Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
Record and Guide
ESTABLISHED-^ I
:a2LM'*'iB6a.
Dl^TlDpREA.LE:sTAjr,BiiiLoiffG A,^rreeTin^,HousQfotDDE8CB(«wi
Busutess ajIdThemes of GejIer^I lirtERpsi.^
PRICE. PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Publislied every Saturday.
Telephone, ...... Coktlandt 1370
Communioations should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 VesejIStreef.
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
"Entered al llie Post-office at New Tork. N. Y.. as second-class inalter,"
Vol. LIX
MARCH 6 1897
No. 1,512
All Architects, Bailding Material Manufacturers, Beal Estate Owners.
Agents, Auctioneers and Brokers are interested in the great " Historical,
Encyclopedic EcBiew uf Architecture, Building and Real Estate" now
â– preparing hy the " Eccord and Guide.'' As useful and necessary as a
dictionary or dii-ectoi-y, and as readable as a novel. Thoasands will read
it Tlie standard work,
PRESIDKNT MCKINLEY'S iiiau^^iral proved quite satisfac¬
tory to tbe business world. People did not fail to notice
that while the word "must" was used a good many times in
relation to needed reforms, there was considerabl.^ Yatrueness
as to tbe menns by wbich these reforms are to be cti'ected. Mr.
McKinley was a country lawyer and cannot be expected to know
exactly whatis necessary to solve difficult financial and cuiTency
prolfilems, but it is evident that he earnestly desires to see bis
adrainifttration become the success that bas been predicted of
it and io a general way knows what is necessary to mate it sucb.
We have still, however, to see whether Congress is as sound
minded and sincere as the Presiilent, so that its assembling on
the I5th will be awaited with uo little anxiety aud not without
some trepidation. In the business world the announcement of a
proposition to refund the Lake Shore debt in a 3^2 per cent,
bond has been the event of the week. So far as Lake Shore
stock itself is concerned, it would probably have been better if
the maturing bonds had been provided for by atock privileges,
in which, as well as on the origiual issue, moilerate dividends
could have been maintained. The jealousy of shippers and
labor may prevent the saving in tised charges reaching the
stock; certainly any considerable increase iu dividends wiil
arouse their animosity and it remains a question to what ex¬
tent the stockholders will now have to share the money saved in
interest charges with thuir patrons and employees. On the credit
of railroad enterprise in thia country, the operation cannot fail
to have a beneficial effect. It shows what vast strides that en-
terpiise has taken when a railroad company can borrow money
at half the interest it paid only twenty-five years ago and when
its securities sell on the same basis as municipal bonds backed
by public credit. The immediate effect of carrying out this
operation will be to give activity to the security market by call¬
ing attention to the opportunities it presents for advantageous
investment purchases. There are many millions of dollars
worth of railroad debt that must be refunded in the next few
years and buyers can find something of a warrant for the treat-
men t of these in the example set by the Lake Shore management.
GOVERNMENT stocks aud bonds form so large a part of the
European markets that it is not. surprising to see the
latter rise and fal 1 according to the momentary news from Crete.
It ia all a question whether tht^ Great Powers will hold together
iu the policy they have taken towards Greece. Any sign of a
lessening of the concord among them would be a signal for a
heavy break in all (he European national issues, which would
finally disorganize all the other departments. So far there is no
evidence of such a break, .aidging by the press reports that
seems rather hoped for than expected. The position of ordin-
aiily liberal minded people and olthe advanced press forms one
of the most remarkable anomalies ot the tiiics. There is a sort
of widespread mental aberration among tbe vej'y people iu
whvim such a thing was least to be expected. For years past
their most earnest prayer has been that the peace of Europe
might be maintained and yet they arc encouraging Greece in a
course that, if successful, mu.st produce the war they have hitherto
been so anxious to avert. In their hatred of Turkey they seem
to have entirely lost their senses. This peculiirity may be
studied on this side of the Allantic as well as on the other. We
can only hope that the papers and people we refer to will soon
come to their senses aud seo the melodramatic selfishness of the
people and sovereign of Greece in (beir proper light and that
until tbey do, however Jong it may tate, that the rofe](oatible
minifcters ti the sis Gnai J't\ur \\il] cci liLiu lo tiiiid 1oi'<lL<r
in their present attitude. The fear that they may yiild to
popular clamor is checking business, and it that fear is ul¬
timately justified it will cheek somethiug far morft-imporlant,
namely, civilization.
A Ife-*ded Investigation.
T T TB have a suggestion to make to Senator Lexow.
