November 23, 1901.
RECORD AM) GUIDE.
687
Dr/bid) TO F^L EsvKn. BuiLdiKc ApcifiTEtmmE^{ousoioiL DesofijiidiI.
BUsiiJess AffoThemes of GEtfeR^.IjftERPT.
PRICE PER. YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
Published every Satarday
ConunufllcatioiiH should, bo addressed to
C. W. SWEET, I4"I6 Veaey Street, New Yorli
J. T. IiINDSBT, Buainess Manager
Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at the Post OMce at New York, N. Y.. as second-class matter.'
Vol. LXVIII.
NOVEMBER 23, 1901.
No. 1758.
LAST week we pointed out the uncertainties of the exchange
situation, and this found verification in ttie movements
of gold this weeii—heavy sliipments in tbe early and cancella¬
tions in ttie later part. At the same time our mail brings
British financial papers recording the relief only expressed at
the time of their mailing, at the passing of the danger of a
demand from the. United States itself on Europe for gold. After
this, it is supererogatory to point out that the monetary situa¬
tion is as impenetrable as it is uncertain. Tbe circumstances
bring our market into close relations with the European mar¬
kets, and tbe. condition is admittedly unsatisfactory. The re¬
lief afforded by the already heavy shipments of gold from this
Bide bas not been sufficient to enable the Bank of England to
reduce its discount rate from the bigb figure of 4 per cent., and
the distress in industrial circles, as well as the heavy failures
of tbe year makes the present season, always one of some scarc¬
ity, one of unusual anxiety and tension. Tbe best tbat can be
said of the case is that with ample warning and apparently care¬
ful preparation for an emergency, the crisis will probably pass
before the close of tbe year, without much more damage than
ordinarily comes from some stringency and pinching here and
there. As to our own case, December is usually a month of high
money rates and falling prices, and, although last December
was a notable exception to the rule, it looks as if precedent is
going to be followed tbis year. Already tbe movement of gold
and the advances In the home rates for money have scared away
most of the outside buying and, while pool and professional
operations manage to give an appearance of liveliness to tbe
stock market, and create some marvelous turns in the day to
day aspect of things, the situation is not satisfactory enough to
warrant the- expression of optimistic conclusions as to the move¬
ments of prices, tbe admitted excellent condition of general
business and the prosperity of the railroads notwithstanding.
AN address was delivered one day this week by Robert Da
Forest who, it will be remembered, was chairman of the
late Tenement House Commission, which, as reported by the
daily press, contains some puzzling statements. Mr. De Forest
is reported to have declared: "The tenement house dweller
does not ask charity, but demands as his right, simple justice."
Simple justice from whom? Prom the community who have,
according to his friends, neglected him, or tbe landlord, who
has kept all his contracts with him? Then further Mr. De
Forest is reported to bave said: "Justice to tbe working classes
is not tbe only reason why we should improve their bousing
conditions, charity to ourselves is quite as cogent. Putting the
question on the lowest plane of self-interest, will it not pay
all of us to be better protected from moral and physical con¬
tagion, even if it involve a loss to our pockets?" What are we
to understand from this? Is it an admission that the leaders
in tenement house reform bave at last reached the conclusion
that tbe heavy pecuniary sacrifices they demand for bettering
the conditions of tbe tenement house should be borne by tbe
community and not by the landlords as sucb alone? Mr. De
Forest has been mentioned as the gentleman who will undertake
the task of forming the new Tenement House Department, and
administering the tenement bouse law; and, until the doubts
created by his speech are cleared up, it will not be possible to
determine whether his appointment, if made, would be an in¬
timation to the owners of tenement houses, that tbey could con¬
sult their lawyers as to what protection they could obtain in the
courts against tbe obnoxious provisions of the law, or as an
intimation that they will not be required to pay for tbat "char¬
ity" to the community, whose cogency Mr. De Forest himself
bas admitted and urged, except, of course, as taxpayers, in
common with the owners of other classes of property. It would
be obviously unfair that one part of the community should
alone pay the cost of so great a benefit to tbe whole; and yet,
if it should be proposed to make a common charge of it, what
will the other part say? Such a proposition would certainly
test the sincerity and reveal tbe true extent of the desire for
tenement reform and place it on a better basis of "simple jus-
tive," than it has hitherto stood upon.
