Ai>ril 19,1884





The Record and Guide.





401





THE   RECORD  AND   GUIDE.

PublisJied every Saturday.
191   Broadway,   N.   Y.





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Oommunioations should be addressed to

C. Ws  SWEET,  191   Broadway.

J. T. LI5D3ET, Business Manager.





APRIL 19, 1884,





And now Judge Noah Davis ivants llio constitution amended
80 Ihat a general law cau be passei regulating mai-riage aiul
divorce. Ojr State Jaws oa iliia subj:ct are " confusion worse
confounded," A woman ia a wife ia one State and a mistress ia
anoiher. Children are legitimate in one sectionof the countiy and
bastards elsewhere. This creates unnecessary unUappiness in tens of
thousands of homes. A general law affeciing all the States 13
greatly needed, but this cau never be securod unbst, aa pfiipoaed
in The Record and Guide two years ago, a national constitutional
conveuiiou ia lield to amend our fundamental law ia thia as ia other
important particulars.

-....—o—-  —

Tiie proposition to issue one and two dollar silver certificates 13 a
foolish one. We ought to liave gold and silver in actual circula¬
tion as is lb« cnse ia Great Britain, France and Germany. Con¬
gress should withdraw the fives and tens of boih llie greenback
end national bauk iijsues. This would leavea vacuum lo befilted
by silver dollars and gold eagles and Jialf eagles. Were this done,
and ahundred and fifty millions of gold and silver be demanded for
the retail traffic of lbe country, there would be far less gold eent
abroad. But we want no more small billa. Let us have actual
metallic cash.





Tho Civil Code now before the Legislature is vigorously de¬
nounced by Professor D.vig!it, of Columbia College Liw School,
because of its interference with the old relations of landlord and
tenant. He claims that should tlie code be enacted- landlords will
be at a serious disadvantage ; that a tenant could make repairs of
his own notion and charge it against tlje owner. There is not much
likelihood of the code being accepted. The lawyers fear it would
cut down their profits, aa well as to force them to study the new
relations «hich will be caused between plaintiffs and defendants.

o--------■—~

Why do not the property holders interested form an association
to push forward the Harlem River improvement? This matter bas
bet?n discussed for half a century. The United States has made the
necessary appropriation to at least begin the work, and yet selfish
interests are allowed to interfere with its inauguration. The people
who live in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards are at a
serious disadvantage bo long as the present state of affairs con¬
tinues. There are no efficient meana of supplying the centrttl zone
of the annexed district with buildiog material, while coal and
other bulky articles are very costly because of iasuffijient dockage
on the Havlera River front. Personal interests seem to have some¬
thing to do with the delay of this needed improvement. Every
proposition made to Congress involves the name of a would-be
contractor who wishes to boss the job. Thia is a matter of vital
interest, not only to the owners iif property lying on each sideof the
Harlem River but to the city at large and the commerce of the
couutry. Au associatioa of property holders ought to take this
matter in hand and see that the work is prosecuted.





Mr. Abram L, Earle sends ua a communication printed else¬
where anent the cable road system. AVhat he says should have
weight, ai he was ooe of the Rapid Transit Commissioners who laid
out the routes for the cable roads. There is no doubt but that
the cable would be an improvement upon horse power. Betier
time can be made with it and the riding is pleasanter. Tbe
backers of this system of street roads seem to have abundance of
enterprise and money but some of their methods show lack of
judgment. The meetings held under their auspices at Cooper Insti¬
tute were ridiculous affairs. Singing and harp playing is not the
way to commend a grave money-making project to the business
men of a commercial metropolis. Then the employment of so
absurd a person as Frank Spinola lo represent tliem at Albany was
a serious blunder. But with nil that the cable cchenie, forooniplete-
ness and the accoramodntion of the public is fur preferable to
the monopoly which tlie horae car-companies are trying to get by
tha aid of the Legislature and the city press.   We aj« also of tbe





opinion that any pystem which may he endorsed by the aulhoritioe

should agree to i>ny a percentage of the gross receipts iuto the city
treasury. Had our rulers wisdom in tlie past, the ferry, gas, horse-
car and elevated companies would to-day be paying into the city
treasury a sum equivalent to one-third of our assessed taj^es.

