April 25, lt85





The   Record   and   Guide.





461:3





wonder, considering human selfishness and the honors which men pay to
successful greed, that the great flnanciere and capitalists insist that gold is
the best basis for a national currency l It is the best—for them I—Denver
Journal of Commerce,

Growth of IVew Yorlt City Travel.

A company which proposes to add to the means of carrying passengers iu
New York City has resorted to statistics to demonstrate that there must be
a great addition to the facilities because travel grows so much faster than
population. The reports of the numbere of passengere carried in each yeai'
for a loug term of years are compared, and from these it is concluded that
whUe the average growth of population per decade is 46.7 per cent., the
increase in passenger journeys is 141.4 per cent. It is, however, uot safe to
•onclude that the increase wUl always be at this rate. If so, it wiU lead to
startling results. The uumber of passenger jom'ueys per inhabitant in
880 was 175. With an increase iu population and travel after 1880 at the
above rate, there would be 2SS trips per inhabitant in iS'.K), 473 in 1900, 775
in 1910, 1,271 in 19'20, and about 6,400 in 19.50, in which latter year New
Yorkers wiU take on the average about '20 car rides daily, and spend (at
present fares) something like *5,000,000,000 per year m car fares. Evi¬
dently the increase caimot alwags be at this rate, and the company in ques¬
tion perhaps suspected this when it modestly assumed as a basis for future
calculations the period from 1875 to 1880 wheu the increase in population
was 15.4 and in ti'avel 26.6 per cent., and the trips per inliabitant increased
from 160 to 175. But even at this rate the journeys per inhabitant would
become very nmnerous in couree ot time, aud nottung can be more certain
than that the more raijid rate of increase in travel cannot always continue,
though doubtless it has continued so far since 1880. The ti-uth is that the
increase in travel depends on circumstances which vary from time to time
In New York as elsewhere. There is a certain period in the
growth of such a city when there can be no growth in popula¬
tion without a gi'eat gro%vth in the transportation of city pas¬
sengers; because the town becomes so large that men can no longer
reach then' work on foot. This conies sooner and lasts longer in a city like
New York because the business quartere are to so gi'eat an extent shai-ply and
far separated from the residence quartere. Then, as firet one and then
another quarter is made accessible by street and other railroads, the pas¬
senger movemeut is much greater than the growth of population. But this
caimot always continue, and when all inhabited quarters of the citj' are
within reasonable distance of a railroad route, the passenger movement
wUl ouly keep pace with the population unless fares are reduced or the
poorer classes become more prosperous. An additional route which serves
no additional locality wiU hardly add at aU to the total passenger move¬
ment. It is, however, probable that several cross-town Unes in New York
City would develop a considerable traffic, and it is also true that the chief
elevated raUroads are reaching the limits of their capacity, so that it has
become a serious questiiui how tliL' future growth of travel over the longer
distances from nortli to ^outh shall lie iJi'ovided for. The four great lines
together can carry au uumeuscly grcuter traffic than they have ever yet
had; but two of them are placeii where comparatively Uttle traffic goes to
them, and the others are already getting choked. The trains are so numer¬
ous in the busy hours that no more can be put on, and their size cannot be
increased on the present structures. It is not easy to see any way out except
by r splaciug the present structures by sti'onger ones which wiU carry loco¬
motives heavy enough to haul longer trains. This is the city traffic most
likely to increase rapidly, as the parts of the city where there is much
room to grow are on these roads aud most distant from the business quar¬
ters.—Railroad Oazette,

European Colonization Schemes.

