November 22,  1902,





RECORD AND   GUIDE





117









eX                     ■*               ESTABUSHO) -W tf^AR,CHSl'4^ IBSfi,

itairi^ 10 RfA,L Bfn-ATE. BuiLDIjIg ApcKlTECTURE .t{oUSEyoU» DEGORAniMi.

BUsitfess Alto Themes OF GeiJer^ I^TERfsii

PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX  DOLLARS

Published eVery Saturday

CommunlcattoDa ebould be addressed to
C. W. SWEET,  14-16 Vesey  Street,   New YorR

J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager                             Telephone. Cortlandt 3157

"Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., aa second-class matter."





Vol. LXX.





NOVEMBER  22,  1902.





No. 1810.





THIS week the Stock Market has given signs of resisting the
restraining pressure put upon prices. This view is not due
to the strengthening of the market under the Manhattan deal,
but to the action of a number of stocks that are regarded with
suspicion, and which sharply recovered some points from their
extreme declines. As the break in prices was due to the scarcity
and high rates for money, their improvement is due to a change
In those conditions. Last week's hank statement revealed an
easing probability which the events of the week realized, and
to-day's statement ought to show further improvement. Time
money was offered with more freedom Thursday and Friday thau
hiiS been the case for a cuuple of months. The rates were stiff for
periods carrying the loan over into the New Year, and from this
it may be gathered that the banks are not sure that the strin¬
gency will not recur next month when the year-end settlements
and make-ups have to be arranged. However, while the condi¬
tions neither warrant a return to high speculation or the hope
that money will be plentiful enough to be cheap this side of
1903, they do encourage the belief in a fair rally all along the
list. Some people who have held aloof from Railroads, owing to
their high quotations, are returning to them because of the at¬
titude of the managers towards the wages question. This atti¬
tude may be thus described. The help say they ought to share in
the prosperity of the times. The manager replies "so also
should the company. I'll tel! you what I'll do. I'll put up wages
and rates at the same time and we'll both be satisfied. The ship¬
per is doing too well to complain, and we need not expect to
hear from him until the good times are gone, and we all have to
face new conditions." The investor says that the railroad man¬
ager would not take this position unless he was sure of good
results for a long way ahead and hence railroad securities are
a buy—or will be when money is cheaper.





THE rumor that Mayor Low proposes to apply to the Legis¬
lature for a change in the local civil service laws, which
■will increase the class of appointments exempt from examina¬
tions has aroused the utmost disgust among the reformers out of
office. They have the most rigid ideas of the way in which ap¬
pointments should be made. These ideas are based upon the
assumption that the departmental employees should be a body of
men and women, who are to a large extent independent of their
departmental superiors. They are to be selected from a list of
eligibles, who have passed the examinations with credit, and
who are to be protected from removal, unless for serious cause.
The assumption is that the departmental head is a spoilsman,
whose chief object would ordinarily be to turn out of office every¬
body not belonging to his own party or faction, and who con¬
sequently is the enemy of his departmental inferiors. Now this
assumption has undoubtedly been frequently justified in the
past. Some such means of protecting the city offices from ap¬
pointments and removals irrespective of merit has undoubtedly
been necessary. Yet it should be added, what every fair-minded
man will admit, that the resulting system is not one which is
likely to promote efficiency in the civil service. The people who
pass the examinations are, doubtless, a selected class; but they
are not above the ordinary human failings. When they can
keep their positions unless absolutely derelict in their duties,
and when it makes little difference to their chances whether they
do or do not receive the approval of their superiors, their worit is
not likely to be either very energetic or very competent. No
proper system of responsibility has been established. Efficiency
has been sacrificed to the end that the employees may feel secure
in their positions, and appointments on the spoils system ren¬
dered impossible. A well-intentioned departmental head is
handicapped in order to tie the hands of an ill-intentioned one.
Mayor Low complained of this state of things early in his term,
and any one who believes that the first object of departmental





organization is efficiency must sympathize with him in his com¬
plaint; at the same time it must also be admitted that the mat¬
ter is a difficult and dangerous one to handle. It should not be
touched at all except as part of some comprehensive scheme to
reorganize the departments, re-classify the employess, and to
provide more elfective inducements than those which now pre¬
vail for efficient and intelligent service.





