July 11, 1885





The   Record  and  Guide.





777





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Saturday.

191 Broadwav, IST. "y.

Oiir TcloiiUone Call Is.....JOHN 370,





TERMS:

ONE TEIR, in adrance, SIX DOLLARS.

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XXXVI.





JULY 11, 1885.





No. 904





Hostility to the new high bridj^e across the Harlem River was to
l»ave beeu anticipated. The looation is not in the midst of a densely
populated district, and it looks to many like forcing improve¬
ments to i>ut between two and three million dollars into tlie work
at this time. The cost will not add appreciably to the tax levy,
for though, under the constitutional amendment, we must pay as
we go, the amount will only reach about $700,000 per year for
three years ; but it is believed that more important improvements
might have been undertaken. This belief is probably well founded,
but the more important works would not have been advanced by
the failure of the bridge project. This, also, is a point to be con¬
sidered, for there is no question that the bridge will be a useful as
well as an ornamental structure, and if we cannot secure the most
desirable improvements, such as new school buildings, sewers, etc.,
we shall do well to welcome the best that we can get. Let us be
only careful now that the work shall bo begun and brought to com¬
pletion without any scandal. One hundred years ago, during the
Revolutionary War, between McComb's Dam and the Hudson River
we had Kingsbridge—to-day we have no more, no less. The same
reasons given then against any increase in the means of communi¬
cation are given now—that the city cannot afford it, and popula¬
tion does not demand it. Successful railroad men say : Build your
road, population will follow. Our Mayor says : Get your popula¬
tion and then we will give you the bridge.   "Who is right?





Said Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, the other day, when discuss¬
ing with an interviewer the subject of the car drivers' strike:
" You see I cannot say I will not protect the company, for they
could then sue the city for damages. I must protect them the best
I can." It is a grave question where the responsibility of a city for
acts caused by rioters should cease. The courts may hold that
when no further exertion of restraining force is possible, a city
should not be made to meet the losses incurred through riotous
acts. But it is very difficult to decide when all the force possible
has been applied. Given a Mayor who is something of a
demagogue, and a cause for rioting which appeals to popular
sympathy, and it will be difficult, sometimes, to decide if all the
efforts made to preserve the peace and protect vested rights are
moro than mere feints. No matter how strong the pretense, in
cases where no honest effort is made to preserve order, and in this
country no honest and determined effort will fail, a city ought
not to escape responsibility for losses suffered. True, tliere may be
causes for disj^ute wliere compromise is desirable ; but that is a
question of no concern to an executive officer. The first right of
every citizen ■vt'iU be secured by the preservation of order, for it is
only when the law reigns that any rights either public or private,
can be maintained.





The managers of the horse-car companies in Chicago are a very
foolish set of men. They ought either to have been perfectly cer¬
tain that they would win or else to have acceded to the demands
made by their men at once, aud thus to have prevented the
strike. Instead of that they talked big and acted small. They
said that they would not relinquish their right to manage their
own business and to discharge men for reasons satisfactory to
tliemselves. They refused to submit the dispute to arbitration,
saying they had nothing to arbitrate. This would have been all
very well if tliey had backed it up. There was no excuse for their
not backing it up. There are thousands of men in Chicago who
would have been glad to take the work on the terms the strikers
reftised. Althougli the Mayor behaved in a very pusillanimous
way at first, he finally used the force of the city in the proper way
to keep order and prevent violence without taking either side of
the dispute. In spite of this and of all their loud talk the mana¬
gers backed completely down, took back all the strikers, discharg¬
ing the men employed in their places, and agreed to **investigate"
the conduct of the men on account of whose discharge the
others struck. Most likely this investigation will end in taking
these men back also. The result is that the strikers feel that
they have beaten their employers and that they can strike again,
whenever  they  see  fit, ^with  a  good  chance   of  success.    The





employers have not gained the good-will of the strikers, while
they have gained the ill-will of the men whom they employed
only to discharge them again. The next strike they have on their
hands thoy will get nobody to work for them except men who do
not know where their next meal is coming from.

