Fcbiiiaiy 22, 1890
Record and Guide.
293
PRICF, PER
ESTABUSHED'^ ISW.CH2m^ 1868.
BtlsH^ESS AifoThemes orGEiiEiv>l l^rtRf* u
YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
PiMis.hed ^cry Saturday,
Tkliphond,......COB-riANDT 1870
OommTmloatlcns ahonld be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
/. J, LINDSET. Business Manager.
" Entered at the Post-offlce at New Iork, If, Y.,as second-class matter."
Vol. L\J[.
FEBRUAKY 22, 18SG
No. 1,4.58
The Rrcohd and Gcidr w'ill furnish you with daily detailed reports
of all building operations, conipiled to suit vOfR business spcc'i,lically,.foi
14 cents a day, Tou are thus kept informed of the entire niarkel for your
goods. No guess ivork. Every fact verified. Abundant capital and the
thirty years' Ixperience of Tnv. Rkcoud and Guide (/iiai-aii/ic the com¬
pleteness and authentic'ity of this service. Sendjo 14 and IG Vesey street
for information.
WITH SUPPLEMENT.
TKADEES ou the Stock iiimkct h.ave formed the only beari.8h
eU'iiieiit 8iiit'c the Imud issue nud the iec()V'ei.v fioni the
Veuezuel.iu-scare. At liuies iu llie past week tlie.v have m.qde
several vi^'orou.s attempts to lueak i)i-ice.s, but ihe etiert has each
tiuie been to disclose a scarcity ot stocks: consequcntlv buyiufj
to cover caused qiuck rallies. Holders of stocks liave decliued
tobe frij^liteiied out of their holdiuj;s aud the public buyiu;,' of
bonds, both iuve.^tineiit aud spcculalive lias beeu (juite large
witb indications of still gieafer volume to come. This move¬
ment has received help from abroad, uot iu a very large degree
but sufticient to show that foreign operators are willing to take
holdot our securities for a substantial turn at least. Lon¬
don, Amsterd;ini, Frankfort aud Fierliu are always willing
to turn .1 ,spe(-iilati\e penn.v iu our market whenever the.v
see the opportunity, notwillistaudiug their siis]iicion of our
currency system. So loug as tho railroad interests cou-
tirue to do as well as tiicy are now doing, aud thereby
testifying to the betteriii.g condiliou of busiuess through¬
out tho couuti'.y, shrewd men will be more likel.y to in¬
crease than to decrease their speculative aud investment
lines of railroad aud other securities and this makes operations
on the short side diingerous except when public contidcnce
receives a shock or when the bii.ying movement has goue much
beyond what it has recently done. There is nothing at the
moment fo dim the counutrcial piospect or to lesson the eheer-
fulucss occasioned by the boud .sale. Moreover, prices, except
in some few instnu(-es, are considerably below what the.y were
last September, wliile iu Ihe iiiteival business has improved, so
that iheie is fair warrant lor the belief that the upward move¬
ment is uot spent by auy means.
"^"OW it is iu France. After pursuing its ecceutrie course
-^-^ fio'di Pekiu to Constantinople, from 'S'enezuela to South
Africa, the poiut of political excitement has reached Paiis,
not iu the form of a foreign coniplicalion but as a very serious
constitutional question. The Second, or Upper, Cb.amber of the
Natioual Assembly refuses to support the Ministry Ihat iho
Chamber of Deputies, the popular body, upholds by large
majorities. Of cour.se the newspapers are the tirst to lose their
heads aud talk of a coup cfetat ov of a revolution, but we may
be sure that the uuitter is not a? serious as the journals want
their readers to believe. Lui-kily for Fiance she possesses a
remedy for Ihis friction in the two Chambcis iu au appeal tii the
country, the proper court of linal resort iu all disputes lietweeu
legislator.-!. An election cauuot. immediately cbauge the per¬
sonnel of tlie Senate, but it miiy approve or disapprove its acts
by changing the coustitution of the Chamber of Deputies iu a
way that neither of the coutendiug parties dire disregard
whichever way the veidxt may go. (ireat Britain's imports
for January increased 4.7 percent., aud the exports iucieased
15.9 per cent. Iieceut uew issues of capital also show that there
is a recovery from the dullness caused by fears of embroilments
abroad. Still it cannot be claimed that either iu Great Brit.iiu
or in Europe there is any significant commercial activity. In
financial circles there are none of those great loan operations on
the carpet that, wheu succes.sful, ;il ways prove such au lueentive
to general activity, and money fails to command any but the
very low rates that have prevailed for so long. Souic attempts
have been made to get; better tciius, but they have proved
unsuccessful. Opinion as to Ihe effect of the latest United
States loau appears to be divided. Some take it to lueau a revival
ot business in every direction in (his country. These are, as a
lule, the correspondents of the daily press. The financial
journals do not take so bright a view of the trausaction, aud tho
Uondoii Economist goes so farastos.ay: "At best it cau do no
more tluin ali'ord a temporary respite, aud to speak of it as if it
h:id inaugurated a new era of confidence and activity is utterly
fallacious."
