February 15,1902.





RECORD AM)  CxUIDE.





291







BusifjESS Ait>Themes Of GEriER^-.IjftEBpJ.
1»RICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX   DOLLARS

Published eVery Satardas

Oommunicatlons sbould bo addreBBed to

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





J!. T. IJNDSBT, BuBlness Manager





Telephone, Cortlandt S167





"Entered at the Post OMee a( Jfeu? York, N'. Y., as second-class matter.'





Vol. LXIX.





FEBRUARY 15, 1902.





No. 1770





One; of the daily papers reports President Greatsinger as
asking an interviewer who wanted to know the prospects
fordividendsiinder the bond issue plan announced this week "Did
you ever hearofaBrooUlynRapid Transit dividend? I never did."
This is what it is to be a newcomer like President Greatsinger!
Why Wall Street has heard of dividends on Brooklyn Rapid
Transit for years; not cash ones, hnt still dividends, the same
kind that are being declared daily on a number of securities
whose finances are in about as good a shape as those of B. R, T,
Was it this thought striking home to the minds of the sanguine
that helped to break the market at the close of the week?    The

main cause was, of course, the decision regarding the taxation
of securities  in  loans.    In  the  early part of the   week  the

market was surprisingly strong considering the nature
of current news. The conflagration at Paterson is but little
short of a local calamity, and the disclosures at Detroit
answer a thought that has been in the minds of the
recollecting of some things that always lie under the surface
of a boom and a period of unusual enterprise. Of .course, the
buying lacked real spirit. There was some commission house
business, but it was small and suspicious, and the pools with a
tailing of professionals really made all the activity seen. The
pools seem of late to put the market up ou their own buying
and down on their own selling, which must be cheerless and
expensive business. When the only support to the bull side comes
from pools we have surely reached a bear opportunity. That
has been shown to be the case after every boom, for seemingly
pools are made up of people who cannot see that the time has
gone by for operations in any given direction; people who have
been drawn into speculation by some great movement in which
they have made money, but do not know how to get out of it
again until by some sharp experic:-:ce they receive enlightenment
or their money is all paid away in repeated small losses, interest
and commissions. Current reports of railroad earnings show a
good many declines, but as these cover a week of storm they are
not signiflcant of much, and railroad men say they are not only
doing a good business but are making good money at it. Wall
Street remains the one dull and doubtful spot; elsewhere there
is the utmost activity and cheerfulness.





SOME steps are being taken to educate the public up to the
value of trade consolidations as cheapeners of production
aud, inferentially, as profit makers for their owners. The result
should eventually modify the attitude of the public towards in¬
dustrial securities, which is one of rather more uncompromising
suspicion than is probably warranted by the real facts. The In¬
dustrials offer room for discrimination as well as other secur¬
ities. It cannot be denied that, without any exception that we
can call to mind, their capital represents much water. Even
accepting, for the sake of argument, the theory that the capitali¬
sation of prospective profits is justifiable,this theory has beenin-
variably put in practice in the most profuse way. The investing
public cannot always hold the Industrials at arm's length, but
their confidence is only likely to be a reciprocation of confidence
on the part of the Industrial managers. For instance, the
strength seen in the steel stocks this week is probably due to the
evidence that is being given by the technical press of the in¬
creased efiiciency and economy in working of the plants of the
United States Steel Co. under the consolidation, These appear
to arise from two causes; competition among the managers in
their individual eiforts to produce the best results from the
several plants and departments in their charge and their co¬
operation through specialized committees, so that the processes
by which the best results are obtained in one plant or depart¬
ment may be available to all.    "The Iron Age," which has had





an opportunity of examining the details of management and
working of the Steel Co., says; "The changes in method which
have been initiated have already borne fruit to an astonishing
degree and promises for the future really astonishing results.
* * * Pew have realized until the present era of consolidation
how considerably even the best records of economy in manu¬
facture can be beaten by co-operative effort."





Reform in Condemnation Proceedings.

IT will be good news to owners of property, especially in the
yet undeveloped sections, to learn that measures are being
taken to honestly carry out those provisions of the charter in¬
tended to expedite and to reduce the cost of proceedings for tak¬
ing property by condemnation. For many years the duration of
such proceedings and the cost thereof constituted something in
the nature of a public scandal, and yet it was difficult to find out
where the blame lay precisely.

Naturally the cost of a proceeding was in proportion to its
duration, and the equally natural inference was that it was
prolonged by those who profited most by it. Neither the prop¬
erty owner directly interested, nor the taxpayer, less directly
but as the final payer just as acutely interested, got satisfaction
from the explanations that were made. It was clear that the
system was bad. and some of the more public spirited of the
property owners' representatives attacked the system and suc¬
ceeded in amending it when our present charter was before the
Legislature in the spring of last year.

Some of the most important of these amendments are; The re¬
quirements that the Corporation Counsel in street opening pro¬
ceedings, and the Comntrollev jn others, shall certify to each
item of expense as having been necessarily incurred in the pro¬
ceeding; the provision by which agreements can be reached
between the city and the property owner as to values, and the re¬
quirement that a commission must make a report within six
months under penalty of losing all their fees, unless the court
grants an extension of time. In the latter case the power of the
court is subject to quite reasonable conditions to show the
reasonableness and necessity for the extension and is accom¬
panied by a further power to remove any commissioner whose
neglect may have caused the delay. In making up the commis¬
sion's accounts, the dates and hours of service of each commis¬
sioner have to be noted, so that when they are passed upon by
the Supreme Court, that authority will have full information
upon which to base a decision as to whether any or all the items
shall be allowed or disallowed. Knowing that not only his at¬
tendance but its duration will be noted, no commissioner will
feel at liberty to go away, perhaps to repeat the operation in
another proceeding, as soon as the stenogi-apher has noted his
presence as has happened before this, but each will feel tho
necessity he is Under of sitting out the session. Moreover, the
commissioners in each case will, in their own interests, knowing
that extensions of time cannot be lightly granted even by the
most indulgent court, endeavor to close up the proceeding within
the specified time, so that the provision of the Charter which sets
-this limit will be of itself one of the greatest time savers.

We understand that the Corporation Cotmsel has issued in¬
structions, under which, so far as his of&ce is concerned, the
spirit as well as the letter of the charter provisions shall be
observed. Strict account is to be kept of the attendance of
commissioners and of the work of clerks, stenographers,
etc.; work is to be prepai'ed for each session in advance so that
there shail be no merely formal meetings and adjournments to
speciflc dates, with indefinite knowledge of whether there will
be any work for the cominissiou to do ou those dates are to be
discouraged, so that an excellent beginning has been made. But
there are still reforms that can be made in the forms of pro¬
cedure. Outside of the fact that the old system practically en¬
abled the commissioners to name their own compensation fay
putting DO bar to the length of time a proceeding might endure,
there has probably been nothing that has delayed matters more
tlian the taking of proof as to title. We have heard complaints of
this from gentlemen who were members of commissions for
something more worthy than the mere fees attached to the ofRce.
These took the position in order to hasten needed and important
improvements and were chagrined to find themselves compelled
to sit through weekly, or more frequent sessions extended over
months, to attend to the formal and technical work of receiving
proof of title, in which they felt that their time was wasted and
the improvement they desired to obtain unnecessarily delayed. A
change in the system that would relieve the commissions from
the details of this work would be of great help in reaching con¬
clusions quickly aud that in ttn-n would be in the interest of
economy.





I