October B, 1895
Record and Guide.
431
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Vol. LVI.
OCTOBER .5, 1895.
No. 1,438
The Rficord and GviUF, ivili furnish you with daily detailed reports
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AFTER "being stroug all week on tbe drop in exchange and
the coDseciiient cessation ot gold exports, prices on the
stock market displayed pronounced weakness yesterday. It
was said this movement was in sympathy witb the London mar¬
ket, whieh is weak tinder European realizalions in Kaffir shares.
If there i.s any connection between the two movements it will
become interesting to know the significance of the initial one.
Is this the beginniug of the long predicted collapse in Sou'h
Ahican gold mines, or is it only a shake-up to get rid of the
weak holders and lay the basis t'oi" a new advance'! If it is the
first, will the sympathy tha.t is supposed to exist between the
two markets contiuue on this side until the liquidation has run
its course on the other? Kaffirs have been so long rampant and
so many of them must have been boomed on tbe strength of
whAt others and not they themselves have done, that it would
not be surprising if the work once begun there should be a
leveling down tomore seemingly propoitiouate values. That such
an operation should adversely rlifect prices ou this side to the
same extent does uot appear to be reasonable, especially as
Europe has taken so little interest in American securities for
two years past. The causes wliich will operate against our
prices were stated here last week and to them maybe added tbis
later one tbat any trouble abroad, whether weakness in prices or
political cloudiness, will be used by traders here for momentary
operations. On the other hand tlie business conditions of tliis
country are in fine shape again, so that all the arguments drawn
from them favor prices. The results of the agricultural year
have bee]i satisfactory, the great coru crop compensating for
losses elscwiiere. The lessened cotton crop even has its com¬
pensating feature, wliile tbe amount gathered by the planter is
less, the money value, owiug to the rise in prices, is as great, if
uot greater than that of last year. This fact also illustrates the
healthy change that has come in the mauufactni'iug demaud for
cotton, and also in tlie general commercial eouditious.
NOTWITHSTANDING the enormous amounts of gold that
-^^ have poured into Loudon and the other great European
money centres, the demands of general trade for money are
being felt now that they are supplemented by harvesting re¬
quirements. Last year the calls from the agricultural districts
made no appreciable difference; this year, while the influence is
not great it is sufficient to create the opinion that tbe accumula¬
tions that have been heaping up at a few points have reached
theirmaxima, and justifies tbe hope that before another year
has gone round tbe rates for money will be more remunerative
to the banks. The course of trade improvemeut is reinstating
iron as the commercial barometer. As in the Uuited States, so
in Europe, iron prices have been continually rising, and the iron
and steel trades getting busier ever since recovery began. Re¬
ports from the great iion regions of Germany are particularly
encouraging, though it will be noted with satisfaction on this
side of the Atlantic that tiie exports of iron andiron goods hither
were in 1894 about a third of what they were in 1893 ; it may
betaken for granted that tbe difference was made np by home
manufacturer. The returns of the foreign trade of Japan for
1894-, recently is.sued, uatnrally excite a good deal nf attention,
in view of the proniineuce Japan has arbievcd, not ouly in the
field of war, but as a manufacturer and exporter of goods iu
competition with other nations. Notwithstanding the obstruc¬
tive influence of trade the war with China had, the total imports
pam (rreat Britain and her colonies ipcrey.se'^ a))put $4,000,000 j
the increase from the United States was less than $2,000,000.
Her exports to Great BritaJu and her colonies decreased, how¬
ever, $1,250,000, while those to the United States increased
$5,000,000. Corea look $400,000 worth more of Japanese
goods last year than in the year before. The best feature about
the report is that, though buying four times as much as it sold
to Japan, the United States was a proportionately larger seller
than iu 1S93; the growth of business in the first case being
about 20 per cent, and in the latter 50 per cent. Cotton yarn
appears for the hrst time iu tbe list of Japanese exports; the
amount was 4,500,000 pouud.s, all of which went to China.
'â– The Business-Man-in-Politics."
