August i8, igoo.





UECOIID AND   GUIDE.





205







ESTAHJSHm^ iiyWPHBl".'*'1668.

DekfiOt 10 RpjLEstate.BuiLDiffc Apfj^rrECTyitf j{(WSEHOLDDE«fijnDii
BUsiWess jub Themes of Gi^iEi^ Irfidi^'T.

PRICE    PER   YEAR    IN    ADVANCE   SIX    DOLLARS.

Published   every   Saturday.

Telephone,                                             Cortlandt 1370.

GommunicatlonB should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street.
/.  T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

"Entered at the P03t-0ffice at Neio York. N. 7., as second-class matter."





Vol.  XLVI.





AUGUST IS, 1900.





1692.





A COINCIDENCE   of   time   between   the  Anti-Imperialist's'
Convention supplemented by the public espousal by sev¬
eral prominent New Yorkers of the anti-Imperial cause, and a
slight break in the stock market, made all the news^mongers and
gossips jump to the conclusion that prices' there were about to
be discounted in favor of the Democratic nominee.   Profit taking
by traders on the bull side who remarked an easing up of out¬
side buying would more reasonably and naturally account for the
moderate drop in  prices that was  seen.    We  may  take  it  for
granted that election probabilities will be used for all they are
worth in the market with the greatest impartiality by profes¬
sional operators, but up to this writing it cannot be discovered
that opinions on the outcome have had any influence whatever
on quotations.      Tiie steady condition of the investnient market
described last week still maintains, and since then speculation
has been wholly professional, and based on the apparent scarcity
of stocks, and the indications that cash purchasers would make
them scarcer still.     It is true that the market gives signs of re¬
lapsing into extreme dullness again, but its strength shows that
there is still good though quiet buying.     It was known a week
ago that brokers were then carrying comparatively no stocks,
and the small speculative buying of the week cannot have added
enough to their burdens to be felt.   In the iron trade the cutting
that was secret before has become open now, bringing with it
tetter prospects for an agreement on prices.      As a rule sharp
cutting brings trade disputants to their senses and forces agree¬
ment; so far iron stocks have not been affected by the cuts in
pig-iron and structural steel, or if at all, only fractionally so,
which  is probably  because the  .great  declines  forced  in   them
during the past j'car have discounted some struggle for businesy
and a readjustment of prices on a lower basis.      Railroad earn¬
ings continue to reflect a satisfa.ctDry condition of business gen¬
erally throughout the country, and while this is so and the
closing of the vacation period should bring further improve¬
ment there is not likely to be much despondency regarding cor¬
porate capital issues.





OUR market has always felt more or less the influence of
European opinion, we having drawn so' large a part of
our capital thence. This influence must be still more potent
now that we are investing there, even though in a limited degree.
We on our side will be more anxious than ever to know the
state of public opinion and the conditions of finance and trade
on the Continent as a whole and in the several countries that
make its business life. For some time the European markets
have resembled our own in inactivity and for corresponding
reasons. A revival on the close of the vacations is not un¬
reasonable. A much needed supply of gold has been drawn
from this side, which seems to meet all requirements of the
moment, and before new needs can come up it is expected that
the African mines will be shipping freely, even though the Boer
war may not have ended its desultory prolongation. This war
has already cost $350,000,000, and the Chinese trouble will cost
each of the six great Powers a large sum—the British govern¬
ment provided for $15,000,000 as a preliminary in their last loan
—and it may be asked what is to replace these vast supports to
trade when the troubles that occasion them are over? The
■answer to this is that tiie compensation will come through the
revival of legitimate trade in South Africa, China and elsewhere
as a result of the cessation of hostilities, with a volume of in¬
crease more than sufficient to offset the loss of war disburse¬
ments. The great iron centres of Great Britain, Germany,
France and Belgium are looking into the future with satisfied
eyes, believing that the decline in prices has been checked and
that demand will improve, a belief that is supported by the





