Da(ĩatnber34,1898





ls.ecora   ana   ouiae.





833







ESTABLISHEH 'î^ WAR.CH 21"^ laSS.

"^teD ío '^LEjtaje SuiLDir/G A^í<;TECTai^E,HoosE:>fou)DrociSfnoíi,
BysitÍESs wídThemes Of ÛEíÍErvil Iji^^^n

PRICE, PER FBAR IN ADVålVCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Publisheã every Saturd^'y.
TblbphohbI      ....       COaTLANDT 1370.

Gommumcationa should be addreesed to

C. W. SWEET, 14 & 16 Vesey St.

J, 1. LINDSEY, Susiness Manctger,

"Entered at the Poat-office at New York, N, Y„ aa seconã-class matter."





VOL, L.,





DECEMBEĨÍ 34, 1893.





No. 1,S93





coming year the stoek market will be æor© depreased than during
the cIoBÍng one. The chief cause of the increasiugly unfavor-
able state of affairs is tbe approaching close of the year, and the
preparations for the settlement. It is by no means improbable that
the last week of the month will aliow ratber more hopeful views
to prevsiil. An improvecnenb bas lately manifested iteelf in
the testile and tlie coal tradee, and experts are agreed tbat
even a slight change for the better in theîroti and steel trade would
suffice to impart fresh energy to the stock market. The greatest
drawback to the progreas of the latter is said to be the witbdrawal
from businesa of a great mauy small business men, who cannot
wíDhEtand the competition of the large banking concerns, and who
wouldbe seriously harassed by the new tases in cominercial trans-
actions. Theír profits are so small that any diminutîon always
verges upon estinction. The Ohambers of Commerce all over the
Empire are joining in protests against tbe new projects of tasation,
and attempt to showtbatthe proposed taxes will stríke ahard blow
at small dealings. It is extremely improbable, however, that theee
protests wiil come to anything.





IT has happened frequently that when all the world became
very bullish in tbeir views of the stock market, prices bave
developed a remarkable downward tendency; but it bas very
rarely happened that they went up when all the world wasbearîsh.
It is juat now the case that everyone speaks gloomily, and even
coneervative bankers, while denying that there is any room for
apprehension, advise caution. Thie half way of saying that the
outlook is bad ia more injurious to quotations than the cry of
" Breakers ahead" would be. The general situation being unfavor-
able and tbe public fuU of fear, it is no wonder tbat prices decline.
If there îs anything to wonder at it is that railroad stocka and bonds
keep aa strong as they do. Wbile tbe situation is unchanged tbe
tone of tbe market must remain the eame, and any advance that
professional operators mayengiaeerortbatmay followa bigdecline
is sure to sufEer a speedy relapse. It will take some time to remove the
danger, or what are eo thorougbly taken to be dangers, iũ the fĩnan-
cial world, and meantirae their influence can only be against prices.
This ia proved by the brevityand futility of the late movement in
the Vanderbilt'B. In some instancés there are special causes for
declines. Take Reading for inatance. The road'a earnings are
equivalent to interest on the income bonds, but ever sitice the
time when a decisioa on the income bond interest was expeeted,
both the bonds and the stock have sold down. If the company, as
iaimagined, cannotpay out to income bondholders the earnÍDgs
they are entitled to, its position is likely to become a very uncom-
fortable one, and its stock is likely to suffer furtber, notwithstand-
ing tbe decline it has seen from the highest of the year.





THAT the Sherman silver bill wiU be repealed by the present
Congress is as eure as anything in the immediate future can
be. The growing sentiment, wbich one can bear repeated by pro-
nounced silver men who have recently changed their opinione on this
point, is distmctly noticeable, and we predict that Senators Jones,
Allison and tbe otber membera of tbe ailver conference wĩll find,
upon their arrival, a changed public feeling on this measure wbich
will aatoniahand surpriee them, even more than did the conference
itself. Tbat the gold-slandard nations of Europe will consent to
any change, in the face of the growing output of tbo South African
gold mines which this year wili jield equal to $30,000,000, as
against less than $5,000,UOO four years ago, in 1888, is extremely
unlikely. The output of thesegold mines isconatantly increasing,
and the best authoritiee unite in predicting a yearly produciion of
§50,000,000 withínfive years. The figures, in dollars, are for the
lastfive years:

1888.                 18S9.                   1890.                  1891.                    189i.

$1,6Ií,8aO          87,647,380          $9,S8r,B40          $1-1,576,010         Ĩí.'í,íi0ũ.000

December estĩmated.

ThÍBBhowing gives anearly doubled increase forthepresentyear.





