May 23,1896





Record   and   Guide.





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ESTABLISHED ■^ N\AR.CH 21'4^ 1868.

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Oommunlcatlons should be addressed to

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J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager,

"Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, A'. Y,, as second-class matter."





YOL. LVII.





MAY 23, 1896.





No. 1,468





The Record and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports
of all building operations, compiled to suit your business spec'ifically, fot
14 c6»i/« a day. You are thus kept informed of the ent'ire market for youi
goods. No guess work. Every fad verified. Abundant cap'ital and the
thirty years' experience of Thk Record and Gvidis guarantee the com¬
pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send to 14 and 16 Vesey street
for information,

TTT'ITH the belief growiDg that the comiug Republican Coii-

' ' vention will result satisfactorily to the business iiiiud
that the principle of sound money will be vinilicatcil and a can¬
didate nomiuated whose electiou, if that should follow, will be
a barrier against auy attempts to put the United States ou a
par with Mexico or with China in the matter of its curiency,
trade is improving. It is true that the waiting mood is still the
one most favored, but there is a certaiu amount of business that
must always be done, and that that belongs to this precise period
is done without break iu prices. The results of auctiou sales iu
several important lines during the past week have surprised even
well-informed people because of the demaml they have shown
to exist. The stock market is remarkabiy strong in view of its
continued dullness. It is very unu.sual for so little to be doing
for so long a time with prices holding- as tirni as they do now,
and this in spite of continued gold shipments. The market has
been oeveral times tested for weakness, but short sales only
serve to show that no long stock is oflering. Three or four weeks
ago there was considerable [ircssure of securities seeking a
market, but they have been absorbetl or withdrawn. The fact
is, people know that the only bad feature in the situation is the
doubt of the currency and they have a very strong faith that
this will be removed bv the elections next November, conse¬
quently it is hard to get up a scare. Prices, too, are in the main
much below what they were last August aud that fact has also
something to do with their present strength. The souud money
agitation is responsible for the improvement in the situation,
and it is, therefore, to be hoped that it will be continued until
successful. By raising their voices in a united demand for
sound money the merchants and bankers of the East have com¬
pelled the politicians to listen to them and they have ouly to
persist to compel a compliauce with their wishes.

CUBA is now occupying more attention iu Eiuope iu view of
the apparent hopeles.sness of the task imposed upon Spain
by the insurgents. For nearly eighteen months the flower of
the Spanish army has beeu ineftectualiy engaged in suppressing
what was originally called a revolt of a handful of negroes. The
insurgents have been unable to obtain permanent possession of
any place of importance, but they have paralyzed the trade of
the island and have beeu able to obtain all the stores and muni¬
tions sent them by their friends on the mainland, with the ex¬
ception of one or two .small consiguuients; and, further, they
have imposed a burden of $(5,000,000 a month upon the Ex¬
chequer of the Home Government, which has had all aud more
than it could do for many years to meet its owu requirements
Spain, victorious or defeated in this conflict, can be but a doubt¬
ful spot in the world's business outlook ; nor will Cuba, if freed
from her control, aftord much satisfaction at tirst, because the
government yvjll naturally fall iuto the hands of the men now in
the field, and these are not likely to make the best of rulers. For
the moment the point of most imjiortance is the growing belief
that Spain has in hand a task beyond her physical and financial
strength. She is about to appear in the market for a large 1-oan,
and the terms on whieh she can borrow will indicate her position
pretty clearly. London is indulging iu auother boom in gold
mines, based on the results iu West Australia tiud which, like
that in Kaffirs, is reaching beyond the bounds of safe specula¬
tion, so that a reaction may be looked for soon, notwithstanding
the fact that money continues to be a drug in the market. There
18 an evident desire to renew speculation in American railroad
securities, which -will be at once gratified if sound mouey is as¬
sured to this country at the coming conventions. The returns
of foreign trade continue to be satisfactory.   Taken altogether





the European bourses are still doing but a dull business, but the
reports from industrial centres indicate a satisfactory activity,
though, as usual, there is some grumbling about low prices
realized for goods. The action of the German Reichstag in
passing a bill to prohibit time contracts iu grain has given
oft'ence to the Austrian and Hungarian growers and dealers.
Tl:e millenial celebiation at Budapest is giving a great impetus

to trade in that city.

