October "T—14, 1882





The Record and Guide.





THE RECORD AND GUIDE.

Officje, 191   Broad^AT-ay.





OCTOBER 7—14:, 1882.





now and the meeting of a convention, -would elevate tlie whole
tone of our political discussions, which by the way, they very
much need.





TO   THE READERS OF  THE   RECORD AND  GUIDE.

In the issue of to-day ivill be found matter to suit many and
varied tastes. Publicists and politicians ivill find food for thought
in the suggestions made for changing the fundamental laiv of the
nation. Business men ivill peruse loith avidity the extracts ive give
from the press of the country on the conditions of the markets, the
crops and the finances of the nation. All ioho have houses to
decorate tcill find many useful hints in the department devoted
to that specialty; ivhile political gossips ivill be amused at the
piquant disclosures, concerning the lives and tvays of President
Arthur and Senator John P. Jones. » The revelations of our finan¬
cial xorophet may prove profitable to investors; tohile the prediction
concerning the men of the Nineteenth Century may be attractive

reading for those u-ho have faith in the better tin-es coming.
--------------9--------------

A superb picture of Morningside Park ivill be given as a supple¬
ment ivith The Record and Guide of next iveeh. It null include a
plan of the park, as it is to be, with an elevation and a parapet, the
lohole being in colors, so as to shoio how this unique park ivill appear
by next summer. Property holders and real estate dealers who wish
extra copies may have them for five cents each, or fifty cents a
dozen, and they would do well to send in their orders immediately.

WHY A NEW DEPARTURE ?
In enlarging this publication, and adding to its departments,
its proprietor has had certain definite aims in view, the fulfill¬
ment of which, it is believed, will add to the value and useful¬
ness of the paper. It has prospered for over fi fteen years, as the
metropolitan organ of the Real Estate and Buildiug interests.
But as land is improved in other ways than by building uron
it, and as houses, after they are coostructei, have lo be fin¬
ished, furnished and decorated, it follows, naturally, that
architecture, the plumbing, fitting and adornment of a dwelling
are necessarily related, each to the other, and all of them are
proper subjects for discussion in a journal devoted to the gen¬
eral interests ®f Realty.

Nor is this all. The investor in landed property, is always a
person of means, and he is interested in the state of the money
market, the condition of the crops and the general causes
which appreciate or depress the securities sold on the Stock
Exchange. Hence the aim of The Record and Guide will be to
present, each week, such facts and considerations as will help
to instruct the judgment of people who deal in any of the great
productions of the country. The design is to make this, in
every way, a business man's journal.

With party contests, proper, this paper will have nothing to
do; but it will discuss, in its own way, the larger interests and
issues of the day. A business paper, to be true to its mission,
could not afiford to overlook in its discussions, the government¬
al and political influences which affect prices and imperil the
financial stability of the nation. The Record and Guide has
positive views of its own, which it proposes to present to the
public. It believes that the power of legislatures and con¬
gresses should be curbed and limited, that executive authority
and responsibility should be largely increased, and that the
general management of corporations should be subordinated
to that of the national authorities. As the tendency of the age
is toward the centralization of power in the heads of the
nation, it follows that our civil service should be radically re¬
formed, so that political considerations should not interfere
with the eCQcient performance of the new duties required of our
public servants.

In view of the marvelous changes that have occurred since the
adoption of the present constitution of the country, it is one of
the purposes of this paper to present to the American people
reasons why it might be wise to hold a new national conven¬
tion to propose needed amendments and alterations in our
fundanrental lavs^j^^The discuMiaary^^





WANTED—A REVISED CONSTITUTION.

The Constitution of the United States was not framed for the
United States of to-day. The men who framed that instrument
were politicians and statesmen, not prophets. When the
astonishing development of the nation is remembered, the
wonder is, not that the constitution has worked so badly, but
that, on the whole, it has worked so well. The population of
the country is now probably 5-2,000,000 of persons. At the time
of the adoption of the constitution there were barely 3,000,000
of persons in what was then the United States. The area of the
new nation was then about 821,000 square miles. The area of
the nation is now about 3,600,000 square miles. Our population
has incieased about seventeen-fold, while our territory has
been increased by conquest and purchase nearly four and one-
half times. Wealth has increased with popiJl'ation. Gigantic
cities have grown up from petty towns, and even in what was
but a few years ago a wilderness. Manufactures have grown
wiih great rapidity. Our mineral wealth has beeu discovered
and utilized. The conditions of our life have grown more
complex with every decade and with every step we advance in
wealth and population. The development of railroads, tele-
giaphs and insurance within the last thirty years has been so
great and so peculiar that uo human foiesight could have
an'iclpated its dangers or its advantages. The war brought
a number of questions to the front which called for solution.
Some of these questions are solved, but the consequences
remain to plague us. In the South the negro has the suffrage,
but as a relief from the domination of ignorance, thereby pro¬
duced, flrst the rifle, than club and bull-.dozing and now the
false voting and false counting have taken their places as
institutions to limit and control universal suffrage.

Every competent observer has noticed that very many con¬
stitutional questions of the flrst importance are pressing
forward for discussion. The problems of the hour must be met.
To enumerate a few of them:

1.  The relations of the government to the questions growing
out of the existence of monopolies is of, the flrst importance.
The power to tax freight and traffic between different slates
and sections of the country and to discrimina-e for or against
localities or individuals and thus emich or impoverish favorite
places or persons at hhe pleasure of the master of the railroad
is now engaging the earnest thought of earnest men every¬
where. The anti-monopolyi.issue is a growing one. It is even
now making itself felt in politics. It is usually regarded as
dealing with the questions of transportation, but, as a matter of
fact, the anti-monopoly issue is much wiier than this question.
All monopolies should be regulated, telegraph, gas, insurance
and other like companies, as well as railroad companies,

2,  Legislative bodies arebretiking down all over the world.
The English House of Commons has become a byword.   A
few men have shown how easy it was to demoralize the most
famous deliberativebody in the world.  The parliamentary regi¬
me in France hasrelegated that nation from the head of the great
nations of Europe to 1 he foot   Making due allowance for the
disastrous results of the Eranco-German war, it is plain that the
freaks of an unstable parliamentary majority has had much to
do with placing Erance in the'-humiliating position in the diplo¬
matic world which she to-day occupies.   In Germany, Prince
Bismarck governs, in reality, as he pleases.   He plays fast and
loose with'parliament, sets off one party against another and
usually ends by having his own way.   Knowing- what he wants,
he is generally victor over a company of mere talkers, who
rarely know what they want outside of an opportunity to spout
and denounce.   But there is still another charge that must be
brought against representative bodies.   They are supposed to
be the collective wisdom of the state or nation for the making
of  laws.      It is   now a commonplace that laws are  badly
made.   It is   not too much to say that if legislation were
entrus'ed arbitrarily to the most ignorant portion of the com¬
munity, laws could not be worse made than ihey now are.
Our congress seems as unable to legislate wisely as any of
our state legislatures.   The fact is, a special form of talent is
required in framing wi;e and sani'ary laws, and this form, of
talent neither our mode of choosing legislators nor our system
of enacting laws by our legislators seems fitted to develop or to
select.   Our system of government is not truly parliamentary.
We have neither a responsible congress nor a responsible exec¬
utive.   Congressmen are anxious to usurp the prerogatives of
the executive, while the executive has no way to make its
influence felt in congress but by some dicker or trade, uS'Ually
about patronage.   The result is the well-known degradation of
our politics, which constantly turn upon some selfish squab¬
ble fo^ffice. ^                                  . .

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