April 14, 1900.





RECORD AND   GUIDE.





625





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Vol. LXV.





APRIL 14,  1900.





No, 1674.





FOR a time, sympathizing with the downward movement of
the Industrials, the Railroad list at the close of the week
brightened up, and even showed signs of aggressive buying at
the close on Thursday, notwithstanding that that was the eve
of a three-day break in transactions. Why Railroads are such
favorites in the buying we have already explained, and nothing
more need be said upon that point, except to repeat our con-
elusion that there are among them still a good many issues
whose quotations are not at al! representative of the business that
is being done by their roads. It is not so easy to gauge the po¬
sition o£ the Industrials.. The selling that has weakened prices
this week seems to come from inside sources, and there is a
feeling prevalent that the present high prices of iron and steel
and other basic products will go by the board before the close
of spring, owing to a lack of demand. This is probably an ex¬
aggerated idea of the consequences of the position of buyers,
especially when we see how hoth demand and prices hold in the
European markets where the boom began two or three years
before our own. At any rate, says the observer: "Our capitalists
have been buying back our Railroad securities from Europe at
high prices and yet they will not touch the apparently more
profitable Industrial bonds and preferred stocks." If the ob¬
server will cast a glance back he wil! find that the attitude of
capital to-day towards the Industrials was precisely its attitude
towards Railroad securities not so very many years ago, before
they had attained the investment quality they now possess. This
indicates what is the matter with the Industrials; they are still
speculative and liable to all the maladies that threaten infant
enterprises. They are unsuited to the employment of the vast
bulk of the money that goes into investments, whose integrity
and recovery intact at any moment are somewhat more important
features than the return that is actually made upon it. But, on
the other hand, the adventurous huyer who looks more for ap¬
preciation of principal and high interest returns will operate in
the Industrials rather than in Railroads, and if he acts with
judgment will make much more money. The present break,
judging by what the Industrials pay and the prospects for a
continuation of good business, even at lower prices than have
been maintained in the past year, ought to be an opportunity for
profitable speculative buying. The only thing that would justify
any other conclusion would be the helief in the speedy collapse
of general business activity which there is no reason for enter¬
taining.





IF the absorption of the Third Avenue Railroad by the Metro¬
politan Street Railway arouses a fear of the consequences of
such a monopoly of transit business in this city, the terms under
which the former property is leased suggest a confidence in the
growth of population and business in this city that ought to be
satisfactory to realty interests. The yearly interest oa the Third
avenue bonds the Metropolitan Street Railway Co. have guaran¬
teed, with that on the bonds outstanding, will amount to more
than the net earnings the property has yet made in any one
year, so that an immediate increase in traffic is necessary to
make this guarantee pay. Beyond this guarantee the Metro¬
politan people do not undertake anything for four years, but
after that, for two years they agree to pay five per cent, on the
$16,000,000 of stock outstanding, then for four years six per cent,
and finally seven per cent, in practical perpetuity. It must be
taken for granted that the lessees expect also to make some¬
thing handsome for their stock out of the transaction. The
whole undertaking shows a superb confidence in the future ot
the city. To illustrate, let us see what the promise to pay the
flve per cent, dividend alone means. This rate of interest on
$16,000,000 amounts to $800,000, all to come out of new business
or the reduction of operating expenses. If out of the former
alone, and the cost of working is fifty per cent, of the gross re¬





ceipts, a low rather than a high estimate, the road will have to
be developed and travel grow to the extent of 32,000,000 addi¬
tional five-cent fares in the comparatively sliort space of four
years. It follows that to produce this result the Metropolitan
must increase the efficiency and develop the franchises owned by
its new addition to their fullest extent. By the time the guar¬
antee on the stock becomes effective, the underground railroad
should be taking the bulk of tbe through traffic, leaving the
short distance travel to provide the results that are to make
large returns on the increased capital of the surface lines. This
can only he produced by a material development of the city that
must react largely and favorably on real estate. As to the stock
of Third avenue, while its prospects for any considerable return
at an early date are doubtful, as a long investment it is
good.





The Tenement House Committee.

WHY PRACTICAL  MEN SHOULD  BE  APPOINTED.
■"P" HE Tenement House Committee bill as passed and signed

* by the Governor came to hand this week. It is entitled:
"An act appointing a committee to examine into the tenement
house question in cities of the first-class, and to report to the
next Legislature a code of tenement house laws," It was only
in its final stage that the bill was amended to make it apply to
cities of thefirst class.of which there is only one otber—Buffalo—
in this state besides New York. The reason for this amendment
has been mentioned before, and, in any case, is too obvious to
require comment. Comparing this act with Chapter 448 of the
Laws of 1884, and Chapter 479 of the Laws of 1S94, under which
the two last Tenement House committees were appointed, we
find that the powers delegated for obtaining evidence are very
similar in all three cases, and exactly so in the last two. They
were not abused by the old committees and we hope will not be
by the new, however it may be constituted.

Why this committee should be appointed when a Charter Re¬
vision committee is also to be appointed, seeing that the char¬
ter contains a code of tenement house laws, is not easily under¬
stood. But it will be appointed, however, and it is important
that it should be so constituted that it will not offer an absurd
or impracticable code, which a mere body of enthusiasts is sure
to do. Those who remember tbe bill introduced by the Gilder
committee will recall, among some that were good, the absurd
provisions it contained, and which it was so difficult to avoid.
In fact, it was not until the Charter Commission sat that some
of the nonsense was finally knocked out of it by title 7 of chap¬
ter 19 of the charter. To-day, all that is important of that bill
that remains in tbe law is the reduced area of lot to be occupied
and the provision for compensating owners of buildings con¬
demned as unfit for habitation, both very good things it must
be admitted. The absurdities arose through the committee's
trying to legislate for one class of house and the law including
other classes in the scope of any tenement house law. In con¬
sidering this question, the legal as opposed to tbe popular defi¬
nition of a tenement must always be borne in mind. In law a
tenement is not merely a building in which the lowest of the
laboring classes live, but every house that is occupied by three
or more families living independently of each other and doing
their cooking upon the premises, or by more than two families
upon any floor.

Having made it clear what a legal tenement house is, let ua
look at some of the mistakes the Gilder committee made through
want of practical advice. One of their suggestions was that the
paper should be removed from all bedrooms within sixty days
from the passage of their bill. Had this become law, the bed¬
rooms of the finest apartments in the city would have had to
be laid bare to the plaster; but, and this was a suggestion ot
the Gilder committee also, presumably to satisfy any aesthetit;
longing the occupants might harbor in their minds, they were
to whitewash walls and ceilings once every year. We can im¬
agine the joy of the tenant of a Fifth avenue apartment had thi:?
passed, when the whitewashing season eame round. Tbe oppo¬
nents of the bill were, however, able to convince the Legislature
of the absurdity of this provision and it was amended to the
simple requirement that when the wall paper was removed tbe
wall should be thoroughly cleansed. Another suggestion that
threatened trouble and wide-spread injury was that bakeries in
tenement houses—of which there then existed probably a thou¬
sand—should be prohibited; this was changed so that bakeries
could be carried on in tenement houses with the approval of the
Fire Department. Had that provision been enacted, besides its
injury and injustice to established bakers, it would have com¬
pelled thousands of people living in purely tenement sections
to go a long distance to buy their bread. The Gilder committee
also asked^—this,  it is necessary to say, is not burlesque, but





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