The builders are not satisfied with the shape in which the new
building law is now before the Legislature; what they demand is
the riglit of appeal from the decision of the Superintendent of
Buildings to the Board of Examiners. In the draft of the bill be¬
fore the Legislature such an appeal is permitted if the builder can
induce tlie Superintendent to permit its being made. Now tho
present Superintendent may be always right, but then he may have
a successor who would be often wrorg, and the builders do not
think they should be absolutely at tlie mercy of even the most
ronecientiijus public ofiicer, A memcrial has been prepared by the
Reai Estate Owners'and Builders' Associaiion setting fori li ihe facia
iu the case and proposing suitable amendments to ihe law. Build¬
ers can gi't copies rf lliis document by applying to John Graham,
secretary, No. 30-J East Foriy-third street. Tlieiiitenlion ia to have
as many names of leading builders and ar-hitects as can be pro¬
cured so as to impress the Legislature and insure t.ho passage of tho
proposed amendment.

■   .0—■-----------

E'litor Murat Hilstead, an old-time advocate of "the dcllar of
our daddies" is now anxious that the coinage of silver dollars
should stop. Uti wanta to bring Great llriiain, Gern aiy, I'aly
and the other gold unit nations to their senses by wiUidrawing iho
support no\v given by the Uoited Scales to tha price of ailver
bullion by the coinage of two million dollars a momli of standard
dollari. Should Ihis be done there would, of course, ba a stiU
greater fall in lbe price of silver bullion, and tl e dollars iu exist¬
ence, which now represent between eighty-five and eighty-six aa
compared wilh gold, would probably full to seventj-five or seventy.
The real phenomenon would, of course, be an enliancement in llio
value of gold and a gr^'at enrichment of the capitaliot, band-
liolding and fixed income classes. Bat it would be a terrible blow
to the bu-*iness world, and impose fng'-.iful burdens on the debtor
class. The trade of the world is st iguant and depressed because of
the attempt of the commercial nations to make the one precious
metal do the work of both. Stopping our silver coinage would
undoubtedly pracipitate a crisis in all the money markets of Iho
world, The commerce of mankind reqniies all the gold aud all
the silver, as welt as all the paper that can be used convertible iuto
gold and silver, to carry it on successfully. Any legislation which
contracts the curreni'y of the world is sure to be followed by a
period of poignant distress.





A Queer Decision.

Judge Van Brunt's decision in the Mauhattan-Metropolifan dis¬
pute is, to say the least, peculiar. Ha whitewashes Jay Gould and
his associates. Theso gentlemen were_ n:t guilty of any wrong.
It was desirable that the elevated road system should be cousoli-
dsted, and the Metropolitan Company had uothing to complain of
in the preference given to tha ^east aide elevated, or to the aix per
cent, allottgd by the October agreement. Still, according to .fudge
Van Brunt, the lease at the reduced rental was invalid, because tbe
matter had not been submitted to the stockholders for ralification.
This is in direct conflict with Judge Blatcbford's decision, wbich
says directors have the right to do what Judge Van Brunt declares
to be beyond their powers.

Tbia, like nearly all recent decisions, is made in tbe intereat of
courti^, lawyers aud speculators, and is a grievoua tax levied upon
corporate property to beneflt alien interest. Three cUar-beaded
businessmen could have settled every point in di.'^pute iu tho
elevated road litigation in three days' tiiue, at a cost that ahould
uot exceed two iiundred dollars. It wilt be probably five yeara
from its commencement before our courts will get through wilh
ibis matter while in the meantime lawyers will run up their bills
into the mil'.ioas. Tbese and similar prDceedings are a mockory of
justice. Our courts, with their costs and delays, are fast becoming
the giant nuisance of the age.

There is one thin,:; that looks queer. When Judge Van Brunt
had written that portion of his opini'jn which justified Jay Gjuld
and Jiis associatea in making the lease, Manhattan stock went up
sixteen points, and when he finally decided against the validity of
the lease the stock fell to ita old figure, two weeks before his ver¬
dict waa made public. Some one seemed to know all about the
opinion while it was being written, and when it waa fiii.illy given
tothe public thero waa scarcely any change in the quotation, fo
accurately hid aome one in Wall street gurssed at the result
beforehand. No one of course suspects Judge Van Brunt of any
wrong-doing, but ihou-iandj of shares woe bought and sold by
opernlors who seemed to know what hia decisioii would bo. Tho
rnost inJefensi'jle pjrtioa of this opiniju is its reb;ibilitalion of the
characters of tbe engineers of this Manhattan deal.   It ia kuQwn





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