The City's Finances—Local Improvements.

A MOVEMENT that has for its object the removal of the bar¬
nacles from the municipal financial system was prac¬
tically inaugurated by Comptroller Grout this week, by an ad¬
dress delivered to the Manufacturers' Association. The major
defects in this system are found in the disbursing department,
in the sinking fund, in confused provisions for meeting certain
current expenses and for some forms of permanent works, and in
the provisions for inaugurating and receiving repayment for lo¬
cal improvements. In his exposition of these defects and in the
remedies he proposes, Mr. Grout states that he has availed
himself of the statements and suggestions made by others during
a period of many years; but, as he says, he has brought them
together and in shape for action. The evils complained of are
not disputed, though the fitness and adequacy of bis remedies
may require discussion. Still as he has given the subject the ad¬
vantage of his proved ability as a financier and the prestige of
his office, there is some hope now of tangible and profitable re¬
sults.

Two of the three great imperfections of the municipal finan¬
cial system dealt with in the address have already been de¬
scribed in these columns, together with the remedies proposed
and need but brief allusion. One is that on January 1st of each
year, the city has no money with which to pay its bills until the
following October. It is carried through the interim by borrow¬
ings which cost in round figures $1,250,000 annually. In order
to change this improvident system into a business one, the Comp¬
troller announces that he wiJl introduce a bill into the coming
Legislature "which will leave unchanged the date, the first Mon¬
day of October when taxes become a lien, and the date, December
1, when tbe interest penalty for non-payment begins to run, but
which will provide that taxes shall be fixed and may be paid on
and after January 1 with a rebate at the rate of three per cent,
from the date of payment to December 1." This strikes us as a
reasonable and practicable plan likely to accomplish good re¬
sults. It is not claimed that it will immediately effect the ob¬
ject sought to be obtained, but there is good reason for believ¬
ing that it will make an excellent beginning. The second mat¬
ter requiring treatment is the unnecessary accumulations in the
sinking fund which it is proposed to divert to current income,
the proposal for which is almost universally endorsed. Any
confusion as to what should be paid from current income and
what by the issue of bonds ought to be easily remedied and the
Comptroller may be relied upon to suggest legislation for that
purpose, which will be acceptable by reason of its reasonableness
and propriety.

In the matter of assessible local improvements it is probable
that property owners and taxpayers will not give the Comptrol¬
ler the unhesitating support that they do in those previously re¬
ferred to. Mr. Grout thinks that tbe laws relating to these im¬
provements hear hardly upon both the property owner and the
city. On the former because he would prefer to pay in instal¬
ments, which is quite true in a general sense, and on the latter
since a large measure of its credit, about $20,000,000 and upwards,
is always loaned out to the localities on these works. He sug¬
gests that the assessment be laid before the improvement is made
and he payable in five annual instalments—but the work not to
be contracted for or executed until two-fifths of the cost has been
paid in. This he thinks would substantially relieve both the
property owner and the city, for it would make payment for
the one easier and reduce the expenditure, or loan of credit of
the other. If it could be so arranged that these conditions of
payment would not delay physical work, there would probably be
no objections to them. This, however, is doubtful, because the
work of assessing and determining areas of benefits is one of
great detail and has hitherto been very protracted. Unless the
Comptroller can, while changing the method of repayment by
the property owner, suggest a way by which the assessment can-
be fixed in as short a time as contracts can now be prepared, we
anticipate for his bill an opposition strong enough to defeat it.

The policy has hitherto been to encourage local improvement,
or improvements depending upon the initiative of the property
owner, as much as possible; and this for the very practical rea¬
son that the growth of the city and of its income depends upon
them, the first almost entirely and the second very considerably.