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October, 27, 1900.
KECORD AND GUIDE.
525
Dtifrll!>p'Rp^E:8TAii.BmL[H(fc Aji&KnzCTUREiicwsEHajjDEocufciiai.
Bu^iWess Alto Themes Of GeHerA lifits^T.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS.
PuMished every Satttrday.
TELEPHONE. CORTLAND 1.170.
Communications sbould be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street.
/. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
'Entered at the Post-Office at Ncm Yorh. N. Y., as second-class matter."
Vol. L-XVI.
OCTOBER 27, 1900,
1702.
THURSDAY, November 1, is the last day that 1900's taxes
can he paid to secure any rebate. Thereafter until De¬
cember 1 they are net to the city. On the same day unpaid
water rates are subject to a charge of ten per cent, in addition
to the five per cent, charged August 1.
TXT ITH the advance in stock market prices, it comes of
^ ^ course, that the air is filled with reports of new de¬
velopments and combinationa, from among which it is hard
for the outsider to pick out the good from the bad, A good rule
to follow is to avoid anything that is not based on known good
results. There is an ample field for all legitimate operations
within this restriction, and lesa danger of being caught by false
pretences, which some of the reports put out just now certainly
are. As to the market itself, that ought to be quite satisfactory
to everyone. It is true that professionals have a trick of realiz¬
ing whenever they have made small profits and so produce reac¬
tions; it is also true that some participants fear that the bull
movement will collapse before the election and whose hesita¬
tion and timidity aggravate those reactions, but these are
healthy checks to a too rapid advance, and they serve to give
the market that trading character which is essential to a whole¬
some movement. There are now indications that other markets,
encouraged by the buoyancy in that for securities, are about to
wake up and take a move; this is particularly the case in iron,
where" some buyers are taking it for granted that, with sub-
-stantially higher security values, it is no longer of use to wait
for further cuts in the, prices of staples and tbat there may even
be a danger of the market's rising upon them before their wants
are supplied. There is something in this, because it is a sure
thing that if the higher values of the security market are main¬
tained, other markets will take their tone from it. Thia will he
not a sympathetic action merely, but one based on economic
principles, too complex, however, to explain within the limits
of a short paragraph like this. Something of a feature has been
made this week of the subscription to the Hamburg bonds in
this city, but details are not announced. It is doubtful whether
the public have subscribed to any extent and there is very little
reason why they should have done so. The insurance companies
doing business abroad are likely to be the chief buyers of foreign
securities; others will only buy for the premium they expect to
get later on, though why they ahould go abroad for that when
home securities are offering premiums in rising values every
day it is hard to see.
IF we were to sum up all the bad features of the European
situation—among them stringency in money, idle spindles,
closing textile factories, cutting of iron and steel prices, etc. ad.
lib.—it would be seen that tbe warnings of trouble to come
. given weeks and months ago have now been fully justified.
There is no doubt that the business boom is over. What will
follow is the inevitable spell of dullness, and if thia is unaccom¬
panied by large failures it will be very fortunate and a testimony
to the greater conservatism with which business is now carried
on. The situation is materially improved by the Anglo-German
agreement, which sounds just that decisive note that was wanted
to prevent the Powers from drifting into dangerous positions
through want of concerted action to procure the common end
that all, at least diplomatically, declare they want to attain.
Another matter of great importance is the increasing value of
money, as indicated by the higher rates offered on governmental
and municipal loans. It was not so very long ago that govern¬
ments and municipalities had the first call on available capi¬
tal at rates varying from two and one-half to three and one-half
per cent. The depreciation of these issues and the Impossibility
of continuing to supply the public needs at those rates have
compelled even as financially strong a power as Great Britain to
compete with industry for money by raising the rate of interest.
Both Imperial Germany and the ancient and rich city of Ham¬
burg have had to make even greater concessions to capital, and
the Kingdom of Saxony, which was the first of the German states
toplace loans at three per cent, is said to be contemplating a new
issue at four per cent. Unless we are about to see a large re¬
lease of capital from induatrial use, it will follow that there must
be an all round advance of interest rates. That is to say, if a
three per cent, public rate was accompanied by a five per cent,
ordinary rate, the advance of the firat to four per cent, would
carry with it an advance of the second to six and one-quarter
per cent. This, probably, will not be the actual result, but it
illustrates the proceaa at work making money dearer. Six years
ago we were wondering what use could be found for the im¬
mense amounts of capital in sight and it was even suggested,
and appeared reasonable at the time, that eventually capital
would loan for nothing, or for security merely; yet, to-day, so
great is the demand to supply tbe multitudinous wants of civil¬
ized man that the bes-t accredited borrowers have practically to
beg for the funds they need, where they were solicited to make
use of all the capital they could use only a comparatively short
time ago.
X MONG the many recommendations made by the Chamber of
â– ^"^ Commerce for the amendment of the charter, that that
the work be given more time ia the most important. As the
Chamber states, it would be better to live another year under the
present charter rather than accept a revised charter that is not
completely revised. Property owners will echo this sentiment.
They have auffered too much through a hurriedly drawn docu¬
ment, to contemplate the consequencea of a hurried revision
with anything but dread.
X PUBLIC park, particularly in a tenement-house district,
^^ should be planned primarily for use and only secondarily
to present a seemly and effective appearance. The Outdoor
Recreation League is right in insisting that, when the Park
Board spends the $92,000 which has recently been appropriated
to improve Seward Park, due provision ahould be made to pre¬
serve the playground and gymnasium by which the space is now
occupied. A certain amount of landscape gardening is indeed
extremely desirable, for the present appearance of the park is
hopelessly untidy, arid and forlorn; but Seward Park ahould
remain, first of all, a play-ground, and one-third of the apace
is little enough to reserve for the purpose. The idea of a pubftc
park which exists in the minds of moat New York children is
that of a place in which you "keep off the grass." If there is
going to be any grass in Seward Park we presume that the chil¬
dren must be kept off; but if throughout two-thirds of the park
the children are to be sacrificed to the grass, it is fair tbat in the
other third the grass should be sacrificed to the children.
THE treaty between England and Germany is the flrst busi¬
ness-like document which the long and tedious course of
Chinese negotiations has brought forth. It really promises to
do something toward the preservation of the Chinese Empire
and the maintenance of commercial freedom within its limits.
The promises which Secretary Hay obtained from the various
European governments could not have stood the test of adverse
interests and events. It was with most of the Powers merely
a polite concession—a little bit of diplomatic courteay, which
could be subsequently evaded as smoothly as any ordinary social
fiction. But here are two of tbe most important Powers deliber¬
ately and publicly agreeing to refrain from territorial expansion
in China, to keep their own domains open to tbe commerce of
the world, and to use their influence in support of such a policy.
Thus the dismemberment of China wiil be opposed by the gov¬
ernments controlling the strongest army and the strongest navy
in the world, and under present conditions such opposition
ought to be effective. The only power which might make trouble
is Russia, and it seems to be tacitly understood that Russia is to
be placated by being allowed a free hand in Manchuria. When
one thinks of it, the significance of the treaty is atartling. It
muat mean that Lord Saliabury and the Emperor Wiiiiam, after
a full conaideration of the facta, have decided that a policy of
territorial expanaion is too dangerous and expensive, and that
it will be easier and safer to bolster up the Imperial Chinese
government and give the Chinese a good long chance to build
up a state that will answer to European requirements. For the