November 12, 1898.





Record and Guide





699







31111.

upiu\iflf;n_





^                              ESTABIJSHEIi^lW^paaiy^le68.

Biisntess Alto Themes or GEjienA iKreppT^

PRICE     PER   TEAR     IN   ADVANCE    SIX   DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday,
Tblephone,                                            LCoktlabdt 1370.

Communications should be addressed to

C. "W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
/. 2. LEND SET, Business Ma/nager.





"Entered at the Post-OS ice, at Neiv York.N. T., as second-class inalter."





Vol. LXII.





NOVEMBER 12, 1S98.





AN easy explanation of the present enormoiiS' buying of in¬
vestment securities is found in the large amounts of
moQ'ey seeking use at low rates. It does not take much calcula¬
tion to show that, with four and flve months' money at 3%, it
pays to buy good 4% issue lu the 90s and 5% ones at not too high
a premium, provided only that the interest is sure to be paid
and the prospect is good for a sustention of quoted values. The
condition of trade and the results of the election, which latter
■were anticipated ,by Wall Street, account for the good buying
to which we have directed attention for two weeks past. It is
risking nothing to say that this counU-y was never stronger in
available funds than it is to-day, nor has i't ever had such good
pro-spects for keeping so. Some causes contributing to this
state of things are given in another column. The Important
question to consider here is, whether the money market will
continue for long to favor Wall Stree't as it does now? The
answer to this question depends on the ability of trade and
commerce to absorb funds. As soon as the expansion of busi¬
ness renders extensive increased commercial demands on the
money market necessary, corporate securities will lose the ad¬
vantage of cheap money that they enjoy now, and we s'hall see
here a repetition of the movements which, for example, put
Consols up in London to prices they had never known before
and later brought them down again to flgures normal for good
times. The process of rise and fall took a few years to com¬
plete. In our own case, and particularly in view of our pe¬
cuniary strength and the confirmation of confldenee as the fears
of currency agitations are removed by the ballots, there is no
apparent likelihood of dearer money for siome time to corae. In¬
dustrial and commercial develiopment will absorb more and
more money, and so take it away from the speculative markets,
as time goes on; but this is a slow movement, and the point at

which it will materially force up rates is a good way ahead.

-----------«-----------

CAUTI'O'N is so marked a characteristic of Lord Salisbury
that the speech delivered by him at the Guildhall ban¬
quet this week, may be accepted as reassuring on the whole.
His intimation that Great Britain could not afford to relinquish
a policy of readiness for any emergency had no special applica¬
tion to Prance or the Pashoda incident. It might, with equal
justice, have been made one or two years ago as now, or, for
that matter, ten years ago, because the contest, which until
now has happily been diplomatic, but might have and still may
ait any moment become martial, for the control of the tropical
trade, has been going on and musit continue for a long time to
come. What is actually being accomplished is a re-distribution
ol the trade of the world, and the conservation or di&persion of
the estates of incompetent peoples, in which the issues are so
vital and colossal, that any man on whose words responsi¬
bility rests, may well display caution in his utterances. The
Faahoda incident having excited the world and sent the prices
of securities fluctuating, will make way for others of more im¬
portance. France ought to have something to say about the
Emperor William's policy in Asia Minor, where a Prench tradi¬
tion has prevailed since the time of the Pir&t Crusade, and
Prance has been the protector of the Christian congregations,
and which Queen Hortense's pretty song, "Partant pour La
Syrie," that our grandmothers used to sing, was intended to
perpetuate. Paris has abolished the octroi on wine, cider and
beer, and, to compensate the loss of income created thereby,
proposes to tax alcohol, revenues of houses to be paid by land¬
lords and rents lo be paid by tenants, besides many other things.
The stringency of money at Berlin continues, as does also, there
being relatively between the two, great industrial activity in
many directions, particularly in electrical work. The Union
■Electric Company, founded by the T.,ndwig Loewe, a local com¬





