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September 24, 1893 Record and Guide. 375 / BlISIiJESS AlJlJ Th^ME? OF GeNEIV:*. !^'T€1\ES3 FRICE, PER VEAR IN ADrANGE, SIX DOLLARS. Pu,blished every Saturday. TBLBPHOĨĩE .... CORTLANDT 1370. Cominuiiícatlona should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 1. LINDSEY, Bitsînesa Manager, "Entered at the Post-oglce at New York, N. F„ as second-class matter.''^ VOL, L. SEPTEMBEE 24, 1893. No. 1,280 WITH " somethÍDg goiQg on iu Reading," the stock market has put on a better face. The only thing that can warrant an advance in Reading is an arraugement which will reconcile the management of that property with that of the Pennsylvania and stop adverse litigatíon, so that the price o£ coal can be put up on the public for the benefit of the coal compaaies. It is reported that this is just the airangement that is being made, If it îs true, then lĩeading wiU sell a good deal higher than it has already done. The real owners of the coal properties are, of course, anxious to see rates maintained, and will bring all the pressure possible to bear on their managers to that end, and, if those owners are uoited, the public can only grumble and pay. Already, the price of coal has risen a dollar a ton, :ind that increase alone, if maintained, and there is very little reason to suppose it wîll not be, will mean a great deal for every one of the coal stocks. Outside of the Coalers, stocks are strong and more active, principally because recent bear movements have been can-ií d too far f or tbe temper of the market for the time being. The continued eelling of Northern Pacĩfic pre- ferred after a recent drop of ten points and a decline for the year of thirty naturally met with punishment. There, too, seemed little reason for selling Louisville & Nashville, now nearly twenty poĩnts below the highest of the year, although the action of both under the encouragement which should come to the general market from such a move as is now seen ín tbe Coalers, indicates that their strength will be but temporary. The same may be said o£ railroad stocka generally ; they are only strong in sympathy with the movements of the Coalers ând on covering of scared shorts ; there is nothinginthe situation to warrant a belief in theadventof a buU market. J THE principal change that has recently taken place on the con- tinental markets ie the less satisfactory opinion held as to Russian Funds. ĩn the flrst place, the announcement that the Russian Government contemplated a new issue of 25 million rouble notes startled the operators. They took the announcement as an indication that Russian flnances are seriously embarrasaed, or are about to become so. There has been also coníirmation oE the state- ment that M, Vishnegradski is compelled by ill-health to resign his post. The news proved to be most unwelcome to all the operators, and especially to those who contemplated a vigorous advance in Russian loans and notes, £or they were relying on the skiU and enterprise which tbe retiring minister had displayed on various occasíons. Little is known as to the character of his suecessor, M. Witte. He is represented as being an able financier, and îf he suc- ceeds in winning the opinion of the banking and operating coni- munity to but half the extent his predecesaor did, it will be agood thing £or Russian financial operations. As things are, most people competent 3 to judge do not believe that Russia wiU be able to get on very £ar without having recourse to some new financial operation either abroad or at home. Hence arises the suspicion tbat Russia bas no other view in nego- tiating with Gegmany but to regain the Berlin market for her loans. In Austria, Germany and France business is steady and sound. In these countries both the railway retums and the fîgures for foreign trade indicate that a rather larger aggregate o£ business is being done. So far as England is concerued, the Board of Trade returns for August show for the first time this year some increase in the total exports over the corresponding month of 1891. It is true that the increase is small and vaniahes altogether, if we take the exports of home produce alone, leaving out of account foreign and colonial merchandise. A small dccrease ís then ahown as compared with the exports o£ home produce in Auguat, 1890; but bere again it is interesting to notice that the decrease is smaller tban ,in any pre- ccding month this year, Even allowing for the fact that August, 1892, contained oue more workiug day than August, 1891, the emallneB9 of the decline in the exports of home products betokens Bome check to the falling off wbich haa recently made itaelf con- spicuous. The total imports again sbow a considerable increase £or the month, and while this ís due almost entiroly to augmented receipts of food stuffs, it ís noticeable that raw materiala for manu- facturing purposes alao show an increase. THE Ti'mes, at the close of some comments on an article whlch