April 17,1886.





The   Record and   Guide.





487





silver mono-metallists that one metal is sufficient fco measure prices
in view of the paper agencies which can be used to dispense with
the actual transfer of coin. As a matter of fact, at no former
period in the world's history was there greater need of an enlarge¬
ment of the metallic basis of our paper money credits.

While on fchis fcopic, M. Cernushi's scheme for forcing Europe to
accept; bi-metallism may be noted. He wants the American govern¬
ment to stop the coinage of silver, and then to purchase the entire
product of our silver mines. This he would sell in London at a
loss so as to break the price of silver sfcill furfcher, and inflicfc so
much damage upon the Asiatic commerce of Q-reat Britain as to
force that government into an international agreement, recog¬
nizing silver as well as gold as a measure of values. Congressman
Warner and others have shown how impracticable this scheme is.
No government could voluntarily break down the price of a
national product to accomplish any international objecfc, however
desirable. But the conclusive argumenfc is that our Congress and
our people would never consent to ruining every business interest
in the country for a couple of years at least. The stoppage of
silver coinage and the "dumping" of our silver upon the London
markefc would cause a contraction of values so violent as to make
every day of fche week a Black Friday. The adopfcion of such a
scheme would pufc stock values down twenty poinfcs, and would
bankrupfc half the business men of the country.

We again repeat what we have often said before. The needs of
modern commerce requires the use of all the gold and all the silver
thafc can be spared from the arfcs, and, in addition, all the paper
money thafc can be safely converted infco gold and silver.





The Chief Secret of Local Improvement,

Few persons familiar wifch real esfcate operations in New York,
Brooklyn, and fche surrounding cities and villages can have failed
to observe the phenomenal growth of population over cerfcain lines
of improvement, while properfcy in adjacent and equally accessible
localities has remained unimproved and uaproducfcive. From the
vicinity of Washington square to Stuyvesant square, from thence
to the neighborhood of Madison square and up Fifth avenue until
ifc had reached and passed Cenfcral Park and extended to Harlem on
the east side, the growth of population has been steady and con¬
tinuous. But on the wesfc side ifc broke down completely at Fifty-
ninth street, notwithstanding the inviting character of the situa¬
tion to the northward, and ifc is only recently that fche inertia of
the neglecfced secfcion has been overcome. In Brooklyn the move¬
ment has been, if possible, still more erratic and curious. After the
exhaustion of the fcerritory on Columbia Heights and the vicinifcy,
one would have looked to see the spread of population in the direc¬
tion of Flafcbush, and to the neighborhood of Prospecfc Park, the
really flnesfc parfc of the city. But it has gone insfcead, and is still
going, in the direction of East New York over a territory less
afcfcracfcive and not naturally more accessible. In New Jersey, too,
the cities and villages have sprung up and grown often upon ter¬
ritory with apparently no claitns to improvement, while more
eligible sites have been neglecfced.

This is a circumstance very confusing to investors. Knowing
well how unreliable is the information that will be addressed to
their ears, they find, also, that they.dare'nofc trust their own eyes;
and so befcween the two sources of misinformation they are in doubt,
sometimes, if it will nofc be better to leave their surplus money in
bank, or invest ifc in stocks. From interested property-holders and
dealers in specifled localities they hear glowing prophecies of the
future. Rapid transit facilities are soon to be furnished, or, if
already furnished, they are to be greatly exfcended. The ground is
high and salubrious, the opporfcunitied for drainage are unsurpassed,
the headlight of a locomotive is already visible in the distance, and
all circumsfcances combine to render ifc morally cerfcain that in a
very shorfc time the holders of such property will almost be com¬
pelled to make a battle in the courts to keep ifc out of the market.
Yet the would-be purchaser, safcisfled for fche fcime, looks further,
and, bewildered at last, fares no better. He finds any number of
jusfc such attractive locations in New York and vicinifcy that, in
their presenfc condifcion, suggesfc a wilderness or desert, while the
adjacent salt meadow, or something naturally almost as much
depressed, is made to blossom like the rose. He sees that rapid
transit has not half th'e potency that he had been led to believe; that
men seem to fix their domiciles wifch the mosfc reckless disregard to
malaria; and that the simplest dictafces of good tasfce are set at
defiance. It is not wonderful, therefore, that he should sometimes
flpd himself quite at a loss in selecting the best fleld for his surplus
resources.