---------«---------

nPHE committee that conducted the reorganization of the
*■ Atchison property will gratify a very just and proper
curiosity possessed by the security-holders and set au excellent
example to similar committees if they will publish a statement
showing what disposition they made of the immense sums of
money received by them. Since the property went into the
hiinds of the receivers there have beeu realized from the opera¬
tions of the railroad and from asses.siuents on junior securities,
in round numbers, .i<2s,00(),000. Of this auiouiit something more
than half was net earnings aud will doubtless be accounted for
in the report whieli the receivers must make to the Court before
they are finally discharged. But the assessments of nearly
.$14,000,000 were paid directly to the Committee of Reorgani¬
zation, over whosft a«tions the Courts have no control. It is
understood that the new compauy begins its operations with a
cash biilauce of ouly $2,000,000. ' If this is so, an explanation
of the disposition made of the balance of $12,000,000 will
come with very good grace from the committee. Mr. Little's
examination of the accounts showed a flouting debt due by the
bankrupt company of $11,000,000, aud if this was all paid ott'
in cash, lliere would still reniuin quite a large sum to be act-
counted for. But as a large pari of this floating debt was made
up of defaulted interest, which was finally disposed of hy the
issue of adjustment bonds, the amount of cash femaining to be
accounted for is very large indeed, eveu after making the most
liberal allowance for the cost of reorgauization, including the
financial assistance which it was, of course, necessarj' to obtaiu.
The committee, as honorable busiuess men, should with the
least di-Iay possible make a full and clear statement of what
they did with all this money. Not only should this l;e done in
the case of Atchison, but it ought to be the ruh; that all reor¬
ganization committees slimild publish accounts. The public has
been grievously iiijiired uiauy times by the failure to do this.
For instance, had it been doue in the first leoigauizatiou of
Cordage a grave scandal, as well as much pecuniar.v loss to
iuDoeent and confiding security-holders, would have been pre¬
vented. The prevailing manner of treating large operations of
this kind is altogether too free and easy, aud it will conduce to oni'
commercial reputation both at home and abroad and also to the
ecouomical management of reorganizations if those who carry
them out are more open aud confiding thau the.y have hitherto
been.

A BILL now in the hands of the Governor, if not already
signed, provides for the piotecfion of workmeu ou build¬
ings during the course of their erection. This measure requires
that overhead protectiju shall be aft'orded to all workiuen. It
is impossibe to give this to some of them—the housesmiths, for
instance—yet penalties are provided for non-compliance with
the act, if it should become oue. This gives the workmen an
oiiportunity to be very annoying if, from anj cause, they choose
to be so. The bill fails also to state the nalure of the protection
to be aft'orded to workmen in the lower stoiies, and while de¬
claring that all neees.sary openings shall be guarded, does not
specify what is to be considered a proper guard. In the event
of proceedings beiug takeu against an employer, this leaves it
possible for each magistrate iu the city to require a dift'erent
method of meeting this vague demand of the law and of inflict¬
ing peualties of fines or imprisonment in the eveut of his orders
not being complied witb. A strong lepreseutatiou is being made
to Goveruor Morton on the unfairness of the measure towards
contractors aud builders in the hope that he will veto it; but it
seems very late in the day to begin an attack upou a bill when
it has passed both houses of the Legislature. This is another
example of the way the building fraternity has neglected its in¬
terests before the Legislature. Owing to the apparent impos.si-
bilily of gettiug an organization together that cau bring the
combined influence ot the trades making up the building indus¬
try to bear at Albany, trade unions and other more lively and
energetic interests .secure the passage of acts which create great
inconvenience and obstruct business. Hid the building trades
been properly represented at Albany, it is hardly possible that
the bill to which we alluded last week, and which will confine
nou-flreproof commercial buildiugs hereafter to five stories,
would have passed unchallenged as it did, or that the one pre¬
viously alluded to would have gone out of committee ii. the
vague and unsatisfactory form that it now is in. Should Gov¬
ernor Morton approve this bill and add another to the many
restrictions on structural work, the sufferers by its pro-visions
will be enti'led to no sympathy, because it will be purely a