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July 28, 188S
The Record and Guide.
541
THE RECORD AND GUIDE.
191 Broadway, N. Y.
TERMS:
ONE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS.
Communications should be adiiresaed to
C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
JULY 28, 1883.
The business of the country is undoubtedly improving. All the
centres of trade send encouraging reports to this money centre.
The dry-goods business looks better than it has done for some
time. Standard goods liave, it is believed, as demonstrated by the
recent large sale at auction, seen their lowest figurea for the sea¬
son, and there will be a heavy demand for them this fall from all
parts of the country. We have now had two full harvests, and the
growing cotton and corn crcps promise to yield abundantly. Our
agricultural classes are fairly well to do, although the prices they
obtain for their products are not as large as in former years. We
have passed through a spring and summer of dull trade, which
reducec? the stock of goods in stores. These must be replenished
during the coming fall. What may he called the animal crop will
be enormous tliis year, because of tlie abundant food and the stim¬
ulus given by high prices during the last few years. Indeed, veg-
itable and animal food, aa well as woolen and cotton clothing, will
be cheaper this year than at any time for the last ten years. This
will increase consumption and later on stimulate production. The
outlook is excellent and ought to be as beneficial to real estate as
other departments of business.
A new bankruptcy law was pending ia the last Congress when it
adjourned. Its consideration will probably be resumed in the
Congress which meets next December. Tlie British Parliament is
at present at work upon a new bankruptcy act for the United
Kingdom. It was put in shape hy Mr. Goschen, and is being
pressed by a member of the Cabinet, Mr, Chamberlain, Eoglaud's
experience iu bankruptcy acts is similar to that of our own, for the
Pall Mall Gazette declares that so far the bankrupt's estates have
been squandered by the legal harpies who get it into their posses¬
sion. It is discreditable to the business men of both Great Britain
and America, that they have allowed themselves to be plundered
by the courts, lawyers and receivers; but it is evident that both
nations will make one more effort to see if it is not possible to force
dishonest and unfortunate traders into liquidation without hand¬
ing over all the assets to legal plunderers.
The boom in real estate in :;he new Northwest has heen checked,
if indeed it is not over for the present. Winnipeg, which in a very
few years attained a population of 85,000, had three hundred real
estate offices in active operation last March. Tbeir occupation, all
save two or three of the oldest, is now gone. Carpenters and
bricklayers, who had all the work they could do at $4 per day a
few months ago, are now glad to take steady work at half that
sum. The only openings are for farm laborers, Of course the
incoming of immigrants still continues, but the fever is at an end.
The termination of the boom will probably soon be felt in the mar¬
ket price of those stock bubbles. Northern Pacific and Canada
Pacific. Manitoba has been on the down track for some time. There
is one fact about the Red River Valley, which people who think of
settling there would do well to bear in mind. It is subjest to
destructive floods. In 1836 all the settlements in that valley were
destroyed. Then came another avalanche of water in 1853, and
again a somewhat less destructive one in 1861. This year the
floods have come without doing very much damage, but the possi¬
bilities of their recurrence will always render that great and fertile
valley insecure to prudent people who wish to build themselves
homes.
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The daily press has already begun to agitate for a new building
law. Our own columns have shown that most even of recent ten¬
ement houses are planned and built in disregard of what all experts
agree to be essential sanitary requirements in the matters of light
and ventilation. The opposition to an amendment of the building
law enforcing a higher standard of construction comes principally
from the building trade, we are sorry to say. It is not unnatural
Aor especially discreditable. In good times the builders, like all
other men, are disposed to let well enough; alone. In bad times,
again like all other men, they do not believe ju givipg additional
discouragement to building enterprises. This is probably the
explanation of the opposition, so far ^s it does nofe proceed from
fijere jnert.ioij, But lys do not bplieyp thg buijdipg teade 'syould
suffer from the enforcement of sanitary regulations in building,
provided these were drawn by a man who knew what he was about,
and enforced with justice and good sense. In fact, if the adoption
of the proposed improvements were made compulsory in all tene¬
ment houses, old and new, as it clearly should be if it be made com¬
pulsory upon any, the alterations required to old buildings would
amount to a " boom " in building.
