Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 66, no. 1692: August 18, 1900

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August i8, igoo. UECOIID AND GUIDE. 205 ESTAHJSHm^ iiyWPHBl".'*'1668. DekfiOt 10 RpjLEstate.BuiLDiffc Apfj^rrECTyitf j{(WSEHOLDDE«fijnDii BUsiWess jub Themes of Gi^iEi^ Irfidi^'T. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Telephone, Cortlandt 1370. GommunicatlonB should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street. /. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the P03t-0ffice at Neio York. N. 7., as second-class matter." Vol. XLVI. AUGUST IS, 1900. 1692. A COINCIDENCE of time between the Anti-Imperialist's' Convention supplemented by the public espousal by sev¬ eral prominent New Yorkers of the anti-Imperial cause, and a slight break in the stock market, made all the news^mongers and gossips jump to the conclusion that prices' there were about to be discounted in favor of the Democratic nominee. Profit taking by traders on the bull side who remarked an easing up of out¬ side buying would more reasonably and naturally account for the moderate drop in prices that was seen. We may take it for granted that election probabilities will be used for all they are worth in the market with the greatest impartiality by profes¬ sional operators, but up to this writing it cannot be discovered that opinions on the outcome have had any influence whatever on quotations. Tiie steady condition of the investnient market described last week still maintains, and since then speculation has been wholly professional, and based on the apparent scarcity of stocks, and the indications that cash purchasers would make them scarcer still. It is true that the market gives signs of re¬ lapsing into extreme dullness again, but its strength shows that there is still good though quiet buying. It was known a week ago that brokers were then carrying comparatively no stocks, and the small speculative buying of the week cannot have added enough to their burdens to be felt. In the iron trade the cutting that was secret before has become open now, bringing with it tetter prospects for an agreement on prices. As a rule sharp cutting brings trade disputants to their senses and forces agree¬ ment; so far iron stocks have not been affected by the cuts in pig-iron and structural steel, or if at all, only fractionally so, which is probably because the .great declines forced in them during the past j'car have discounted some struggle for businesy and a readjustment of prices on a lower basis. Railroad earn¬ ings continue to reflect a satisfa.ctDry condition of business gen¬ erally throughout the country, and while this is so and the closing of the vacation period should bring further improve¬ ment there is not likely to be much despondency regarding cor¬ porate capital issues. OUR market has always felt more or less the influence of European opinion, we having drawn so' large a part of our capital thence. This influence must be still more potent now that we are investing there, even though in a limited degree. We on our side will be more anxious than ever to know the state of public opinion and the conditions of finance and trade on the Continent as a whole and in the several countries that make its business life. For some time the European markets have resembled our own in inactivity and for corresponding reasons. A revival on the close of the vacations is not un¬ reasonable. A much needed supply of gold has been drawn from this side, which seems to meet all requirements of the moment, and before new needs can come up it is expected that the African mines will be shipping freely, even though the Boer war may not have ended its desultory prolongation. This war has already cost $350,000,000, and the Chinese trouble will cost each of the six great Powers a large sum—the British govern¬ ment provided for $15,000,000 as a preliminary in their last loan —and it may be asked what is to replace these vast supports to trade when the troubles that occasion them are over? The ■answer to this is that tiie compensation will come through the revival of legitimate trade in South Africa, China and elsewhere as a result of the cessation of hostilities, with a volume of in¬ crease more than sufficient to offset the loss of war disburse¬ ments. The great iron centres of Great Britain, Germany, France and Belgium are looking into the future with satisfied eyes, believing that the decline in prices has been checked and that demand will improve, a belief that is supported by the strength of coal quotations, which have not only held strong during the summer, but have lately given intimation of an ad¬ vance. Another great cause for general satisfaction is that there have been no agricultural disasters anywhere; nowhere is there a great crop, but there is a moderately fair one every¬ where, and the distressing f-actor of failure at one or more points is this year eliminated from the calculations. On the whole, Europeans will enter the fall season in a good condition. What views they have of American issues will depend to a large degree on how our political situation strikes them. The Demo¬ cratic nominee has hitherto stood so prominently in their minds as the representative of free silver, and, as they are known to hold impressions once accepted very tenaciously, they are likely to continue to believe that the currency issue is again at stake this year, and to act as the reports they receive indicate victory or defeat for the man whose name embodies to their mind the 16 to 1 principle, which is totally opposed to their ideas of a monetary system that supports values. Trade Combinations. POPUL.\R CONCEPTIONS OF THEIR EFFECT NOT SUPPORTED BY INVESTIGATION, ■J- HE Federal Department of Labor has just issued a bulletin A. containing the results of an investigation made of trade combinations, especially with regard to their basis of capitaliza¬ tion, monopoly of markets, control of prices and effects .jpon wages and employment. Forty-cne combinations responded to the Department's request for information, though all did not for various reasons answer all the questions put. Consequently the number of combinations used to determine the several points upon which information were sought varied. Regarding control out of 24 combinations, a majority of stock was held by one person in only two cases (and in those eases the person was a corporation), and by flve persons in only eight. These and other facts led the Department to conclude: "That many of the opinions of the public regarding the shareholding in these cor¬ porations are at fault and that the actual holdings of the largest stockholders are much less than has been popularly supposed," It was also found that the working capital and the cost of re¬ production of the active plants together of 24 combinations were equal to 64.42% of the nominal capitalization. If in place of the cost of reproducing the active plants the original cost of those plants was substituted that percentage would be raised to 73.22. This conclusion was qualified by this remark: "It is probably true also that the establishments reporting do not represent, on the whole, the most speculative of the larger combinations whose securities are placed on the market, and that, in consequence, the result shown here is much more favorable as regards stock watering than the average of industrials dealt in on the stock exchange." The percentages, however, contained apparently no allowance for goodwill, and patents cut little or no figure in capitalization. Complete returns of wages could be obtained in but few cases, but these have, says the report: "On the whole been so com¬ plete and definite that the results are worthy of note, even though the number of establishments will not warrant one in placing too much reliance upon conclusions as supporting a general rule." The number of returns showing employment and wages of from under ?5 to over $50 a week was 13, and after an¬ alyzing these, the Department came to the conclusion that: "On the whole, taking the summary of all the employees, but exclud¬ ing superintendents, foremen and traveling salesmen, there was under combination a slight increase of wage earners of the lowest class and thereafter in the classes whose wages ran from ?8 to $25 per week a decided increase in both the number and per cent, of men employed, although there was also a consider¬ able increase in some of the classes receiving the iiigher wages. It would, of course, be too much to say that these results show the general eftect of combinations on wages. The returns are not numerous enough. Besides that, many of the combinations were formed at the beginning of a period of general industrial prosperity, so that an^ increase in wages was perhaps to be ex¬ pected. The tables do show, as far as the flgures go, that these combinations have not decreased wages among these classes of wage earners." The report contains many elaborate tables, but one will serve to show the nature of the investigations made and the way con¬ clusions are formed, and it is given below. The combinations reporting this table shows an increase in the average annual wages paid to skilled laborers, to unskilled laborers, and to clerks, and a decrease in the average annual wages paid to super¬ intendents and foremen, traveling salesmen, and the unclassified employees. Taking all of the employees together, the per-