November 3, 1900.





KECOUD  AND   GUIDE.





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DnM>PRp*J-ESTAJI.BuiLDl)fc #^rTECTUI^>ioiiSEU0LDDEOa(«lDK.

Business >)(DTHei4ES of GEiJEit^ Itlrtit^l.
PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   SIX   DOLLARS.

PtihUahed eeerff Saturdo]/.

TELEPHONE,                                     CORTLAND   1.170-

Communications sbould be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.

/. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

"Entered at the Post-Office at New York. N.  7., as seoond-cln.'^s matter.''





Vol.  LXVI.





NOVEMBER 3,  1900.





1703.





THAT the past month has been one of increased activity in
all 'business circles is proved by the Treasury statistics
now appearing. By these we learn that bank circulation in¬
creased during October by $3,289,000. indicating an increased
demand for money; and, more important still, that of an in¬
crease of $6,300,000 in the revenues, a fact satisfactoiy in itself,
about $4,700,000 was from internal revenue. Since the passage
of the War Tax Act of 1898, this item, affected as it is by almost
every department of business, has been a good barometer of the
state of trade, and its large proportional increase last month can
only be taken as an evidence of the more cheerful feeling that
pervaded business circles in all directions. This month opened,
too, with prices for staples fairly good, larger aggregate dividend
disbursements and an evident acceptance of current quotations
for materials as those likely to prevail and control operations
for some time. In support of this statement the distribution of
the Pennsylvania rail orders may be quoted. Those who flnd
satisfaction in comparisons with other countries have ample
field in which to roam at the present time, because there is no
other in which the bases of business are so sound or the pros¬
pects more encouraging than in this. A short time ago steel
rail prices in this country were broken on tbe appearance here
of British goods. We now return the compliment by breaking
several iron and steel combinations in Great Britain by placing
our own goods there. It is obvious from all this that in the
broad business world the outcome of Tuesday's event is not
feared. In the stock market, where the business is so largely
speculative, what is called "caution" is often a source of trouble.
It is so now, and even a small acceptance of the view that prices
will break sharply whatever the result has been potent enough
to disturb quotations. On this theory the more timid are with¬
drawing tbeir accounts, or are compelled to withdraw them by
the demands for margins with which they cannot comply, and
prices suffer as a consequence. Our own view is that this theory
is a mistalieu one. Quotations have not the same room in which
to advance this year as they had four years ago, owing to the
all-round advance that has taken place since then; but the steady
cash buying that was going on al! summer, the strength and
scarcity of stocks as a general thing and the good business out¬
look, should all point to higher figures.





■^ HE managers of the Central and New Haven Railroads are
^ to be congratulated upon the new waiting-room which
they have succeeded in building into the old Grand Central sta¬
tion. The room is spacious, convenient, well planned and deco¬
rated with appropriate simplicity, and it ought to remove many
of the inconveniences and rigors, which in the past have done so
much to make regular traveJing on these roads disagreeable. So
far so good. But in case the management really wish to make
their trains more popular and their passengers more comfortable
they should institute another change, which is as much needed
as a new waiting room. They should do something to relieve
their tunnel from 48th St. north from the musty and suffocating
odors which make every breath of outside air which a passen¬
ger inhales during transit peculiarly obnoxious. Probably a
more complete system of ventilation would do something to
purify the air, but there is only one really adequate remedy—and
that is to haul the trains through the tunnel not by steam, but
by electric motors. This is the way in which the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroads handles the traffic through its tunnel in Balti¬
more, and it is the only way such traffic can be handled without
discomfort to the passengers. The change would increase ex¬
penses, but ought in the long run to be profitable, because it
would help to increase local traffic. No doubt the presence or
absence of good air in the tunnel would make little difference
to a Buffalo or Boston passenger, for the few minutes he passed





