lovember 2$, 1899.





ilËCOItt) AM) iGtlbË.





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TBLBPHOHS,                                                    COKTI/ANDT 1370,

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" Entered at the Post-O^ioe at New Yorh,N. Y., as seeortd^lass mattet\"





Vol. LXIV.





NOVEMBER 25, 1S99.





No. 1654





THERE is an improved feelliîg in the stock market, and out¬
side buyers are coming in to pick up promising issues,
though tliere is no évidence cf a substantial renewal of the spécu¬
lative movement, Most oi the activity seen is due to professional
opérations, though tbe buying of issues tbat promise to begin
or increase dividends is sufficient lo appreciably effect appear¬
ances. The intimation that tbe local fight for gas business was
ciosed, coming as it did from a Wall street broker's office, shows
that certain spéculative éléments are convinced that the condi¬
tions promise more proflt on tbe long than on the short side of
the market. Tbe improvement in the situation is malnly due to
tbe Treasury action of last week, whieh eame at a good time—
according to Wall street gossip at a critical time—to put tbe
market into the right direction, a course that is now likely to be
sustained by the natural movement of money tbis way. Taken
altogether, the indications are tbat, wbile its course may not be
altogether regular, money has ceased to be an adverse factor in
stock market opérations. Tbe flattering records of the condition
of gênerai business, which hâve all along made themselves ap¬
parent, and without which tbe stock market could not hâve
stood thè ordeal of tight mcney for a couple of months in the way
it did, still come to uphold tbe spirits of the community.





AMONG the other features of the foreign markets the décline
in British eor.sols i.s most signiflcant, This week the
price went below 103, a drop of 12 points from the highest made
in '94. This moa?ures the extrême activity business bas gained
in tbe period covered, as eonsols advance with the accumulation
of idle capital acd décline as the demand for funds grows greater,
This demaud is now accentuated by war requirements, otherwise
relief mi.e;ht be thought to be at hand, Such is not the case,
however. Money is hard everywhere, and a Berlin correspondent,
under date of Sch inst. says: "Conditions in the money markel
are again such as to give cause for concern." In hig effort to re¬
move the impression that Russia is financially unsound, M.
Witte, the Caar's Minister of Finance, has issued a statement
that the gold in circulation increased from 30,300,000 rubles in
1S96 to 683,400,000 rubles in 1899; the silver from 24,400,000 rubles
to 145,500,000 lubles in the same length of time, and the paper
decreased from 1,047,600,000 rubles to 540,000,000 rubles, The
gold stock of the Bank of Russia is placed at 856,000,000 rubles,
part of wbich is available for an extension of the note eurrency
by some hundreds of millions of rubles if necessary. Tbe U, S,
Treasury tables give tbe Russian gold ruble a value of 77.2c.,
and the silver one of 55,8c, Great Britain does not seem to
bave gained much by Canada's preferential tariff, whlch went
into efl:ect in April, 1837. In the three years, 1896 to 1899, Great
Britain's export trade to Canada rose from $33,000,000 to $37,000,-
000 and that of the United States from $59,000,000 to $91,000,000.
Great Britain's foreign trade reached bigh water mark in the
returns for October, but at home there are signs of lessened ac¬
tivity in scme directions, amongst which is found a réduction in
the price of stock, cr common brick, from forty shillings (about
510) to thirty-six shillings (about $9) per 1,000. In the expéri¬
ence of the English brick trade, in a period of ten years, three
will be of high and seven of low prices, The pecuniary value of
a successful British war in the Transvaal to tbe gold mining In¬
dustry is thus stated by Jobn Hays Hammond, the mining engi¬
neer: "'I would regard the sum of 6s. per ton as a conservative
estimate of the direct and indirect beneflts of good government.
The saving would be équivalent to an enhanced profit per claim
of from £7,500 to £12,000, and would resuit ln an increase of
annual dividends by £4,826,535, based on last year's tonnage of
ore crushed, It will take, however, several years to fully reaiize
the saving in question."    The ErazUlan Government bas laid





before Parliament a bill to establish a maximum ahd' minimum
tariff to be applied according to tbe concessions made by other
countries to Brazilian produets, Tbe bill seems to be chiefly
aimed against tbe French duty- on Brazilian coïfee, wbich is in¬
tended to'protect tbe colonial coffee grower. A new states treaty
between Austria and Hungary, which has yet to be approved by
tbe Parliaments of both, provides for an increase of the latter'a
contribution to the common fund, a fact that is important in indi¬
cating that the différences between tbe two countries are much
lesB acute than they were.





