Deoember 21,1896
Record and Guide,
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Vol. LVI.
DECEMBER 21, 1895.
No. 1,449
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THE act of Mr. CleTelafid of laat Tueetlay and the joy witli
which, it has beeu approved by so many haa checked bnsi¬
nesa in all lines aud provoked a panic in Wall street, the end
of which it is impossible to foresee. Prices canuot go on tumb¬
ling at the rate of tive to ten points a day,with the market closed
to many good securities because bttyers have disappeared, for
very long, but still such is the seriousness of the sitnation that,
despite the decline, uo one would advise buying with any confi¬
dence. Ordiuarily when sitch a sharp break has beeu esperi¬
enced, securities are a buy for a good rally, but this is
not an ordinary occasion, and consequently the rule may
uot work. Without reference at all to the rights
of the matter iu dispute between this country and G-reat
Britain, and looking at it purely from the commercial point
of view and its influence ou trade and on the quoted valnes
of securities, it must be admitted that the outlook is a very
gloomy one. With tho Commission, whicb is to say whether we
have a good cause for takiug the position we have already
taken, appointed, there will be an anxious wait of some monthe
for its decision, during which no one will want to take any
busineas risks for fear that the conditious may be worse at the
end of the Commission'e deliberations than before. It may be
that the opinion that is growiug among business men, that the
matter has gone too far, and the influence they may be able to
exert will do something to relieve the situation ; but, so long as
it remains what it is the results to busiuess are too clearly iudi¬
cated by the events of the past few days to need detailed
description,
PRIOR to the President's message, which has electrified all
Christendom, European markets were quiet in almost every
direction as if they were waiting some change in the general con¬
ditions before deciding on the next movement. The outlook for
spring was not a discouraging one, provided, of course, there was
no infraction of the world's peace. A few days bave seen a con
ditjon of great disturbance, paiticularly in financial circles,
take the place of the calm. Recent advices bring some interest¬
ing items of news. One that will particularly iuterest the wheat
growers of this country is that reports for fifty European govern¬
ments of Russia show a wheat crop for 1895, though about equal
to the average for 1883-92, 120,000,000 bushels, below either
tbatof 189-4 or that of 1893. The enormous Russian surplus has
kept wheat prices down for two years, and, if now there is to bo
a falling off in thecootributious of wheat from Russia to the
Liverpool supplies, as there h^s been already a falling off io tbe
contributions from Argentina, prices will havo a chauce to revive.
There is alao a falling off in the rye, oats and barley produced in
Russia, and a deHcieney of rye also in Austro-Hungary and
Prussia. Statistics relating to the payment o£ succession duties
in Prance of late years confirm the opinion e.^pressed by many
economists, that the expansion of priv.tte fortuues in that
country has ceased from the diminution iu the revenue and the
increased taxation. The correctiou of the lower Danube is tobe
completed in six mouths. Hungary haa decided to spend
54,000,000 florins onthecentral portiou of tbe river and Austria
24,000,000 florina'on that portion flowing tlirough her provinces.
For some time there has beeu an idea current that Great Britain's
trade with her Au.stralian colonies was being encroached upon
by other nations. Statistics just published do not bear otit that
view. The ten years from 1883 to 1893 saw the imports from
G-reat Britain fall from 50 per cent to 41 per cent of the whole,
and exports to G-reat Britain from 49 to 46 per cent of tbe
whole, but these diffeiences were uot accounted for by increased
trade with rival nations, but by an enlarged exchange of com¬
modities between the colonies themselves.
