October 26, 1901.





RECORD AKD  GUIDE.







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Dnfr—T TO FfeU E:JTA!E.BUILDI^'G A,RO(lTECTURE.H0llSm0U5DEQaRp£n1,
BusiN'Ess Atb Themes Of GeiJer^ iKiERgsi.







ESTABLISHED^^ fj\ARpH2lii^ IBBS.







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Published eVery ■Saturdag

Communlcatloaa should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET,   14=16 Vesey Street. New YorK





J. T. LINDSET, Business Manag-er





Telephone, Cortlacdt 3157





'Entered at ihe Tost Office at New York, N. Y.. as second-class matter."





Vol. LXVIII.





OCTOBER 26, 1901.





No. 1754.





THE substantial buying in the securities marliet, remarked
last week, continues, and is to be especially noted in the
bond division wbere the total transactions each day this week
have run up to a handsome figure. In the best of railroad
stocks there has been good buying, too. In the more speculative
issues of both railroad bonds and stocks there has been consid¬
erable realizing, but not sufEicient to do more than check the ad¬
vance temporarily. Manipulation of quotations is by no means
altogether absent, and its presence accounts for many of the
stories of new combinations and absorptions; but on tne whole,
it must be admitted, that tbe market has the appearance of being
about to open out and become more active with rising prices.
Tbis movement, however, is not assisted by tbe advance in
sterling exchange and the talk of gold exports. The sea¬
son Has arrived wlien the coalers should come in for some
favorable attention. It is reported tbat the anthracite produc¬
tion of the past year has been the biggest in tbe trade, 10,000,000
tons, more than in 1899-'0O, the total being 55,000,000 tons. This
result combined with the understanding tbat tbe anthracite in¬
terests have been working in more harmony than ever was
known before, raises tbe hopes of stockholders regarding tbe
results to stocks. Something must be allowed for the increased
cost of production as a result of the terms seJ3ured by the miners
in the last strike and of the advance in tbe prices of materials
generally, yet still tbe earnings available for dividends ought to
be greater than last year on a production that made a handsome
increase of more than 20%. "What helps the anthracite trade
helps the bituminous also. The circumstances continue to keep
the attention of investors and speculators both largely confined
to railroad issues to the exclusion of the claims of the Industrials.
It has become somehow the impression that this class of secur¬
ities has something to fear from the coming Congi-ess, though
why the consolidation of manufacturing interests ought to be
more subject to attacks from Washington than consolidations of
carrying interests no one has explained. OE course it would be
much easier for Congress to reach tbe one than the other. Some
variations of the tariff could easily put the larger industrial com¬
binations in a very different position than they are now in,
while they would not affect tbe business of the carriers. But as
a matter of principle if a policy of repression of combinations
is to be undertaken, one would think it ought to be against the
practice of combinations in general and not against particular in¬
dustries tbat have become in a measure combined.





A S the year goes on European financial markets will be more
^~^ and more occupied with the movements of money, and in¬
vestment and speculative operations will lessen accordingly. Ad¬
vance arrangements for meeting the year-end settlements if not
already begun soon will be. The accumulation of gold by the
Imperial Bank of Germany, reported this week, is doubtless in
preparation for tbis; and to the expectation that the Bank of
England will take protective measures under a corresponding
necessity, is due the rumor that an advance of its rate is contem¬
plated. These things, taken in connection with the continued de¬
pression in business, do not improve tbe situation; nor do the
current official reports and returns from which the general con¬
ditions are deducted. Thus the latest reports of British foreign
trade show losses in both classes, imports and exports. French
revenue returns give no sign of recovery from the losses that
have characterized them for some time and German industrial
corporations are passing dividends right along. One tbat paid
17 per cent last year has recently announced that it will pay
nothing this. The cement industry is in great trouble. It was
hoped to provide some relief for the bad condition of this trade
by the organization of a syndicate composed of several groups of
factories, but this syndicate, it is reported now, has gone to





