April 34, 1886





The  Record  and  Guide.





528





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Saturday.

191 Sroad^w^av, IST. Y.

Our Telephone Call is.....JOBEN 370.

TERMS:

ONE ¥EAR, in adyance, SIX DOLLARS.

Coramunications should be addressed to

€. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XXXVII.





APEIL 24, 1886.





No. 945.





It is not much use to say anything about the business outlook
this week. Everything depends upon the labor disputes. The
working people seem to be crazy, and, until this mania for strikes
is over, people contemplating new enterprises or extending their
business will wait until a more reasonable frame of mind shows
itself among the laboring classes. A check has undoubtedly been
given to business, and perhaps after all, the final result of the labor
disturbances may be wholesome. We will have a duller summer
and more unemployed working people, because of these strikes, a
state of things which will doubtiess bring the discontented to their
senses by the time the fall trade commences.





not submit it and end the difiSculty at once ? What is to be gained by
prolonging riot, disorder, and destruction of property ? What can be Jay
Gould's object in continuing the strike when it is within his power to
settle it immediately and have the issues decided in his favor ? It is not
to be believed that he woidd prolong this ruinous and destructive con¬
troversy without having some ulterior ptu-pose in view, but it ia plain that
his com-se is calculated to depreciate Southwestern stocks, and furnish just
the opportunity desired by a raUroad wrecker who rejoices in a Black
Friday. Jay Gould's course is inexplicable on any soimd business principle,
but entirely consistent, if viewed as a part of the vrrecking policy of a stock
gambler.

We repeat that this matter ought to have been adjusted rather
than allowing an appeal to be taken to Congress. The great cor¬
porations will have little or no chance with Representatives eager
to propitiate the labor vote.





President Cleveland's message on the labor troubles has the
merit of good intentions. But that is all which can be said in com¬
mendation of it. Voluntary arbitration will be no settlement of
such disputes as have occurred in the railroads of the country. If
the President had only favored some such plan as that advocated
in this journal, making railway employes a part of the police force
of the nation, he would have committed himself to a programme
which would give us peace forever after on the transportation lines
of the country. The only other solution is voluntary arbitration
between the great capitalist corporations on one side and the great
labor organizations ou the other. The experience of builders and
other employers in this city is that local trades unions are tyran¬
nical and irresponsibl••. They are a source of grave disturbance in
conducting building operations, especially as people who take con¬
tracts do not know on what to depend, for the local unions take
advantage of their necessities. But in England the experience is
that manufacturing companies and large employers who deal with
the national unions get fair treatment, and agreements can be
made ahead so that there will be no interruption during busy
seasons. National organizations, such as the Knights of Labor,
are managed far more wisely than are the local unions. Voluntary
arbitration with them is likely to have better results than if the
disputes should be brought before State, national and arbitration

courts.

--------•--------

When these labor troubles first commenced we suggested that
Mr. Jay Gould made a capital mistake in so manipulating the dis¬
turbance as to get it into Congress. The corporate wealth of the
country cannot afford to appeal to that tribunal in view of the
servile attitude cf Congressmen to the labor vote. Mr. Gould
would not arbitrate the troubles, for in doing so he would be forced
to recognize the Knights of Labor. But he will find that unreason¬
able as the workingmen may be. Congressmen will be far more so
in their hunt for supposed popularity. The Tribune Washington
correspondent thus comments upon the manner iu which the Con¬
gressional committee paid court to Mr. Powderly and the other
labor witnesses:

The delicacy with which the witnesses were handled by members of the
committee presented a strong contrast to the short work made at that very
time .of the Pan-Blectric statesman in a room two floors below. The vote
of the laboring man seemed to be always uppermost in the thoughts of
the committee. One member actually asked a witness's pardon for pre¬
suming to ask a certain question.





