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Mar so, 1898
Record and Guide.
783
PRICE, PER TEAR IIV ADTAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Publisbed every Saturday.
Tbi-bphoitbI .... CoBXLAimT 1870.
CFommtinicationa should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St
J. 7, LINDSEY, Business Manager,
"Entered at the I'ost-offtce at New York, N. T., as second-olase matter."
Vol. U.
MAY 20, 1898.
No. 1,814
THERE is evidently a desire to take the financial aituation at
its best, and ae a consequence prices have responded to any¬
thing like favorable develcpments ina way that must have been
very encouraging to the men who have engineered the recent rise.
The patching up process seems to afford everywhere satisfaction,
even when, as in the great majority of cases, details are lacking.
The stockholder, immersed in a sea of unpleasant conjecture,
catches gratefully at any straw of comfort blown to him. Northern
Pacific preferred advanced on the statement that the load of debt in
front of it will be permanently increased, without its being known
what terms have to be paid for this doubtful accommodation.
Union Pacific advanced on its managers making a similar arrange¬
ment some time ago, but to-day the stock is selling lower than it
did when it became known that such accommodation had become
necessary. Details of the condition of Cordage are still lacking,
but the fact that several well-known bankers have been
willing to represent its creditors and seem hopeful of
devising a plan to help them has rallied the stock and
kept it strong for some days, though until more definite informa¬
tion of the obligations outstanding and means to meet them aie
forthcoming it is not likely to advance materially further. Read¬
ing interests appear to be iu a fair way of settlement, though here
again something more thau has yet been announced is necessaiy to
better quotations for its securities. What, however, has helped
the situation most has been the strength displayed on both sides of
the Atlantic in meeting adverse occurrences. The effect on the
London; market of the continuous stream of Australian failures
was, all things considered, very small, as was als© the effect in
New York of the bad news which has been coming out for a fort¬
night here and iu the West. This shows that great foresight had
been exercised as well as steadiness in meetmg the crises when
they came. The result has been seen in advancing prices and
strength of the past few days. While the circumstances warranted
this rally from the depression of the early part of the week they
cannot of course be expected to encourage the hope of au active
market with largely rising prices. The condition of the money
market forbids this, Tbe same caution on the part of the men who
control the purse of the commution that met late disasters will
prevent the danger of their early recTirrence if possible.
THE Loudon stock market has, during the past week, been very
much depressed in all speculative branches. The continued
decline in Australian securities, the great uncertainty of the large
English investments which have been made in that country has
tightened the money market, and the increased difficulty in obtain¬
ing loans squeezed the wind out of a " boom" in South African
seciurities. These Australian losses will be more severely felt by
the British investor than were those in Argentina, for not
only is the gross amount of money involved much
larger, but the losses will be distributed among a
much greater number of people. ;ProbabIy the eventual
wiping out of capital will not be so immense as it was in
the other case, but it muat also be remembered that any substantial
recovery will take a good many years. The assets of the bankrupt
banks are chiefly locked up in real estate and it will take a long
time and a large increase in population and wealth before the trade
of the Australian colonies will restore the land values on which
the boom was based. Both in Germany and Austria the stock
markets are suffering from unfavorable crop reports. The
same cause is also responsible for a recent decline in Russian
notes. Predictions based upon these reports are, however, con¬
sidered premature. What cannot be denied is the damage
done so far by want of rain in April. The textile and several other
trades in Germany report a better condition of affairs. To this
improvement the iron and coal trades constitute an exception, but
this is chiefly due to the fact that iu both departmenta production
has grown beyond ordinary and reasonable limits. From 40 to 45
per cent of the entire iron and steel production is consumed by the
railways, and the extension of the railway system and its improve¬
ment have powerfully contributed the iron and steel as well as the
coal industries very renumerative. The present financial diflBcul-
ties of the German government have stopped all such improve¬
ments, and hence it is that these lines of trade continue depressed.
