NoyemberlS. 188Í





"pjcord   and   Guĩde.







ÍS5>MARCHÍ|t!*-I86&.:'





611





ESTftBLlSHED ■
OeÆÍeD 10 fHL ESTVE ■ SuiLDiKg ApCiíiTECTJFtE .HoUSDÍOU) DEÛCIfĩ^TlflÛi

FRICE, PER ¥EAR IIV ADTAKCE, SIX DOLLARS.

F^iblished every Saturday.

TELKPBONEI      ....      CORTLAHIIT 1370.

Communlcations should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St

J. 7. LINDSEY, Busîness Manager.

"Entereã at tho Poat-offlce at Ifeui Tork, N. Y., aa aecond-clasa matter,"





VOL. L.





.  NOVEMBER 13, 1893.





No. 1,887





THE strength of the stock market in the past week has rebuked
the troiible-inoDgers and conflrmed more forcibly than eyer
tlie vĩeff that the times are not propitious for bear operatione.
Business îs too good generally, and the signs of improvement in
some special casea where depreseion has existed for a long time are
too proDOimced to permit of gloomy views fortheimmediatefuture
of railroad and other securities. They have too much to expect
from the events of the coming year for it tô appear probable that
any congiderable^break can be elîected ĩn prices. The word has been
paased around that sugar is to have a break of ten points, and the
reason offered Í3 ihac it, with other " truats," will incur Ihe dis-
favor of thenew administration. Officers of the Sugar Company
are quoted as solemnly denyiag that they have anything to fear,
etc, It has beea given out for some time that an attack would be
made on the industrials should the elections turn out as they have
done, and it has been begun on sugar, but the whole thing probably
means no more than that insiders in that stock are endeavoring to
înduce a large ahort interest in it for a bout of scalping as eoon as
the bears are securely ambushed. If thie tactic ia successfuĩ
in the case of sugar, ĩt will no doubt be tried in other stocks of the
same class, and on the same story; though, as a matter of fact,
none of them are the stocks of trusts at all, but of incorporated
companiea. The general market ís becoraing more active from day
to day, and this, witb the strength it displayed diu'íng a week or
two of waiting forelection fervor to find subsidence at the polls,
îs an augury of better prices. The most that can be expected on
the other side is a smaĩl reaction from time to time, cbaracteristic
of, and necessary to a healthy buU market.





THE holders of the preferred stock of tbe Toledo, St. Louis &
Kansas City Railroad Company have recently been treated to
a surprise by the managers of the company. Their stock was
issued for the flrst mortgage bonds of the Toledo, Cincinnati &
St. Louis Railroad Company, and is peculiar ín that it gives a
lien on the property and net earnings of the company next after
certain first mortgage bonds which it was found necessary to issue
when the change of securitĩes took place. Tho management has
been practically silent as to its doings for nîne years, and has
only recently issued what it calls an annual report, but which
■ftould be better called a statement of the difficulties în whîch it
finds itself when making a request of the holders of the preferred
stock to permit the lien ahead of their security to be increased by
$10,000 a mîle. These stockholders, having no means of knowing
whether Iheir property has been properly administered in the
past or whether the step proposed is the beat one to tabe in tbe
emergency that seems to exist, very naturally object, and
have lately held a meeting of protest at the officea
and presumably under the auspices of the Boston Marine Insurance
Company. Circumstances may arise in which concessions may be
fairly asked of, and accorded by the holders of securitĩes of railroad
companĩes. We have seen instances of late where such aid has been
geuerously and promptly accorded to save certain properties from
embarrassment. Security-holdera should not be discouraged from
a poUcy the wisdom of which is so apparent, but it should be an
inviolable condition that no such concession be made to a manage-
ment which hasnot given its security-holdersfairandfull informa-
tion of itg doings, or when tbere is not the clearest evidence of its
necessíty, and the highest probability of itsbeing effective to remove
the evils which make it necessary. The holdera of the preferred
stock of the Toledo,.St. Louis & Kaneas City Eailroad Company
willhelpthe cause o£ good railroad management by taking Ihis
position.





