192





The   Record  and   Guide.





February Ig, 1887





it, in gambling in its stock, but outsiders would do well to leave it
alone, for its manipulation will be in the hands of people who will
work the market for their own personal profit, and will get the
best of the " street" every time they can.

Inq.—You do not seem to have much faith in the people who are
now coming to the front in Wall street?

Sir O.—No! If anything could justify the Communists and
Socialists in their disrespect for the rights of private property, it
is the way in which money is made in the " street" at this time.
A more conscienceless set of manipulators never appeared on any
Bourse in Europe. They are taking advantage of the public
credulity and manufacturing securities for the n?arket. Still,
these people have their uses. They are unifying and consolidating
the railway systems of the South, and that is a good thing in itself.





The United States and Great Britain seem to have a monopoly of
the very rich men. From the official income tax returns, just pub¬
lished, the wealthiest man in Prussia is Herr Krupp, the famous
gun maker. His income is assessed at something over $1,000,000
of our money. He pays $37,000 annually. Baron Rothschilu, of
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, comes next. He has an income of nearly
$700,000, on which he pays about $30,000 per annum. Baron
Bleichroder is the third. He pays about $17,000 per annum. There
are only four others who have incomes of over $50,000 per annum.
But such wealth as there is in the German Empire is far better
distributed than in England or the United States. The same
remark is true of France, Belgium, and Holland. There are far
more chances to heap up enormous fortunes in a lifetime in
English speaking countries than on the Continent of Europe.
Whether that is an advantage to us admits of considerable debate.





generation is to be commended. We can do without ' The Federalist,' and
the commentaries on it when we have such interesting reading as the reports
of the commercial agfincies, and the statistics published from time to time
concerning the progress of our great industries. After all, business is a
greater thing than politics. The man who is nothing but a politician can
not be much of a business man, but the citizen who is strictly and
thoroughly business, is capable of dealing with politics in a sensible way."

It is ideas such as these which give one assurance that the new
South is a very different community from what it was before the
civil war. Its industrial experience is now modifying and clarify¬
ing its former political theories.





The Senate has responded to the popular demand and has voted
$31,000,000 for guns and seacoast fortifications. The House may
concur in voting appropriations, but under the leadership of Ran¬
dall and Holman they will not be large enough. But how much
better would it have been if adequate appropriations had
been made in 1883, when business was depressed, and large
amounts voted for guns and ships would have given a health¬
ful and much-needed stimulus to our coal and iron industries.
Large appropriations now, when our steel mills have all they
can do for a year to come, will create confusion in the labor mar¬
ket, and will undoubtedly lead to the importation of British steel
and iron. Our main want is great guns, and then Congress ought to
authorize the construction of twenty swift steamships which could
be used as commerce destroyers in case of war; but which, in times
of peace, could be contracted out to private companies so as to put an
end, if possible, to the monopoly of our foreign commerce now held
by the merchants of other nations. But we do not want any
expensive navy,- as our attitude should be one of defense, not of
aggression.

--------------9--------------

A law is before the Illinois Legislature requiring County Record¬
ers to furnish abstracts of title to any citizen upon payment of a
moderate fee. This proposed enactment is strongly backed up by
the Chicago Real Estate Exchange, but, of course, the real estate
lawyers do not like it, as it interferes with their regular business.
It might be a good idea for our Legislative Committee of the Real
Estate Exchange to get a copy of this law and see if it would be
worth while getting it enacted in this State, An official search
into a title certified to by the Recorder, or, as we call him in New
York, the Register, would put a stop to the continued researching
of titles which now causes so much expense and delay.





The renewed prosperity of the South is working changes in the
political theories of its new leaders. In its past history the
Southern statesmen were extreme defenders of Jeffersonian
Democracy. " Give all the powers to the State," they said, " and
limit the control of the Federal government," This old Bourbon
view of the functions of government still obtains even among
Republican journalists and politicians of the North, but it is
gratifying to note that Mr. Grady, who made such a sensation by
his speech at the New England dinner, regards the governmental
question from an entirely different point of view. In his paper,
the Augusta Constitution, he says :

"Our people no longer get excited over the centralization and local self-
government theories. They are satisfied with the broad proposition that
this is an indestructible union of indestructible States. Deeper into the
question they do not care to go."

How different this reads from the editorials in the Charleston
Mercury and Richmond Inquirer previous to the war. The Con¬
stitution continues:

"In such a state of society live men can not be expected to care very
much about political abstractions. A new railroad, a canal, a cotton mill,
or the development of a rich mine, interest men of energy and brains more
than Mr, Hamilton's opinion of the theory of oUr government. Doubtless
it would be a calamity tohave our statesmen indifferent to our history and
tradifiona, but the practical tarn of mind cbaraetelisti(} of tbe^ present





The London press is commenting in an unfriendly way
upon the miscarriage of justice in this country. In England the
courts manage to get murderers hung within a few weeks after
the crime has been committed. We give homicides a couple of
years at least, and any quantity of trials. There ought to be a
public sentiment against the immunity we give to criminals.
The whole machinery of the law, both in civil and criminal cases,
should be rendered more efficient.





