The herald., 1897-08-01
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
Los Angeles, July 81, 1897


Los Angeles, July 81, 1897.
A check is intended for payment, not cir
culation, and as between the original par
ties to 1t the time allowed for its presenta-
ton will not be enlarged by successive
transfers. Such is the dictum indorsed by
the Alabama Supreme Court in case re-
Gently tried where the facts were in brief
as follows: A check on the bank at Green
vile, Alabama, the place where the de-
fendant received the goods, was received
by the payee (plaintiffs) in Philadelphia on
certain day after banking hours and de-
posted next day in a local bank for col
lection, but the local bank instead of send
ing the check directly TO the drawee bank,
presented it to bank in Charleston, S. c.,
whence it went to another bank in Mont
gomery, Alabama, and was not presented
at the place of payment till seven days
after 1t had been received by the payee
bank and one day after the drawee bank
had failed. There was no proof that the
method adopted by the Philadelphia bank
was according to custom or according to
any previous course of dealing between the
parties. The Supreme Court held that the
loss fell upon the payee and said In part:
"1n general terms it may be said that the
law imposes upon the holder of bank
check the duty of presenting 1t for pay
ment within reasonable time, and if he
fail to present the check seasonably the
delay is at his own peril. What is a rea
sonable time will depend upon the facts in
each case, yet, in the absence of excep-
tional circumstances, such reasonable time
has been fixed. Thus it has been defined to
be the shortest period within which, con-
sistently with the ordinary employments
and duties of commercial business, the
duty of presentment and demand could be
performed"
Speaking Of the recent rise Ii General
Electric stock the New York Times says
that "most of the recent buying of The
stock has been for Boston account, and it
is supposed to have come from inside
sources" 1t goes on to say that "the Gen
eral Electric contingent claims that the old
capital complications of the company are
about to be Strengthened out and that
hereafter General Electric securities will
be so apportoned as to greatly improve
the position of the common stock. General
Electric's business is said TO be improving
while the securities of various corpora
tions, which General Electric holds among
its treasury assets, have much apprecia-
ted in value during the past few months"
1t is commented upon as an important
fact that "the General Electric has made
the first official statement of it's full sat-
isfaction with the results achieved on thu
New Haven SYSTEMS experiment. The
Berlin-H -Hartford-Ne Britain line (New
York, New Haven and Hartford railroad)
has been equipped with the third rail dur
ing the past year, and the officials are so
satisfied with the efficient and economical
results of electric traction that they now
have in contemplation the application of
electric power to several other branch lines
Of their system" This has an encouraging
business sound.
Street railway finance is by no means an
exact science; on the contrary, it pre-
sents more perplexing problems than any
other form of enterprise with which asso-
ciated capital has TO do. Extremely inter-
esting, says American Investments, how
ever, is a study of the ratio between earn
ings and expenses in this method of trans
portation. Such wide diversity exists in
this respect even under conditions almost
Identical, that it is next to an impossi-
bility to deduce any satisfactory compari-
son in this respect. To answer the ques-
tions What does it cost for operating an
electric railway? Has electricity as mo-
tive power increased the earning capacity
of American street railways? and similar
problems that the public at large is dis
posed to regard as easy of solution has
baffied the best endeavors of the most
astute students of this branch of finance.
xr-l,zx 1T -. a..
great diversity exists as regards, for ex-
ample, density of population and the re-
quirements peculiar to different communi-
ties, the seeker after knowledge is in
clined to give it up. From late reports
of the street railway systems of Pennsyl-
vania, however, some exceedingly inter-
esting deductions may be made. These
comparisons are made between the years
1885 and 1885, and it should be borne in mind
that in the first-named year almost every
street railway line in the state was opera
ted by horse power, while in the latter
year electricity had very largely taken
It's place. The mileage in 1885 was 457, and
in 1895 it had risen to 1862. The aggregate
amount of capital stock and funded and
floating debt in 1885 was $1S95S,1 1884, while
in 1895 this had increased to the enormous
total of $125, 1884 339. The stock and debt in the
first-named year per mile of track was
SAL, 500, and in the latter year $95, 700. With
the morse car system IN vogue IN 1870 the
earnings from operation per mile of track
were $500, falling in 1895 to $4,000, evidencing
a decrease in traffic Notwithstanding the
tremendous advance in comfort and ia
speed which had in the interim largely
made the electric car on the longer lines
strong competitor of the seam-propelled
trains. There is food for thought in this
last comparison, when 1t is recalled that
in 1895 the science of electric propulsion had
been brought TO high state of perfection,
being practically then equal to what it Is
today. Suggestive also is the fact that
while the percentage of operating ex-
penses to total receipts had been de-
creased from 65.4 per cent in 1885 to 565 per
cent irj 1895, the percentage of earnings
from opeation to total permanent invest
ments decreased from 27.1 to 10. This latter
Is most nationally accounted for upon the
known fact that many of the electric lines
are tremendously overcapitalized, the re-
suits obtained from the earlier electric
lines encouraging the investment cf dis
proportionately great masses of capital in
the business and leading to the construc-
tion of many miles of Improbable track.
Instructive in this connection is some data
Iurnlshed by an eminent street railway
authority which indicates that two lines
under precisely similar conditions as to
mileage and density of population served
nave shown respectively a net income
equivalent to 14.07 per cent upon total in