Octobers, 189S.
Record and Guide
487
BasDtess mIdIhehes of CcHovlJi'rotF^T^
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS.
T^ibUsh^d every Saturday.
TKLEI'HONE, CORTLANOT 1370.
Communications should he addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
/. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager,
"Entered at Ihe Post-O.ff'ice at Xew Tork, N. T., as seeond-class matter."
Vol. LXII.
OCTOBER 8, 1898.
1,595
NOTHING lias arisen in the past week to disturb confldenee
In a prosperous business future. We are approaching the
season when activity in many directions has of necessity to he
curtailed, and It may later appear to some that our present
optimism was misplaced. If it should, they will only have to
discover a contrast with previous similar seasons to see that
they are wrong. The coming elections may impede for a
moment the progress that is being made, but that will be due,
we think, only to the distraction they will give to men's minds.
So far as they influence currency and business conditions, the
results are more likely to confirm the policy that has made com¬
mercial and industrial improvement possible in the past two
years than to create danger to either. In Wall Street there is
considerable activity, but it is very speculative indeed. Cautious
people keep away when quotations fluctuate as widely as some
have recently done, because they suspect, with ample justifica¬
tion from precedents, manipulation that makes ordinary calcula¬
tions useless. The course of prices is justified by the immediate
situation, as it relates to corporate securities, the extent of the
recent advance being borne in mind.
FOR some time itast the speculation in industrial shares in
Berlin has threatened trouble, and, according to late cable
dispatches, the trouble has come and is approaching the acute
stage. Money is becoming scarcer at that point, and foreign
financial centres are discriminating against German bills.
There is a general tendency of money to tighten and a conse¬
quent nervousness in speculation on the various European stock
exchanges or bourses. Various reasons are assigned for this:
The declines in Americans, the Fashoda affair, the Chinese diffi¬
culty, etc., but it is a natural result of a protracted speculation
and the growth of the commercial demand for funds. The fail¬
ing supply of cheap money has recently, also, had a limiting
effect upon the new industrial enterprises put upon the London
market. Activity in this iine continued with but little interrup¬
tion throughout the current year until shortly after the end of
July, since when it has been very small indeed. The total
amount ottered for public subscription during last quarter was
however, considerably larger than in the corresponding period
of 1897, as it included several Government, corporation and rail¬
way issues of large amount, and though th© three months' ag¬
gregate is more than £10,000,000 below that for the previous
three months, it exceeds the sum reached in the third quarter of
the year for a long period, with the single exception of 1896—
that year having been exceptionally productive in new capital
issues. The amount is £37,705,000, comparing with £31,874,000
in 1897, and £41,287,000 in 1896. Por the nine months of the
current year the total reached no less than £123,910,000, being
£15,780,000 more than the aggregate for the same period last
year, and exceeding the total for the record year of 1896 by
£3,944,000. Recent calculations put the French wheat crop at
a figure equal to estimated consumption. Among the reports
that tend to make improbable any rupture between France and
Germany, is one that large Parisian institutions have lately
been investing their surpluses for which they could find nO' use
at home, in the German market, where a growing industrial
demand gave them profitable employment. If this is true, it
may be taken for granted that the political situation was care¬
fully weighed before the money was transferred. Some dis¬
appointment is expressed at Vienna that the foreign demand
does uot absorb the results of the good harvest and so bring
needed gold into the country.
A MERICAN competition in iron and steel continues a lively
*^ subject for discussion abroad, and in reverting to the
matter recently, one of the English financial journals claimed
that the British limit of production had been reached, and that
it was the growth of the demand of the world that was met of
late by supplies from America. This is an original and interest¬
ing view, and the conclusions regarding future trade made there¬
from are iuteresting. The paper in question says: "During the
past ten years the production of pig-dron in this country has
been comparatively stationary, never exceeding seven to nine
million tons during the periods of greatest activity, whereas in
the United States during the same time the production fluctuated
between 3,000,000 tons in 1879, and 10,000,000 tons in 1897, and to¬
day the production is at the rate of about 11,000,000 tons per
annum. It is manifest, therefore, that it would have been very
difficult to supply the growing wants of the world unless the
United States had entered the field in the way she has done.
