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September 6, 1902.
RECORD AND GUIDE.
317
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^y" ^ ESTABUSHED-^WUVCH215:1^1B68,
DeIoi^ to RfAL EsTWE. BuiLDTf/o ApcKrrECTUKE .Household DEGOR^ri,
Busiitess Ai^Themes OF GetteR^l iNTtRfS].
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE: SIX DOLLARS
Vublished eVers Saturday
Communications should bo addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14=16 Vesey Street. New YorK
J. T. LINDSET. Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
'Entered at Ihp Post Office at New York. JV. Y.. as serond-claas v>a!ter."
Vol. LXX.
SEPTEMBER 6, 1903.
THE volume of transactions in tlie stoclt market indicates a
growing public interest in listed securities. This must be
attributed to the confidence created by the powerful interests
who have kept prices well in hand during the summer, when
they are usually expected to decline. A persistence in the same
line of policy foreshadows a very active and large speculation
later on in the fall when money shall have become easier and
there Is no danger of a squeeze. As it is, the results of the
manipulation previously referred to are little short of extraordi¬
nary, and it is no wonder that people are looking around for
special explanations of so remarkable a situation. It is not
enough, apparently, to point to the flattering reports of railroad
earnings, with all they imply, and the fact that the stocks of the
railroad systems that benefit most by the sustained colossal
traffic are the leaders in the movement and give tone to the
whole market. Effect from cause is here easily deducible, but it
is too natural, and nothing but extraordinary explanations will
satisfy. To meet this peculiar condition of the public mind, an
amalgamation of the great Eastern trunk lines into one grand
system has been invented, and is valuable in that it has a sooth¬
ing effect, if nothing more. So far as the railroad stocks are
concerned, they are backed by two important facts: A past and
prospective heavy traffic and improved rates. Under these the
most of them are earning big dividends which are used to put
up prices of securities, the public being always willing to believe
that what is will always be. The question whether tonnage and
rates will be kept up sufficiently to justify the expectations of
buyers at present prices is not easily answered. There will, of
course, come a time when business will decline and the railroads
will not have so much to do, but the recession will always leave
enough that, with economical management and restricted new
mileage, sufficient should be earned to maintain the regular pay¬
ment of moderate dividents upon the larger and older systems.
The consolidations that have been effected in the past four
or five years, and the consequent concentration of control into
comparatively few bands, ought to make it possible to keep
rates on a paying basis. Other issues, while dependent upon the
continuation of commercial and industrial activity for their posi¬
tions in the market, have also something to expect from the
consolidating process with its economizing motive.
tion are being forcibly held up to view, illustrated by the results
already obtained in the United States. This policy is being
urged particularly upon the electric manufacturing industry,
which, owing to multiplication of plants and a too plentiful paper
capital, has been in a bad way for a long time. The markets In
which Rand shares play an important part have been treated to
cable dispatches telling in glowing terms of further gold dis¬
coveries in the Eastern Rand, The "Economist," London, says
there is a "treacly mysticism" about these dispatches, and goes
on to warn the public of the danger of putting too much or any
faith in them by saying: "The East Rand is not a creation of to¬
day or yesterday. It had its boom like the other parts in 1895.
Active prospecting has been carried on all over it for many
years; reefs have been cut by the dozen and have disappeared
again into the ewigkeit as mysteriously as they came. * * • •
It is absurd to imagine that such a gold field situated withiu a
few hours' ride of Johannesburg could have lain concealed or un¬
suspected all these years—and from such eyes, too!" The cables
in question have been reproduced by the press of New York un¬
der such headlines as "Further Great Discoveries of Gold in
South Africa," etc.
No. 1799.