recently, to the task of enforcing their demands by politicai meanp,
and have succeeded thereby in placing the goyernmente in uncom-
fortable positions. This is particularly the case in France. The
problem of maintainĩng the law and of abstaîning from injustice
towards capital is difficult, particularly when complicatcd by the
further necessity of avoiding the gift of a great mauy votes to the
oi>po3Ĩtion by betraying any want of sympathy witli Wcirk-
ingmcn's ideas. The French governmcnt has met the difficulty
by passing an arbitration bill; but i ts troubles are not
yet ended, and finally it may serve to put the ministry out of
office. It has transpired recently that the Russian delegate în Pari.*,
charged to negotiate a new loan of about 500,000,000 roubles, has
met with failure. Though his proposals were not abruptlyrefused,
he was expected to submit to conditions and clauses which he
could not answer for. The practical result is therefore a postponc-
ment of the negotiations, which may be cspected to be renewed at
any time when the market will appear in a more favorablo coudi-
lion. It seems, however, certain that Paris alone will not, in ordi-
nary circumstances, charge berself with the issue of so large a loan,
witbout having made sure of the more or less direct conciirrence of
German financial houses. There are said to be many of the
latter who would Hke to see a resumption of dealings in Russiau
Joans in their own country; yet tbey are o'jliged in the mean
while to submit to the actual position, which is not favorable to
Ruesian financial transactions. The check which the Riissian
Finance Minister has met with in Paris, though he is said
to bave slated his willingness to accept an issue price of ĩ)0 inetead
of 86 per cent, has added greatly to the depressing influences in
Berlin. One item of foreign newe that we notîce may be of interest
to property-owners in this city. An International Congress on the
Transmission of Real Property bas been held lately in Paris, but it
cannot exactly be called a succesa. It is true that somcthing Jike
500 persons subscribed to it and tbat tbe greater part of them were
present, but they were not the kiad of sub&cribers wanted. The
notaries in France, like the solicitors in England, do not take kiadiy
to land transfer reform. The former considered that the establish-
ment of a "land-book" would prejudice iheir vested înteresta by
facÍUÍtating and simplifying transfera of rcal property. Conse-
quently they attended in numbers from all parte of France aud
carried a negative vote on tbe principal resolution by a majority
of 338 to 71.





THE public mind has at once jumped to extremee about the
Democratic victory. To hear people talk, and to read the
rabider of the partisan journals, one raight almost be excused for
thinking that the election bad made so different an order of affairs
possible in the country that there ia doubt as to wbether the Jaw of
gravity wiIJ hold good during the comîng fotu- years. Surely by
this time people ought to be aware of the yast distanoÊ between
promise of reform and accomplishment of reform. Even the most
fanatical and zealous of reformers flnds quickly how difficult it is to
effect very slight changes. It is imposeible to throw a long eetab-
lished custom or poJicy out of doors as one would a piece of dis-
carded furniture. Even if Mr. Cleveland and the Democrtilic
party wero not circumscribed by a great many very potent practi-
cal considerations which it would be suicide for thetn to ignore,
they woidd soon discover that it was no easy matter to root up a
system whîch during the past quarter of a century has sunk ilseJf
pretty deeply ĩnto the commercial existence and thought oE tlie
nation. Fom' years îs a short time for the working of a deep refor-
mation, and we may be sure tbat the end of Mr. Cleveland's term
wiU find comparatively little change actually accomplished. The
immediate ímport of the recent election liea in the fact that it was
80 emphatic an expression of popular opinîon that the appUcation
of Protection had been pushed too far. An over eager extension of
Free Trade or "Reform" principlea will sureíy bring a siuiilar
adverse judgment upon the Democratic party.





"T71RANCE, aa well asEngland, isengaged in unraveling unpleas-
■*- antly complex and difficult labor pioblems of immediate
importancet   Tlie workingmeu of the two countries have taken,





BUT the silliest j-art of the post-election nonsense is the scare
which many good Republicans profess to feel about Taiu-
many, We are assured that hencsforth that organization will
make the White House its headquarters, and a dire assortiiicnt of
evila, not to be complelely enumerated ac this momênt, will foliow
for the nation. In the flrst place, Tatnmany is by composiUon,
character and purpose a local body. Ita position and power in the
Doinocratic party was quite cíearly deflued at the Cbicago Conven-
tĩon, and its recent contríbutiou to llie success of thc national ticket,
important as it undoubtedly was, was stÍU ptu-ely local. Natioual
power means national organization, and of the latter Tammany
has scarcely the rudiments. But there is another view cf the
matter whîch makes the scare still more ridiculous. Those who
are so greatly alarmed about Tammany muet be very blitid, iudeed,
if they consider any other of the great political organizaíions in
this country, Republícan or Democratic, aa vaatly the superiors
of Tammany in morals or purposss. No one who posesses any
complete, unprejudiced knowledge of any poUtical organization
would regard stone-tlirowing at Tammany as free from a large