June I, igoi.





RECORD AND  GUIDE.





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cloubtedly more honest phase of the business is liable to create
very dangerous jealousies and complications, which may he but
little less harmful to real investors than the depredations of the
'bosses.' A considerable amount of the appreciation which
has taken place in American railroad securities since the last
Presidential election has been justified by increased proflts and
dividends, but the quotations of many of the securities have
been lifted to an extravagant level hy purchases of the flnancial
groups who have wished to ohtain control, with a view either
of bringing about working arrangements with roads in wliich
they were already interested, or for making 'turns' out of flnan¬
cial rearrangements."





Vol. LXVIL





JUNE 1, 1901.





No 1733,





Ihe Secord and Guide Quuylei-hj for ike three months just ended
is noiD ready for delivery. All ihe records arranged for handy
reference. One dollar and a half a copy, or five dollars a year.
Tiie cheapest and best t^ystem of keepin(f records of real estate—
conveyances, mortrjatfcs, vew biiildings, etc, cic. If you would like
to see it, send a postal card io The Record and (jiiide (Quarterly,
2fos, 14 a/nd 16 Vesey St., City.





THERE are distinct signs of a revival of speculative activity
in the stock market, based upon the continued general
prosperity of the country, as evidenced by the very flattering
reports of earnings made by the railroads as a whole and from
which the individual exceptions are comparatively few. The
week opened with business very dull on the Exchange and prices
weak; on the eve of the holiday it improved, the buying being
fairly well spread over tho railroad list and the volume of trans¬
actions fairly large. Some of this buying was covering of shorts
usual just before a holiday or a period of broken sessions, but
on the whole it must be taken as a sign of returning confldence
in security values. It has been found, despite the trouble of
three weeks agone, that stocks are still scarce and short sales
dangerous; this, with money cheap and genexal business good,
has apparently encouraged the new speculative movement on
the bull side. Before this movement can be successful it will
have to show that it does not disturb its own base; that is, that
stocks will remain scarce and money cheap, notwithstanding
renewed speculative activity. So far the market has disre¬
garded entirely the substantial shipments of gold to Europe and
tbe everyday economists—though untainted as far as we know
by Hibernicism—are trying to argue that these shipments are
only another proof of the continued possession by us of large
balances on the other side! The business programmes for the
near future are drawn up in the most optimistic spirit and there"
is to be no conceivable setback for a long time to come, if ever.
Those who cannot believe in the reality of the prosperity thus
outlined, having been made humble by the events of the recent
past, are silent, or meekly hopeful that their opponents may he
right and themselves wrong. For our part, we content our¬
selves with saying that a useful business axiom might be that
conservatism is never more needed than when it seems to be
most unnecessary.





7_T OWEVER the opinion of lawyers may vary as to the legal
■*■ -^ basis of the decision of the Supreme Court in the Porto
Rican cases, there can be no doubt that this decision is in har¬
mony with the prevailing interpretation of the Constitution
ever since the beginning of the Union. It is the old question
whether the instrument shall be liberally or narrowly construed,
whether every right not explicitly granted to the Government
shall be judged to be withheld, and whether the large consider¬
ations of policy shall bave any weight in the decision of matters
not expressly provided for in the instrument. If from the start
a strict and narrow construction of the Constitution had pre¬
vailed, it is doubtful whether the United States would at the
present time have been a nation at all; but from the start the
continual growth of national sentiment has had its proper and
natural influence upon the. decisions of the Supreme Court, and
those decisions have again and again been affected by consid¬
erations of policy, just as Mr. Justice Brown's decision has in
the present ease been so affected. The obvious meaning of it is
that the United States is a nation like other nations, and that
Congress can treat all questions as to the acquisition and gov¬
ernment of additional territory on the merits of each particu¬
lar case. If the people of the United States do not want to ex¬
pand, they can elect officials and representatives who will carry
out their will; but if they do want to expand, the Supreme Court
has decided that the Constitution does not interpose, an obstacle
which it would be almost impossible to surmount.





IN all ways the most remarkable phenomenon of the Euro¬
pean financial situation is the weakness in the prices of
government bonds simultaneously with the enthusiastic over¬
subscriptions of new issues. It is reasonable to infer from fcis
that the. syndicates and speculators have been mainly the suff-
scribers for the new loans, and the former, pending the advent
of the public as buyers, are uot willing to make a market sim¬
ply to enable the latter to realize profits. The absence of the
public, however, is the serious point, and remarkable in that it
is usual for the close of a business boom to be followed by gen¬
erous buying of securities whose returns cannot be affected by
the change in the commercial conditions. The attitude of Eu¬
rope toward American securities is one of following as nearly as
possible the New York lead, but with suspicion rather than wilh
confidence. Commenting on the American situation, as revealed
by the recent panic, the London "Economist" says: "In the un-
regenerate days of American railroads a very large proportion
of the undertakings were controlled, and practically run, for
stock-jobbing purposes by a lot of more or less unscrupulous
'bosses,'and in consequence investors in 'Yankees' were in
many instances systematically victimized. But when the era
of the "boss" was succeeded by the era of control by the bank¬
ing and financial interests, it was widely predicted that the rail¬
roads would be run solely In the interests of their proprietors.
Recent events have shown, however, that the newer and un-





■^pHE announcement that Mr. Thomas A. Edison has invented
-^ a storage battery which can develop very much more
power in proportion to its weight and suffers very much less
from deterioration than any storage battery as yet invented wili,
if it prove true, have a most important influence upon the econ¬
omy of business operations in New York. For a number of rea¬
sons, into which it is not necessary to go here, but the chief of
which are the position of freight terminals and the arranger
ments for handling freight at the water front, the trade of New
York has demanded an unusually large amount of trucking, and,
as everyone knows, this method of conveying and handling
goods adds enormously to their cost, any improvement in ma¬
chinery whereby this expense can be reduced will relieve- New
York trade and commerce of part of an enormous burden. In
another aspect, also, wili the general substitution of electric
in place of horse power be directly beneficial to the city. It will
release a large part of the very considerable space now used for
the stabling of horses, and this additional space will be a clear
gain in a great many ways. It is situated for the most part in
the tenement house district, and wherever situated it malies the
immediately surrounding property less desirable for human baB-
itation. As soon as horses cease to be employed for trucking
human beings can occupy much of the room vacated by them, a
change which will in the long run increase the value of such
property, as well as diminish some of the present overcrowding.
Moreover, what a difference the substitution would make in the
cleanliness of the city. The dust which on windy days makes
the streets so uncomfortable and unwholesome, and which is
for the most part animal refuse, will largely disappear; and an
enormous stride will be made toward the sweet and clean city
in which, the people of 2000 A. D. will be living.





THE uncertainties that have surrounded the process of ob¬
taining permits for the construction of bay-windows with¬
in the territory over which the Park Department have jurisdic¬
tion, have been removed by an act passed by the legislature of
this year and which will be found upon another page. This act
also, according to the Corporation Counsel, opens the way to
validating hay-window extensions constructed under permits
issued by the Park Department during a period when it was
doubtful whether they had any authority to issue them, that is
from January 1, 189S, when, the Greater New York Charter went
into effect, until the enactment of the new law this year, Tbe
subject is treated in detail in an article given on the succeeding
page of this issue,