Concerning Men and Things.

***

The Evening Post has constituted itself as a champion of capital against
labor, which is all natural enough, and much that it says respecting the
pending troubles is very true; but it shows an unnecessary bitterness,
almost amounting to malice, towards the working people, and in its zeal is
often unveracious. While the recent coal labor disturbance was spreading,
causing immense annoyance to business men, it kept on persistently declar¬
ing that the strike was a failure, that the men were demoralized and starv¬
ing, and that tho companies had all the help they needed; when, of course,
its business readers knew that tbe commerce of the port was seriously
interfered with, and that the employing companies suffered as well as the
strikers. The functions of a high-class journal in such cases is to try
and allay excitement, not to create it. A malicious temper does not com¬
mend a public journal to sober readers, and untruthful^statements loses it
the respect even of the persons and interests it tries to serve.

*''' *
Colonel Richard Lathers says that New RocheUe has made wonderful
progress recently, and he credits Banker Iselin with being the promoter of
many of the improvements. The town has no w a large and excellent supply
of water, and boasts of a fine library aud gymnasium. House building is
all the rage, and a number of beautiful park-like streets have been laid out.
The place boasts of two horse-car lines, one of which connects the Neptune
House with Hugenot Park. Indeed, there is improvement in every direc¬
tion, always excepting the property owned for forty years by Colonel
Lathers himself. He is of opinion that people who formerly went to Jersey
would hereafter settle north of the Harlem. The New Haven road
promises half-hour trains in time. Ladies in New RocheUe and neighbor¬
hood can make calls in New York with less trouble and loss of time than
can the ladies of Brooklyn or Jersey. The Pelham Bay Park improvement
is of the utmost value to New RocheUe and neighborhood. In time the
Suburban Rapid Transit Road will tap Mount Vernon and New RocheUe.
Colonel Lathers is of the opinion that within twenty years New RocheUe
and probably Yonkers will form a part of New York city.

It**
According  to  the  Sun Mr. Joseph Pulitzer had  a rough-and-tumble
fight with Mr. Joe Howard, one of his employes, in which the latter was
put hors de combat.   It seems Howard had been hired at a high salary—
$150 a week—but his work not proving satisfactory to Mr. Pulitzer it bad
been cut down untU the contributor was made a reporter and was paid
at the rate of twelve dollars a column.   This led to ill-feeling, high words,
in a chance encounter ending in a knock down.     Howard has long been
known  in press circles.    He was brought into public notice by Henry
Ward Beecher, who procured his employment on the New York Times
in Henry J. Raymond's time, and subsequently got him out of Port Lafa¬
yette, where he was imprisoned for issuing a forged proclamation calling
for more troops whUe the civil war was pending.   He has since been
employed on the Times, Sun, Herald, World, and at one time controlled
the Star newspaper as its nominal proprietor and editor.    He has been a
popular writer, but does better under control in a regular oflBce than when
he writes without responsibility.   Then, he is ■ apt to be malicious.   It is
strange how some very clever writers cannot help wounding the feelings of
people if they have  a chance.    Of late years Howard has not been as
piquant a writer as when he was younger.     He is verbose, and has too few
ideas for the number of words he uses.    He has corresponded in time with
a great many out-of-town papers.

** *
There are certain expedients for selling goods, that were once almost con¬
fined to dealers of low standing, that have for many years been gaining
ground in estabUshments of a higher class. A worthy Quaker, who was
stopped by a side-street dealer and urged to buy a shirt at a fearful sacri¬
fice, said: " Friend, if thy shirt is worth three doUars, I should do wrong
to buy it from thee for ninety-nine cents, but I wUl walk on tiU I find a
two-doUar shirt for two dollars." If this conscientious party is stiU living
and adheres to his principles he must sometimes walk a long distance before
be finds a merchant that makes no pretense of selling for less than actual or
current value. In a great many handsome plate glass show-windows he will
see articles with such marks as, "$2.99, worth $4.00," or, "reduced from
$4.50," or, " sold elsewhere for $5.00." A little of aU this represents actual
job lot or auction business, such as cuts seriously, into regular trade, but
its vast amount is evidence that the greater part is humbug. These pre¬
tenses have become almost the rale, aud t^e fact that a great many people
Who are quite qolck-witted enough torunderstaoid Oaaa are, neTertgeleaa^