Febraary 28, 1884
The Record and Guide.
177
THE RECORD AND GUIDE.
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J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager.
FEBRUAIEY 33, 1884.
A Washington letter elsewhere conveys some information
which may well be called startling. Our correspondent eaya tbat
Bismarck means war. Germany has a great and so far useless
navy, and as the cities on the American coast are enormously
wealthy and utterly defenaeleas, he proposes to find a pretext to
seize tbem, and force the United States to pay aa large an indem¬
nity as did France. Our correspondent predicts that the next step
of Bismarck will be to annex some West India islands in defiance
of tbe Monroe Doctrine, but he does not explain why. The expla¬
nation is that Germany could not make an attack upon the United
States without establishing a naval station near our coast.
1880, plus the emigration we bave had since tbat time. As the
working-cIaBseB have received good wages recently tbey bave been
larger consumers than uHual. The Miller thinks that not more
than 26 per cent, of the crop of 1883 now remains in the farmer's
hands, and though the present visible supply is excessive, the actual
crop ia considerably more than 100,000,000 bushels short of tbe
crop of 1883. In short, the Miller thinks Ihat our increase in popu¬
lation keeps so near to our wheat supply that a very well defined
wolf may be seen prowling around the front gate.
What a pity Theo. Roosevelt is not a Democrat. If he were he
would be the next Mayor of New York, Indeed it might be possi¬
ble to elect bim as tbe opponent of all the machines. Tbe bulk of
the Republicans of this city are as restive under the rule of Johnny
O'Brien as are the bulk of the Democrats to tbe domiuation of
Kelly and Thompson. If the Republicans should put up Roosevelt
as the local standard bearer it would force the Democratic factions
to nominate good men in opposition to him. We bave always
advocated tbe principle of the bill passed by the Assembly last
Wednesday, But, of course, that measure does not go^far enough;
the Mayor should have tbe power of removal as well as appoint¬
ment. But a half a loaf is better than no bread, and if Mayors
make bad appointments when tbey have the power tbey will be
called to a stem account by public opinion, Albany reports say
there is little probability of tbe Assembly's action being confirmed
by the State Senate. This body cannot be changed for two years,
a fact which makes one regret that some political machinery is
not provided by wbich elected legislators can be forced to come
before their constituents at any time and run the chances of a new
election. We nominate Theodore Roosevelt as tbe Republican
nominee for next Mayor and Edward H. Ludlow, President of
the Real Estate Exchange, as the Democratic candidate.
An effort has been made to raise money for a statue to the late
Peter Cooper. It was in the form of a popular subscription and
has had but indifferent success, Peter Cooper would make but a
poor statue. He bad a homely face and an ungainly figure. The
greatest honor connected with his name is the Cooper Union. In
that institution be was a quarter of a century a head of the
American people. We have been felicitating ourselves on a com¬
mon school education which does not fit the youth of our country
for their work in life. By instituting a technical school, and
showing tbe value of science and art when applied to industry,
Peter Cooper furnished an example to tbe citizens of tbis country
which they should bave profited by. And in some few instances
this has been done. Mr. Aucbmulty has opened an establishment
on Second avenue to train lads and young men to be scientific
mechanics; our New York College is taking a step in the same
direction, and now comes the welcome news that tbe city council
of Toledo, Ohio, bas adopted resolutions to establish a manual
training school in connection with the public school, as a part of
the high school course, where each pupil may receive practical
training in any selected branch of mechanics. This is an intelli¬
gent and genuine effort to fit youths for future life work, and, if
properly conducted, tbe institute cannot be too highly appreciated.
Industrial education is exactly tbo thing needful for the youth of
this country, and its general provision would secure a remedy in
part for several of the social problems that now perples lia.
Our reduced shipments of wheat and corn to Europe are due, says
the Modem Miller, to a mucb greater home consumption than is
generally suspected. Our population of late years has been in¬
creasing very rapidly. In 1870 it was 88,658,000. The gain in ten
years was 11,590,000. Allowing for the very large immigration for
the last few years the Modem Miller estimates our present popula¬
tion at 60,907,000. A better estimate, however, is 58,039,417, Tbis
is based on the same ratio of increase which prevailed from 1870 to
The Gold Controversy.