Obstructed  Improvements—A Remedy.

T^ EARLY two years ago we called attention to the inade-
■*-*■ quacy of the powers vested in the city to create improve¬
ments made necessary from time to time by increased popula¬
tion and commercial development, and suggested that they should
be supplemented by calling in the aid of private capital wherever
it was possible to emplcy it. Our practical and energetic Comp¬
trollèr has now drawn the attention of the public again to tbe
same evil, and proposes to remedy it by obtaining an amend¬
ment which will exempt direct income bearing improvements
from the opération of tbat provision of tbe Constitution that
limits the city's indebtedness to 10 per cent, of the real estate
tax valuation. It is gratifying to find that tbe question is being
taken up in a practical way in influential officiai circles, because
it is undoubtedly the case that tbe progress of the city ia ob¬
structed ùy the want of many improvements, aud especially by
those of rapid transit, transpontine communications, and facili¬
ties for loading and unloading ocean-going craft. At the same
time it is doubtful whether the taxpayers will care to see tbat
défense against municipal extravagance, the debt limit, thrown
down, as it would in effect be if the Comptroller's remedy is
applied.

It is one of the defeets of our System of municipal government
that, tbere being a necessity for placing a limit upon the powers
of the city to raise capital for publie improvements, so much
work that could otherwise hâve been done through private enter¬
prise has been jealously retained to the city which could not do
it. Conditional assertions are easily made but hard to prove;
yet it is conceivable that bad the city, instead of retaining ail
the docks and tbe work of improvîAg them in their own banda,
bave been content witb laying down a comprehensive plan and
permitting shippers and wharfingers to do the work themselves,
under leases or other forms of agreement that would bave in¬
sured proper returns for the privilèges granted, and the ultimate
ownership of the improvements to the city, New York would not
be now complainlng tbat lesser cities on the Atlantic coast are
taking away ocean-going commerce, and the proflt to the city
would be much greater than wbat tbe Dock Department can
show, gratifying as that is. In the matter of underground rapid
transit, too, it is just as possible that, if that had been left as
open to private enterprise as similar development bas been else¬
where, instead of being at this moment in doubt whether a con¬
tractor can be obtained to build the new underground railroad
and operate it, even with the city as financial backer, .we would
bave had the gratification of seeing a ramifying road in
opération where travel and business are densest, and a good
prospect of seeing it extended" in the near future to outlying
sections. The existence of privateiy owned roads in the sections
where population is already thick would hâve compelled the
elevated lines, for their own protection, to extend themselves to
those where it is at présent sparce, and so assisted their settle¬
ment and more rapid upbuiiding. In tbe matter of bridging the
East River and uniting more closely the two greatest of the
five boroughs of .wbich our city is composed, though that would
not perhaps be a work that would attract private capital so
easily, even there lt is not altogether sure that the attitude of
the municipality towards it has not hampered development.
There was a time when the moving spirits in urban transporta-
tion were seriously contemplating the necessity of tbrowing
bridges over the .East River, but the panic of 1893 prevented the
mobilizing of their pecuniary resources for that purpose, and
since then tbey bave been taught that lt is more profitable to
wait for the city to do tbe work, and to gratuitously secure the
use of it when done.

We hâve to admit that the view we take of tbis question 1«
open to the cbarge of being revolutionary, but we are confident
from tbe fact tbat so much la needed and that taxation has
reached a degree that cannot be extended without danger to
property Interests, that a radical reform is needed in our methods
of providing necessary improvements, Failing the enlargement
of tbe city's Corrowing powers, and tbe enlargement required is
of sucb au extent tbat we doubt whether the taxpayers would
consent to it, the only reeource will be in an appeal to private
capital.   Outside of such matters as provision for police, flre pro-





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