TS insanity catching? Popular phases of mental derangement
â– *- seem to be. Lunacy, in the form of "crazes" and " move-
meUts" that sweej) over the country periodically, has an epi¬
demic character like small-pox or typhoid fever. Tho latest
mentiil contagion i-i the three-cent railroad fare idea. Wc don't
know where it tirst started—perhaps it is to be traced to the
Populist bacillus of the far West—but certainly it has propo-
gated with marked celerity; and,uo-w, points so widely separated
as Chica.go, Philadelphia and New York City are suffering badly
from it. It has cast a mimber of good people who, in an ordi¬
nary state of health, are neither Populists nor AnarehistK,
Pirates uor Couliscatoi.", into a condition of mind so unsound
that they rave for demagogic legislation which cauuot but result
inasciioits i-etarda(ion of i-ajiid transit development. Here iu
New York Cily, for instance, we have been on our knees for
years praying capital to forsake other channels of investment—
and those chaunrls are uumeroiis—to extend tho elevated roads,
byild underground lines, improve the surface systems of trans-
poi'tatinn, so that we may move in comfort and decency between
our homes and our business places, etc. Our prayers h.ave not
yet been " heard"; nevertheless here we are crying for a " three-
cent fare'' iipp.'ireutly with tho intent, to "encourage"
capital to forsake the iinmok'sted lines of iuveatinent and supply
our needs. If this isn't crazincss, what is 'I And, after the three-
cent faie, what next ! One-cent lares, uo doubt, and (hen con-
liscatiou. The rankest Populist fiom Kansas or the Anarchist
"down" ou wealth fur the benefit of mankind, is entirel.y with
us iu such schemes. 'Ihey are right out of his book. He would
luefer, perhaps, to give the principle involved a wider range of
.•ippliciifion, S'l that its operafion would bear upon all forms of
investment, upon the business of bankers, manufacturers,
tradesmen, but (haulc heaven theie is plenty of time before us,
and when the railroads aro done with, we can deal with the
"otheis," eveu with ourselves, as the Revolutionists did in
Fr.iucu a hundred years a;:o, when real aristocrats became
scarce aud the guillotine was supplied from the "people." Our
policy has almost b'.>come this : wherever you sec wealth or auy
accuiuulatioii duo to industr.y, economy, prudence, strike it.
Yet we deplore the, timidity of capital, lack of enterprise, bad
times, and lament that people are chary in investing their savings
in buildings, iu uew factories, new lailroads .and oth'^i enter¬
prises which put money in ciiculatiou nud give work to our
increasing millions! Capital uudoubtedly h.is its duties, but
also it has its riglits; and, too frefiuently, in popular insistence
upon the former, the latter is outrageously trampled on. It
will go bard with the countiy if the common-sense of plain
people, ^vho are neither fools nor knaves, does not oppose out-and-
out jiiracies like this three-cent fare proposition. The " Door¬
man'' whine which accompanies the scheme is pure blathers-
ki(e. What tbe poor-man wants in this city is not so much
cheaper fares, as better service, quicker transit, so that he needn't
stew in his own broth in congested tenement districts, unless he
prefers that particular species of simmering. If we could dis¬
perse our population somewhat, we wouldu't have the sickening
slums wc are inflictid with, which competent observers liken to
the nastiest pans of (Jonstantinoplc ; and there would be less
need for sentimental Tenement House Commissions aud extrav¬
agant regulations lor the housing of people—regulations as to
V,all-paper aud hall-transoms aud similar detiils. Our trans¬
portation, however, cannot be improved without the aid of cap¬
ital, aud capital will not assist us in the f.ice of coufiscafory
laws and in the dreadof popular .animosity and crazy legislation.
People who ache to be carried ten miles iu well lit, speedy trains
for a cent must build their own lines—uutil all busiuess become
liure philanthropy.
THE City Club bill to limit the heights of buildiug iu New
York City, as iutiodiiced into the Legislature, varies some¬
what from the tentative measure which was put forward a few
weeks ago to testprofessioualniiiuion upon the main proposition,
that heretifter the tup floor of a buildiug should uot be higher
than filteen times the square root of th(^ width of the street ou
which it stands. It is piojioscd to allow a uumber of exceptions '
For instance, where a buildiug is sit back from (he street line,
tlie height of the building may be carried beyond the geneial
limit to twice the dislauce it is set back. Where the buildiug
faces a public siiuare, or a thoroughfare more than a huudred
feet wide, or is at the end of a street sixi.y feet wide, there is no
r.-stiict'on upon height, except that the])lansiu this respect must
have the approval of the heads of the Liuilding and Health De-
partmeiits aud a member of the (Jo iiu-il of the Fiue Arts
Federa'iou, to be appointed from its meuibership for such pur¬
pose, giveu iu the form of a certificate to be tiled with the plau8