pany, and the Thompson-Houston, of Boston; has just Increased
its capita! from ?750,000 to $4,500,000; a Nuremberg electric
company has also raised its capital, by about $1,250,000. The
Vienna surface roads are to be reorganized, converted to electric
and operated by Siemens & Halske, i. e., the Deutsche Bank of
Berlin. Among the conditions of the contract are these: ThM
changes of carriages (transfers) are to be paid for at a stipu¬
lated rate, and that children, who pay half price, are to be
measured by the guard (conductor) with a m^tre measure,
whether for height or breadth is not reported. The Vienna Bourse
narrowly escaped a panic ou the discovery of the bubonic plague
in that city; one death outside of hospital circles would have
precipitated it. The Indian jute crop of the present season is
estimated at 8S% of the normal. Egyptian cotiton prospects are
less favorable than they were a year ago, and a decline of 50,-
000 to 75,000 bales is expected. The cheapness of the American
cotton is, to a considerable extent, displacing others from the
market. One of the m'ost remarkable things brought out by
cotton statistics, is ths aibility and apparent desire of the grow¬
er to give the consumer the advantage of the increase in his
own demand; the increase of the production being continually
more than equal to the increase of consumption, although the
latter is quite large.





1,600





T0E charter provides for a "just and equal" tax throughout
the Greater New York. Until the annual record of the
assessed valuation of real and personal estate in the several
boroughs shall have been completed, some weeks hence, it will
be impossible to express in precise figures the effect of consoli¬
dation on taxes in Manha;ttan and Brons. However, that fhe
incidence of taxation will fall with greater severity on those
boroughs than was originally expected is patent, inasmuch aa
the budget for 1899 has turned out to be some thirteen millions
of do-i-ars larger than was anticipalted. In Brooklyn, at the last
tax levy, the assessed valuation on real estate was popularly sup'-
posed to be 75% of the actual value, and in Manhattan and Bronx
60%. In Richmond and Queens the average was probably 50%.
Public policy, dictated by the necessity for securing a reasonable
debt margin, requires tlhat tne assessed valuation shall be raised
more or less uniformly throughout all the horougihs to 75%.
If strict uniformity were to be o'bserved, some $446,800,000 would
be added to the assessed valuajtion of real estate in Manhattan
and Bronx. There is reason to believe, however, that the addi¬
tion will not exceed $300,000,000, though there are some who put
the prospective increase much higher than either of these
figures. The increase, as was intimated last week, will prob¬
ably be obtained by raising the valuation of commercial and the
better class o^f residential properties, particularly in the middle
sections of Manhattan, from 20 to 40 per cent, tenements on the
East and West Sides rem'aining untouched. According to un-
oflicial, but, nevertheless, quite reliable report, the tax rate for
the coming year will not be over 2.50. The average tax rate in
Brooklyn last year was 2.83; in Richmond and Queens 4.50. Aa
the assessed valuation in Brooklyn remains the same, except on
a small quantiLy of suhurban land, which has hitherto been
rated according to its value for agricultural use, the considerable
decrease in the burden of taxation in that borough will be meas¬
ured by the drop in the tax rate. Long Island City, ■Where both
tlie assessed valuation and the tax rate were unusually high,
will also experience material relief. To Manhattan and Bronx,
that is, the old New York city, consolidation will mean, accord¬
ing to the best available information, an arbitrary addition of
at least $300,000,000 to the as-sessed valuation on their real
estate, and an increase in the tax rate from 2.01 to anywhere
between 2.30 an'd 2.50. And no maJtter what the tax rate hap¬
pens to be next year, it wil! most probably be higher in each
succeeding year for some years to come. The current budget
was cut mercilessly, so mercilessly as probably to interfere ■with
the administrative work of the government. On thiS' ground
alone, therefore, we may look for a substantial Increase next
year. Eesidtes, the cost for the maintenance of streets in the
new boroughs will grow as' the hundreds of miles of dirt roads
are improved, and the demand for education and police and fire
protection grows with the population. In another column are
given the assessed valuations of the several boroughs aud other
data, on which these calculations are based.





A MORNING contemporary calls attention to tihe fact that
there are four whole blocks of land for sale, within an
area of three square blocks, bounded by 52d and 49th streets and
Bth and Lexington avenues, and therefore located In one of tha
most aristocratic sections of the city. These blocks contain
witnm them St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Buckingham Hotel- and
the Viliard mansions as reipresentatives of permanent improve¬
ments.   The four blocks referred to aa in the market, are ths