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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 57, no. 1468 [i.e. 1471]: May 23, 1896

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May 23,1896 Record and Guide. 881 wmm^ ESTABLISHED ■^ N\AR.CH 21'4^ 1868. DEvbtED TO f^EALEstate.BuiLDihfc -A;_RcrfiTEcTui\E.HouseholdDEQOfiATiojf, Basii^ESs aiJdThemes op GEfjEi\Al Wtef^.es'j . PRICE, PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published ererg Saturday. Telephone, ------ Cortlandt 1370 Oommunlcatlons should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager, "Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, A'. Y,, as second-class matter." YOL. LVII. MAY 23, 1896. No. 1,468 The Record and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports of all building operations, compiled to suit your business spec'ifically, fot 14 c6»i/« a day. You are thus kept informed of the ent'ire market for youi goods. No guess work. Every fad verified. Abundant cap'ital and the thirty years' experience of Thk Record and Gvidis guarantee the com¬ pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send to 14 and 16 Vesey street for information, TTT'ITH the belief growiDg that the comiug Republican Coii- ' ' vention will result satisfactorily to the business iiiiud that the principle of sound money will be vinilicatcil and a can¬ didate nomiuated whose electiou, if that should follow, will be a barrier against auy attempts to put the United States ou a par with Mexico or with China in the matter of its curiency, trade is improving. It is true that the waiting mood is still the one most favored, but there is a certaiu amount of business that must always be done, and that that belongs to this precise period is done without break iu prices. The results of auctiou sales iu several important lines during the past week have surprised even well-informed people because of the demaml they have shown to exist. The stock market is remarkabiy strong in view of its continued dullness. It is very unu.sual for so little to be doing for so long a time with prices holding- as tirni as they do now, and this in spite of continued gold shipments. The market has been oeveral times tested for weakness, but short sales only serve to show that no long stock is oflering. Three or four weeks ago there was considerable [ircssure of securities seeking a market, but they have been absorbetl or withdrawn. The fact is, people know that the only bad feature in the situation is the doubt of the currency and they have a very strong faith that this will be removed bv the elections next November, conse¬ quently it is hard to get up a scare. Prices, too, are in the main much below what they were last August aud that fact has also something to do with their present strength. The souud money agitation is responsible for the improvement in the situation, and it is, therefore, to be hoped that it will be continued until successful. By raising their voices in a united demand for sound money the merchants and bankers of the East have com¬ pelled the politicians to listen to them and they have ouly to persist to compel a compliauce with their wishes. CUBA is now occupying more attention iu Eiuope iu view of the apparent hopeles.sness of the task imposed upon Spain by the insurgents. For nearly eighteen months the flower of the Spanish army has beeu ineftectualiy engaged in suppressing what was originally called a revolt of a handful of negroes. The insurgents have been unable to obtain permanent possession of any place of importance, but they have paralyzed the trade of the island and have beeu able to obtain all the stores and muni¬ tions sent them by their friends on the mainland, with the ex¬ ception of one or two .small consiguuients; and, further, they have imposed a burden of $(5,000,000 a month upon the Ex¬ chequer of the Home Government, which has had all aud more than it could do for many years to meet its owu requirements Spain, victorious or defeated in this conflict, can be but a doubt¬ ful spot in the world's business outlook ; nor will Cuba, if freed from her control, aftord much satisfaction at tirst, because the government yvjll naturally fall iuto the hands of the men now in the field, and these are not likely to make the best of rulers. For the moment the point of most imjiortance is the growing belief that Spain has in hand a task beyond her physical and financial strength. She is about to appear in the market for a large 1-oan, and the terms on whieh she can borrow will indicate her position pretty clearly. London is indulging iu auother boom in gold mines, based on the results iu West Australia tiud which, like that in Kaffirs, is reaching beyond the bounds of safe specula¬ tion, so that a reaction may be looked for soon, notwithstanding the fact that money continues to be a drug in the market. There 18 an evident desire to renew speculation in American railroad securities, which -will be at once gratified if sound mouey is as¬ sured to this country at the coming conventions. The returns of foreign trade continue to be satisfactory. Taken altogether the European bourses are still doing but a dull business, but the reports from industrial centres indicate a