Junii 20, 1896
Record and Guide.
1055
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Vol. LVII.
JUNE 20, 1890.
No. 1,475
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"XTOW the Kepiiblicin platform has been tirawn and the candi-
-^^ date named to carry it through tlio campaign, it is only
i'ea8on.ablc to expect that bibsiness will improve and prices
advance. The platform is very much better thau the ma,jority
of people expected a couple of weeks ago. Putting aside the
pyrotechnics about Cuban freedom, foreign policy and the Mon¬
roe doctrine, wliich were inevitable iu auy political programme,
aud which will doubtless be duplicated in Chicago next month
becciuse they are as natural cor.comitautsof a political campaign
as the buttons, bunting and other forms of buncombe charac¬
teristic of party struggles, the platform ia a very reasonable
one. The currency plauk is perfecUy satisfactory to the friends
of really sound money; that is, the money of the whole
civilized world, while the taiitt' plank surprises by its
moderation. Taking it for granted that the Republican ticket
will be elected next November, and it being a certainty that
there will be a deflciency of leveuue to provide for wheu it
comes into power, it is in accord with the policy of th.at party
that this deficieucy should be provided for by an increase iu the
tariff on imported goods, which come most iuto competition
with similar articles manufactured iu this country. In announc¬
ing this iiolicy the convention has done so with commeudable
moderation, and this, as much as the gold plank, ought to inspire
contidence among business meu who have feared that a
chauge of administration would mean a revolution iu trade,
e.s)>ecially iu view of the fact that whichever party m.ay come
into power there must be a rearrangement of the taritt' in
order to meet the necessities of the Trea.sury. These facts
will have due weight as they penetrate the minds of our people,
but we must not expect too much at once. The silver issue
still has power to daunt the timid ; nothiug but an overwhelming
declaration at the polls in favor of gold will remove the fears
of these, .and it will pre bably be fortunate if the Democratic
convention declares for free silver, so that the gold advocates
will not be divided by their party convictions as they may be if
both platforms declare for gold. In that eveut an independent
candidate uniliugthe .silver forces would make a better tight in
the campaign, though in any eveut it is uot likely that he could
wiu. However, it is because this tight has yet to be made that
hesitation in business continues apparent. Wall Street has
been disappointed of the foreign buyiug which it expected
would follow the adoption of the gold plank. This is because
it expected too much. A precedent conditiou of foreigu buying
is that it should get its example from this siile. Tho people in
WaU Street are very like those who practice charity at the
expen.se of others. It is easy to be generous iu this case. If we
want to induce foreigners to buy our securities, we must lirst
show contidence iu them ourselves. The platform and pros¬
pects of the Republican party are calculated to create the feel¬
ing necessary to such a movement.
TDOURSE business iu Europe is picking up again. This
-*-' renewed activity is doubtless due in large part to the
industrial movement that has been going on for some time. It
is helped .also by the improved political outlook, and, doubtless,
the bettered prospects for souud money iu the United States
contribute a part of the power that moves prices. The condi¬
tion of the Uuited States has beeu and is uudoubtedly a drag
upou the world's commerce, because it is impossible that it can
be -wholly satisfactory while such a great nation finds tho uses
for its energies and wealth restricted because it cannot finally
put an end to dangers that have perplexed it for years past.
However, Europe seems uow to regard our political and cur¬
rency conditions with satisfaction, and if it is true that lookers-
ou see most of the game, this ought also to be comforting to the
Americau busiuess community. As an indication of the satis¬
factory nature of busiuess .abroad, it may be mentioned that the
capital applications in Great Britain for the first tive months of
this year were unprecedentedly large. They are etiual to the
totals for the whole of the followiug years named to this extent:
1895, six-tenths; 1894, two-thirds; 1893, one-fifth more
than the whole ; 1892, three-fourths, and 1891, about ninety-
five per cent. Much of this increase is due to the capitalization
of industrials, and the market is even now being prepared for
the subscription to the stock predicated upon the most famous
brewery iu the world, Barclay & Perkius', and which is to be
capitalized for $22,500,000. The release of the leaders of the
Johannesburg reform committee has turned speculative atten¬
tion back to South African gold mines, and this has helped the
Paris as well as the London market. Berlin is arranging for the
issue of a uumber of small loans for some of the States of the
German Empire aud, besides, for the stock of the German Trans¬
oceanic Bank and a number of industrial corporations. The
iron aud coal statistics of Germany make also an evidence of
the renewal of business activity, both showing large increases
iu production and export for the current year.
T5Y deciding to carry the New York approach of the New
-'-' East River Bridge to Clinton street, instead of making the
curve from Delauey street to Grand street at Pitt street to con¬
nect with Division street and East Broadway, we canuot but
think that the Bridge Commission has exceeded its'powers. It
is true they are the judges of where the approaches shoiUd come,
but only within certaiu lines. It was obviously the intention of
Chapter 789, laws of 1895, which provides for the building of
the bridge, that the approach should be aloug Grand street. All
the discussion had previous to the passage of the act pointed to
that conclusion, as does al.so the language of the act itself, which
locates the western end.of the bridge proper, "at or near the foot
of Grand street." A terse and not improper criticism of the
approaches as now located isthat they tend to build up Broad¬
way, Brooklyn, at the expense of Grand street, New York. In
carrying the approach to Cliuton street, the Commissioners have
practically decided that New York City shall undertake a very
costly street improvement, 5vhich it may or may not care to do,
and which it certainly will not be able to do for a good many
years to come. The geueral impression, and the reasonable one,
was that the best use of existing thoroughfares would be made
for approaches. It was certainly never intended to utterly de¬
stroy the business future of lower Grand street, or to give the
Commission powers belonging only to the Legislature and
never exerted except on local request, to compel New York
City to enter on a scheme of street improvements involviu" a
cost greater than that estimated for the bridge itself. It is
suggestetl that Delaney street can be widened to a width of 140
feet from the western end of the approach to the Bowery, but
this will not give a more satisfactory entrance to the bridge than
Grand street antl the other streets converging at Pitt street
would do and, with the plaza between Clinton and Norfolk
streets, will add auywhere from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000
more to the cost of the bridge than the shorter approach would
do. To be entirely satisfactory the selected approach wUl have
to have the feeding thoroughfares from north and south, and
these mean the expenditure of more money than the condition
of the city's finances will permit for twenty years to come.
Meantime the efficiency of the bridge as a communication be¬
tween the two cities -will be seriously impaired. The action of
the Commission, besides being au arrogation of powers that do
uot belong to them, is not in line with their duty to provide the
quickest as well as the best addition to the transpontine facili¬
ties, with due regard to the economy that ought always to con¬
trol such works. The position of New York is admirably set
out in the remarks of oue of the commission given in another
column and which we commend to the atteutiou of the tax¬
payers of this city who have failed to make themselves
acquainted with what hatj been going on, so that their silence
has beeu taken for consent, but who will hereafter have to pay
the piper.
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XT/'HAT a fondness trade disputants have for stroug lan-
V T guage! This gives an aspect of fierceness to business
disputes that ought not really belong to them. The man who in
any of these troubles is calling another his foe or his enemy,
must know very well that in a little while he will be calling him
his friend aud submitting estimates for his work. In the mean¬
time, however, the use of immoderate language has created a
heat out of all proportion to the importance of the matter in
contention. There is no more reason why the words " foe " and
" enemy " should be used in these matters, or the sword used as
a figurative descriptiou of the feelings iu trade disputes than
in those little spats that are a part of domestic life. Any man