According to the Seligman Bros,, the United States will ship
abroad some |30,000,000 of gold thia spring, and much more in the
fall if our crops turn out ;badly. As we stated last week, when
gold shipments were likely, the newspapers would immediately say
that it was due to the coinage of the silver dollar, yet the mints
were turning out $3,000,000 per month during alUhe time we were
importing gold. The reason why we will export gold now instead
of importing it, as we did some years back, is because we have had
poorer crops and lower prices for the little we sell to foreign
nations. Hence exchange is against us, and we must send gold
abroad to pay for our imports. Then as gold is the sole unit of
value among commercial nations it is becoming more costly daily,
which fact is shown by tbe shrinkage of values of all the commod¬
ities it measures. The true facts in the case are never furnished to
tbe New York reading public, as the daily press persistently gives
false explanationstif tbe situation. All our journals seem to be in
tbe pay of the great money-lending banking institutions, as they
never by any accident tell the truth.
We published, a short time since, the fact ofthe organization of a
Bi-metullic International Union in this city, with a membership of
such persons aa U. S. Grant, Hamilton Fish, Henry.Clews and
others equally well known. The secretary of this organization has
received tbe following letter from A. H. Buckner, wbich we hope
our subscribers will not only read, but will induce othera to read
aliiO. The United States is bi-metallio, and is misrepresented in
thia respect by the singularly provincial press of New York city.
But here is Mr. Buckner's letter:
HoDSB OF Representatives, U, 8. >
Was-htnuton, D. C, Feb. llth, 1884, f
W. M. Boucher, Esq., New York :
Bkar Sia—I bave youre of the Stb inst. with its inclosures aa well as
the English bi-metallic papers. Many thanks for these tracts as well as
for former favors of like bind.
I am'in hearty sympathy with your efCort to organize an International
Bimetallic Association for tbe United Statea, and if my name is worth
anything towards aiding it, you are at liberty to use it. The present is a
propitious period for enlightening the public mind on the necessity and
importance of co-operation among the chief commercial nations of the
world in fixing a permanent relation betweeu the two money-metals. Tbe
published addresBes of the English Bi-metallic Association by men of prc-
found thought and of great practical experience in financial questions,
indicate not only the great change of opinion that bas been going on
among the English people on tbe subject of bi-metaliiam within the last
year, but tbey also offer the most cogent reasons for the opinion tbat the
depreseion in the pricea of commodities since 1873 is chiefly, if not alone,
due to the appreciation of gold, growing out of the large demand for it by
the United States, Germany and other European nations.
If the facts collated by such men as Gkischen, Gibbs and others, and
their deductions therefrom, are not wholly misleading the further disuse
cf silver ae money, and its further substitution by gold will necessarily
lead to great financial embarrassments, general decline in prices and
violent monetary convulsions among the principal commercial people. So
great is the interest felt on the subject of bimetallism and kindred qnea-
tionsthat the Internationil Association of Eugland have resolved to ask
from Parliament authorization for a Royal Commission to ioquire into
the causes of the present depression in the pricea of commodities and the
influence tbat tbe increased demand for gold and Ihe diminished money
demand for silver has bad on these pricea. That tbe commercial relations
of Great Britain witb ber East India posseBsiona have been greatly embar¬
rassed by tbe appreciation of gold (or aa Eastern niono-metallists would
express it, by the depreciation of sil/er) is universally conceded, and it
will ba fortunate for ber people if tbey are not forced ao;ain to atone Jn
sack-clotb and ashes for tbe great mistake of 1816, made under the lend of
Lord Liverpool. The United States, if possible, bas a deeper interest
than Great Britain in maintaining if possible an Internationa! agreement
by wbich the relation between tbe two metals shall become fixed and
permanent.
Its commercial intercourse with and its proximity to so many of tho
flilver-uslng nationa of tbe world, and its wonderful mineral resourcea
both of gold and silver, to say nothing of the anomalous and unsatisfactory
Btatua of its silver coinage, makes the question of the complete reh^biliti-
zation, and unification of the two metala of aupreme and paramount import¬
ance. An association in the United States, properly managed and acting
in concert with Bimilar aasooiations al'-eady organized io Greet Britain
and on the continent of Europe, will manifest our profound interest In
thi« great question, aid in enltghtenlng publio opinion in thia country, and
tend to give aid, comfort and encouragement to all in other countries who
are working to the same great end. At present and for years past the
conservatism of England, and the influence of ^er example and power
over less important nationalities, haa been th(f i'hief obstaelo to our suo-
cesa; bnt tbe demands of her commerce, tV^ depression^of her cotton
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