Europe is overcrowded and cau no longer employ and feed its population.
It is owing to this fact that we find the principal governments engaging in
the work of securing colonial jjossessions. They deem it necessary to
secure new territory to which their surplus popiUatious may be removed
and made self-sustaining as well as profitable to the countries of which they
wUl continue to be subjects. Thus it is that we find England developing
her power iu Egyiit, France in China, Germany in Africa and Samoa, Italy
in Africa, and Poitugal iu the Congo. These moveiiieiits all have the same
tendency, aud whUe they serve to tide over for a time the difficulties of the
home governments they are also of importance in pushing back barbarism
and improving the condition of the people who become colonists. Of course
there is a great amount of selfishness uuderlving these schemes of terri¬
torial aggraudizeiueiit. Tho governing class expect to find relief from the
burdens connected with maintaining the poverty-stricken class, while at the
same time they hope to perpetrate their power, influence aud wealth. There
is also at the foundation of the movement on the part of the several
governments a desii'e to monopolize new sources of profit and empire. It is
this which tempted England to send an army of occupation to Egypt, and it
is this which crops out iu the building of the Panama Canal, the object of
which is to secure in Em'opean hands control of the traffic between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to tho great detriment of this counti'y. That
the " true inwardness " of this Panama Canal scheme was understood by
the late admimstration is shown by the negotiation of a treaty with
Nicai'agua for the building of another canal under American auspices.
There was no territorial aggrandizement sought in this ti'eaty. The chief
objects were to secure to the U nited States an interoceanic highway which
should provide cheap transportation, enlarge our conuuerce with Central
and South America, and afford the government a means of defense in case
of war with foreign powers. The treaty, which should have been promptly
ratified, is no longer iu possession of the Senate, having been withdrawn bj'
the new Democratic president. I'aking advantage of our temporizing poUcy
the President of Gauteuiala has uudertakeu to proclaim himself dictator of
Central America, which includes Nicaragua. The uudoubted object of
Barrios is to close the door against auy further attempt on the part of the
United States to secure a canal through Nicaraguan territory. It is ques¬
tionable whether Barrios would have committed himself to the project of
uniting the whole of Central America under his own government if he ha4
not been moved thereto I'y European influence. The powers now so lai'gely
engaged in colonizing seheuies staiul oi)i)osed to the advancement of Amer¬
ican interests ou this coutiiieiit. What more natural, then, thau that they
or their agents should spur Barrios ou with the hope that the incitement to
civU war would lead to diplomatic entanglements, through which the
Umted States might be shut out from the advantages attaching to the
ownership of an interoceanic canal'! According to aU reports. Barrios has
acted under the advice of French agents, who have undertaken to supply
him with the means to make war, thus lending confirmation to the idea that
the movement is directed agamst the United States. If we are to be
crowded out of our natural rights through the intrigues of Em'opean agents
and lose the advantages conferred by the Nicaragua treaty, the fault wiU
rest with the present administration.—Cleveland Leader.

The Mexican Dollar.

One evident obstacle to any remarkable increase iu the volume of com¬
mercial transactions between this country and Mexico is the annoying dis¬
count on the sUver doUar of the sister repubUc. The Mexican doUai- con¬
tains 376 grains pure silver. Two of our half-doUars contain only 346
grains, yet they are worth to-day in this city 15 cents more than the dollar
of the Mexicans. The Mexicans regard the exactions of their correspond¬
ents as unreasonable and the discount on the coin of their country as out¬
rageous. Why their doUar, which contains 30 grains more pure sUver than
ours, should be worth only 85 cents is oue of the fictions of finance which
is beyond the comprehension of the Mexican mind. The Mexican doUar
should be made receivable for customs duties and be given equal value with





the sUver dollar of the United States by Congressional enactment. Other
sUver-producing countries south of us regard this heavy discount on their
coin as little less than robbery, and it is not presumable that any remarkably
close commercial relations can be established with Chili, Peru or other
South American countries with such a bar to the exchange of commodities
as is presented in the present discount on the Mexican dollar.—CcU, Grocer
and banner.

A Little Overdone.

The South seems to be making up for lost tune iu the matter of adver¬
tising its advantages. Immigration and capital are wanted, as they are
wanted in the Northwest, for the establishment of new industries and the
expansion of existing ones. To Northeru people it is pointed out that in the
five States of Alabama, Ai-kansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi there
are stiU nearly '-6,000,000 acres of Uuited States pubUc lands unsold, some
15,000,000 acres of state lands, besides the vast holdings of railroads. In
Texas there is an immense area of ^vUd land open to settlement, and capable
of supporting a popiUation of mUlions. To the capitalist and manufacturer
the advantages of Bu'nuugham, Chattanooga and other points for the cheap
manufacture of iron are held up in their strongest light; and the vast pine
forests, cotton fields, coal lands and water power of the South are named in
connection with futm'e great industries. This song of praise is not out ot
place, for the Southern States certainly possess superior advantages, apart
from climate, for the establishment and maintenance of industries
representing gi'eat wealth. But while this is true it is equally true that
much exaggeration has been indulged in with regard to the possibilities of
the South, and to the disparagement of other sections of the country.
The vast forests of Southern piue invite capital for the development of
the Imnber industry; the iron and mineral lauds for mining and iron manu¬
facturing purposes, but none of these lands are as attractive to the agi'icul-
tural classes as those of the West and Northwest. Generally
speaking all of the mineral and pine lands in the South are
poor; and the vast are known as the cotton belt is not suited
to the cultivation of small grain upon any considerable scale. In
Dakota, Nebraska or Kansas the settler has oiUy to buy plows and other
farming iin]ilements to begin the cultivation of oats, wheat, rye or other
crops, whereas in the South new land must be cleared with tbe axe, for the
monotonous routine of growing one staple—cotton. Latterly much has
been said of the advantages possessed by Alabama and Tennessee for the
cheap manufacture of iron. The fact that 100,000 tons of Southern pig iron
were sold last yeai' east of Ohio has, in this connection, been made the
subject of exb'avagant claims. While we are not disposed to deny that
Southern iron can be made very cheaply at some of the fm'uaces, it is not
improbable that the exceeding low rates ot transiiortation had more to do
with the movement to East^^rn pomts last year than anything else. The
Southern pig iron industry, it should be remembered, is yet comparatively
new, and its product must be marketed north of the Ohio aud Potomac
Rivers. For the sake of an additional market Southern furnacemen and
raUroad companies did an Eastern business in pig iron last year that must
have been withtait profit if it did not involve absolute loss. Furnaces in
Pennsylvania, enjoying equaUy as many advantages as then' Southern com-
petitore in respect of proximity to fuel and ore, and infhiitely better cu'ciim-
stanced so far as capital was concerned, made no special efforts to arrest
the sale of Southern iron. The sales from Southern furnaces were not
regarded as an entering wedge that would rip wide open the whole Eastern
pig iron industry. One huiicU'ed thousand tous must be multipUed several
times to afford a basis for a big scare.—Aga of Steel.