What curious importance is given to the shooting of a few rifle¬
men at Wimbledon. Nearly every newspaper deduces therefrom
the moral that our militia men should all be kept iu practice "at
the butts." But suppose we had half a million of men who could
hit a bulls-eye at 1,000 yards off, what good would it do them, as
individuals, or their use as a people? They could not prevent a
fleet entering our harbor or protect the Atlantic or Pacific coast
lines. Our only and our greatest peril ia the absolutely defenceless
condition of our great cities. We have neither guns nor ships,
and there is no possibility of improvising them in the event of a
foreign war. Fancy rifle shooting is a mere amusement, nothing
more.
Exit Palaver.
The modern world is beginning to tire of too much talk. The
signs are multiplying in every nation that Parliaments and Con¬
gresses are daily becoming more unpopular as the sole means of
administering governments. There was a time when there was no
limit to debate in the House of Representatives, while a compara¬
tively insigniflcant minority could put a stop to all legislation; but
now the previous question limits debate, while talk is confined to
one hour and some times even to flve minutes. During the next
session an effort will be made to check the flow of senatorial
eloquence by the adoption of the previous question in the upper
chamber. The Congressional Globe containing the speeches
of the members of both Houses has now a very limited circulation.
The work of the nation is really done by the committees of the two
Houses. This has long been the case in France, where the various
groups of the Corps Legistatif carefully mature all legislative
acts before they are submitted to the Assembly or Senate. The
proceedings in the German, Italian and Spanish national legisla¬
tures are even more summary than in France or the United States.
The British Parliament was the last to yield to the modern impa¬
tience of mere talk, but Parnell and his Irish fellow members, by
using the forms and ancient privileges of tbe House to put a stop
to all legislation, forced that body into the adoption of what is sub¬
stantially our " previous question," and now the main work of the
House of Commons is done hy what is called the grand committees.
The fact is, tbe exigencies of the modern world demand an econ¬
omizing of time. This is an age of telegraphs, steamand electricity,
and action must promptly follow conception. There is no time for
useless palaver. Tbe telegraph gives the news of the world in a
condensed form, and the paragraph in the newspapers has taken
the place of the elaborate editorial leader.
So far our courts are unaffected by the spirit of the age. Legal
decisions are as wordy and verbose as ever. Courts consume time
without limit. Litigation drags its slow length along, while
lawyers' biUs are more outrageous than ever. Procrastination and
expensiveness are the distinguishing features of our so-called halls
of justice. The British government in Ireland tried and hung the
murderers of Mr. Burke and Lord Cavendish within two months
after they were apprehended, but it took us a year to dispose of
Guiteau. And then look at that preposterous Star Route trial. It
cost nearly a million dollars and two years time, and then resulted
in a defeat of justice. One wordy lawyer actually occupied nine
days in his address to the jury. As General Sherman very well
remarked, all his points could have been better presented in one
hour.
The time has come when tho press and public should insist upon
a reform of our legal methods. This monstrous avalanche of words
ought to stop. Legal documents should be emptied of their
verbiage. The lawyer must put a check on his tongue, and judges
have some other business to do than grant delays for the sake of
running up lawyers' bills. In short, litigants when they go to court
must have some assurance that they will get justice, and will not
be plundered by the harpies of the law. In brief, the bench and the
bar must realize that they exist for the benefit of the public, and
that their own convenience and profit is quite a secondary consid¬
eration.
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Some impecunious scribbler in one of the city journals com-
pUins that there are no apartment houses in the fashionable
iweiiues and streets where suites of rooms can be rented for !g30 and
$40 a month. Refined but poverty stricken heads of families are
forced, he says, to go east of Third avenue, or west of Seventh
avenue, to find the accommodation they require. This is about as
sensible as to consider it a grievance that cultivated but impover¬
ished music loving people are not admitted to the choicest boxes of
tbe opera at gallery prip^e, T^^w is » matter â– ??J»icli regulates jtself,