pieces, under an inability to sustain prices in a period of poor
demand. The development of the American cement industry
and the consequent decline in export business to the United
States is given as one and the most important reason for tbe
present depression in the German cement trade. An interesting
instance of tbe appreciation of the European public for gold,
especially where there appears to be any danger of a scarcity,
comes from Austria. When it was decided that tbe Austro-Hun-
garian Bank should make a trial with gold coins in the circula¬
tion, it was prophesied in financial circles that the public would
not absorb tbe gold, but that the greater part of it would soon
return to tbe bank. This prophecy has proved false it appears.
The bank emitted 17.3 million crowns worth of 20-erown pieces
in a month or six weeks, and only 248,000 crowns returned to the
tills of the bank; all the rest was put by in the secret drawers of
the public, for not a piece is to be seen in circulation. This does
not look as if the Austro-Hungarian public were very confident
of the early success of tbe long protracted measure to give the
dual empire a gold currency which has had so many interrup¬
tions.





THE utterances of Dr. Albert Shaw about municipal govern¬
ment in New Yorlt or any other city are always interest¬
ing and instructive, because he combines a complete knowledge
of the subject with an unusually well-balanced judgment, and
his remarks recently before the Congregational Club were quite
up to their usual level of interest. He particularly dwelt upon
the fact that the history of municipal elections in New York is
not an aimless succession of victories and defeats, but that there
bas been some measure of progress from one election to an¬
other. Each consecutive administration brings with it certain im¬
provements, which are partly if not'wholly retained by subse¬
quent administrations. Said Mr. Albert Shaw: "Much that was
gained undej- the reform administration of Mayor Strong haa
been permanently held during a Tammany regimg by a tenacious
public opinion. If tbe reform forces should win tbis year great
progress would undoubtedly result in the coming period of two
years, and it would for the most part be permanent gain, even
if a reaction should follow and another Tammany administra¬
tion should have its turn. Such is the course and method of
municipal progress in New York, and many another town. * * '
Even with a Tammany government we should make some prog¬
ress in the right direction, because Tammany must respond at
certain points to the demands of an improved public opinion."
It should be added that the gains tbat are made from one elec¬
tion to another are not simply the result of a tenacious public
opinion, forcing from office-holders a certain standard of per¬
formance. They are due quite as much to a more thorough un¬
derstanding of the problems of municipal government.





T T is one of tbe most encouraging aspects of the present situ-
-^ ation that tbe actual business of city administration is un¬
doubtedly being more carefully studied and more fully discussed
than ever before. As the Record and Guide has frequently
pointed out, the task of undertaking such a study is not even yet
pushed as far as it should be; but it is certainly pushed very
much further than it used to be. A multitude of new and for
tbe most part good ideas about municipal government are in the
air, and tbe different candidates are all more or less infiuenced
by them, and are committed to carrying out at least some of
them. Both Mr. Shepard and Mr. Low, for instance, have been
occupied at first hand with the actual details of municipal ad¬
ministration. Mr. Low Is a capable and experienced executive,
Mr. Shepard as counsel for the commission, has a full and mi¬
nute knowledge of the rapid transit situation as any man in the
city. Both have definite ideas about the way to get or recover
full value for municipal franchises. Neither of them pay suffi¬
cient attention in their speeches to the financial situation of the
city, and to the necessity of finding a largely increased income
without augmenting the tax burden of real estate; but this is
obviously a problem wbich cannot be escaped, and which during
tbe next two years will be so much discussed and so carefully
studied, that some way out of tbe difficulty will eventually be
discovered. By making these remarks, we have no intention
of minimizing the differences between the candidates. There are
plenty of solid reasons for preference either one way or the
other. But it is worth while, at the present time, when, during
the heat of the canvas, some of the speakers are foreshadowing
dire disaster to the city, in case their candidate is not elected; it
is worth while to remember that political conditions are on the
whole improving, and that there is no danger of New York, like
Philadelphia, becoming tbe victim of one party of politicians,
Whatever party obtains power has to submit to a most search-
ing criticism, and to a most strenuous resistance, Eacb succeed¬
ing election brings with it a more enlightening and formative dis-