September 24, 1893





Record   and   Guide.





375







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Pu,blished every Saturday.

TBLBPHOĨĩE       ....      CORTLANDT 1370.

Cominuiiícatlona should be addressed to

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"Entered at the Post-oglce at New York, N. F„ as second-class matter.''^





VOL, L.





SEPTEMBEE 24,  1893.





No. 1,280





WITH " somethÍDg goiQg on iu Reading," the stock market has
put on a better face. The only thing that can warrant an
advance in Reading is an arraugement which will reconcile the
management of that property with that of the Pennsylvania and
stop adverse litigatíon, so that the price o£ coal can be put up on
the public for the benefit of the coal compaaies. It is reported that
this is just the airangement that is being made, If it îs true, then
lĩeading wiU sell a good deal higher than it has already done.
The real owners of the coal properties are, of course, anxious to
see rates maintained, and will bring all the pressure possible to
bear on their managers to that end, and, if those owners are uoited,
the public can only grumble and pay. Already, the price of coal
has risen a dollar a ton, :ind that increase alone, if maintained,
and there is very little reason to suppose it wîll not be, will mean a
great deal for every one of the coal stocks. Outside of the Coalers,
stocks are strong and more active, principally because recent bear
movements have been can-ií d too far f or tbe temper of the market
for the time being. The continued eelling of Northern Pacĩfic pre-
ferred after a recent drop of ten points and a decline for the year
of thirty naturally met with punishment. There, too, seemed little
reason for selling Louisville & Nashville, now nearly twenty poĩnts
below the highest of the year, although the action of both under
the encouragement which should come to the general market from
such a move as is now seen ín tbe Coalers, indicates that their
strength will be but temporary. The same may be said o£ railroad
stocka generally ; they are only strong in sympathy with the
movements of the Coalers ând on covering of scared shorts ; there
is nothinginthe situation to warrant a belief in theadventof a
buU market.





J





THE principal change that has recently taken place on the con-
tinental markets ie the less satisfactory opinion held as to
Russian Funds. ĩn the flrst place, the announcement that the
Russian Government contemplated a new issue of 25 million rouble
notes startled the operators. They took the announcement as an
indication that Russian flnances are seriously embarrasaed, or are
about to become so. There has been also coníirmation oE the state-
ment that M, Vishnegradski is compelled by ill-health to resign his
post. The news proved to be most unwelcome to all the operators,
and especially to those who contemplated a vigorous advance in
Russian loans and notes, £or they were relying on the skiU and
enterprise which tbe retiring minister had displayed on various
occasíons. Little is known as to the character of his suecessor, M.
Witte. He is represented as being an able financier, and îf he suc-
ceeds in winning the opinion of the banking and operating coni-
munity to but half the extent his predecesaor did, it will be agood
thing £or Russian financial operations. As things are, most
people competent 3 to judge do not believe that Russia
wiU be able to get on very £ar without having
recourse to some new financial operation either abroad or at home.
Hence arises the suspicion tbat Russia bas no other view in nego-
tiating with Gegmany but to regain the Berlin market for her loans.
In Austria, Germany and France business is steady and sound. In
these countries both the railway retums and the fîgures for foreign
trade indicate that a rather larger aggregate o£ business is being
done. So far as England is concerued, the Board of Trade returns
for August show for the first time this year some increase in the
total exports over the corresponding month of 1891. It is true that
the increase is small and vaniahes altogether, if we take the exports
of home produce alone, leaving out of account foreign and colonial
merchandise. A small dccrease ís then ahown as compared with
the exports o£ home produce in Auguat, 1890; but bere again it is
interesting to notice that the decrease is smaller tban ,in any pre-
ccding month this year, Even allowing for the fact that August,
1892, contained oue more workiug day than August, 1891, the
emallneB9 of the decline in the exports of home products betokens





Bome check to the falling off wbich haa recently made itaelf con-
spicuous. The total imports again sbow a considerable increase
£or the month, and while this ís due almost entiroly to augmented
receipts of food stuffs, it ís noticeable that raw materiala for manu-
facturing purposes alao show an increase.





