OUR AMERICAN LETTER

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13378, 20 March 1909, Page 4

OUR AMERICAN LETTER

(x_o_ ourt ows cortß_sro*_>_s-r.l XKW YORK, February C. THE GAS SUPPLY. Ono of tho most interesting Court decisions a fleeting tho metropolis of lato has been that in regard to the price of gas. Tho investigation as to the cost and tho relations of profit and loss appears to havo been very thorough, and an important ruling was mado in regard to the assets of tho gas company, -which ivcre- included upon the valuation that it ivas claimed ought to earn dividends. This was tho ruling out of tho amount entered as value lor goodwill, it being held by tho Courts that where a company has an absolute monopoly of supply, as in this case, tho 'goodwill" of the business cannot bo considered an asset or ot any 'value. It is not as if a business had been built up on its merits, and its custom-ens were in danger of (icing attracted by competitors. Under the final decisions, all collections mado for gas at tho rate of a dollar per thousand ciibio foet, instead of eighty cents, since the first decision was given and appeal taken two or three years ago, aro illegal, and tho difference must bo refunded. As tho amount runs into millions of dollars, tho task, which is now about to begin, is an interesting one. Meanwhile, everybody is complaining that tho quality of tho gas has materially deteriorated. Speaking to the representative of one of the big coal concerns on tbe floor of the Produce Exchange in regard to this yesterday, ono manager said: "Our company has had the supplying of a great deal of coal used for gas in Xew York for many years, and I am in a posittion to know that this decision of tjic Courts as to prico means inferior gas for the people. What we will get now will be eighty cents' worth of gas and twenty cents' worth of wind on the old basis." OX THE STOCK EXCHANGE. Thc -whole trouble ivith tho present financial condition of this country is undoubtedly tho ability of a corporation to iva tor its stock. Tlie people seem to havo gone mad over the buying and selling of stocks. Men do not put up capital nowadays primarily for tho development of an industry, but for tho creation of a saleable stock, and as soon as a stock becomes divi-dend-earning, it is watered on by the increase of capital on the often fictitious basis of alleged earning capacity, and moro stock is sold. This week the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company _eclarerl its first dividend, and although it was only of one per cent, per quarter, tho stock advanced immediately on 'Change from 70J to 71J. Those "in tho know had a chance to sell at good profits, and thero is no question that if another dividend is declarci, the price of the stock will again fluctuate for the benefit of the holders, probably declining meanwhile, so that ie, may bo bought again if desired by men who make a specialty of following that particular liii". Of course all stock brokers hay." their specialities, and each one can tell you off-hand the history of the stocks in which he prefers to deal. lie may not tell all he knows, but i_t Ls certainly not as the result of haphazard ventures that many of them have made successes or been able to predict probable movements. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company is a holding corporation, formed in 1896, and controls all tho elevated and surface railways of Brooklyn except three lines. In the year ended June 20th, 11)03, there wero carried on tho combined lines of tlie B.R.T. 515,182,067 passengers. These included 372,000.CC0 paf-f-cngers who paid five cents, and 13,000.000 who paid other sums. Thero wero 122,000,000 transfers accepted, and approximately

