October 4,







The Record and Guide.





993





THE   RECORD  AND   GUIDE.

Published every Saturday.
'~          191   Bpoad-way,   N.   Y.





TERMS:

UNE fEAR, iu advauce, SIX DOLLARS.

lOommunications should be addressed to

C, W.   SWEET,   191   Broadway.

J. T, LINDSEY. Busine^ Manager.

OCTOBER 4, 1884.





Tammany ticket, but will be open to negotiations from the Repub¬
licans as well as the County Democracy. In the meantime the
fact remains that the Tammany ticket is a very creditable one.





Our readers would do well to carefully peruse the new department
in thia paper, beaded the "World of Business." The financial
discussions in our city journals are of very little value. That
department of our daily and weekly preas is not distinguished by
flolid judgment or wide information. A perusal of the extracts
we give from the papers of other cities shows how much superior
they are in this respect to the so-called metropolitan press, It will
be observed that all these financial authorities are deploring the
condition of general business. The world is full of food and goods.
The barns, the elevators, warehouses and wholesale stores
are overflowing; but there is a grievous blight on trade
the world over. The general impression is that the trouble is due
to over-production, yet all the nations swarm with hungry and
half-naked people. May uot the difficulty be under-consumption,
due to lack of money ? In various epochs of the past there were
great discoveries of gold and silver, which always stimulated the
trade of the world ; but the yield of precious metals, especially of
gold, has largely fallen off during late years, and then the commer¬
cial nations have combined to discredit silver and thus lessen by
one half the specie reserve of mankind. Hence the blow at
prices, the declining markets, the distress of borrowers and all
engaged in trade transactions in spite of the gifts of nature aud
Providence, in the way of great crops of food and the raw ma¬
terials for clotning,

--------•--------

All accounts from the West agree that the farmers will planfc less
wheat this year than last. They wili turn their attention to corn,
grass growing and the breeding of animals. There seems to be no
step backward in the price of meat whether the times are good or
bad. A writer in the Louisville Courier-Journal, whose article we
copy, urges farmers not to abandon wheat growing. It is an easy
crop to raise, requires little labor, and then he urges with much
force that next year may probably see relatively high prices for
that grain. The cheapness of wheat for the last two years has dis¬
couraged hiuropean growers and made the distant wheat fields,
especially those of India and Australia, unprofitable. "Sir
Oracle," in this paper, takes the same view. From the outlook at
present, even if there should be a good season, it is doubtful if we
will grow 400,000,000 bushels of wheat next year, that is 100,000,000

less than this year.

----------•----------

The Tammany county nominations are unexpectedly good.    In¬
deed, no serious objection can be urged against any of the nom¬
inees, except, perhaps, that the two who head the ticket are young
men and not as well known as some other citizens.   But Messrs.
'Grant and Dugro are by no means inexperienced, they bear good
characters and are each largely interested in city real estate.   If
the Republicans would  now nominate   Theodore Roosevelt for
Mayor and   the County  Democrats  should put  up  Franklin  B.
■Edson, Andrew H. Green. ex-Mayor Cooper, E. H. Ludlow or any
■other citizen of equally high standing, New York would be pretty
isure to have an excellent chief magistrate, no matter which party
was suGcesful.    It does not seem likely that Tammany can, unas-
.Biated, elect its local ticket.   The total vote of New York may run
as high as 230,000 at the next election.   When John Kelly ran for
Governor he received 43,047 votes.    Allowing for the increase of
the population, it is not likely that through its own unassisted
•efforts that Tammany could poll more than 55,000 votea.    In 1880
the Republican electoral ticket polled 81,730 votes, and the Demo¬
cratic   ticket   123,013 -votes.    Blaiine,   the Republican canvassers
assert, will poll the largest vote ever given to a Republican Presi¬
dential  candidate in this city,  due to the inciease in popula¬
tion   as   well as   to   a   certain percentage   of   the   Irish   vote
heretofore   Democratic.     Calling   it   85,000,  this   would   leave
90,000   votes   for   the   County   Democracy   and   the   chances,
therefore,   would   be   in   favor   of   the   latter's   nominees   for
the county ticket.     But the canvass of Gen.   Butler   and   St,
John will doubtless take city votes which would otherwise go for
Blaine and Cleveland, but on local candidates these disturbing
influences will not be felt.     There may be eometbiDg in  the
Btories extant that Mr. John Kelly does not* iptes^ to run a straight