strength of coal quotations, which have not only held strong
during the summer, but have lately given intimation of an ad¬
vance. Another great cause for general satisfaction is that
there have been no agricultural disasters anywhere; nowhere
is there a great crop, but there is a moderately fair one every¬
where, and the distressing f-actor of failure at one or more
points is this year eliminated from the calculations. On the
whole, Europeans will enter the fall season in a good condition.
What views they have of American issues will depend to a large
degree on how our political situation strikes them. The Demo¬
cratic nominee has hitherto stood so prominently in their minds
as the representative of free silver, and, as they are known to
hold impressions once accepted very tenaciously, they are likely
to continue to believe that the currency issue is again at stake
this year, and to act as the reports they receive indicate victory
or defeat for the man whose name embodies to their mind the
16 to 1 principle, which is totally opposed to their ideas of a
monetary system that supports values.





Trade  Combinations.

POPUL.\R   CONCEPTIONS   OF  THEIR   EFFECT   NOT   SUPPORTED
BY  INVESTIGATION,

■J- HE Federal Department of Labor has just issued a bulletin
A. containing the results of an investigation made of trade
combinations, especially with regard to their basis of capitaliza¬
tion, monopoly of markets, control of prices and effects .jpon
wages and employment. Forty-cne combinations responded
to the Department's request for information, though all did not
for various reasons answer all the questions put. Consequently
the number of combinations used to determine the several points
upon which information were sought varied. Regarding control
out of 24 combinations, a majority of stock was held by one
person in only two cases (and in those eases the person was a
corporation), and by flve persons in only eight. These and
other facts led the Department to conclude: "That many of the
opinions of the public regarding the shareholding in these cor¬
porations are at fault and that the actual holdings of the largest
stockholders are much less than has been popularly supposed,"
It was also found that the working capital and the cost of re¬
production of the active plants together of 24 combinations were
equal to 64.42% of the nominal capitalization. If in place of the
cost of reproducing the active plants the original cost of those
plants was substituted that percentage would be raised to 73.22.
This conclusion was qualified by this remark: "It is probably
true also that the establishments reporting do not represent, on
the whole, the most speculative of the larger combinations whose
securities are placed on the market, and that, in consequence,
the result shown here is much more favorable as regards stock
watering than the average of industrials dealt in on the stock
exchange." The percentages, however, contained apparently
no allowance for goodwill, and patents cut little or no figure in
capitalization.

Complete returns of wages could be obtained in but few cases,
but these have, says the report: "On the whole been so com¬
plete and definite that the results are worthy of note, even
though the number of establishments will not warrant one in
placing too much reliance upon conclusions as supporting a
general rule." The number of returns showing employment and
wages of from under ?5 to over $50 a week was 13, and after an¬
alyzing these, the Department came to the conclusion that: "On
the whole, taking the summary of all the employees, but exclud¬
ing superintendents, foremen and traveling salesmen, there was
under combination a slight increase of wage earners of the
lowest class and thereafter in the classes whose wages ran from
?8 to $25 per week a decided increase in both the number and
per cent, of men employed, although there was also a consider¬
able increase in some of the classes receiving the iiigher wages.
It would, of course, be too much to say that these results show
the general eftect of combinations on wages. The returns are
not numerous enough. Besides that, many of the combinations
were formed at the beginning of a period of general industrial
prosperity, so that an^ increase in wages was perhaps to be ex¬
pected. The tables do show, as far as the flgures go, that these
combinations have not decreased wages among these classes of
wage earners."

The report contains many elaborate tables, but one will serve
to show the nature of the investigations made and the way con¬
clusions are formed, and it is given below. The combinations
reporting this table shows an increase in the average annual
wages paid to skilled laborers, to unskilled laborers, and to
clerks, and a decrease in the average annual wages paid to super¬
intendents and foremen, traveling salesmen, and the unclassified
employees.      Taking all  of the  employees together,  the per-