V V Everybody who aspires to greatness must choose some
ladder to climb on. It may be assumed, we suppose, (hat
Lexow has some hopes that public "invesligatlous" of ooc kind •
or another raay enable him to get a foothold upon a high po¬
litical eminence. lie has made two attempts at au ascent,
Parkhurst and Goff raouuted over his head during the flrst In¬
vestigation, and the recent attack on trusts, Uowevor useful It
may have proved as a fluanclal expedient (uot, o£ course, to the
Senator) may safely be written down a failure. It lacked nil
the-essentials of a public triumph for tbe man from Nyack. It
didn't catch even tbe "gallery," who were more ninused than
aroused by the sound aud fury and demagogic heroics of the
chief actor. This, however, is a common theatrical experi¬
ence. They say even tbe most expert managers find It Im¬
possible to predict wilh certainty what will and what will not
tickle the public taste. The comedy of "Trust-baiting," plainly,
is not a "drawing"' card, antl, if Lexow Is wise (and who can
doubt it?) he wil! star next season In a totally different i-ole.
Suggestions no doubt are in ordei\ Hero Is one:
Why not turn the trust programme upside down, and Investi¬
gate, not the commercial successos of the day. but the failures.
There arc trusts, many of them, thnt have gone to ruin Involving
large losses of invested capital. Thoupands, wc arc sui-e, will be
deeply interested in learning the details of these disasters.
Hitherto, Information of this nature has been practically unob¬
tainable.
Profll-able enterprises, like tlio Sugar Trust. !n which the pub¬
lic have put some money arc few enouch. and a leglBlatlve at¬
tack upon these bocaiise (hey pay dividends hardly seems to be
necessary when there are so many Industrial organizations
which possess all the vlrlues of bankruptcy enshrouded In a
darkness which no one successfully penetrates. The rare and
happy Investor who obtains flve or ten per cent, during a few
halcyon years is not to be seriously boneflted by a lucid public
exposition of bow the thing Is done. It Is the poor devil, whose
Invested capital la as unproductive ns a sterile sand-waste, that
is clamoring for luformation. An investigation of these wrecks
would be profitnlde for doctrine, for reproof, for con-eetlon. for
instruction in rIghtcM)nsnoss. The public beneflt for the State
at large would be great, for clearly there Is more to be gained
for the body social from an advertisement to tho world that
the government of the Empire State frowns upon commrrela!
failure, than from a warning, such as (hat just Issued by
Lexow's Trust Investigation, that It-Is ready to chastise and
discountenance success. Tt Is the antidote we need for the
buncombe of the last oxhlliltlon.
The field for Lexow In this direction Is, we eubmU. an ex¬
tensive one. A long life can be spent probing Ita disasters,
breakdowns, and penuries. The Senator need not confine hia
labors to bankrupt trusts and other moribund corporallons. In¬
dividual failures of a eomniprclal sort could with profit he ex¬
amined. The man who proves himself rnpable of meeting lhe
requirements of llfp, prnvldlntr for himself and others, employ¬
ing labor and eapltnl suoressfully. Is not a subject for patho¬
logical study, as thonirli suceoss were a disease or n species of
dirt-malady, npeessltatlns the close nttentlon of the State. The
fellow that needs tbe doctor Is the Tnennalde. ITc Is the man
the State ought to look nfter. If the State must play the great
medicine man. ronnloff nbout with nostrums and paper sperlflos
for every stomach-ache thnt afTllcts Society. It le these fnllnreB
that arp a drag on the eommunlty: these Individuals that
seemingly cannot souare tbemselvpR with conditions—the army
of the unequipped, tlio morally or montnlly nnbalflTi^Pd, misdi¬
rected. Impotent Who ronlly doubts that these fpllows com¬
prise a majority of the dlseontentpd crowd who wail about the
success of pverybody as though thnt sucr*pRH were property
stolen from them. Of course, there Is nothlnrr new In this.
In all ages sucpprs has bcpn a crime with the mob. Not able to
attain It themselves, tbey have decided there must be sometlilng
unfair and monstrous nltont It. very much on the pnme prlnelnle
that the Sftvn^p retrnrds thp white man's siiporlor knowledtre
and skill as uncanny and devilish. This was the sentiment
Lexow panderpd to with his trust Inquiry. Of poiirop, the In¬
vestigation In Its inepptlon was a scheme of poUflcnl rnpnelty
but Its actual working was based upon the general iinpopnlarlty
of success.
But. If Lexow would like to be Ferlonsly nctlvp Tn bis sneelnl
line of business, let him Invp.stlente 'TnvpRtlffntlfins." and gpt
the public to understand the real prirpnups and spirit of these
make-believe proceedings. They are not the least damaging ,