_,700,000 wore carried i'roc. Those passengers wore carried in a total ol *-'-j3y pa__'iiger ciirs. TaiKing oi selling slock. I had a letter a week ago irom a frien<i in England a&king ir.c to enquire about an alleg'-xl banker in Now- _ork whose secretary in London was offering my frior.d a block of American mining stock at what purported to be a particularly favourable figure, a lump sum which worked out about. LCd thc share. I mado enquiry on the Exchanges, and Irom the oldest stock brokers on tho street, but they had never heard cf the stock. Then I called at tho offices of the "banker,'' the address of whicli was on an elaborately engraved card enclosed in the letter from England. I was told that the stock was selli:i*j here at I'2\ cents (about Od sterling.), but would surely <lonble tho following woek, and was selling now in England at one dollar (i.s). I was shown a tray of specimens said to be Irom the mine at a depth of -100 feet, but which looKed a good deal more like boulder -.mashing*, and might have been from California or Alasiia, as well as from Colorado, as claimed, for all thai anyone could tell. 1 obtained a confidential report through a reliable banking agency in regard to the man, aad discovered that his--- cor had I.sen .hat of a ; rin.er and a sche er, but never mat ol a tumor or a haulier. ■Some of his previous business associates are now convicts, and the police ot a western city an: alter the gentleman himself for alleged use of the mails for fraudulent purposes. Still ho sells stock, and some of tiie people who ouy it here and abroad aro going to "get left.'' On the same date that I was making my investigation in this connection 1 found a little article in ono of the dailies about a woman who had died believing herself to bo very wealthy and bequeathing her wealth in an extensive will. The executors found a trunk full of stock certificates, chietiy of minin_ and industrial companies, which were carefully sifted out, and tlo only value obtainable for any in the lot was about _4, although thc face value ran into hundreds of thousands. Under thc laws hero there seems to bo absolutely nothing to prevent anyono fioni selling stock, no matter what. If elaborate offices were established and "properly" advertised for the sale of anything that has gone a-begging in New Zealand, I have no doubt that fortune would await the operator. The plan is recognised by tho sliarp-ers to be ''the easiest way to make a living, 7 ' but during the past year or two they have been hard pushed to make sales, and it is no wonder they have, invaded the English market more daringly than ever. LOSS OF A BIG .STEAMER. Tho sinking of the big White Star Line steamship Republic after collision with thc Italian steamer Florida off Nantucket a few days ago, was thc sensation of tho hour hero, and the captain is being roundly censured for not accepting the aid first at hand of a:i oil tank steamer with an empty barge, the pumps of which could have helped to keep the Republic afloat while the steamer towed, her towaru shoal water. Tho Republic's captain, however, preferred to wait advices from his company or the arrival of another ship of his own line, so valuable hours wero wasted in thc endeavour to save salvage money, until finally r- bulkhead collapsed and the ship went down with a rush in. water variously stated at from 31 to -15 fathoms deep, at all events too deep for any attempt at salvage, passengers' baggage and. everything else on board being irretrievably lost. The summoning of aid by wireless telegraphy was tbe notable featuro of the occasion, and by this means speedy safety was assured to tho thousand and more lives endangered, only seven being lost as tho result of injuries in tho collision. Tlie ship is. the biggest that has ever gone to the bottom, another loss due to tho inability to ascertain the distance and direction of another vesesel during thick weather. Thc only device at all successful in this respect seems to be the submarine signalling apparatus, which carries the sound of a boil under water, and by which sounds can be heard and located at a distance of several miles. The Republic was equipped with this apparatus, but thc .Florida was not. AT the principal lightships on the American, Canadian and British coasts, and many of the transatlantic liners, aro now equipped with it. Jack Binns, the wireless operator on the Republic, was the hero of the occasion, getting out his storage batteries under very adverse circumstances after tho ship's engines were stopped, and sticking to his post till the last, although his "office" haa been badly smashed in the collision. TUBERCULOSIS EXHIBITION. The fact that disease and abject poverty are largely due to ignorance is being always more strongly urged upon the attention of tho thinking pubhc, and one of the most notable movements to enforce this upon puolic notice was the tuberculosis exhibition held at the New York Museum of Natural History. It was open free for several weeks, but closed last month. It was visited by many thousands of people, tho hails and corridors being crowded with people during evenings and Sundays. The exhibits were gathered from all tho States and many foreign countries. They occupied threo floors and wero displayed in such .a fashion that one could gain a comprehensivo idea of what is being done throughout the world to fight what has been sensationally named 'tho white pla_iie." Models and pictures of tho sanitaria, and descriptions of tho work done in numerous places, were carefully displayed. Among them I noticed a. map of a portion of New Zealand showing tho location of the sanatorium at Rotorua. Among the lectures given in this connection a Canadian scientist has sot forth tnat tho average needless illness amounts to nine days per individual per year. Ho thinks this a low estimate, and cannot include all prevcntible illnesses, such as some of the insanities. But accepting it as reasonable, and a=.sumin_; the population of Canada to be 7,000,000, and the wage earning population _,000,000, arid placing thc average daily wago at one dollar and the average daily co>t of illness (i.e., physicians' and nurses' fees, medicines, etc.) at only one dollar, wo find that this low estimate of the cost to Canada per year fo»- unnecessary illness is 81,000,000 dollars.