Is there no law that regulates the flow of population and directs
the line of improvement? Is it true that the imporfcance of rapid
transit has been overrated ; that attractive scenery and good sani¬
tary condifcions are to be put aside as factors of small moment in
estimating the prospective value of property, and that investors
are to be forever leffc at the mercy of chance ? These are hard
uestions to answer; and if the first must be answered in the negative





and the last in the affirmative there must be also a solution for the
phenomena of growth to be found in some not commonly observed
agency. There is such a solufcion, and, unforfcunately, ifc is one that
will nofc serve prospective invesfcors in the slighfcesfc degree, fchough
ifc should be of fche greafcest utihty to men whose invesfcmenfcs are
already made.

The practical builder is the man who holds in his hands the chief
condifcions for an immediate or early rise in values, and ifc is he who
directs the flow of population over the lines of growth which it is
made to follow. Look where you will and you wiU find this to be
true. Why has Harlem, at a distance of nine miles from the Bat¬
tery, so far outstripped the section of the city lying befcween Fiffcy-
ninfch and One Hundred and Tenth streets west of Central Park ?
Its transit facilities have been no better and its sanitary conditions
nofc so good. Yefc ifc reached a population numbered among the
hundreds of thousands while its compefcifcor was given over infco
the hands of goafc herders, during a period of ten years not wit¬
nessing the construction of one single new building worth men¬
tioning. The explanation of this spectacle is easy. The builders,
stimulated originally by the enterprise and co-operation of the
property-holders, had been active in Harlem, and had made there
a markefc for their producfcs ; while on fche west side of Cenfcral
Park the property-holders believed in descriptive diagrams, maps,
drawings, plans, plots and parks, and it remained uncertain if a
new dwelling in that locality could be sold for the cost of the
material. But mark the result when a single operator goes for¬
ward and undertakes a building enterprise of sufficient magnitude
to form the nucleus for a movement. Neg,rly forty new dwellings,
eligibly located on the Clark estate, were constructed, and the
advance of the wesfc side has now become as phenomenal as its
recent stagnation. That it will be covered by a dense population
wifchin a very few years is beyond quesfcion.

But while the practical builder is the magician who can conjure
cities and villages into being, it is not to be presumed that he can
ever become the original first cause. The initiative for a building
movemenfc in any backward localifcy must come from the owners of
the land; and if ifc does not come from them it will either not come at
all, or it will be delayed unfcil ifc is forced by fche excess of popula¬
tion in the more enterprising neighborhoods. The builder cannot
undertake to create a demand. Ha has no right to anticipate a
market for his products except in localities where the building
movement is well under way. To invest his capifcal elsewhere
would be aboufc as sensible as for a farmer to bring his vegetables
fco New York and offer them for sale afc the Bafcfcery instead of at
one of the markets.

This is a question of deep concern to men who own property in
North New York, in the vicinity of Prospect Park and at Bay
Ridge across the Easfc River, or on fchat newly-discovered terrifcory
known upon the chart as Staten Island. North of the Harlem
River fchey anfcicipafce greafc resulfcs from the extension of fche rapid
fcransifc sysfcem. They overrate the importance of this extension.
Relafcively, their transit facilities will not be greater in the future
than they have been in the past. The same may be said with ref¬
erence to the unimproved territory on Long Island; and on Staten
Island the situation of the property-holders is becoming, in a cer¬
tain sense, even critical. The island is threatened wifch conversion
into a receptacle for railway freights, including coal, and lager beer
gardens; and if its citizens wish to prevent a popular impression
that ifc is no longer to remain a desirable place for dwellings they
musfc prove to the contrary. Improvemenfc is their first necessity.
They will not have much luck in offering fcheir land upon the
market as ifc lies. Rapid transit can do lifctle more than furnish the
the conditions for an advance.





The arbitration called for by the House biU would only be an
excuse for unwise demagogical interference by Congress that
would result disastrously to the interests of corporations and
capitalisfcs, for govemmenfc interference would be on the side
of the party which polled the mosfc vofces. Mr. Jay Gould also
blundered egregiously in refusing to recognize the national organi¬
zation of the Knights of Labor. A compact made by Mr. Pow¬
derly and the vast organization of working people he represented
would have been flnal. Arbitration with local trades unions do
not always result satisfactorily, as this very case of the Missouri
Pacific Company shows. The employers, who are responsible,
are bound by these compacts; not so the workmen, who can strike
as in this case wilfully or maliciously unless the public opinion or
discipline of the united order is brought to bear on the local organ¬
izations. The trouble employers have found with trades unions
has been when the latter were local affairs. In England greafc
trade disputes are of rare occurrence since the principal unions
have become, as it were, nationalized. Employers in this country
have bitterly resented, and with reason, the interference of out¬
siders between themselves and their employes, but the conditions
under which labor can be profltably and reasonably employed have
changed of late years, and those who hire workpeople may as "well