The Debt Limit.
A3 were the present, tbe incoming administration are threat¬
ened, at the opening of their term, witb a temporary
exhaustion of the city's credit for raising money to make im¬
provements; that is to say, that owing to the appropriations
tbat must be made for work in band, or pledged, and to the
constitutional limit on the borrowing powers of the city, there
will be no margin on January 1 on which to order new works
of public utility. Four years ago the city's credit was swamped
by the bunching into a common obligation of the newly con¬
solidated city, all the debts of tbe constituent cities, towns and
villages, and tbe embarrassment was very great until by a
violent increase in real estate valuations a new margin waa
created and public work could be resumed. This has been,
however, in a sort of hand to mouth way, wholly inadequate
to tbe needs of the community, because financial conditions
would not permit the making of a programme more compre¬
hensive or scientiflc. Comptroller Coler has stated that when
Mr. Low takes office, the legal debt limit will have been reached;
tbat is to say, the city's bonds outstanding will equal the ten
per cent, of the real estate valuation to which they are restricted
by the Constitution of the State. Consequently, with every one
of tbe five boroughs clamoring for and needing works of devel¬
opment, the new administration, like the old, will not be able
to do anything until tbe new valuations are confirmed next July,
and not much then, because it is not probable tbat the tithe of
tbe increase will exceed $7,000,0u0 or $8,000,000.
It is singular, that, although it has been apparent for a good
many years that the limitation of its borrowing powers waa
embarrassing to a city of the size and importance of this, only
one official, the present Comptroller, has suggested a remedy,
and., although municipal questions are common subjects of dis¬
cussion in the press, only one journal, the Record and Guide.
has pointed a way out of the difficulty. This shows how per-
functive are official, and how merely commentative journalist
views of the important problems involved in municipal govern¬
ment. Prior to consolidation, the Record and Guide, forseeing
the embarrassments likely to come upon tbe city, because of ita
manifold wants and limited credit, suggested that the municipal
means should be supplemented by calling in tbe aid of private
capital to carry out some of the work that need not be the ex¬
clusive task of the municipality, so tbat all the funds the law
allowed the city to create could be concentrated upon work
that only tbe city could do. Tbe development of tbe doeka
under long leases might be given as an instance of the one^
and the building of bridges as an instance of the other. Comp¬
troller Coler's remedy is the exclusion from the constitutional
limit of debt incurred for works tbat are self-sustaining, such
as docks, water supply and rapid transit. Both suggestions
contemplate final ownership, free and clear of tbe improve-
ments, by the city, in one case by tbe expiring of leases, and in
the other by the operation of a sinking fund. The Comptrolier'a
suggestion will probably find quickest sympathy with the pub¬
lic, not only because be speaks witb a very potent voice, but
also because it is more easily understood and does no damage
to much favored though little understood ideas involved in
the term "municipal ownership." Its disadvantages lie in the
facts, that it takes three years, under favorable circumstances
to obtain an amendment of the constitution, and that it is some¬
what difficult to say in advance what will be self-sustaining
works. On the other hand, the Legislature could, in one ses¬
sion, empower the city to treat with private capital for the
execution of certain public works, and once begun, tbe system
would be capable of indefinite expansion.
Every day is making it still more certain that something will
have to be done to elasticize tbe city's financial system, espe¬
cially in the credit department. The means at its disposal for
carrying out its gigantic work are wholly inadequate. This was
shown while making up the last budget, when the head of the
Department of Education stated that tbat department ought to
have a yearly increase of $5,000,000 to carry out its work evi¬
dently; now tbe average annual increase in the borrowing
power is about $8,000,000. It may be said tbat each and every
department is annually turned away from the Board of Estimate
dissatisfied. Not only are the borrowing powers of the city
inadequate to meet present demands, but the future will see new
ones arise. We are traveling the road already traversed by
Loudon in the matter of tbe housing of tbe poor so closely-
discouraging the investment of private capital in suitable build-