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September 29, 1900.





KECOHD AND   GUIDE.





38r







ESTABUSHIir^!^WpHeK"Aie68.

tkAiOiTi'fif^Zs^tjz.Qaitiqk *^tTZCT^}{wsn^                     '

B\liotE&t AtfolHEMEs OF CeHovL iKtcitF^I^

.    PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN    ADVANCE   SIX    DOLLARS,

PubUetted   evert/   Baturday.

TELEPHONE,                                             COETLAtTDT 1370.

CommunlcatloDB should be addressed to

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

"Entered at the Poat-Ofttce at New Tork, N. Y., aa second-class matter."





Vol, LXVI.





SEPTEMBER 29, 1900.





1698.





T X TITH cliaracteristic suddenness Wall Street   turns   froni
* ^   gloominess to brightness.   Whereas a day or two ago the
market seemed inclined to discount the possible worst of the near
,,,.,future, it may now be about to discount the possible best.   As the
coal strike was the signal for the decline, the report of its set¬
tlement was the signal for the advance.   It is among the curiosi¬
ties of recent gossip that both the strike and settlement are said
to have been brought about by political agencies, though from
adverse sources.   So prone are people to believe that some one
thing while It is prominent in their minds   is   responsible   for
,      everything that occurs.   Those who look at the matter fairly will
refuse to believe that the managers of any party could or would
bring about anything that would inflict suffering upon half a
k, ..million of men, women and children.    They will certainly see
[     that it was to the interest of the party In power to do all they
I      could from humanitarian as well as Interested motives to ter¬
minates the struggle between the operators and miners as soon
as possible.   Had the strike been protracted it would certainly
have detracted from claim of the party in power that their ad¬
ministration has been one of great prosperity.    But, however
that may be, if they were instrumental in bringing the contest¬
ants to resort to the civilized method of adjusting their differ¬
ences by arbitration instead of by starvation versus pecuniary
loss through suspension of business, they did a very creditable
thing.    Only the poor in spirit could make the malign accusa-
I      tion against one party or look for discreditable motive in the
other.    The change in sentiment that a day or   two   has   pro¬
duced is all the more satisfactory and reflective of the soundness
of   conditions   thi'oughout   the   country,   in   that   our  market
must   look   to   be   self   sustaining.     We    have    no   prospect
of help from Europe owing to the condition of the money mar¬
ket there.   Whatever buying comes from that direction will be
speculative, and be offset by realizations to secure funds to meet
the stringency tbat they have every reason to expect before the
close of the year.   We cannot, either, expect much from the fall
in exchange, because Europe needs the gold itself too sharply to
',    allow much to come this way.   Europe has more often been on
balance a seller than a buyer of late years, on advances in our
market, and the ability we have shown to take back our securi¬
ties on demand has revealed more than anything else, not even
"excepting recent subscriptions to foreign loans, the growth of
bur flnancial strength in recent years.    The more securities we
buy back, the less liable we are to be hurt by such upheavals
abroad as that of 1890.    This may seem to be travelling away
from the consideration of the immediate future of the stock mar¬
ket and of general business in this country, but the two things
are closely connected by our increased foreign trade and show
the process by which we are evolving from a debtor to a creditor
nation.   As we secure and retain the flnancing of onr own enter-
'prises while continuing to enlarge our foreign trade we must be¬
come more and more buyers of foreign securities and more and
more interested in the fortunes of other trading nations.





ON Saturday last the 22d inst., title to the land required for
the Riverside Drive Extension from Claremont to Boule¬
vard Lafayette became vested in the city, which baa now pre¬
sumably the right to all rents arising from its use and occupa¬
tion. Valuations are to be fixed as of that date and the city will
have to pay interest on the awards therefrom at the legal rate
of six per cent. The Commission of Estimate and Assessment
for this improvement have determined to make a record in the
proceeding if possible. They have held weekly meetings all
through the summer, a very unusual and praiseworthy evidence
of attention to duty that other Commission may hereafter very
well follow. Besides the ordinary work the Commission, in or-
h'i'SL^f,,^^^®^^^* ™^*'*'®^^' ^^^^ made up a list of  unrepresented





