The herald., 1898-01-09
THE INVESTOR
A.

OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
LOS ANGELES. January s.
"IIe that is surety for stranger shall
smart for It,"
There Is prospect that the rate of
interest paid on deposits by the savings
banks In New York city will be reduced.
One Of the most important Of those In.
/ stitutions reduced its interest rate to 3lh
per cent more than year ago, and it is
intinated by its president that the rate
may be still further lowered The rea-
son assigned for this is that under the
conditions which have existed for some
time past the banks are not earning as
much as they were formerly, and it has
T. become impracncable for them to pay
the same rate that they did when they
could earn more. 1t Is pointed out that
most of the high-rate government bonds
. have matured, and that but a few years
can elapse before they are all redeemed.
In the view of the most conservative
heads Of savings institutions, the days
when 4 per cent rate could be paid
have gone by. The most that the banks
can now earn is 3N per cent. The rates
OF interest on mortgage investments
have fallen eff of late years, and rail-
roads have found no difficulty In refund
Ing their bonds at low rates. The gen
eral feeling among savings bank off,
cials, says Bradstreet's, is that condi-
lower rate than has been reached as
vet.
Chicago is to have another large street
railway system. A new company has
already acquired by purchase twelve
franchises in the southern part of the
city. Under three or four of these grants
thirty-two miles of tracks have been
built. and are now being operated by
the Calument electric railway. Before
SUMMER the new corporation expects to
have in operation 100 miles of tracks.
The new corporation is called the Chi
cago Electric Traction company. 1t has
. capital stock of $4,000, 900. and will at
once issue $1,50O,O00 of first mortgage
bonds. The capital is supplied by bank
ers and business men in New York and
Philadelphia. The Calumet electric rail-
road, whose securities swamped the
National Bank of Illinois, is the leading
asset of the new concern. This road,
either controlled or owned most of the
franchises acquired by the new corpor-
ThA tatA
Traction company is. therefore. in eff
feet. solution Of the Calumet electric
problem that drove Banker Hammond
to commit suicide last fall.
The question of foreign competition, as
affecting the United Kingdom, was
dwelt upon by Sir ]. Wolfe Barry, the
president Of the Institution of Civil En-
gineers, in distributing the prizes at a
London trades training school recently.
He said that instead of the rails for
- many of the Indian railways being SUD-
Piled from Great Britain, as they had
previously been ever since railways were
constructed, they were now coming
distance these rails were carried, they
; were delivered in India at lower prices
than British manufacturers could touch.
Again, he knew perfectly we'll that in
London an enormous amount of ma
chinery was now being brought from
America at lower prices than English
manufacturers could quote. Locomo-
ttves, which also used to be supplied by
Great Britain, not only for India, but for
the colonies and foreign countries, were
likewise being sent out from continental
workshops. Touching upon the dis
putes between capital and labor, he ar
gued for more accurate view of the
former, which he said was too often re-
garded as consisting Of money alone.
whereas 1t represented the power of di-
rection and the ability to study the
markets of the world, and to know what
could be sold and what could not.
A complaint has been filed at the office
of the New York state superintendent
of insurance by the American Express
company to the effect that certain of
the foreign marine insurance corpora
tions transacting business in the state
are Issuing policies insuring money. bull |
lion and securities against loss or dam |
age while In land transit by mail. The
supintendent has advised the managers |
OF the companies complained of that in |
view of this complaint he will refuse to |
issue to their corporations renewal GER |
tincates Of authority required by the |
insurance law for the ensuing year, un-
less ne is furnished with satisfactory
evidence that the companies have
ceased the transaction of the kinds of
business complained of and have can
ceied all policies insuring such hazards. |
+ = +
1t is reported that an English syndi-
cate has secured control of the Trinidad
Asphalt company, and that after the
first OF the year the headquarters of the
concern are to be located in London in
stead OF in New York, as heretofore.
+ + 4
The value Of the imports of merchan-
uise ana dry goods for the year 1897 was