in it would be only a small part of bis total journey. Those few
minutes aie, on the contrary, a very important matter to the
suburban resident, who makes the journey every day, and who
is forced to pass a half or a third of the time he is on the train
surrounded by the noxious, grimy atmosphere of the tunnel.
Hence tbe use of electric motors would surely do much to en¬
courage suburban travel—a portion of the business of the New
Haven and Central roads which is destined very much to ex¬
pand. At present it does not compare with that upon the Jersey
Central or Pennsylvania railroads, but with the increase of
business north of 14th St. and the construction of the new rapid
transit system, many more New Yorkers will be tempted to settle
in tbat very beautiful country north of Manhattan. The rail¬
road companies will find it to their advantage to do everything
they can to encourage this traffic, and nothing could discourage
it more than such an ill-ventilated and ili-smeliing passage, par¬
ticularly when the new rapid transit system will afford an object
lesson of what a clean and pleasant place an underground tun¬
nel may be.





~T~ HERE can be no doubt that in many cases the property-
A owners in tbe vicinity of Elm St, have been assessed for
a benefit which they will receive, if at all, only after the expira¬
tion of a good many years, and they can scarcely be blamed for
protesting against the area and amount of assessment as they
stand. It would indeed be hard to justify their contention that
the whole cost of the improvement should be paid by the tax¬
payers in general. The movement to open up and widen Elm
street has no doubt from tbe start been closely associated with the
movement for a new rapid transit system, but the improvement
was desirable, and would in time have become necessary, quite
apart from the work of the Rapid Transit Commission. New
York has been needing a new thoroughfare for years between
the City Hall and 14th street, and the need for this purpose
would have been greater rather than less in case the tunnel had
been run up Broadway, as originally proposed. When the new
street does become the line of a considerable traffic there can
be no doubt that the neighborhood will become more available
for warehouses, and that the present tendency to convert tene¬
ments into business buildings will be very much strengthened.
But it will be a good many years before these results accrue,
and in the mean time the neighboring property owners may well
feel aggrieved at having concentrated upon themselves so large
a proportion of the cost of an improvement which directly and
indirectly will 'be an immense benefit to the whole of Manhat¬
tan, Brooklyn and Bronx. The owners of real estate on Elm
street itself have a particular cause of grievance, because during
the period covered by the opening and widening of the street,
and the building of that part of the tunnel they have not got
and will not get anything like the full use of their property.
Until the street is closed up and paved the buildings cannot be
used for anything but tenement purposes. It is ti:ue that when
the improvement is finally consummated they will be the great¬
est gainers, but the loss they must suffer during the interven¬
ing years will be severe and constitutes in itself a practical as¬
sessment. While they could scarcely expect the Board of Pub¬
lic Improvements to put down a pavement which would have
to be immediately torn up in order to dig the tunnel, they cer¬
tainly have a right to count the damage they are at present suf¬
fering against the benefit which will ultimately accrue.





X CCORDING to the figures of the Census Bureau, an-
■^"^ nounced during the present week, the present popula¬
tion of the United States is 76,295,220, an increase of 13,225,464,
or about 21 per cent, over that of 1890. The percentage of in¬
crease compares unfavorably with those of previous decades,
for between 1880 and 1890 there was a gain of 25 per cent and
the average gain in the still earlier enumerations was fully
30 per cent. But the decrease which the figures show over pre¬
vious percentages of increase is a natural and inevitable de¬
crease. No room was left in the territory of the United States
for the rate of expansion which had been shown by previous
enumerations. Up to 1890 there were large areas of virgin soil
which were still unoccupied, and the cultivation of these lands
afforded room for a rapid growth in agricultural population.
But during the past decade comparatively little new farm land
has been broken. In some states and territories, such as Texas,
North Dakota and Oklahoma, a good deal of new land has been
opened up and such states show large increases in population,
but they are exceptional. The purely agricultural sections,
which were already pretty well settled in 1890, have made only
moderate gains during the past ten years. Some of them, such
as Kansas and Nebraska, have practically remained stationary;
others have shown a fair tendency to increase—chiefly in the
towns.   The states devoted chiefly or partly to manufacturing in-