The strike in Cleveland is a much more serious matter. The
novel of "The Breadwinners," which most people have read, and
of which the scene is laid in Cleveland, sets forth that the working-
men of that city comprise in their number many dangerous
agitators. This showing was much complained of when it was
made, but the events of the week indicate that it was perfectly
true, Cleveland was in fact in the hands aud at the mercy of a
mob. As soon as the strikers passed from doing as they liked with
their own business to interfering with other workmen in order to
injure the employer of these workmen they became rioters. Powder
and ball is the only proper medicine for that complaint, and it is a
flisgrace to Cleveland that it was not promptly applied. The whole
story of the riot has a very un-American character. In fact, the
foreign population of Cleveland is large and is very imperfectly
assimilated. It is characteristic that before starting out for its
deviltry the mob listened to a speech from "the agent for the
Anarchists' Committee," who probably told them that the majority
could live by robbing the minority, and the fools believed it. So
long as these Anarchist blatherskites confine themselves to talking,
and no mischief follows, the law does rightly in taking no notice of
them. This Cleveland orator, however, succeeded in inciting a riot,
and he ought to bo laid by the heels. The main difference between
a foreign and an American workman is that the former considers
himself as a member of a class, and thinks that whatever lie can
get out of the class above him is clear gain. The American expects
to rise, or, if he does not, he experts his children to rise, and he has
some anxiety about the rights of the property he expects to acquire,
A good deal of insight might be got into the labor question if a
magazine were to send a more competent person than the reporters
of the newspapers to investigate the disturbance at Cleveland, and
write a careful and analytical account of the whole matter.





The New and Ihe Old Wards of New York.

In forecasting the future movements of population and values in
the citj' of New York it is necessary to keep in view not alone our
municipal area, but the somewhat indefinite boundaries of our
metropolitan district. The territory covered by the cluster of cities
around New York Bay is so vast, and the local interests of the dif¬
ferent sections are so large and all-absorbing, that men are liable to
fail in their judgment through lack of general information. They
are like boatmen placed so near the surface of a river that they can¬
not observe the general direction of currents, and often find them¬
selves rowing against the flow when a higher point of observation
would have taught them a less laborious trick.

This reflection will be found to have peculiar force when it is
used for illustrating the circumstances of the annexed district. As
a rule, property holders in that section of the city regard its future
as under the control of the laws that have covered the Yorkville
and Harlem district with a dense population, and finally turned the
tide of improvement in the direction of the section west of Central
Park. They think it destined to be the home of men whose daily
vocations are pursued south, let us say, of Union square. But this
is only partially a true view. Whatever the facilities for rapid
transit we cannot cover a long distance so quickly as we can cover
a short distance. We cannot go from the New York terminus of
the East River Bridge to Fordham, a distance of thirteen miles, in
the interval of time which it would cost us to go to East New York,
over a distance, as the crow flies, of less than six miles. It is
unquestionably true that as transit facilities improve in every
direction, almost the entire eastern end of Long Islaud and the
northern end of Stateu Island will be as quickly accessibla from the
present business centre of New York as even the neighborhood of
Harlem, south of the Harlem Bridge.

It is important to keep this prospect in view, not so much for the
purpose of knowing where to make profitable investments as to
learn the proper course to pursue iu protecting and advancing the
undeveloped interests of New York as a distinct city. In making
investments a man with ability to hold tho property purchased can
hardly go wrong. Real estate may temporarily decline in value ;
but in every part of tl^e city or vicinity, taking a not very long
series of years for the estimate, there will be a continual and large
increment. But in managing our real estate interests we should
not be governed altogether by the instinct of buying and selling, or
buying and holding. A broader view, derived from considerations
of public policy, may improve our chances even upon the market;
and it will certainly tend to favorable results on the future pros¬
perity of the city.

In the view of rivalry with other sections of the metropolitan
district it would be fatal to the prospects of the annexed district in
New York to regard that section as a mere dwelling place for our
mercantile and industrial population.   For reasons already sug-