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Vol.   LXIX.





MAY   10,    1902.





No.   1782





AFTER making a flne recovery from the troubles of last
■week, the Stock Market is inclined to settle back into
.dullness. A good deal of manipulation has gone on to bring the
small ptiblic frightened away by recent events, back into the
market, btit without success, because tbe commission house
business has fallen oil: to very moderate proportions. In this
contingency dullness can only mean declining prices, because it
is impossible to conceive of tbe manipulators continuing to play
over a fished out stream. At tbe same time, it is to be borne in
mind tbat extreme weakness is improbable, because there are a
good many large financial operations yet incomplete, the suc¬
cess of which would be jeopardized by a bad break in quotations.
The best opinion is that tbe market will he dull and dragging
through the summer, with probabilities then dependent upon
the crop prospects, whicb happen for the time being to be im¬
proving. Owing to the continued activity in general business
throughout the country money is in good demand, and rates
are likely to remain strong for sometime. It is almost sure, too,
that gold exports only await an easing off in this deraand, and
the consequent decline in rates. The business situation of Eu¬
rope is unchanged from the condition of moderate improvemeut
last reported, and the strength of government bonds indicates,
not merely where present speculative opportunities lie, but also
that the demand for money for commerce and manufactures
continues to be light.





APRIL   figures   for   gold   production   on   the   Rand   reveal
further   progress.    Estimates   are   for   120,000   ounces,
"equivalent to $2,400,000, a jump, since mining was resumed last
October, from 33,393 ounces and a value of $61)7,860.    Revival of
activity in South Africa is uot confined to gold mining; and, as
the fortunes of tbat vast area are at present occupying so much
attention and have such an important bearing upon the whole
commercial situation, tbe following extracts from a speech de¬
livered recently by the chairman of the Standard Bank ot South
■Africa   to   the   London   shareholders   have   value.     Notwith¬
standing the conservatism of the terms in which they are ex¬
pressed and the admission of unfavorable circumstances,   they
give a more cheerful view of the business conditions in place
of  tbat of  paralysis  so  generally  accepted.    They  are:   "The
more important channels of communication had been reopened,
and many of the great industries of the country were again re¬
suming operations.    In no direction had these symptoms been
more observable than in the Transvaal, and the reports from the
other of otir new colonies, which was chiefly dependent on agri¬
culture,  indicated that tbe larger  towns  in the Orange River
Colony  had not greatly suffered, and that merchants  in them
had, on the whole, done fairly well throughout the period ol
British occupation.    In the Cape, the  revenues of the  Colony
:appeared to be buoyant,    After deducting working expenses, tbe
earnings of the Cape Government Railways last year amounted
to £4 8s. 4d. per cent, on a capital of  £22,000,000 invested in
these undertakings.   The trade of the Colony showed aa increase
-in-imports of more than   £4.000,000, and in exports of nearly
£11,000,000 over tbe returns of 1900;  and it was stated that tbe
block at the Docks was so great, bot-h at the Cape and at Natal,
that important additions were to be made to the harbor worka
at Cape Town and Durban.    On the other hand, tbe expenditure
of the Cape Government is believed to have been very heavy.
The conditions in Natal resembled those in Cape Colony.    The
Budget showed  a  satisfactory surplus.    The  imports  into  the
Colony in 1901 amounted to more than £9,000,000, and exceeded
by 60 per cent, the imports of 1900.    There were symptoms of a
steady progress in Rhodesia.    The output of gold in that great
territory in  1901 rose to 172,000 ounces, or nearly double the
output for 1900.   Turning to the agricultural prospects of South
Africa, he was afraiti he must speak with some caution.    The





devastation of territory and the destruction of floclis and herds,
however unavoidable, had inflicted a serious loss, and the farm¬
ing community had suffered severely in consequence. The wool
Industry particularly, it was feared, must experience a large de¬
crease in production, and probably some years would elapse be¬
fore the exports could be restored to the importance of normal
limes. With the termination of the war it was to be hoped
that these prospects might improve. Immigration and irrigation
schemes—both matters of great importance—were, it was under¬
stood, occupying the attention of the various Governments."





Tunnels vs.  Bridges.

y UST now another attempt is being made to create a public
*—' opinion in favor of subaqueous and agaiust transpontine
communications between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brook¬
lyn; that is for the substitution of tunnels under the East River
for the bridges unbuilt. Who are back of this movement is easy
to be guessed, and the resolution passed by the Rapid Transit
Commission on Thursday, calling for reports on the several
merits of tunnels and bridges by the chief engineer to the com¬
mission and by tbe Commissioner of Bridges will be received
with satisfaction, as a rational method of providing a basis for
arriving at a scientlflc conclusion.

Most of tbe participants in this discussion have hitherto been
laymen, eminent in their several ways, but not the men whose
decision should be flnal in a matter depending so much upon
technical inv~estigallon Cor its proper solution. It appears to us
that so far attention has been directed only to a fraction of the
problem involved, a large one, but still a fraction. As it ap¬
pears to tbe limited vision of these laymen, the question is one
simply of carrying a large number of people in railroad cars
from one borough to the other. If that were the case it would
most probably settle the question for their favorite tunnels.
But, as will be seen from the figures showing the number o£
vehicles that crossed Brooklyn Bridge last year, giveu on an¬
other page of this issue, it is a much larger question thau that
As our figures show there was an average of 3,318 teams daily
passing over the bridge, and we are further informed that these
ligures are 20 per cent, below tbe record, because there has
been a decline of tbat proportion in this class of traffic since the
trolley cars commenced to run over the bridge. This indicates
a vast movement of travel for whicli the city ought to ^supply
facilities, and which it is reasonable to conclude will be much
larger when the city drops the mediaevalism of tolls and pro¬
vides bridges on which provision is made for the electric cars
in a way that will not discourage equine draught. Tbere is
also to be considered the large, the very large number of people
who for reasons of preference, economy or necessity cross
bridges afoot, who do not seem to be taken into the calculations
of tbe advocates of tunnels.

It is glibly eoutended, the contention being based upon esti¬
mates whose accurracy has yet to be proved, that several tun¬
nels under the East River could be built for the cost of one
bridge over it. This overlooks the factor of relative capacity
which ought to play an important part in coming to a wise
decision. We doubt whether, if the money expended upon Brook¬
lyn uridge for iustance had beeu diverted to tunnels instead, it
would have provided the facilities of travel that that magni¬
ficent and much abused structure does; or that time has ma¬
terially changed matters in this respect. This allows nothing
lor compensation lor having to go underground, although we
hold that we ought never to go below ground for anything with¬
out some considerable money or efficiency advantage being
gained thereby. There are other points tliat as yet have not
been considered, and which would come up even if it were de¬
cided that tunnels were more economical and efficient than
bridges. One of these would be the rights of private owners,
tor we suppose, it would not be possible to restrict the routes
of tunnels built in place of bridges, to lines of public property
only, and a very interesting question of compensation would
then arise, and one involving a large sum of money. It is not
necessary to say anything more to show that this matter of
Tunnels vs. Bridges, which has hitherto been so lightly treated,
is not one to be decided off-hand, but on the contrary one to be
weighed very seriously as it, we believe, will now be done.

Meantime, we are glad to note that the ex-officio members of
tbe Rapid Transit Commission, the Mayor and Comptroller, with
the good sense and independence characteristic of them, have
decided not to be diverted from the policy of improvements
already laid out. They certainly have nothing to justify them
in stopping work on the new bridges, but rather reasons for
seeing that in the rapid completion of these lies the solution
of the trouble that has given rise to all this discussion, and
the suggestion of alternative  expedients.