February 14, 1903.





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Vol,  LXXI.





FEBRUARY 14, 1903.





No. 1S22





■ The Index to Vohrme LXX. of the Becord and Guide, cover¬
ing the period between JiiIi/1 and Deeeinber ^1, 1902, is ready
for deJiver)/. Priw. $1.00, This Jiidcv in Us enlarged form
is now reeoynized as indispensable tu erery one engaged or
interested in real estate and bnilding operations. It covers all
transaclions — deeds, mortgages, leases, anciion sales, building
plans filed, etc. Orders for the Index should be sent at once io the
office of publication, 14 and 10 Vesey St.

T T 7 HILE Viusiiiess in the stock market is predominantly pro-
V X fessional, there has been enough support from outsiders
to improve tbe prospects this week. A better reeling prevails as
a result of the Federal legislative prospect—especially the pros¬
pect tbat Congress must soon adjourn. It is felt that if any
trust legislation is enacted it will not be detrimental to tbe busi¬
ness carried on by the great corporations aud as for any meas¬
ure of publicity likely to be carried, it cannot go beyond the
desires of the financial world, whose attitude is always one of
wanting to know. If this Congress passes the Aldricb bill it
will help the situation, considerably. The bond market has
picked up somewhat lately. The bulk of tiie transactions have
been in a few issues, the new i per cents, for instance, but tliis
i;^ due to tbe fact tbat tiiere is little else to buy. The dearth oE
tbe most favored form of investment has compelled attention
to tbe bonds and preferred stocks of tbe older Industrials, for
v/hicb there has be^ inquiry and some buying. Comparatively
small as tbe latter has been it has advanced prices materially
and it is now becoming app;irent that tried senior industrial
securities are passing away from tbe speculative into tbe invest¬
ment lists. The break in time money rates is likely to materially
increase tbe investment demand, and the query "What shall I
buy?" finds less response than ever. The inquiry will be more
keen and the response more tardy as the supply of money in¬
creases; and, aside from tbe new issues of .standard ?'ailroad
stocks, which will appear this spring, there is nothing to satisfy
tbe demand outside of the tried industrials, which still sell at
figures yielding a goo dinvestment return,and one that gives them
a preference over the loan market in the use of money for definite
periods. As to the outloolv for speculation this spring, activity
is likely to be encouraged by lew money rates, and if current
prices as a general thing suggest prudence, a recessionary
market is hardly likely while so many important financial opera¬
tions remain to be developed as now. Nearly all the leading
railroads have plans for which they require new capital and it
is not usual for such applications to accompany declining
values.





quotations. Governments, with tbe exception of Consols, have
gone up, but while that security languishes on the London Ex¬
change, the pifincipal railroad shares have made a tardy re¬
sponse to the increased dividends declared on the statements of
earning for the last balf of 1902. Industrial shares are in more
demand, the movement being more pronounced at Berlin than
elsewhere, but, looking tbe European situation all round, tbe
signs of renewed vitality in business are increasing. Great
Britain's foreign trade reports for January show an excess of ex¬
ports over imports, so that we shall not hear so much of the self-
consuming process of the country's capital as we did a week
ago; final figures for the January output of the Rand reveal a
small gain over the production of December, but make another
post-bellum record. The figures are 199,279 ounces for last
month, and 196,023 for the preceding one. Germany is making
progress with her industrial reorganization, and the latent
wealth of France always appears more than sufficient to make
good any reverses she may sustain; just now references to in¬
discreet Russian advances have ceased. The point of anxiety
is the Near East, But, if, as now seems to be tbe case, the Great
Powers are acting in agreement to compel reforms in iVIacedonia,
armed resistance by Turkey would have little or no unfavorable
influence on tbe markets, and might stimulate them to more
activity. Tbe Turk does not appear to have acted in Mace¬
donia as badly as he did in Bulgaria, when be earned the sting¬
ing degrading epithet of "unspeakable"'from Gladstone's in¬
dignant lips, but it does seem as if the time has arrived when
another step has to be made to lessen if not remove the anomaly
of Asiatic misrule existing in an environment of Eastern
methods of government. It is a matter of the impossibility of
the Mahomniedan properly governing Christians. The present
movement for emphasizing this fact being initiated by Russia
and Austria jointlj', and, if It has the approval of other Chris¬
tian powers, will not be open to suspicion of selfishness on the
part of any one of them, so that the danger of a general conflict,
which it has been said only awaited the next liovement to
coerce the Turk, is apparently averted.





RATES for money make London the point of attraction at
the moment for European surplus funds. Whether they
will induce gold shipments from this side is uncertain and
doubtful. The tendency of exchange suggests it and the re¬
tention of the high—4 per cent.—discount rate, by the Banli of
England, is calculated to assist it if the disposition is right, but
there are gathering so many requirements for money in our
midst and up to this time shipments have been so carefully
avoided, that it is reasonable to conclude that none will be per¬
mitted, at least, until the important financial operations now
under way have been concluded. Paris and Berlin are both
in very easy circumstances now, and it is more likely that either
one or the other, or both, will supply London's need for gold
should any transpire in connection with the financing of the
forthcoming Government loan. Between New York and Lon¬
don there is likely to be a see-saw maintaining an equilibrium:
If we take any part of the new loan, London will subscribe for
portions of the new issues of railroad securities about to be
made here. The exchanges at the most important European
points have been a little more active this week on advancing





A BILL was introduced at Albany during the week, providing
tbe appointment of a new Board of Transit Commission¬
ers, whose functions in general it shall be to exercise the right
of control over the local transit companies, tbat the State Boar"a
of Railway Commissioners has recently been trying to exercise.
It is improbable that this bill has been seriously introduced, for
so far as we know, the Record and Guide has been the only
newspaper which has insisted upon the constitution of some
effective local control; but, whether serious or not, tbe bill
should never be passed in Its present form. One local Board of
Transit Commissioners is enough even for the Greater New
York; two such boards would only complicate a problem, every
part and aspect of which is closely connected with every other
part. The present Board possesses the confidence of the public,
and is as luliy equippea lor the work of reforming the existing
transit machinery as it is for providing new machinery. The
recommendations of the State Commissioners for tbe improve¬
ment of the service of the Metropolitan company are obviously
intended to be ignored and will be ignored just as far as the
company dares or cares. Moreover, at best, they do no more
than skim the surface of the problem, Even the State Com¬
mission, however, makes bold to recommend a subway for sur¬
face cars at 34th street and Broadway, and a suhway as in
certain parts of Boston there will have to be—only it will be
longer than the one just recommended. But no better illustra¬
tion could be desired of the essential unity of the whole prob¬
lem than this matter of Greeley Square, for the Rapid Transit
Commissioners are now considering a rapid transit tunnel for
that part of Broadway—^which tunnel, if built, should be planned
v.'ith some reference to the needs of the present surface as well
as the long distance traffic.





THAT the country is busy and that business is prosperous
as a whole, is strikingly suggested hy the returns of Jan¬
uary failures, which make the best record for ten years. The
month usually makes an important contribution to these statis¬
tics, because the volume of the holiday business indicates the
ability and temper of the public as buyers, and the annual reck¬
oning tbat merchants customarily make, brings to light both the
prospects for trade and the capacity of those engaged in it for
continuing operations. It is therefore highly satisfactory to find
that the post-holiday failures were fewer this year in number
than in any corresponding month for a decade, and that less was
involved, with one exception, than in any of the other nine Janu-
aries. Taking "Bradstreets" figures, we find that the number of
failures in the United States for the last month was 1,113, with
total assets of $4,572,140, and liabilities of ?10,5S0,20O.    In Jan-