-97 shows
that all companies had to face a proportionately larger rise in
expenses than in gross receipts, bo that it was only by an un¬
usually heavy growth in gross revenue that any addition to tbe
dividend was possible. The British consular report on the trade
and commerce of Spain in 1897 shows that manufacturers, mer¬
chants and workmen were all sufiiering from the troubles of the
country, while the position became steadily aggravated by the
fact that the resources obtained under such difficulties were being
rapidly expended. In Germany the strength of iron, coal aud im¬
provement shares shows the trend of business and that so far it
is in a good way. Austria-Hungary linds much encouragement
from the prospect of good crops, with prices for agricultural
products maintained high for some time to come.





PROPOSED   BUILDING   CODE.

A sub-committee from the Joint .Committee on New BuUding
Code, consisting of W. J. Fryer, chairman; Albert E. Davis,
secretary, and delegates John De Hart, John P. Leo, Geo. A, Just,
W. S. Miller, L. K. Prince, Merrill W^atson, Henry M. Tostevin,
Lewis Harding, John J, Radley, Moses O'ttinger, Pi-ancis J.
Schnugg, ex-Assemblyman Judson Lawson, Chas. O. Brown, and
ex-Bullding: Commissioner Wesley C, Bush, of Brooklyn, appeared
before Mayor Van Wyck, on Monday afternoon, to urge the prep¬
aration of a new building code as provided in the city charter. The
Mayor advised the delegation to go before the Councilmanlc Com¬
mittee having the matter in hand, and if they failed to g&t satis¬
faction to come back to him.

Yesterday a public hearing was given by the Council Committee
on Law Department and Railroads on the resoluticn, intro¬
duced into the Council last week by Mr. Christman and published
in our last issue, empowering the President of the Council to
appoint a commission to prepare a building code for the City
of New York, A sub-Committee of the Joint Committee on
Building Code was present, their names, with those of'the as¬
sociations they represent, were: Wm, J, Fryer, Chairman, Asso¬
ciation of Architectural Iron Manufacturers; Albert E. Davis,
Secretary, and John De Hart, North Side Board of Trade; John
F, Leo and Merrill Watson, Builders' League; Lewis Harding and
Charles A. Cowen, Building Trades' Club; Isaac A, Hopper and
Henry M, Tostevin, Mechanics' and Traders' Exchange; Samuel
McMillan ar.d Moses Ottinger, Real Estate Exchange and Auction
Room Ld.; Cornelius O'Reilly and W, S, Miller, Real Estate
Owners' and Builders' Association. There were present besides
Wesley C. Bush, late Commissioner of Buildings for Brooklyn,
and George Keister, representing the New York Chapter of-the-
American Institute of Architects.

Mr, Fryer, speaking for the Joint Committee on Building Cede,
objected to a lawyer and a plumber being placed on the proposed
commission. To the first, because he held that the Corporation
Counsel's office could supply, through the assislants especially
detailed to advise the several building departments of the city,
all the legal information required by the commiss:on; and, to the
second, because plumbing was not a matter of building law, but
of rule and regulation compiled by the building departments
under authority of the law. He would have the places of the
lawyer and plumber filled by men technically informed on con¬
struction. He suggested that the resolution be so amended
as to authorize the President of the Council to appoint a Com¬
mission of Experts consisting of seven members, and the three-
Commissioners of Buildings members ex-officio, all to be resi¬
dents and voters in the City of Ne^v York, the choice of the
seven members to be with the President of the Council. Messrs.
Leo, McMillan, Tostevin, De Hart and Bush spoke in support
of Mr. Fryer's proposition.

Mr. Keister suggested that the commission should'consist of
two architects, one constructional engineer, one mason (used -to
handling fireproofing), one man from the Department of Build¬
ings, one sanitary engineer, one legal adviser, and, on the sug-