Jnn* 30,1894





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Vol. LIIL





JUNE 30, 1891.





No. 1,372





For aflditional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately
following Xew .Jersey records {page 1077).

BU.SINESS coudition.s whicli were certainly bad enouj;h
before hiive uot beeu improved by the illogical attempts
of Mr. Debs aud his followers to tie up the railroads of the
couutry because they would uot refuse to run the cars of the
Pullman Company. This is carrying the principle of sympathy
in .strikes into the realm of absurdity, aud if, as preseut advices
indicate, this movement is doomed to early defeat, the strikers
will be much iu the same position that the Erie switchmen were
some time affo, out of eiuijloyment as a cousequeuce of
their own foolisliuess. The fact that so much of the rail¬
road att'ected is luider the jjiotection of the Federal
Courts has, in this emergency at least, beeu a source
of satisfaction, because it is believed that the policy
of meeting any unlawful act on the part of the strikers,
should they be foolish euough to iittempt any, will not be of the
shilly-shally kiud that has lately characterized the acts of State
authorities iu dealing with simihir emergencies aud which
encouraged the destructiou of so much proi)erty. Just before
this strike was announced some minute signs became apparent
of improvement in business, calletl into e.xisteuce, uo doubt, by
the Hearing prospect of an end to taritt" discussion and
to the fact that the administration had at last found
voice to let the public kuow that it was acquaiuted
with the condition of the national linances and had
at least the desire to remedy it. Prcsunuibly with the
speetly eud of the strike—antl in view of the condition
of the labor maiket, it is certaiu that its i)rolougation beyond a
few days will depend entirely upon the policy of tlie authorities
towartl the strikers—the signs of trade revival will increase iu
number and size. The decliue iu the gold imports is a point
not to be overlooked iu this connection. The drop iu graia
prices, while bad for (he moment, will be ultimately ott'set if
the promise of bettei' crops thiin have been expected recently is
fulfilled. While it may be that a bad crop would increase the
price of grain iu the market it does uot follow that a good crop
will not be much more beneticial to the interests of the com¬
munity at large. Railroad securities will, iu the maiu, respond
to the changes iu outside conditions; tliey have stood the
test of the news of the week very well; there has been
immense liquidation in all the speculative stocks aud bonds,
and very little increase has been raiide iu the amount of lines to
do the business of the c.iuntry iu the past three or four yeais
aud uext to none under way. These f.acts cannot fail to tell as
soon as there is a more easy feeling and business begins to really
revive. Possibly the Pacific roads, indebted to the government,
have a little harder row to hoe than the others, judging from the
nature of the refunding bill now beiug dr.afted iu the House
Committee on Pacitic roads, the principle of wliich seems to be
that Congress has uo duty to consider any .side but tlie
government's.





IT is needless to say that there is no sign of a lise in European
discount riites, or auy increase in general business across
the Atlantic to give jiromise of ii more protitable use for mouey
in the early future. The continuiug arrivals of gold iu Eugland
are looked upon as almost as bad for the countiy receiving them
!is for those sending them. The returus from the English labor
market for M;iy show a slight increase iu the percentage of
uuemiiloyetl. These returns antedated the strike of Ihe Scotch
coal miners. Engineering and metal trades, both in Eugland
iind ou the Continent, make ou the whole the most favoiable
showing, not thiit they are advancing a gi'eat deal, but because
they do not go back. The trouble impending for the Jlaiichester
Ship Caual aud from the same cause for the City of Mauchester
caunot be without its ett'ect ou trade. Owners of French lead
mines who provide 11 per cent of the ainouut ot that mineiiil





