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NoTeiubcr 17, 1894 XVV-»..-WlVJ,
oliey will elunige foreign opinion of the values ol' Aiiiericaii credit aud si'cnrifies, it haa mistaken Eiiropeiiu erilii-isiiis that liavi' been made on the natioual tiuanee.s. Those criticisms were wholly direeled ag.tiiist Ihe. dangerous and einiiisy curreney in use Iiere; the refereiu'i'H to the gold reserve w^^re merely incidental and asan illustju- tiou of tlie evils of tbe system. Not only ai'e tbe bene- UtU to be obtained from the new issue of bonds in.adetiuate, but the last issue showed how very tenipiirary tbey are likely to bein fheir erterts. Hut the Treasni-y De|iartiiiem iin,kT the present adniinish-nlion has shown sneli remarkable capaeity ftir blundering that UOI hing it does is siii|insiug. Ils latest effort is au effective example of its amateur liiianting, If a chaiige iu the bead nf the Trea.snry Department .•should be eooteinplated l>efore .March. I S07, Mr. Cleveland might Iiud profit in remeni- beriug thnt the onlr Seeretary of tbe 'j'ren.«nry he ever had who showed any eompi-elieiisive ii-eognilion ol' tbe powers aud duties belonging lo the offiet'was his tii'.st, a praetieal bankiT of JoDg traiuiug aud exptirienee. Tbe eleetiou having failed al once to bring to liii.sine.ss all that, it was expeeted to bring thoTe are on ;in sides now complaints where tbere were briglit jire- dictions mtly a t>-\\ wc.-ks ago. but the iimifatioiis ualnral fo t.ra,eiirif ie.'' dealt in is not by auy means sat¬ isfactory. Some reoigaiiizatiims are unduly delayed aud some wbieb have been made do not ajipear to be satisfactory. This eon.servative qua liliea tion may be applied lo tbe renrgaiii/atiiui ot Eiii-, but in ilie ease of (.'ordagi^ the reoigaiii- zation is niisa'is t'ael or.\- without any ipiali lication whatever. Beiug l/ased on an increased eapilal and a decreased business if is easy to see how it fails to he etfeetive. Moreover the capital¬ ization is so out of propoitiou to that of other corpora- tiouH iu the same business that tlie positiou of lbe two juiiiur stocks is a bojieless one in any eireiim.'-l.aiiees, Liqtiidalion iu Manhattan Elevated conti n ues and still threat ens its ]irii'e seriously, lu the abst-iOM- of iniproveiiieiil in busiuess these things have a more ihaii usual ett'eet ou the general -list. Impro-ved business miglit limit their iiyitiious ett'ects to the securities organically unsound, but, as we liave pointed out before, tbe opening of winter is not tbe time to expect any pro- nouDced iniprovenieiits iu trade. XTNCLE SAM as mediator between China aud .lapau will ^ probabJy liave no more success than other outside powers. No doubt-"^Ibiua would be glad of hei]) from any quarter that would stop the beatiug of the Jap's bamboo upon her stupid, unwieldy aud helpless back, but iu such cases it is the beater and not the beaten who chooses the right moment to stop. Japan's ambition is to make itself a power, fi'ee from aU West-eru tutelage. Tliere is nothing that establishes any nation in sucb a positiou ao mnch as the rigbt to settle its owu disputes. Having the game iu its own hands it is hardly probable that Ja)»au will listeu to any proposals for peace that do not come directly fi'om China herself. Unle.ss she permits it there is no more reason why another power should arrange the terms of Japan's peace with China than there was for au intermediary between Prussia and Frauce. The Euglish journals are making comfort for the Americau iron m.iuufacturer, though discomfort for tbe Euglish one, iu tbeir deductions from the fact that prices of iron and steel declined more in the past (bree years iu tbe Uuited States than tbey did iu Eugland. They fear this evidence of tbe ability of the United States to turn out those metals cheaply will make it a Ijowerful compelitor in the export irou trade, and indeed admit that but for the laud distances wbicb matenals and mannfac- tiiree bave to travel the Alabama iron masters would now be Hooding the English markets with their couiiuon forge and foundry jiig-irou. These fears find support in the placing of the coutract for Tokio's gas mains iu tbis country. The report of earuiugs ou the great Preueh railw.iys for the first balf of this year shows a small gaiu over these of tbe same half of 1893. Purchases of Rentes for the third quarter of the year were Largely ill ('xcess ,ll00; surplus. $6,765,000. Actu.il results were: Revenue, $.322,84.^,000; expenditures, $473,- 480,000; surplus, $49,36.^,000. The receipts include $76,- 265,000, repayment of Goverument loans for varitms purposes whieh ought to be charged to capital account, but even this allowed tlie results cannot be regarded othenvise than as satis¬ factory when the distress that afSicted Russia twt^ winters ago i.s remembereil. .and even though it isa tact that disrespect to tbe authorities and failure to pay taxes are tbe two unpardona¬ ble sins in the dominions of tho Czar. The budget also contaiua a statement of the gold belouging to the Goverument, which amounts to $508,644,070, of which $219,418,300 are held as a basis of liote issue. P> AILROAD earnings for October show tbe sectional Char- ^ acter of the improvement in the trade ofthe couUtry and, infereutially, how slow tbat progress must necessarily be. -On a total of 107 roads, distributed over the whole eouutry^ October earniugs show a decline of 3.1 per ceutleompared with October J89:{. The Soutliern roads, however, increased gross earnings 7,9 per cent, the Southwestern roads 3.7 per cent and the Pacitic roads 5,4 per cent. The great losses were made ou the Grangers aud Trunk lines, being in the case of the first 16 per i:eiit and that of the seeoud 11.6 per cent. It is surmised that th^^se losses are due to the lessened passenger income, October 1893 having beeu the last month of tho Chicago Fair, aud wheu couseqiieiitly tho.se roads had their carrying capacity taxed to (be utmost. These are not, however, the most sinking pecu- liai-ities of tbe returns. What is most conspicuous is the way adversity or improvemeut is spread over all tbe roads of the Southern and Granger sections. ■-: Of ten Granger roads ouly one, tbe Great Northern, reports an iiicreane, aud that a small one, while of iifteeu Southern roads only one reports a decrease, aud that for a very small amount. Of twelve Smitbwesteru roads tbree ouly report decreases, Atchison, in fact, beiug Ihe only great property in tli.it sectiou tbat has the unenviable distiuctimi of a considerable falling be- liiud October of last year. Iu tbe central Westeru section reporta were rci^eived from thirty eight roads, of which twenty-one showed increases and seventeen decreases, conspicuous among the latter being the Wabash aud the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago. Six Eastern roads reporting do not make a good