TT7"HEN the thermometer was threatening to go to zero last
' • week and the mind called up the vision of New York
carpeted with half a foot of snow, itwas pleasant to find that
the Department of Street Cleaning waa already preparing to
cope with such an eveut. Hitherto it has been the official cus¬
tom to await until the traEBc was impeded and the city one huge
home of discomfort before takiug any steps whatever to remove
the snow. Such steps as were taken were always inadequate, if
indeed they amounted to more than fervent prayers offered up
daily in the responsible department for a thaw and succeeding
rain storm. The arrangements that h.ive beeu made have more
the character of business than of sentiment. They iuclude tbe
purchase of snow-plows and the organization oE the street clean¬
ing force to deal with the light suow f-tUs, aud in addition a con¬
tract to supplement the exertions of the regular force, which tbe
public is given to understand will put five thousand meu and
twenty-five huudred carts at work in clearing the streets
within three hours of a heavy fall. If these arraugemeuts can
be carried out they will make New York City as comfortable a
place of winter residence as can be found in these latitudes. Of
course, a doubt of this possibilily arises to mitigate tbe beauty
of the prospect. It is not, however, a question as to whether
these provisions to meet wbat is always a serious emergency can
be carried ont in the ordiuary course of things. It is whether
the extraordinary provisions of law, relaling to the pay for labor
for street cleaning work, will uot bo invoked to prevent the exe-
ctition of the contract previously mentioned. It is not probable
that the contractor's bidwas based on the rates the city pays for
such work, but rather upon the rates in the open market. A
doubt as to whether the law fixing tbe wages of employes iu the
Department of Street Cleaning does uot apply to wages paid
for work done by contract with thafc^Department, has prevented
bids being made for the disposal of garbage and may account
for the fact that there was ouly one bid for tbe removal of the
snow. Sbould labor agitators raise this question when the snow
is on the ground and thereby prevent its removal, the citizens
will be reiuiudcd in a very unpleasant but wholesome way, that
there is on the .statute-book a law thafc is coutrary to all business
principles aud they may be incited by the iucouveuieuce they
will suffer to seriously seek its repeal.
"\rlAGARA PALLS, which have been tbe wonder of the
-^ world siuee their discovery by civilized man, are, we are
told, in dauger of contraction through tbe drawing oft of the
waters .ibove them for comraercial purposes. While the State
of New York is anxious for its industrial development, it is not
likely that it will care to sacrifice this majestic natural phenom¬
enon to seettre it, especiaUy as it can be obtained without such
a piece ol: generosity. Everyone has admired the enterprise
which has put the waters of the Niagara River iuto harness for
the benefit of iudustry, but ifc ia doubtful if anyone supposed
for a moment that this would contract the Falls themselves,
and consequently lessen their majesty and beauty. But the
State Commissicn whieh has the Niagara Part and FaUs in its
care sounds a uote of warning which ought to be heeded. Ita
president, Mr. Andrew H, G-reen, in his annual report, just
issued, says: " The great iucrease of projects to take water
from the Niagara River that have already received legislative
sanction, added to the enterprise to utilize the more distant
waters of tbe hikes, whicb waters are essential to the Palls, has
become tbe occasion of a general apprehension that the spec¬
tacle of (he Palis is likely to be impaired." If this is so, and,
coming from sucb an authority as the State Commissiou it may
be accepted as fact, steps ought to be taken without delay to
prevent it. Any injury to the Falls is to be condemned on
practical as well as sentimental grounds. About half a million
of people visit the Falls annually, and of that nimiber seventy
per cent, travel through the State of New York to do so. The
failure of the Falls to attract would therefore cut oft" a very
large sum of money annually paid to carriers, hotel keepers and
others. Ten dollars a. head would be a small sum at which to
estimate the expenditure within the State of these three hun¬
dred and fifty thousand people ou a visit to.the Falls alone, and
yet on that inadequate basis the direct loss to the trade of the
State would be 1^3,500,000 a year. There is even a weightier
consideration, and that is whether this State wants to earn the
odium of allowing oue of the wonders of the world to be des¬
troyed for merely mercenary reasons.
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FEELING agaiust the erection of more high buildings in St.
Louis has taken shape by tbe iutroduetiou of a bill into
the City Council which proposes that no structure ahall he
erected within the corporate limits which shall be of a height
exceeding two aud oue-balf times the width of the widest street
upou which the buildiug is to stand. Au exception is made in
the case of church spires. Thia bill is also intended to compel