WE are beginning to get a foretaste of what is ahead for ua,
because we have trusted to the Manhattan Company for
the solution of the rapid transit problem. It is clear enough that
no matter what we may get beyond what we have to-day, we shall
not get rapid transit. New Yorkers will still continue to travel in
indecently packed cars in order that private individuals may make
dividends. The growth of the city proper will continue to be a ham¬
pered, difBcult process which will at once perpetuate or intensify the
fearful evils of overcrowding on Manhattan Island and drive popula¬
tion into Brooklyn and New Jersey. Everyone whose opinion is
entitled to weight would testify that the franchises and privileges
which the Commissioners have offered to the Manhattan Company
are the mosi, valuable that have e ver been granted to a set of private
individuals in this country. The price demanded, considering
both the time-limit and the cash payment is ridiculously small.
It is impossible to estimate the value of what the Com¬
missioners are offering. As we have pointed out in these columns
the 5 per cent demanded is not a rate that has been determined by
any valid process of calculation ; it is a hap-hazard figure. We
believe that the new franchises and concessions are worth a great
deal more than 5 per cent, for that rate would be a low one for the
Manhattan Company to have to pay for even the privileges it now
possesses. Yet, despite the squandering of tbe people's interest
which the Commissioners have proposed, the Manhatlan Company
receives their proposals in the mean spirit which marks all corporate
dealings with the public and thus, as we have said, gives us at the
very outset a foretaste of what we may expect in the future. The
company meets the Commissioners with pretexts and sophistry.
The company is very poor, it says; it is doing so much for the
public; it cannot pay what is asked; it must build slowly,
construct new lines only when New York cannot possibly
squeeze through its daily existence without them. It objects
to being bound down to anything. In short it wants to make
Rapid Transit a great big dividend-paying affair ; a sort of gold
mine where vital public interests will be worKed for •' all they will
stand." Is this exactly the sort of Rapid Transit New York needs ?
Certainly we are fools if we believe that we will get anything of a
different sort from the Manhattan Company, for it is plain enough
from all that the officers of that company have said that their idea
of Rapid Transit and of the accommodation which the public
requires is the Rapid Transit w^e now have and the accommodation
they now grant us. From the dividend point of view the elevated
cars are not overcrowded, or indecent, or unhealthy, and the
trains run fast enough to make the head of a director of the Man¬
hattan Company dizzy. And the dividend point of view is the only
point of view the Manhattan Oompany will ever be able to take-
It sounds preposterous to ask the company to strain every financial
and engineering possibility to give the city fche fastest service, the
greatest number of cars, a seat for eacli person, or at least seats so
that the women of the city can travel with some sort of decency
and propriety. In short the only object the Manhattan Company
has is to perpetuate the sort of Rapid Transit we have to-day, the
Rapid Transit which Russell|Sage likes, the Rapid Transit thatpays
big dividends on an enormous watered stock. The whole affair, from
A to Z, is a monstrous travesty upon the real requirement of the
metropolis. If om- people are fools enough to permit it they deserve
to be ground betweea the upper and nether millstones of big divi¬
dends and poor service. That they will he ground exceedingly
small will be their just deserts.
BEYOND these considerations lies the undoubted fact that even if
the Manhattan Company accedes to and carries out in good
faith all the requirements stipulated by the Commissioners, New
York will not have Rapid Transit. Tbe extra tracks contemplated
will not satisfy future requirements ; they are needed to the utter¬
most to-day. The possibilities of the present system with ail the
extra tracks that can possibly be put upon it will not give this city
common decent transportation. And, even as the new lines are
building, they will speedily create new demands which will soon
outrun their possibilities. Indeed, in the face of present and future
requirements of the metropolis, the elevated roads are little better
than toys, andcansatisfy our necessities just about as well aa they
can the traffic of the New York Central. What New York needs
from one end to the other of the city is a trunk line of practically
unlimited possibilities, both as to capacity and speed. Until we get
some such system we shall be perpetually tinkering with our difii¬
culties. New York is so circumstanced thafc only the municipality
oan give it the service it should have. It is foolish to expect dividends