Ootober 12,189(5'
Record and Guide.
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Vol. LVI.
OCTOBER 1-2, 1895.
The Rf.corb and Guide will furnish you with dally detailed reports
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THE stock market has taken the depressing: news of the week
very we)],a]l things eousidered. This is due to the faith
of holders in the value of railroad securities chiefly; because,
had there been any large desire to sell long stock in the existing
conditiou of the market, with buying almost as poor as it pos¬
sibly cau be, there would have been a great impression made ou
quotatious. As the week closed the news was of a better char¬
acter. The indications are that the London market will not
be a disturbing influence, the day of reckoning in Kaffirs
having not yet corae. At home tlie evident fact that
the Easteru Trunk line managers are making a sincere effort to
deal with the problem of rates, is not without its influence for
good, although there are doubts whether their -work will be suc¬
cessful, the difficulties presented being so great. Another item
of interest is the association of the names of geiitleineu identified
with Vanderbilt interests with the reorganization of Union
Pacific. So mauy interests have from time to time endeavored
to get the Governmeut to terms on this matter that tbe opera¬
tions of a new one to that end caunot fail to he interesting.
Tho most encouraging feature of the day, however, is the
strengthening and advance in the price of silver. There
is probably no industry outside of agriculture whose im¬
provement would have more influence on the prosperity of
the couutry than tbat of silver. If present promise .should be
realized and a substantial advance take place in the price of this
metal tinder legitimate demand, ifc means an increase in the
freight of the Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana,
Idaho and California roads, and also a great increase in the
pui-chasiug power of those States which cannot fail to event¬
ually benefit the trade of the whole country. Besides it would
increase the chances of an early reform of our cunency, because
the silver States, aud through them their representative in
Congress, will be less inclined to insist on their demands on the
governmentin favor otthe white metal, if its value increases
under the ordinary operations of trade.
portion than in the other years named. The total of mining
companies, good, bad and iudiflerent, iucluded iu this year's
figures is ahout $25,000,000, and the land and esploriug com¬
panies, most of whicti are the reaulfcof thesuccess in mining dis¬
tricts already developed, about $20,000,000, These are more
than enough perhaps for the industries they are supposed to
represent, hut their combined totals do not amount to
a great deal compared with the whole money representation
of the new enterprises brought out and to only a comparatively
small sum when the resources of thg centre where they are
isstied and subscribed is considered. The complete total of
Kaffir ventures, colossal as it is, is only a fraction of European
investments, and if it has to undergo fining down, as the
consequences will be distributed in London, Paris, Berlin and
Vienna, they will he easily borne. Whatever the extent of its
overdoing it must not he forgotten that there is a .substantial
basis to the Kaffir movement. The gold production of the re¬
gion on which the shares aro predicated has exceeded
$4,000,000 in one month with no indication that tbat is the
maximum. Where the trouble will come will be in the weeding
out of the worthless issues, the honest disappointments and the
frauds, but when that is done the enterprise as a whole yyill be
in a sounder condition than ever ifc has been. There is no rea¬
son to fear a collapse like that of the Argentines iu 1890, be¬
cause not ouly are the foundations of the movement under
suspicion better than were those of the South American loans,
but the times are also diffeient. The break iu the Argentines
came at a time of world-wide expansion and inflation in busi¬
ness ou which the eiirrency peculiarities of the Uuited States
were superimposed. To-day business is only showing healthy
improvement and the people of this country have the symptoms
of returning monetary sanity.
No. 1,439
\ VERY uncomfortable feeling is left iu tbe mind.s of Euro-
*^^ pean security-holders by the recent break in Kaffir shares.
It has shown somethiug of the possible movement of those issues
under adverse influences. Every one suspects that a good many
of these shares havebeeu boomed on the strength of what others
have done, aud as merit is the attractive force thatall valuations
musteventualiyobey, let the power that forced them from the
true point of gravity for the time being be what ifc inll, they
must take their proper relatiou to natural financial forces. In
this operation there will he a good deal of suffering, whether it
18 gently or roughly performed, but ifc is fortunate that specula-
tion has heeu nowhere else rampant than in Kaffirs. -Much the
largest part of the new capital raised in tbe past two years has
been by the issue of Government and municipal bonds of the
best classes. For instance, in Great Britain what are called the
new capital applications, comprising every form of prospectus
put out to secure new capital, amouuted in the first three quartera
of this year to $425,000,000, as compared with $459,000,000
tor the whole of last year, $245,000,000 iu 1 893 and $405,000-
UOO m 1892. With these applications for niue months of 1895,
comparmg so favorably with similar figures for any twelve
months ot the preceding three years, it might be imagined that
there had been this year a good deal of kiting of immeritorions
ventures; the latter, however, are most probably j^ ^allerpro.
THAT cousolidation is becomiug a very hot question among
Brooklynites is proved by the interest created by the
publication of various views upon it in our issue of Septemher
28th last. This interest is not wholly good-natured. Some of
the .iouruals devoted to preserving an autonomous Brooklyn
throw doubt upon the genuineness of our interviews with Mayoi'
Schieren and Senator Wolfert. The former is quoted by the
iS(«n</rtrd-f/"H'(ojt as saying th.afc he did not recollect lover being-
interviewed by The Recokd and Guide, aud " the statement
they print, to my kuowledge, I have never made." To our
reporter this week Mayor Schieren admitted the truth of the
interview when the circumstances were called to his mind, and
owued that his denial was due to a slip of his memory. Greater
Broohltifii publishes a letter pnrportiag to come from Henry
Wolfert, sayiug in regard to our interview with him: "X have
uever seen a reporter of that paper (The Record and Guide)
and the statements contained therein are entirely false. I am
uow and always have beeu opposed to consolidation." Our
reporter called upon him also and showing him the letter asked
him if he wrote it, to which he answered: "No, Ididnotwiite
that letter fco any one." He was then asked, " Did you authorize
any one to write that letter for youf And to this he re¬
plied: "No. 1 gave no authority to any one to write that
letter for me." Regarding our interview with him he
admitted that it was quite probable that his utterance might
havebeeu misconstrued, owing to his imperfect ability in the
employment of the English language. Anyway, if tbe Senator
had auy change of heart on the subject of union with New York
City at the time our reporter interviewed him originally he has
recanted and is auti-congolidatiouist agaiu to the backbone.
Mayor Schieren, by his confession, stands where he did at the
time of om- first interview, nor have we heard of any change in
the minds of Senator Reynolds and Assemblymen Friday,
Brush and Wray. whose opinions also made up part of our
article which, though simply a bare statement of the standing
of the discussion, appears to have given much offence to the
opponents of cousolidation.
THE folly of doing things in a hurry, especially legislative
things, is shown by more thau one act passed hy the last
Lcislature. The phrasing of the ameudmeuts to the building
law is one proof of this statement and the interminable muddle
that has followed the auuexation of Westchester aud other
towns and portions of towns easterly of the Bronx is another.
By this act new territory to an enormous exteut was tacked on
to New York City without adequate notice to tbe departments of
what would be required of them. A perusal of the text of the
annexing act shows that it was hurriedly prepaied. The only
object was to get annexation and let the annexing processes
take care of themselves. The new territory was made a
part of the 24th Ward, subject to the same legal con¬
ditions as the other parts of the city, but without auy
consideiation of its special requirements or any provision
being made for the extra cost put upon the .sev.;ral city
departments by reason of the enlargement of their area of
operations. As a resiUt the departments say they are doing