consumed in Prance have made a deniand for a jirotective
duty of tive dollars, and apparently stand a good chance of
getting it. May imports iuto Fiance increased by .1^3,.500,000,
compared with May, 1893, and exports declined about
the same auumnt. Emigrants from Germany in the ttrst (luarter
ofthe curient year numbered 7,.520 compared with 14,040 in the
same quarter of 1893, and 22,68.5 iu the same time iu 1892.
The result of the annual woolen market, recently held at Posen,
is expected to be a decline in the priced of superior wool. At
the request of the Minister of the Board of Trade the Vieuna
Corn Exchange has annulled its resolution to give up holding
the international grain market iu Vienna. The position that the
Governmenf was forced to take iu the interest of Vienna by the
resolution of the Exchange is a triumph for all who believe in
religious tolerance, because the intervention of the Minister to
save the market to the city uiiturally implies iin obliga¬
tion to protect visitors to it from the insults of iiuti-Seniitics
which occasioned the original suggestion of its abandonment.
A change iu the weiither has redui'ed the prospects for a great
harvest iu Austria and Hungaiy, though a return of warm, dry
weather may repiiir some of the mischief that was done iu many
regions bv cold aud snow at the close of Mav.





JN times of civic or national disgrace people, aud noticeably
some who ought to know better, try to ttutl some palliative
for their errors or salve for their injured vanity in conditions
that jirevail abroad. It wns almost with a pang of regret that
New Yorkers heard the picturesque A])po declare, while most
ett'ectually pressing the brand into the ttesh of the police of this
city,'that New York was the only city iu the Uuion where the cus¬
todians (»f the public peace and morals permitted aud encoiuaged
the green-goods swindle. A corres|)ondent of an evening paper
who signs himself, let us hope without any warrant for a nom de
plitme so suggestive of intelligence, "Architect," points out
that the Pari.sian police in the time of the ttrst republic levied
contributions as infamous as those raised by the New York
police of our owu day. At auother aud later day
such iiarallels may liave a sociological or historic
inteiest and value, but at the piesent moment it
is ill-advised to do anything that will lessen iu the
miud of the New York liublic its horror of the results of its owu
neglect, which are being so brought home to it by the disclosure
before the Lexow Ccjuimittee. Sometimes the thought that we
are no worse thau other men is as soothing to the conscience as
the iiupi'ession thiit we iire better thiin other meu is elevating to
the pride. For the present let us not mind whiit other men are
doiug ov have done. Let us see just what we jire without sug¬
gestion of palliatives or excuses. Surely if it could be said at all
it can* be said in New York to-day, sulttcient for the day and
place is the evil thereof.





DOES government by the ))eople require that the representa¬
tive system shall be supplemented by the referendum in
order to be in every sense popular government ? We pointed
out hist week an instance where that institution had been most
wholesomely employed in Switzerland and, this f;ill, we are most
probably to learn whether it cau be employed in this city with
eiiual efficacy in the matter of rapid trausit for New York.
Two glaring instances of dehiyed national legishition and the
want of decisiou in Congress, iu our recent history, on two
questions of vital importance, the repeal of the purchasing clause
ofthe Sliermau act and the luodificatiou of the tiiritt'law, have
each created au immense amount of impatience with the powers
at Washington, and also must have created iu the
minds of many thinking people the msh that there
was some way iu whicii such matters could be
takeu directly into the hands of the people themselves.
There is uo shadow of doubt that if the people iit large had
been asked to decide whether the silver purchases should
have been stopped or that taritt' legislation wiis desired, the
answers would have come promjitly, yea in the ttrst case and
nay in the second, and the country would have beeu saved the
terrible uncertainties and anxieties which it has sutt'ered and a
great part of the enormous losses entailed on business during
aud owing to iiritatingly prolonged discussions in Congress.
There are no more ditticulties in the way of placing such ques¬
tions before the voters than there are in asking them to declare
their opiuious outhe respective claims of Presidential candidates
and the lUiitter of cost sinks into perfect insiguittcance iilong¬
side of the pecuuiiiry lo.sses sustained while the doubt exi.sts
as to what course Congress will take iu the execution of its
duty. .\. geneiiil election involves too many iuterests to allow
it to be Jiossible for the national will on all of tlieni to be ascer¬
tained iu the one vote, and the referendum would be a happy
means of hearing the public voice on auy one of them ; or, if the
case called for it, of enabling it to modify an opinion, into which
it had been led by conditions which had ceased to apply. For
instance, if it is the case thiit Cleveland iiud tiiritt' reform were
one iu 1892 it is certain that a decree nisi would have promptly