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MONTHLY SALES OF MUNICIPALS.
1896. 1897.
January ..........$7,652,047 $12,368,821
February .......... 3,986,863 13,343,423
March .......... 9,123,836 13,708,195
April .......... 5,991,922 15,154,651
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The gratifying sale of $270,000 Los Angeles 4 per cent refunders will be found treated in the editorial columns of this issue. One incident of the sale deserves notice, which was the attempt of a man named Campbell, representing Farson, Leach & Co., to make his bid read $16.75 or $1675 by writing it in a slovenly manner so that the dot of the letter "i" in the word "prior" written underneath the figures might or might not be taken for the decimal point between figures in the amount bid. An examination of the bid reveals its shady character, and the man himself was identified as the same man who in June, 1895, tore up his bid for improvement bonds in the presence of the council, after it had been received and filed, for which act he was ejected from the room. The trick attempted on Monday is an old one and one of a kind that is well known among the "smart" men who travel for the bond houses. That it was not successfully worked here shows that the officials are not as green as they are painted. Mr. Sartori of the firm of Hellman & Sartori made a vigorous speech to the council denouncing the attempt to hoodwink that august body.
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Bonds of the Lakeview and Rockpile school districts, Kern county, to the amount of $5000 lately sold for a premium of $760, the purchaser being the Bank of Bakersfield. The bonds bear 8 per cent interest, but the price paid is an extraordinary one.
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A project is on foot for the incorporation of a life insurance company by local people on the "mutual" plan, with headquarters in Los Angeles. The scheme has no "fraternal" features, for a wonder.
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Agents at Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Jose, Stockton, Marysville and other points on the Pacific coast are up in arms on account of the recent reduction in agents' commissions to 15 per cent. The Pacific board of underwriters is obdurate, however, and will make no exceptions outside several of the large cities.—Chicago Insurance Post.
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The bill in Pennsylvania which prohibited the insurance of children under the age of 16 was killed in the senate by a vote of 33 to 10. Haley Fisk, vice president of the Metropolitan Life, tells the New York Mail and Express that "not so much as one penny" was expended by the industrial companies to defeat the bill. He says that it was "a triumph of public opinion."
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There is a ridiculously exaggerated idea of the profits of insurance abroad, according to the Chattanooga Times. For the worst misinformation on the subject, a pack of alleged editors are responsible. Thinking to commend their sheets to the mercantile community, they have handled the insurance people as if they were the veriest criminals. The aggregate property loss in the United States by fire, 1872-1896, both years included, was $2,321,500,491. Of this appalling loss in twenty-six years, the insurance companies paid back to the losers $1,358,276,556. That is to say, the companies have gathered from the country at large fees paid them for fire protection, and paid out to the losers by fire an average of $52,241,406 a year for twenty-six years. How many bankruptcies has this saved? How many worthy families has it helped who would else have been in dire distress? What has it not done to tide localities over what must otherwise have resulted in local panic and embarrassment to hundreds?
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"Stockholders of building and loan associations, like investors in other securities, will have to be satisfied before long with less profits upon their investments," is the statement credited to a secretary of a leading Chicago local building and loan association. "The depressed times have had their effect upon these savings institutions as well as upon others. While the rate of interest to borrowers has been maintained, many of the societies have sustained losses upon real estate which they have been compelled to take through foreclosure proceedings. It is unreasonable to suppose that they can keep up the same ratio of earnings as they did when the times were better. It may be that the societies will find it profitable, in order to secure better loans, to reduce the rate of interest to borrowers. If the rate of interest was reduced the borrower would necessarily have to pay for a longer period; but it would be easier for him to carry his loan. The investors would not fare so well as now, but they would have no well-grounded reason to complain."
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The loss of the funds of the University of Illinois through the failure of the First National bank of Chicago, whose president was treasurer of the university, once more emphasizes the insecurity of personal bonding. Had this college availed itself of the bonds of a first-class surety company it would be in a much better financial condition today, says the Boston Standard.
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The Denver, Col., Consolidated Tramway company's report of net earnings for the quarter ended March 31 was $63,975, against $61,077 the same period of 1896.
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The Galveston, Tex., Street Railway company's report for the first three months of the present year shows net receipts of $12,587, compared with $10,472 the same months of last year.
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The American Traction company of Jersey City has been incorporated with a capital stock of $325,000 to operate electric systems in New Jersey and New York state. According to the Bond Buyer it will commence business with just $1000.
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By a little clause in the Humphrey bill now likely to pass the Illinois legislature, Mr. Yerkes will be able to consolidate the North and West division street car systems of Chicago, a project which the law
