rhe Record and Guide.





December 39, 1883





as useful and efficient as an exchange composed of active and
energetic young and middle-aged men, who have their fortunes
and careers to make? Will it not be too conservative and be indis¬
posed to take such actions as might bring upon ifc the animosity of
the politicians? The Exchange, to fulfill the expectations of those
who originated and organized it, must be something more than a
mere mart for buying and selling property. It should take the
initiative in reforming our land laws—in relieving tax-payers from
unjust burdens—in enforcing enactments which will ensure the'
construction of safe and substantial buildings—in short, it should
aim to aecure us responsible and economical local government
irrespective of party. An organization of merely rich men may
lack public spirit and be disposed to avoid the contention which
all must expect who try to effect reforms in the conduct of the
public business.

But to this ifc may be answered that the active management of
the Exchange, for the first year afc least, will be in the hands of
the brokers and the originators of the organization. They will
have the hearty co-operation of all the more public spirited
members, who will want the Exchange to be more that a market
for buying and selling houses and lots. Then again the yearly
members will have all the privileges of the Exchange except the
right to vote for the directors, and as they will be young, energetic
businessmen they will in all probability overcome whatever inert¬
ness may be manifested by the body of stockholders. It is the
active enterprising men in any organization who finally have their
own way.





The Trouble Ahead.

The depression in business haa run its course until it is uow
affecting the working classes. Wages are being reduced in ali the
large labor employing establishments, mills are being &hut down,
manufactories run on short hours, or not afc all, and mines are
closing up. There is less work and less pay forthe working classes
than at any time since 1878. To alleviate fche coming distress of
the laboring miUions is fche question of the hour. All business
suffers when compensation and employmenfc become restricted. It
is after all tbe laborers and working people who constitute the
spending class. Their poverty is immediately felt by the retail
dealers, while the smaller purchases of the latter iu time cri,.pie
the wholesale merchants.

This paper has all along urged that it would be wise for our
government, instead of economising, and thus adding to the general
distress, to spend its money liberally for needed improvements. Let
us use our greafc surplus aud unequalled credit in improving our
waterways—in making our harbora safe—in building a navy and
encouraging the construction of a merchant marine. The certainty
that the United Statea would for a time become a great employer,
would stimulate the iron business, give work to our manufacturss,
and scatter money among the laboring classes. Let no work be
undertaken but such as is ahsolutely needed for the protection of
our coasts, the improvement of our rivers and harbors, and the
encouragement of our almost extinct foreign commerce,

A Washington correspondent points out some facts wliich en¬
courages the belief that Congress will try and do something to
stimulate fche business of the country. Some of the shackles will
be stricken from the limbs of trade. The Mississippi River will
receive attention and something will be done towards giving us a
navy aud encouraging the growth of our merchant marine. Bufc
after all sweeping measures such as the situation requires cannot
be expected from the present Congress. We are on the eve of a
presidential election and any proposition to use large sums of
money for the rehabilitation of the business of the nation would be
denounced as a scheme to plunder thu national treasury. Then
Randall is the head of the Appropriations Committee, and Holman
is on hand to object to all expenditure, good and bad. We have
little hope that Congress will do anything effectual to alleviate the
crises through which the country is passing and which is destined
to bear so heavily upon the working classes.

Economy will be thu cry, and the work which might now be done
cheaply will be postponed till prices are high, and unnecessary
burdens will thus be placed upon the taxpayers of fche country ; in
other words the United States will pursue a policy which will in¬
crease the general prostration of business during the coming hard
times, and will add to its liabilities when business revives.

There is a dangerous spirit abroad. Socialistic and communistic
literature is being spread broadcast. The gospel of hatred of the
rich is being preached by hundreds of periodicals, and leading dailies
in this city think it to their advantage to pour obloquy and con¬
tempt upon the representative rich men of the country. Benjamin
F. Butler, the most dangerous demagogue that has appeared in the
politics of,the country since the time of Aaron Burr, is already in
the field as a presidential candidate. The laboring classes are bet¬
ter organized in their trades unions than at any previous period,
and the very gravest political and social complications are likely to
arise unless something ia done to keep the work people employed
and contented.





Our Prophetic Department.

