December i, 1900.







KECORD AND   GUIDE.





737





DE^r\eSi 10 Rf*,LE:sTAjr.BuiLDi7/G ^RpifrrEeTURE,HobSEtfoiJ)Ite8ci;jiiciii

BlfSOiESS AIIdThEHIES OF GEflEIVkl iNltfifSl.
PRICE  PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX  DOLIiARS.

Published every Saturday.

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/. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





'Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class inatter."





Vol. LXVI.





DECEMBER 1, 1900.





No. 1706.





IN the Stock Market the flame of bull enthusiasm that burst
out three weeks ago is now reduced to a flicker. The daily
total of transactions is only about half what it was, and it is
now necessary to do something more than shut one's eyes and
open one's mouth in order to be rewarded by the gods. A. 0. T.
(any old thing), as the wits of the street put it, is no longer good
to buy for a sure proflt, but discrimination must be used, and a
failure to secure facts beforehand may lead to disaster. If it
were not tbat developments of an encouraging nature were be¬
ing revealed every day, the market would react at once, and in
the main will probably do so materially before the advent of
spring. Such a movement is checked now and will be modified
in its intensity later by the hopeful outlook for general business
and a succession of developments similar to those that have
heen of effect this week. For instance, tbe earning capacity of
the railroads in the Southern States, from the Atlantic to tbe
Pacific, has been forced on the minds of the public like a revela¬
tion. These States have had comparatively little notice for some
years, the colossal advances of the North having absorbed at¬
tention, but it is now obvious that though backward they are
stepping into the line of general progress and are also securing
those combinations both in manufactures and in carrying facili¬
ties that have resulted in such enormous increases to wealth
north of the historic line dividing the two sections. The in¬
fluence of facts like these on classes of securities or on indi¬
vidual securities serve to keep up the strength of the market,
but it is only by a direct use of them that money is now to be
made speculatively. Of course, the business prospects for a future
of considej'abie duration give an increased investment value
to the leading issues in both stocks and bonds, but buying gen¬
erally must now be done with indifference to a probability of a
lower range of quotations as a whole between now and the next
season of commercial activity.





THE British Government has now unexercised little or none
of the $275,000,000 borrowing power bestowed by Par¬
liament, and, as the Boer war alone has cost probably $500,-
000,000, must borrow again as soon a.'' additional powers are
received, and there is every likelihood that part at least of the
needed funds will be sought in this market. The idea of a guar¬
anteed Transvaal loan receives strength as time goes on. Ger¬
man coal and iron shares have rallied substantially from the
depression of September, but are nowhere near the point from
which they started downward in April. There is, however, a
local feeling that industrially the worst is over. Discount rates
remain high throughout Europe, and from this distance it ap¬
pears that the cause of the improved feeling is only one of those
reactions that come to make the inevitable descent easier, or
less mischievous. Europe has just had an industrial boom more
extensive and prolonged than any other in her experience, and it
is hardly possible that another such can now supervene on the
one that reached its height last spring. If such an idea had any
existence it would be met by the simple inquiry: "Where is the
necessary capital to come from? In Germany, at any rate, this
quostion would be difficult to answer. If there is capital to
spare for further industrial development, why is there none to
raise the Imperial credit, whose three per cents, though stronger
than they were, are still about 86, while French 3s sell at 101 and
British 2%3 somewhat higher. It is lack of home capital, too,
that sends German cities, hitherto able to get all the money they
wanted at home at low rates, abroad to borrow on a par with
railroads, and even at a disadvantage with the best of these.
It would seem, then, that the capacity of German capital has
been strained to the utmost, and that instead of committing
itself further requires relief.   If this is true of Germany, it is also





true of Austria and the lesser countries. A combination that
has just been perfected in London may interest many of our
readers. It takes in about thirty concerns, or about 90 per
cent of the Portland cement manufacturers doing businesss on
the Thames and Medway and having an annual output of 1,570,-
000 tons. The reasons that brought about this combination were
that a small combination formed for the purchase of fuel was
followed by good results, while the independence of thirty con¬
cerns in matters of policy, production and prices worked injury
to all. Of course, the cost of production varied with each firm,
and a slackening in demand, even to a moderate extent, pro¬
duced a disproportionate fall in the selling value, often when
the prices of fuel and labor, the chief items of variation in the
cost of production, were at their highest point.





A S the investigation of the Tenement Commission proceeds
^^* it becomes more and more apparent that the evils regard¬
ing which the greatest complaints are made do not arise from
the house, but from its improper use. A stricter execution of the
Factory and the Health laws would produce a great and bene¬
ficial change; the teaching of morality and cleanliness would
do the rest. So far the suggestions brought out by the
present discussion show that their makers overlook the real
question; which, instead of being one of lessening the density
of the population, as they seem to think, is really one of pro¬
viding decently for the denser population that time will bring,
in spite of all means devised to prevent it, such as rapid transit
and suburban building, for the reason that the reduction through
these means is not equal to the increase from natality and im¬
migration.





/^ NE aspect of the proposed new Police Bill is of peculiar in-
^^ terest. Here is a proposition to include large parts of West¬
chester and Queens Counties within the metropolitan limits for
certain purposes, and as it is the first proposition of that
kind which has been seriously made, towns such as Yonkers and
Mount Vernon will do well to look sharp, or before they know it
they will flnd themselves part of the metropolitan district for
other purposes as well. In the course of time, the absorption
of these towns will doubtless be a natural and inevitable event;
but for the present they will do well to insist in every particular
upon their local independence. The Borough of Richmond has
been injured rather than benefited by consolidation, and so it
will be with any more or less detached and growing place, un¬
less the charter revision provides for some effective measure of
home rule.





~r- HE State Constabulary Bill has to all appearances died of
i       sheer fright.   Its authors did not dare to face the storm
of objection which would be aroused, in case its brief newspaper
existence had been converted into a full-bodied legislative pro¬
posal;   but  they  are  cautiously  putting  forward  a  substitute,
which, in its way, is quite as objectionable.    The plan now is
for a bill providing for a single-headed Police Department, and
covering, not only the present Greater New York, but also cer¬
tain adjoining parts of Westchester and Queens Counties.    The
important point is that the commissioner will be appointed from
Albany, and that he will be a State offlcer, responsible to State
and not to the municipal government.    The plan is ingeniously
devised apparently to meet some of the criticisms which were
fatal to the State Constabulary Bill,  but  its  effects  would  be
every bit as mischievous as that of a general State commission.
Parts of Westchester and Queens Counties are to be put under
the jurisdiction of the new commissioner in order to make him
something more than a municipal officer, and hence responsible
to the State authorities.    But this responsibility to the Governor,
instead of to the Mayor, is precisely the dangerous and objection¬
able feature of any such proposal.    It would make the police
department  an   organization   which   is   necessarily   and   fatal¬
ly partisan.    Its administration would be snatched out of the
region of city politics, where it does belong, into the region of
State politics, where it does not belong; and State politics are
in the long run just as likely to be controlled by the Democratic
as by the Republican machine.    If the Democrats should  con¬
trol the Governorship, and it was only Roosevelt's personal pop¬
ularity which prevented it two years ago. New York would have
as now a Tammany police witb tbis difference, that this Tam¬
many police would feel less responsibility to local opinion than
it does at present.    Hence it would be a movement entirely in
the wrong direction.   The good or bad management of the New
York police is entirely a matter for New Yorkers.   It was indig¬
nation with the Police Department which brought about  the
election of Mayor Strong, and it is the indignation which the
present situation has aroused which gives a non-partizan candi-