Where our Forests are Going.

To make shoe-pegs enough for American use consumes 100,000 cords of
timber, and to make our Inciter matches 3(K),000 cubic feet of the best pine
are required every year. Lasts and boot-trees take 500,000 cortls of birch,
beach and maple, and the handles of tools .500,000 more. The baking of
brick consumes 2,0{i0,000 cords of wood, or what would cover about 50,000
acres of land. Telegraph poles ah'eady up represents 800,000 ti'ees, and
their annual repair consumes 300,000 more. The ties of railroads consume
annually thirty years' growth of 75,000 acres, and to fence all our raUroads
would cost $4.5,000,000, with a yearly expenditure of $15,000,000 for repairs.
These ai'e some of the ways in which Americau forests are going. There
are others; our packing boxes, for instance, cost in 1874 .J12,000,000, while
the timber used each year in makiug wagons and agricultm'al unplements
is valued at more than $100,000,000.—Commercial and Shipping List.

Window Glass.

The St. Paul Free Press (Rep.) says:—" It is a somewhat significant fact
that the window-glass manufacturers, who are protected to the extent
of 75 per cent, at the expense of the consumers of theu product, are suffer¬
ing a great stagnation of trade. Neai-ly all their works are iiUe, but they
cau not clauu that they are uot protected enough. Protective tariffs do not
givi! thera trade; nor do these insti'umeuts keep their workingmen from being
idle about two-thirds of the time. But they continue to charge people $1.75
for $1 worth of window-glass all the same. This, too, is common glass, and
the tax falls heavily upon the verj' large number of persons of moderate
means. In no country ou the earth is such a tax laid on common window-
glass, which is au article of prime necessity."

A Kentucky Organization.

The Southern Pacific Company, which is tho uame of the new consolida¬
tion of the Central and Southern Pacific interests, does not signify any
change in the policy or control of the constituent lines. The same parties
are the principal stockholdere and officers of the combined companies who
controUed the capital and management of the separate roads, and were, in
fact, the creatore of both the lessor aud lessee railroads. The legal consoU¬
dation establishes certain guarantees for the comparative permanence of the
existing voluntary rehitious. It is said that the Southern Pacific Company
is organized on a charter which was quietly granted about a year ago by
State of Kentucky, and has been subsequently held imtU the maturity of
the plans of the incorporators. As before the consolidation the Southern
Pacific line is the only complete and internal raUroatl system which extends
from the Pacific across the continent, and but for the gap west of the
Chesapeake & Ohio, it would have au all-raU route to the Atlantic as well
as the Gulf.—Louisville Courier Journal,





Editor Record and Guide:

Having read with pleasui'e aud profit the several articles pubUshed in
your paper relating to purchase and transfer of real estate and kindred
subjects I would request you to ask the author (Mr. Van Siclen, I think),
to publish them in pamphlet foi'ui. Such a handy volume would be a
valuable addition to any real estate or business man's desk as matter for
reference on doubtful or disputed points. I think that gentleman would
meet with speedy appreciation and have reason to be satisfied with the
financial results. The articles certainly contain more pith than anything
now accessible to the general pubUc with which I am acquainted.

James Mao Farlane,

1539 Broadway.

It is the intention of Mr. G. W. Van Siclen to coUect and edit the chap-
tere on real estate which he has pubUshed from week to week, and we hops
soon to announce the work for sale. It wiU be useful to aU real estate ownere
and indispensable to those who buy and seU.—Ed.