Citizen—The French are hard at work upon the Panama Canal,
and M. de Lesseps, I bear, says it is to be finished within three
years. What consequences will follow the opening np of this com¬
munication between the Atlantic and Paciflc Oceans ?

Sir Oracle—Very important ones, political as well as commer¬
cial. It will result, I think, in forcing the United States to take its
proper place among the nations of the earth. By 1890 we will be
committed to a foreign policy commensurate with the population
and wealth of the country.

Citizen—How do you reason that out ? I can see very clearly
the change it will make in the commercial relations of the three
continents—Europe, Asia and America. We will lose a traffic
which has been verv lucrative. Our transcontinental lines have
been employed in carrying freight and passengers between Asia
and Europe. This business will leave us, of course, for the steam¬
ers of England and western Europe will sail direct to the Asian
ports via, the Panama Canal, All this is obvious, but the change
of national policy you speak of is not so apparent.

Sir O.^Before the completion of the Panama Canal you will
find that France, Germany and Great Britain will, in spite of the
protest of the United States, entirely disregard the Monroe doc¬
trine. They have already secured naval stations for coal and
naval supplies at various points on tho Isthmus and at either side
of it. An European league will be formed to neutralize the power
of the United States, so far as it can in any way affect the future
of fche canal. As we are impotent on land and ocean, having nei¬
ther army nor navy, we will be unable to do anything more than
protest. But the situation will be galling to our people, and it will
force them to take measures to become an aggressive power if they
wish to do so; in other words, our Congreas of lawyers will be
worked upon by every vital interest of the country to give us a
navy, and fco organize the militia under some national system. I,
for one, am a believer in what is called " the manifest destiny" of
this country. There must be no power between us and the North
Pole, and Mexico must become ours when the pear is ripe. The
Monroe doctrine, as popularly understood, will eventually be as¬
serted, and the United States will insist upon being recognized as
the controlling power on this continent.

Citizen—What will become of the old Republic if we have a
powerful navy on both oceans and an army ready for action, and
commit ourselves to a foreign policy which may invclve a conflict
witii one or several of the European powers ?

Sir O.—If the Republic is nofc equal to the new conditions its own
greatness imposes, if our institutions cannot be molded to face the
responsibilities consequent upon the development of the nation,
then it ought to disappear. This country is destined to a wonder¬
ful future, and I believe the Republic will live, but it will in many
essential features be a very different one from what it was during
the first century of its existence. If we have a navy and a mer¬
chant marine, we must have naval stations in distant seas and
wherever our flag floats, We will require Samana Bay, St,
Thomas and any island that is convenient in the West Indies. The
Sandwich Islands must be annexed, and we must somehow acquire
coaling stations which will be needed for onr growing Asiatic
trade. On matters jointly affecting all nations our governmenfc
must have its say. The eighty millions of people who will inhabit
this country in 1900 will have quite as much to aay in international
politics as Creat Britain, Germany or France with, individually, not
more than half our population. It may be safe to say fchat fche next
twenty years will see a greater development of our power than
existed during the first hundred years of our existence. The mid¬
dle-aged man of the beginning of the twentieth century will be
able to look back upon the most eventful page of the history of his
country.

Citizen—I see tbat Senator Sherman revives a project of Mr,
Blaine, when Secretary of State, to convene at Washington repre¬
sentatives of the Central and South American powers with a view
of coming to a common agreement on trade and other matters.
Does this mean the issuance of a manifesto of North and South
America upholding the Monroe doctrine ?

Sir O.—I do not see how the representatives of all the American
nations can come together without considering the possible conse¬
quence to all of them of the completion of the Panama Canal, but
as I understand ifc this particular convention is to see if aome plan
cannot be adopted which will secure more intimate trade relations
between the United States and South and Central America. Our
traffic with our southern neighbors, compared ivith that of Great
Britain, is as one to thirteen ; that is, for every one dollar of Amer¬
ican capital employed there are thirteen equivalents in English
money.

Citizen—When Mr. Blaine first suggested this conference the

press criticized him very sharply.    Will Mr. Sherman's scheme be

received with any more favor?

Sir 0.—Blaine was suspected of helping along some job in con-

I nection with the guano fields, and then he gave the impression of