satisfactory activity, though, as usual, there is some grumbling about low prices realized for goods. The action of the German Reichstag in passing a bill to prohibit time contracts iu grain has given oft'ence to the Austrian and Hungarian growers and dealers. Tl:e millenial celebiation at Budapest is giving a great impetus to trade in that city. ---------«--------- nPHE committee that conducted the reorganization of the *■ Atchison property will gratify a very just and proper curiosity possessed by the security-holders and set au excellent example to similar committees if they will publish a statement showing what disposition they made of the immense sums of money received by them. Since the property went into the hiinds of the receivers there have beeu realized from the opera¬ tions of the railroad and from asses.siuents on junior securities, in round numbers, .i<2s,00(),000. Of this auiouiit something more than half was net earnings aud will doubtless be accounted for in the report whieli the receivers must make to the Court before they are finally discharged. But the assessments of nearly .$14,000,000 were paid directly to the Committee of Reorgani¬ zation, over whosft a«tions the Courts have no control. It is understood that the new compauy begins its operations with a cash biilauce of ouly $2,000,000. ' If this is so, an explanation of the disposition made of the balance of $12,000,000 will come with very good grace from the committee. Mr. Little's examination of the accounts showed a flouting debt due by the bankrupt company of $11,000,000, aud if this was all paid ott' in cash, lliere would still reniuin quite a large sum to be act- counted for. But as a large pari of this floating debt was made up of defaulted interest, which was finally disposed of hy the issue of adjustment bonds, the amount of cash femaining to be accounted for is very large indeed, eveu after making the most liberal allowance for the cost of reorgauization, including the financial assistance which it was, of course, necessarj' to obtaiu. The committee, as honorable busiuess men, should with the least di-Iay possible make a full and clear statement of what they did with all this money. Not only should this l;e done in the case of Atchison, but it ought to be the ruh; that all reor¬ ganization committees slimild publish accounts. The public has been grievously iiijiired uiauy times by the failure to do this. For instance, had it been doue in the first leoigauizatiou of Cordage a grave scandal, as well as much pecuniar.v loss to iuDoeent and confiding security-holders, would have been pre¬ vented. The prevailing manner of treating large operations of this kind is altogether too free and easy, aud it will conduce to oni' commercial reputation both at home and abroad and also to the ecouomical management of reorganizations if those who carry them out are more open aud confiding thau the.y have hitherto been. A BILL now in the hands of the Governor, if not already signed, provides for the piotecfion of workmeu ou build¬ ings during the course of their erection. This measure requires that overhead protectiju shall be aft'orded to all workiuen. It is impossibe to give this to some of them—the housesmiths, for instance—yet penalties are provided for non-compliance with the act, if it should become oue. This gives the workmen an oiiportunity to be very annoying if, from anj cause, they choose to be so. The bill fails also to state the nalure of the protection to be aft'orded to workmen in the lower stoiies, and while de¬ claring that all neees.sary openings shall be guarded, does not specify what is to be considered a proper guard. In the event of proceedings beiug takeu against an employer, this leaves it possible for each magistrate iu the city to require a dift'erent method of meeting this vague demand of the law and of inflict¬ ing peualties of fines or imprisonment in the eveut of his orders not being complied witb. A strong lepreseutatiou is being made to Goveruor Morton on the unfairness of the measure towards contractors aud builders in the hope that he will veto it; but it seems very late in the day to begin an attack upou a bill when it has passed both houses of the Legislature. This is another example of the way the building fraternity has neglected its in¬ terests before the Legislature. Owing to the apparent impos.si- bilily of gettiug an organization together that cau bring the combined influence ot the trades making up the building indus¬ try to bear at Albany, trade unions and other more lively and energetic interests .secure the passage of acts which create great inconvenience and obstruct business. Hid the building trades been properly represented at Albany, it is hardly possible that the bill to which we alluded last week, and which will confine nou-flreproof commercial buildiugs hereafter to five stories, would have passed unchallenged as it did, or that the one pre¬ viously alluded to would have gone out of committee ii. the vague and unsatisfactory form that it now is in. Should Gov¬ ernor Morton approve this bill and add another to the many restrictions on structural work, the sufferers by its pro-visions will be enti'led to no sympathy, because it will be purely a