THE Ti'mes, at the close of some comments on an article whlch
appeared in the last issue of The Record and Guide, about
the sale of the rapid transit franchises, wiuds up with the follow-
ing signiftcant paragraph : " There is an alternative which we are
glad to see commented upon by our reaĩ estate contemporary. It
is that failing in its effort to dispose of the franchise, the city shall
build the underground road itself. When Mayor Hewitt suggested
his rapid transit plau, it was pointed out and much dwelt upon
tbat the city could build a road of this character much more
cheaply than a private corporation, by reason of the low rate of
interest at which it could raise the money, and the absence of any
necessity or temptation to water stock, We are not unaware,
as we then pointed out, of the objections to tbis plan, We are also
fully alive to the fact that its adoption would'surely and speedily
provide a system of rapid tranait, which ís now the city's greatest
need. That, it seems to us, should be thedominant conEíderation."
This is an unmistakable declaration, that in case the franchiss
could not be speedily sold, subject to whatever conditions the com-
mission may impoee, the Ti'mes would support the altemative of
muuicipal ownership, With a few newspapers of this claes bebind
the question, it will soon be made a practicable, unavoidable issue ;
and the course o£ events is tendiug in the same direction. We
do not, however, believe that the argument in favor of municipal
ownership depende for its validity on the failure of the Rapĩd
Traneit Commisaion to dispose of the £ranchise. We believe that it
can be sold, subject even to the exacting conditĩons ae to the kind
of service which the public interest demands, provided the other
conditions as to the number of years, timea of conatruction of dif-
ferent divisions of the route, are made sufficiently tempting, There
are plenty of capitalists in Wall street watching the progress of the
matter; and a great money-making opportunity of some years
hence, even if attended by certaín immediate risks and sacrifîces,
would not be likely to go unneglected. But the point is that if
soid in such a way, the city will be making another of its very
bad bargains, the worst probably of the whole series, The fran-
chise i9 o£ enormous prospective value ; it is of comparatively líttle
immediate value considering all the rîsks and drawbaoks. And
the price that it will bring will be meaeured not by the prospective
value, which is beyond compucation, but by its immediate value,
which can be much more nearly estimated. It sbould be remem-
bered that this transit system, uulike the elevated roads, will never
be superseded. Itisbeing built for the New York of the future,
which will be closely settled far into what is now Westcbester
county. The Weat Side route and what is developed from it will
supply the needs of miUions of people, Consequently there
is a margin of profit for the city, under municipal ownership, both
from the increase in the value of the franchise and ín the saving
on the cost of construction that is simply ineetimable. No prac-
ticable stealing cotild rob the city oE even a small share of it.
Unfortuuately these facts have beeu disregarded. Tbe franchise
wiU be offered for sale. The only chance for common senee to pre-
vail lieein the possibility that the immediate drawbacke and risks
of the road will acare the capitalists away. If this proves to be the
case every friend of municipal ownership should begin a vigorouB
campaign in íts favor, They will have all the facts of the situation
in their favor.





NEW YORK CITY will not be represented very strongly
numerically at the coming convention of the National Real
Estate Congress in BufEalo, although the programme for the
meeting, as published, is an attractive one. Chauncey M, Depew
is to read a paper on " Rapíd Transit," and other gentlemen, more
or less well known, wiU speak upon matters connected with the
real estate busioess. The meagre representation of the metropolis
at the convention is to be deplored, because it is only by the hearty
co-operation of real estate men everywhere that a strong national
organization can be built up ; aud, besides, had New York sent a
large delegation thero is little doubt the meeting next year could
have been secured for this city. As it is, an efEort should be made
to this end, and it might not be amiss if a number oE representative
real estate men, through the Exchange, were to send au invitation
to the Coiigress to visit New York.





IT is sincerely to be hoped—biit we fear hope is vain—that the
latest eíĩort oî the Herakl in the sensational journalism of
which it is sodistiuguished a practitioner, witl not be einulated by^
many of its wortJiy fellow traders in filth. To send a crauk or char-
latan to a cholera hospital to sleep in iiifected beda and descrihe for
the delectation of strong-stomached people the condition of the
eheeta, the character of the prevailiug odors, etc, etc, in the
lazaretto (see the Herald £or the past weeH is disgusting enough,