It may be that in future we may have to take the second, in¬
stead of the first place, in the iron and steel trade of the world;
but if, as is just possible, the expansion of trade continues in
the same, or even a larger ratio, than during the past 20 or 30
years, we may before long find the large production of the
United States insufficient to meet all the requirements of the
world. Taking the subjoined figures as the production of the
world, during the following years, we may fairly estimate that
the requirements of 1901 wiil not be less than 34,000,000 tons.
The production of pig-iron throughout the world was, in 1897,
31,000,000 tons; in 1891, 26,000,000 tons; in 1881, 20,000,000 tons,
and in 1871, 13,000,000 tons. As the production of Great Britain
cannot be very readily extended, owing to the difficulty of ob¬
taining ore, it seems probable that the United States will have
to supply the bulk of the additional 3,000,000 tons of pig-iron
which are likely to be required during the next three years;
Germany is the only other country which has been increasing its
output to any extent, but this has only been at the rate of 300,-
000 to 400,000 tons per annum on the average."
VESTIMG TITLE BEFORE PAVMENT.
TT is curi>ently reported that the city administration will obtain
^ the introduction, and push the passage through the next Leg-
islature,of a bill to repeal those portions of the existing lawwhicb
give tbe city title to lands required for distinctly public im¬
provements in advance of the ascertainment and payment of
damages. Mayor Van Wyck recently condemned this practice
very strongly, and said it would bankrupt any government in
the world if persisted in. He quoted the Eim street case, in
which large sums will have to be paid for interest on awards,
while awaiting the issue of bonds necessary to carry out the im¬
provement. As a matter of fact, the provisions of law referred
to have worked badly and ought to be modified, at least, in order
to avoid injury either to one side or the other. The late admin¬
istration, under a popular demand, decided to push certain im¬
provements to a more rapid conclusion than then seemed likely,
and, as the difUcuIty lay in obtaining title to the necessary land,
they secured the passage of bills which gave the city title in
certain specified cases on certain specified dates. For instance,
title to the laud required for the Third Avenue bridge approach
was obtained on very short notice, and the property has been
taken, although not only has not a penny of compensation been
paid to the late owners of the property, but the amount of that
compensation has not even been determined. We allude to this
as a matter of fact, and not imputing blame to anyone for the
delay. But when allowing the city to take this property, the
Legislature, to compensate the person thus arbitrarily deprived
of his property, decided that the awards when made should hear
interest at the legal rate from the date when title passed.
Last year, actuated by a desire to extend this principle wher¬
ever possible, the Strong administration secured the passage of
two acts of more general application. One of these, now Chapter
li7(! of the Laws of 1897, amended Chapter 293 of the Laws of
1895, more popnlai-ly known as the Small Parks Act. The
amendments conferred on the city additional powers for taking
title to land embraced within the boundaries of parks established
under the earlier act. In the case of parks already selected, it
provided that title should vest in the city in thirty days after
its passage. In the cases of parks laid out after the passage cf
tbe amendatory act, the Board of Street Opening and Improve¬
ments may, by resolution, fix a date when title to the property
required shall vest in the city. The second aot referred to was
Chapter 630 of the Laws of 1897. This applied the procedure laid
down in the charter for the Greater New York to condemnation
proceedings instituted by the then existing corporation, known
as the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New
York. It provided for a uniform system in proceedings to con¬
demn property required by the municipality, except for street
openings, parks, aqueducts and docks, but affected sites for
school houses, station houses, armories, court houses and every¬
thing not specifically excepted as stated. One of its most import¬
ant provisions is that the board or department directing con-