ENGLISH Board of Trade returns for November do not make a
very favorable showing. Tbe decrea&e in the imporfcs from
the Sgures of tbe year before amoimts to over 11 per cent, In this
connection it should be remembered, however, that November,
1891, with whicb the comparison ia made, wae very exceptionaĩ, so
tbat a severe drop is not, under tlie circumstaoces, a surprising
matter. The figuree for the export trade sbow only a very elight
falling off. In epite of all deductions wbich can be made the
comparisfin is not a very profitable one, and faĩls utterly
to give evĩdence of a cbanged condition in English foreign
trade. In Berlin, lately, fche market appears to have
abandoned itself entirely to the depression wbich has
been lingering for months and montbs behind the seemingly
Buccessful resistance made by the bull operators. Bank shares are
particulaily low, mining sbareB have been firm, but tbose of iron
and steel companies are very much depreesed. In spite of the
present unf avorable outlook, ĩt is not generally belĩeved that in the





ALL the presenfc talk and criticism about our quaranfcine system
and what steps are neceesary to improve it, and establîsh ít
upon the best scientific knowUdge o£ the day bas even yet got no
further than what may be called the seaboard line.     Everybody
persistB in clingĩng to tbe old superstition, wbich science and exper-
ience has proved false over and over again, that cbolera and any
other contagioua or infectious diseaee can be excluded   from a
country by official alertness afc the seaboard.    No nationhasyet
accomplisbed the feat,     No matter how rigid the quarantine line
may have been, unless the exclusion of travelers of all kinds and
degreea   was   positive   and   complete,  the   disease has effected
an entry  and proved in a deadly manner that rpliance upon that
sort of quarantine is delusory,    In  many respects it îe a positive
danger, for it produces a false security throughout the  country;
keepa everybody helplessly unprepared  to cope witb the disease if
it should reach them.    Panic  would follow the fii'st outbreak of
the epidemic, and thousands of lives would be lost before organ-
ization to fight the disease (which should  have  esieted from  the
flrsi) could be effected.    Let any one consider for a moment what
would have happened. last summer  bad cholera broken out in any
of   tbe   score    of    suburban   towns    around    this    city,     How
prepared,     for     instauce,      were  ■ towns     like     Yonkers     or
Paterson      or    Newark      or     tbe     Orangea     to     cope    wîth
an     epidemic,    care    for   tbe   sick,    protect   the   bealtby   and
prevent    the      disease     spreading    into    neighboring     towneî
Whatpanicwould havefollowed aeerioua outbreak in the Oranges!
How quickly tbe pest would have got into New York Cityl    Traffio
would have been suspended on ihe railroads. and town after town
would  bave risen in  arms agaiost  the neighboring population.
Instead of organizing to meet an emergency   wbat  were we all
doing ?   Trusting in Jenkins (as savages do in theîr totems), and a
system of quaranline which has never yet been sufficient.    Even
last summer the cbolera did pass the sacred quaraniine  line and
get into the city, and but for goud luck and the coming on of win-
ter, heaven only knows what we might bave had to  face.    Scores
'oî towns around New York didn't possess enough material to fumi-

gate a suit of clothes.

----------■----------

WOULDNT it be wiser, if daring the next summer, when
cholera is so likely to reappear, we repose a trifle less reli'
anceupon wbat is done at the seaboard and pay a little more atten-
tion to our internal condition? Otber couiitries have been forced to
adopt thiB policy, and while all reaaonable precautions are taken
at porfcs of entry, the quarantine tbere is supplemented b-^ an esten-
sive, wellorganized system that coversthe wholelaud. In England,
for ÍDstance, as we poiuted out a week or two ago, when a traveler
arrives from an iufected port he is medicallF esamined, and if
found in good health ia permitted to land and proceed to hie destina-
tion. But first of all he is obliged to let the autborities know where
he Íntends residing for the following ten days. The Health offîcials
in tbe town the traveler is going to are at once notified to expect
his arrival and keep him under surveillance for a period sufficient
to exclude all possibility of danger. The traveler reports to the
Health offlcers, and from day to day he is kept uuder inspection.
Upon tbe flrst indication of sickuess he is removed to tbe hospital,
and the room he has used and hi? effects are disinfected. A system
of thís nature means, of course, organization; but it insures publíc
safety. The entire countrf is ready to deal witb the diseaee.
Hospitals, doctors, nurses, remedies, are all like au army aud its
appurtenances, ready to be m> bilized. Tbere isno room for scare.
It is something of this sort which the United States
Bhould at once comraence to ÊStablÍah. The sea-
board quarantine should be put under the control
of the national government, and every city and town sbould be
made to prepare to co-operate with the seaboard quarantine. We
know how to do this sort of tbing. We had experience of the right
kind withjom-.hospital service in „the war, and tbere are thoueands