The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-10-11

While still insist that the failure of
repeal would net cause any very great
practical mischief, the course of the
stock market and the general state of
business prove that the majority of
people are of different opinion. It is in
vain to point out that free coinage has
been rejected by SO large a Minority of
the popular, branch of Congress that there
is no chance of it's being adopted for
years to come, if ever; that the Secretary
of the Treasury has the power and is now
exercising it, to confine the purchases of
silver under the Sherman act within
limits that will deprive them of all:harm-
full effect and that the delay of The re-
peal bill also delays the adoption of some
currency initiation scheme more vicious
than that which now affiicts u.s. The
idea has taken possession of the public
mind, and cannot be dislodged, that the
defeat of the repeal bill means the tri-
umph of free silver, and so long as a
possibility of it exists business will Ian
guish and nobody will embark in new
undertakings. The pertinacity with
which the silver senators oppose repeal
aids in strengthening this feeling. They
are fighting upon the avowed assumption
that the fate of the silver standard de-
ponds upon the result of the present con-
test, although they are unable to explain
how or why it is so. All they can say
is that with the repeal of the silver pur-
chasing clause of the Sherman act, the
last remaining recognition of silver as
a money metal will disappear from the
statute book, and this they are deter
mined to prevent. 1t is matter of SEN
timent on their part, just as it is mat
ter of sentiment on the part Of their OPP
power no mole to be lightly disregarded
in finance than it is in religion or in
politics.
1t is an i'll wind, however, that blows
nobody good. While this sentimental
dread of silver purchases delays the re-
vival Of confidence, and keeps in active
operation the process of contraction and |
liquidation begun during the panic, it |
has also so brought down the prices of |
investment securities as to make them |
very profitable purchases by capitalists |
who have money of their own TO spend. |
Good, safe stocks and bonds which last |
spring could be bought only on terms !
which reduced the income they yielded |
to per cent. per annum and less upon |
their cost, can now be had so much |
cheaper that they pay nearly, if not quite |
per cent. and in many cases little |
more.
For example, New York Central Rail-
road per cent. registered first mortgage |
bonds, with accrued interest from July |
ten year to run, and at the price men |
TONED yield nearly per cent. per annum |
if held to maturity. The unsecured de- |
benture per cents. of the same COM |
pany, having the same length of time to |
run, are selling a little above par, and,
consequently, yield only trifie less than |
per cent. per annum to the purchaser. |
Lake Shore per cent first mortgage |
bonds sell at about the same rates pro- |
portionately to the time they have to |
run as the New York Central The |
Erie Railway first consolidated mortgage |
per cent. gold bonds, having ~ years |
to run, sell at about 127, and at that |
price yield an income of 5 IA per cent |
per annum. Michigan Central first mort
gage Is, due in 1902, and with 3 1-2 per !
cent accumulated interest due Nov.1,
are offered at about 120, at which price
they yield 1-2 per cent, and they doubt |
less can be bought on little easier
terms. The per cent mortgage bonds
of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy,
Chicago and Northwest, and Chicago,
Milwaukee and ST. Paul railroad com
panies also sell at prices which yield not |
far from 5 per cent, while the per
cent. debentures of the same companies,
unsecured by mortgage, range from SIS
to 1922 The bonds of other railroad COM
panies which are solvent, but whose credit
is not beyond question, can be had at /
much lower prices and one 5 per cent.
and Gulf Railroad Company, guaranteed
by the Union Pacific Railway Company
brings only little more than 40.