appeared in the last issue of The Record and Guide, about the sale of the rapid transit franchises, wiuds up with the follow- ing signiftcant paragraph : " There is an alternative which we are glad to see commented upon by our reaĩ estate contemporary. It is that failing in its effort to dispose of the franchise, the city shall build the underground road itself. When Mayor Hewitt suggested his rapid transit plau, it was pointed out and much dwelt upon tbat the city could build a road of this character much more cheaply than a private corporation, by reason of the low rate of interest at which it could raise the money, and the absence of any necessity or temptation to water stock, We are not unaware, as we then pointed out, of the objections to tbis plan, We are also fully alive to the fact that its adoption would'surely and speedily provide a system of rapid tranait, which ís now the city's greatest need. That, it seems to us, should be thedominant conEíderation." This is an unmistakable declaration, that in case the franchiss could not be speedily sold, subject to whatever conditions the com- mission may impoee, the Ti'mes would support the altemative of muuicipal ownership, With a few newspapers of this claes bebind the question, it will soon be made a practicable, unavoidable issue ; and the course o£ events is tendiug in the same direction. We do not, however, believe that the argument in favor of municipal ownership depende for its validity on the failure of the Rapĩd Traneit Commisaion to dispose of the £ranchise. We believe that it can be sold, subject even to the exacting conditĩons ae to the kind of service which the public interest demands, provided the other conditions as to the number of years, timea of conatruction of dif- ferent divisions of the route, are made sufficiently tempting, There are plenty of capitalists in Wall street watching the progress of the matter; and a great money-making opportunity of some years hence, even if attended by certaín immediate risks and sacrifîces, would not be likely to go unneglected. But the point is that if soid in such a way, the city will be making another of its very bad bargains, the worst probably of the whole series, The fran- chise i9 o£ enormous prospective value ; it is of comparatively líttle immediate value considering all the rîsks and drawbaoks. And the price that it will bring will be meaeured not by the prospective value, which is beyond compucation, but by its immediate value, which can be much more nearly estimated. It sbould be remem- bered that this transit system, uulike the elevated roads, will never be superseded. Itisbeing built for the New York of the future, which will be closely settled far into what is now Westcbester county. The Weat Side route and what is developed from it will supply the needs of miUions of people, Consequently there is a margin of profit for the city, under municipal ownership, both from the increase in the value of the franchise and ín the saving on the cost of construction that is simply ineetimable. No prac- ticable stealing cotild rob the city oE even a small share of it. Unfortuuately these facts have beeu disregarded. Tbe franchise wiU be offered for sale. The only chance for common senee to pre- vail lieein the possibility that the immediate drawbacke and risks of the road will acare the capitalists away. If this proves to be the case every friend of municipal ownership should begin a vigorouB campaign in íts favor, They will have all the facts of the situation in their favor. NEW YORK CITY will not be represented very strongly numerically at the coming convention of the National Real Estate Congress in BufEalo, although the programme for the meeting, as published, is an attractive one. Chauncey M, Depew is to read a paper on " Rapíd Transit," and other gentlemen, more or less well known, wiU speak upon matters connected with the real estate busioess. The meagre representation of the metropolis at the convention is to be deplored, because it is only by the hearty co-operation of real estate men everywhere that a strong national organization can be built up ; aud, besides, had New York sent a large delegation thero is little doubt the meeting next year could have been secured for this city. As it is, an efEort should be made to this end, and it might not be amiss if a number oE representative real estate men, through the Exchange, were to send au invitation to the Coiigress to visit New York. IT is sincerely to be hoped—biit we fear hope is vain—that the latest eíĩort oî the Herakl in the sensational journalism of which it is sodistiuguished a practitioner, witl not be einulated by^ many of its wortJiy fellow traders in filth. To send a crauk or char- latan to a cholera hospital to sleep in iiifected beda and descrihe for the delectation of strong-stomached people the condition of the eheeta, the character of the prevailiug odors, etc, etc, in the lazaretto (see the Herald £or the past weeH is disgusting enough,