A correspondent calls attention to the relationship that apparently
exists between the Southwestern strike and that on the Third avenue
road. Mr. Jay Gould, president of the one company, !s an intimate
personal friend, and practically a business partner, of Mr. Henry
Hart, the ex-pawnbroker, who is the controlling owner of the
Third avenue stock and vice-president of the company. Hart, like
Gould, has forced the fight from the beginning, and his tactics
were the same—declining to arbitrate and refusing in any way to
recognize the organization of the employes. There is reason to
believe that the actions of both were after consultation. The
Western papers are beginning to take ground against Mr. Gould's
position. The Chicago Tribune, which is bitterly opposed to
Knights of Labor and all labor organizations, declares that Mr. Jay
Gould has taken a position—

Not justified by ordinary business sagacity or policy. If his case is such
that a board of arbitration would be compelled to decide ia his favor, why





The Tribune has just found out that the prohibition vote is likely
to be an important factor in future political contests, not only in
this State but throughout the country. We have been sayiug this
for several years past, but the Republican party of this State was so
unwise at the last election as to nominate a candidate for Governor
who was particularly obnoxious to radical temperance people.
This moral issue will prove stronger than any of the old political
points of difference between the two parties. The local option
question has divided the Southern white and colored vote in a
most surprising way, and it is destined to create equal havoc in the
rank and file of the Democratic and Republican voters of the
North. Another fact it wotild be well for politicians to keep in
mind is that the labor question wiU enter lagcgelj into politics this
coming fall. Governor Hill owes his election to his indorsement
of the extreme demands of the labor representatives. And Mr.
Gould's singularly perverse management of the Southwestern
difficulty has forced the labor issue into national politics. Hereto¬
fore the working people have declined to vote for the agitators who
claim to represent them, but there is no telling what they may do
next fall. Between the prohibition and labor issues it looks as
though the two old party organizations will, temporarily at least,

be disintegrated.

--------•--------

Both branches of the Legislature have by an overwhelming vote
agreed to annul the charter of tbe Broadway Horse-car Company.
Governor Hill is committed to this annulment, but it is tobe hoped
he will carefully scrutinize the bill before affixing his official signa¬
ture. There is no doubt as to the turpitude of the Aldermen,
although it was not legally proven, as Mr. Conkling^dmitted; but
wUl not the courts be disposed to take a somewhat different view
of this matter than that expressed by the press, which has fairly
bullied the Legislature into taking this extreme action. It should
be remembered that this charter was granted under forms pre¬
scribed by an act of the Legislature. Every legal requirement was
complied with. The Court of Appeals may refuse to go behind the
machinery for granting charters, and hold that the evidence against
the Aldermen was ex-parte; for as yet not one of them has been
legally proven guilty, nor is there likely to be any conviction until
after the Legislature adjourns.





Then the court may say that innocent holders of the Broadway
bonds cannot have the value of their property destroyed by an act
of the Legislature. There is the case of a Maine bank, which
bought a large quantity of these bonds. Can this institution be
mulct of its property which was bought openly in the New York
market on the faith of a charter granted in accordance with the
laws of the State ? Then may not the court hold that this would
be a dangerous precedent to establish, for it is notorious that all
our horse-car charters and ferry franchises were procured by means
more or less corrupt. Can the State afford to render insecure the
vast mass of property held under State charters when there is a
strong probability that questionable means were employed in secur¬
ing them ?

----------«

However, this whole investigation will do good. It will be a
warning to corporate wealth that it cannot with impunity employ
money in a lobby to corrupt legislative bodies. It is quite time
this lesson was taught. There is a possibility that, notwithstand¬
ing the action of the Legislature, the charter may stand. All that
is certain is that the lawyers will have very fat pickings. The case
will be fought in the courts, and, whoever will lose, the legal pro¬
fession will reap a golden harvest.

--------•--------

The livening Post which was amongst the first and most pro¬
nounced of the city journals in demanding the repeal of the Broad¬
way franchise is forced to make the following admission :

It is a measure of great importance, being the exercise of a power which
is reserved to the Legislature, but with the expectation that it vriU be
hardly ever used, and used only in the gravest and most extreme cases, for
the defense of some great public interest. It cannot be used without
inflicting more or less damage on individuals. Use et it is emphatically a
dose of medicine, and in no sense an article of daily food or to be
thought of as such.   We have supported the repeal with a full sense of the