The old gas companies of New York are to be consolidated into
one corporation. This has been rendered necessary by the progress
of the Equitable Gas Company, which is understood to be iu alli¬
ance with the famous Standard Oil Company, whose charter
requires it to furnish gas for $1.75 per thousand, while the old
companies have been charging $3.25 per thousand. It was the last
Legislature which passed tbe enactment permitting these gas com¬
panies to combine. Hereafter they will have a complete
monopoly, as a law has also been passed forbidding rival
companiea from tearing up the street pavements. This
last law was conceived in the interest of the gas as well aa the
steam companies. All the daily papers clamored for it, ostensibly
in the interests of the city, and to prevent the pavements from
being disturbed. The Governor's attention was called to the
immense corporation axe which these enactments were intended to
grind, but he approved them nevertheless. After all, perhaps it is
better that the community should deal with one or two gas corpora¬
tions rather than with a dozen. There can be no competition in
the gas service any more than in railroading or telegraphy. The
municipality itself should furnish gas as it does water, but as we
cannot have city ownership at present, the next best thing is to
have the gas furnished by one corporation. Leaa plant is required,
the gas can be furnished cheaper, and one organization is more
amenable to public opiuion than would be a dozen.

----------•----------

Limiting Local Taxation.

The voters of this city aud State will be asked to cast their ballots
at the election in November next for a constitutional amendment
restricting counties, citiea, towns and villages from incurring
exceasive indebtedness for any cause whatsoever. Constitutional
amendments of the same tenor have been passed in Missouri, Illi¬
nois and other Western States and they have not only worked
well but have been found necessary to save local communities
from the effects of their own improvidence and lack of fore¬
sight. Local government is an excellent thing in itself but in
practice it has not been perfect. Boards of Aldermen and Super¬
visors representing tax-payers have not scrupled to impose debts
upon their respective localities which the owners of realty not only
found burdensome but impossible to pay. The following is the
law which was proposed in 1888, and having the endorsement of
two Legislatures is to be voted upon at the next general election :

Whereas, At the annual session of the Legislature for the year eighteen
hundred and eighty-two, bhe following amendment to the constitution
wtts proposed in Senate and Assembly, viz.:

Resolved (if the Senate concur). That section eleven of article eight of
tbe constitution be amended ao as to read as follows:

§ 11. No county, city, town or villftge shall hereafter give any money
or proparty, or loan its money or credit to or in aid of any individual,
association or corporation, or become directly or indirectly the owner of
sti^ck in, orbonds of, any association or corporation; nor shall any such
county, eiiy, towu or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness,
except for couoty, city, town or village purposes. This section shall not
prevent such county, city, town or village from making auch provision
for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law. No
county contftining a city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, or any
such city, shall be allowed to become indebted for any purpose or in
any manner to an amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall
exceed 10 per centum of tbe assessed valuation of the real estate of such
county or city subject to taxation, as it appeared by the assessment
rolls of said county or city on the last assessment for State or county
taxes prior to the incurring of such iudebteduess; and all indebtedness
in excess of such limitation, except such ns may now exist, shall be
absolutely void except as herein otherwise provided. Ho such county
or such city whose present indebtedness exceeds 10 per centum of the assessed
valuation of its real estate, subject to taxation, shall be allowed to become
indebted iu any further amount until such indebtedness shaU be reduced
within such limit. This section shall not be construed to prevent the issue
of certificates of indebtedness, or revenue bonds issued In anticipation of
the collection of taxes, for amounts actually contained, or to be contained,
in the taxes f Jr the year when such certificates or revonue bonds are
issued and payable out of suc-h taxea. Nor shall this section be con¬
strued to prevent the issue of bonda to provide for the water supply, but
the term of the bonds issued to provide for the supply of water shall not
exceed twenty years, and a sinking fund shall be created on the
issuing of the aaid bonds for their redemption, by raising annually a aum
which will produce an amount equal to the sum of the principal and
interest of said bonds at their maturity. The amount hereafter to be
raised by tax for county or city purposes Id any county containing a
city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, or any such city of this
State, in addition to providing for the principal and interest of existing
debt, shall not in the aggregate excsed in any one year 9 per centum ot
tbe assessed valuation of the real and personal estate of such county or
city to l.e ascertained as prescribed in this section in respect to county
or oity debt.

And, whereas. The said proposed amendment was agreed to by a majority
of the members elected to aach of tbe two Houses ot the Mid Legialar

ture, eat«rsd in tbeir joutpsIb witb tbe yesB and ueye taken thereon