owners and the counsel for the city has had a marshal go round
and serve these parties with notice to appear and prove their
titles, etc. This is also a thing previously unknown in condem¬
nation proceedings. Property owners who have not already done
so should without delay appear, either in person or by counsel,
before the Commission who meet every Thursday at 10 a. m. in
the offices of the Bureau for Street Openings. Nos. 90 aud 92 West
Broadway. In this connection it is appropriate to again call at¬
tention to the recent action of the Park District Protective
League, an association of owners of property along the Hudson
River from Spuyten Duyvil to the city limits. At a meeting of
this association held recently a plan for extending the riverside
driveway from the northern end of Boulevard Lafayette through
Inwood across the Harlem Ship Canal and along Palisade avenue
to the city limits was approved. If this is carried out it will make
the Riverside Drive a continuous line of thoroughfare from 72d
street to Yonkers. It will require the building of two viaducts
or bridges, one across the Inwood Valley at Dyckman street and
the other at Spuyten Duyvi! over the ship canal, Messrs. Geo. D.
Perkins, Cleveland H. Dodge, Thomas N. Cuthbert and John Jay
McKelvey are a committee to take up the subject with the local
authorities and to obtain any legislation that may be necessary
to protect the interest of the section they represent. The idea in¬
volved in this scheme has the cordial approval of the men inter¬
ested in the lower West Side and will have their assistance later
on, if the details are as acceptable as the general proposition. The
old project of establishing a park at Spuyten Duyvi! is also to be
revived. These movements will draw attention to the most
northerly section of Manhattan, and, as land there is held in
large tracts, they mean also, in dne time, dispersion and devel¬
opment under the encouragement of enlarged transit facilities.





The Policy of the United States in China.

X X THILE our policy in China has been cons'ervative*'ahd dis-
^ * interested, yet at the same time it has been sufiiciently
definite, consistent and vigorous to win almost unanimous ap¬
plause from the intelligent and unbiassed public opinion of the
country. Never before in the handling of a question of general
international interest has our government been so really influ¬
ential; and probably most Americans have been gratified at the
position which its lack of interested motives has permitted our
government to assume. Throughout the whole of the war and
the negotiations, which will follow it, ought to be possible for
the United States to play a part at once dignified and useful;
and the end of it should find us with a considerable enhanced
national prestige. It is in China particularly that the govern¬
ment has the opportunity of making American infiuence effect¬
ive. It is the one international problem that has nothing to
do with our own territorial Interests, in which we have a, policy
to pursue; and as it is the great problem of the future, the policy
shculd be at once energetic, dignified, disinterested and elastic.

Just at present, perhaps, it is more important to insist upon
its elasticity than upon anything else; and if any fault is to be
found with Secretary Hay's conduct of the negotiations it is
that he has adopted too definite a line. The difflculty is that the
future is so extremely uncertain. No one knows how long the
present war will last, how far it will be possible to re-establish a
stable and well-intentioned central government, to what extent
it will be necessary for the Powers to maintain armed forces in
China, and how fixed some part of the Chinese people are in
their desire to resist any kind of foreign encroachment. Up to
the present time our policy has taken the proper direction. If
possible some sort of an Imperial Chinese government must be
re-established, and while the Chinese must pay damages for the
past, and give guarantees for the future, they should be pro¬
tected as much as possible from any further territorial dismem¬
berment. The European Powers have no one but themselves to
thank for the current crisis. In their desire to obtain a foot¬
hold for future expansion they have been tearing China to pieces,
and they need not be surprised that the Chinese people have
been aroused to resist the forcible disintegration of their vast
Empire, It is still possible that the process of dismemberment
may be stopped, and that the Powers, like England, the United
States and Japan, whose interests demand a comparatively
strong central Imperial government, and the restoration of
former trade conditions, may be able to set one up and main¬
tain it. It is possible, that is to say, that China may like Japan,
only more gradually, adopt some modification of western civil¬
ization, and retain indefinitely, as Turkey does, her political In¬
tegrity. So long as such an outcome is possible, both our com¬
mercial interests in China and our sense of fair play demand
that we should work to bring it about. ,, .
Yet,  considering that this Is only one contingency among