THE sudden/e^o de se of the Park Cora mission ers almost at
the moment wben the public was expecting to see a Fall
budding of the city trees, an autumn sprouting of tho grass and
a general exuberance of nature in all things pertaining to the
Park Department, under tbe benign influence of "reform" and
business methods, has caused agreat manypersonstotake coun
sel with themselves as to whether the "Business-M.an-)n-Poli
tics" isn't losing in the noisy, visible field of actual adminis¬
tration a great deal of the splendid reputation he acquired in the
mist of theory. Nasty, Btraightforward people cannot help
finding a pariillel to this break-down of the merchant in the seat
of official powerin the esperience, common enough, in the mer¬
cantile world, of the old man.ager, who, in tbe new position,
doesn't somehow put the expected hum into affairs ; so tbat ifc
seems to the unprejudiced that he wasn't quite able to remove
.all his effects from the old staud, but left behind him there a
part of his ability and a portion of the secret of his past
successes.
Considering the pre-emptory right which the political ruffian
had apparently acquired to govern the American city as it
seemed best to him, an unexpected test of tlie " Btisiness-Man-
in-Politics" was permitted by the "reform wave" last year;
and as some indubitable "Business-Men" thus got into power
conspicuously, it is difficult to avoid comparisons between
results aud expectations.
Candidly, the fact carnot be dodged that whatever other vir¬
tues he has made to shine in high places, the Business-Man
has displayed exceedingly little sagacity or .activity in the per¬
formance of his new duties. Yet, sagacity and activity—the great
twin-brethren of commercial success—are tbe very ingredients
(the ferment) that the merchant office-holder was expected to
briug to the old uuleavened administration of the city's afl'airs.
With our cherished notions about the potential efficiency of the
Business-Man as a public functionary, it is extremely hai-d to
digest so complete a failure as that of the Park Commissiouers.
Perhaps people are learning enough, to force them to bring tbe
Business-Man-iu-Politics theory to the scrutiny of facts; and
we are of the opinion that a scrutiny of the kind will make it
clear that the theory is rubbish, a pleasant plausibility, particu¬
larly " takiug " no doubt to the decent mind we.ary of the shame
and the hopelessness begotten of the professional politician and
his ways.
Judged by business experience, what reason is there for thint-
iug that because a man has sold dry-goods, or manufactured
hardware, ov specidatedin real estate withuiore than the avcr.age
success he is thereby qualified, in a large measui-e, to control the
affairs of a Park Department, superintend ptiblie works or direct
the cleaning of streets? We know that success isn't a freely
interchangeable article in the commercial world, aud that among
merchants the achievement of aniauin oue department is held
scarcely as a presumption of futiu-e success in another and dif¬
ferent department. A man who should apply for a responsible
position in a bank on the score of what he accomplished in the
iron trade would tind that commercial reasoning took very little
stock in his logic. Yet it is a no gi-eaterstep between dry-goods
and chemicals, bardwai'e and real estate than between anyone of
these or their similars and the Depai-tnient of Docks or the
Departmeut of Public Works. Experience, training, special
qualities of mind aud temperament are every bit as necessary to
produce an efficient head of a street cleaning dep.artinent as to
produce a successful salesman, merchant or manufacturer.
Besides, to look at the matter frora another point of view, suc¬
cess in business is not invariably the rigid all-round test of gen¬
eral ability which the Business-Man-in-Politics theory tacitly
assumes it is. Commercial success is frequently compounded.
among other elements, of adventitious, impensoual, or occasional
circumstances. Good fortune, brute good luck in matters of
time, locality, juxtaposition of events and such like, frequently
are essential contributions to the fortunes of the wealthy mer¬
chant or the fame of tho great house. Deprive them of these,
and, like Samson shorn by Delilah, their .strength is uo greater
than that of other men. These parts of a merchant's success
are secret possessions even to himself. They are not to be fixed
or estimated; but rare indeed is the notable career io which
they are not potent factors. It is the existence ot these as well
as the necessity pf special knowlefjge and experimwe to th.c do-