ON the other side of the Atlantic, financial centres are openly
expecting this side to draw on them for gold this fall. At
the same time both Great Britain and France have large loans in
view. The French loan will be the largest, as much as $250,-
000,000 or more, and in preparation for this Paris will be de¬
sirous of gathering rather than dispensing gold. The amount
of the British loan or its terms cannot be known until Parlia¬
ment meets again for the autumn session, so that London may,
meantime, be looked to to supply our wants, with Berlin stand¬
ing as a second source of supply. Of the European business-
situation there is nothing new to report. German steel rail
makers, builders and others are looking forward to a revival of
business under the encouragement of a State policy for reform¬
ing the Prussian railroad system and extending it into districts
now without steam communications. The work contemplated
Includes heavy rails and equipment, new stations, etc., with
faster trains. The inauguration of this work would, doubtless,
be the signal for a similar reforming movement upon the rail¬
roads of the other States of the Empire, and from that a revival
of the national industry would follow. It would also be the
case that German manufacturers of steel and other goods would
not compete so actively with our own as they do now. But that
is for the future and dependent upon parliaments. For the
present dullness Is supreme, and many industries are casting
about for expedients to carry them over the interval. In this
connection the economies that follow In the train of consolida-
The Spread of the Sky-Scraper.
NOTHING haa been more conspicuous about the recent â–
building movement in Manhattan than the spread of the
"sky-scraper" throughout the middle regions of the Island.
Buildings as high as ten stories, such as the Dakota, the Chel¬
sea and the Oshorne, were, indeed, early products of the sky¬
ward tendency of Manhattan improvements, and they were soon
followed by the Majestic, the Waldorf, the Netherlands and a
few similar structures. But these were isolated instances.
While the financial district was becoming a solid mass of from
twelve to twenty-story buildings, the skeleton construction re¬
mained a comparatively rare phenomenon in the central parts
of the city. In the last few years they have suddenly become
very much more numerous. On Fifth avenue alone there are
now under construction six buildings of more than twelve
stories in height, and there are several more, If not actually "in
tbe air," at least on the boards. Two eighteen-story hotels are
going up on Forty-second street, and a half a dozen almost as
high could be counted on Broadway. Furthermore, if one
should include nine and ten story buildings under the head of
"sky-scrapers," fully forty of such structures could be enumer¬
ated without exhausting the list of those just finished, finishing
or about to be started. Apparently it is only a matter of time
when such avenues as Fifth and Broadway, and such streets as
Thirty-fourth and Forty-second, will be lined almost continu¬
ously with buildings over ten stories in height. The values of
real estate along those lines are becoming such that no other
kind of improvement will pay; and what the alteration in ap¬
pearance will be may be judged from the transformation in
Greeley Square which has been wrought by the erection of the
Macy and the Saks stores.
A natural result of the spread of the sky-scraper throughout
the middle regions of the city has been an increased and In¬
creasing popular interest in this class of buildings. As long aa
they were confined chiefly to lower Broadway and the financial
district, they seemed to be a special class of structures, which
afforded an excellent symbol of flnanelal stability and exuber¬
ance, and an impressive illustration of the stupendous achieve¬
ments of American industrial enterprise; but they affected life
at only a single point, and after business hours were over men
could dismiss them from thought. Now. however, they have
become so numerous and widespread that they are continually
in men's eyes and minds. An ever growing number of people,
including the whole vast apartment hotel population, live in
them. They force themselves on the attention of women who
are shopping and men who are going to the theatre. Visitors
from all over the country carry tales of them to the smallest
cities and towns. The newspapers are full of illustrations of
the newest and tallest of them. They are constantly matters of
conversation at dinner tables and social gatherings. The most
noticeable illustration of this aroused popular interest is the
curiosity awakened by the new Fuller building at Broadway
and Twenty-third street. Every circumstance combines to make
this building unavoidably and flagrantly conspicuous. It occu¬
pies one of the most central and most frequented sites in the
whole city. It is the only building twenty stories high north of
the financial district. It stands so that It can be seen for mllea
by the crowds on Broadway and Fifth avenue, and occupying,
as it does, the whole block. It stands free from all surrounding
buildings. A half a hundred heads may always be seen gazing
up at its towering height. People, not ordinarily Interested ia
building display a surprising amount of knowledge ol the wind