August 28,1886





Record and  G





uide.





1073





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Vol. XXXVIII.            AUGUST 38, 1886.





No. 963.





between Eussia and the nations of Western Europe, France, perhaps,
alone excepted. The fall in English, Russian and Hungarian funds
and the excitement in the wheat and provision markets shows hovs^
serious that act was regarded by financiers and business men; but
the official utterances of the Berlin and Vienna papurs seem to indi¬
cate that the German and Austrian governments were aware of
what Russia intended, and acquiesced in the practical setting aside
of the Treaty of Berlin. That famous compact, it will be remem¬
bered, robbed Russia of the fruits of her victories over the Turks in
the last war. Her armies were in sight of Constantinople and she
was in actual possession of the country up to the very gates of that
city when, by the agreement of the great powers in Berlin, she was
forced to surrender the Balkan psminsula, retire beyond the Danube
and see two semi-independent States, Bulgaria and Roumelia,
established to bar her way to Constantinople.





The summer is closing with the stock market phenomenally dul
and a good deal of doubt in the minds of business men as to the
future. This arises from the increase in the rates charged for
loans aud other signs of disturbances in the money market. All
was plain sailing when money went begging at 2 per cent., but the
higher rates for loans create new conditions which may embarrass
business operations during the course of the fall. All the factors in
the situation ought to give us a bull market for securities, as railroad
earnings are increasing, gold is coming this way from Europe,
while the increasing dearness of money shows that it is in demand
for trading and manufacturing purposes. But somehow the leaders
o£ the street either see or think they see possible trouble in the
future, and so speculation halts. Business is dull in real estate
circles, but this was to have been expected at the tail-end of the
summer. All real estate dealers agree, however, in believing that
the autumn business will be the best for many years, and that it
will commence quite early.





It was a good thing to get rid of Squire, and a still better thing
to have General Newton in his place. The citizens of New York
owe a debt of gratitude to General Newton for his work at Hell
Gate and his official surveys of the proposed ship canal between
the Hudson River and the Sound. Had the politicians and the
property-owners been as prompt and business-like as General New¬
ton there would now be a navigable stream between the Hudson
and the East rivers which would have greatly advanced the price
of realty in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards, as well as
the Twelfth Ward. General Newton has also made wise reports on
the proper way to improve our lower harbor so as to admit the
incoming and outgoing of steamships drawing less than thirty feet.
It is a pity that an office ere this could not have been created for
General Newton, giving him the superintendence of all the improve¬
ments affecting our harbor and its commerce. However, that is out
of the question, and he will, instead, be at the head of a department
requiring integrity, engineering skill and good business faculties.
There will be no bad work in the construction of the new aqueduct
if a majority of the commissioners will back up General Newton.

--------•--------

In this connection we cannot help remembering that army and
navy officers often fail in the transaction of general business. They
are always honest and honorable men and their engineering plans
and works cannot be excelled anywhere, but the remarkable fact
cannot be gainsaid that the men trained at West Point and
Annapolis usually fail in business enterprises. Grant could never
make any business succeed when he was in civil life. General Sher¬
man failed both as a lawyer and a banker. General McClellan,
when Dock Commissioner, did not impress those about him or the
city by his business capacity. Retired army and naval officers
lack entirely the money-making faculty. Indeed, they have failed
as absolutely in general business as did the lawyers and politicians
as officers in the civil war. The lawyers were in the front both in
the Northern and Southern armies when the war opened, but West
Point proved itself a great military school when its graduates
made their way to all the chief commands in both armies before
the civil war was over.





As a compensation a cousin of the present Czar, then an officer
in the German army, was made King of Bulgaria. He turned out
to be an able man, but he aimed at establishing a permanent throne
of his own and cast his lot with the anti-Russian alliance, Germany,
Austria and Great Britain, which was bent on preventing Constan¬
tinople from falling into the hands of the Czar's government. The
puzzle in this case is, why Germany and Austria should submit to
the dethronement of Prince Alexander when he was their puppet
and represented their interests. The explanation is to be found,
we think, in some letters we published from Europe last summer.
All the nations, said our correspondent, are prepared for war, but
Kaiser William is very old and does not wish .to die with the clash
of arms ■ resounding in his ears. He insists upon every sacrifice
being made to keep the peace while he is alive. The old man can-
no!; last much longer, and his death will be the signal for an out¬
break of one of the mightiest wars known to history, for it will
embroil every nation in Europe.

--------------9

These horse-car troubles are exasperating,, and emphasize the
point so often made in these columns that the conductors and
drivers should be made a kind of supplemental police force, and be
under the control of the municipality. There ought to be also some
way of punishing these horse-car companies, when they deal dis¬
honestly by their men. Unfortunately the public backed up Hart,
Lyons and Lauterbach through a misapprehension of the facts
when faith was broken with the employes of the Third avenue
road, and this new schedule of the Broadway road was undoubtedly
part of a plan to gradually reduce the men to the same abject con¬
dition they were in before the strike and the agreement last March.
The victory of the Third Avenue and Broadway companies over
their employes will, of course, be followed up by the other com¬
panies and there are more strikes to be expected. These
street franchises have proved very valuable. The leading lines
in New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and presumably the other
large cities pay from 30 to 40 per cent, upon the actual outlay
on the track, building and plant. They not only can afford to pay
$3.00 a day for twelve hours wcrk, but the principal lines could
run their cars for three cents and still make handsome profits. The
Philadelphia papers, by the way, in view of the reduction of the
elevated fares to five cents are demanding that the horse-car lines
of that city should carry passengers for three cents.





General Newton will have a hard time of it with the politicians.
He will find that nearly all his underlings represent the worst ele¬
ments in the three political machines. He cannot change them
al at once, and as the incompetent and sinecurists are being
weeded out he will find the politicians and their advocates in
the press denouncing him in season and out of season. He will
also have to fight the great contracting interest, and if he finally
succeeds in cleansing his department and making it efficient, it
will be by the exercise of courage, tact and knowledge of men
and of the world. Mere honesty and engineering talent will not
help him in fighting the corruptionist and politicians.





Mr. James G. Blaine seems determined to keep himself before
the people, pnd is undoubtedly a candidate for renomination by
the Republican National Convention. It is this fact which gives
some interest to the first speeca he delivered in the Maine
canvass. As a political effort it has not much value, nor is there any
particular merit in it from a literary point of view. Still it is tem¬
perate, judicial in tone, and the points it makes against the adminis¬
tration are generally well taken. But Mr. Blaine really avoids the
live issues before the country. Prohibition he professes to regard
as a local question; but the St. John vote was what really destroyed
his chances at the last general election. Should he run again
without placating the temperance people he will find they >• ill
poll three votes where they did one in 1884. His outgivings on the
labor question are also very vague. Altogether the speeches he is
making impresses one as being delivered to show that he is still a
candidate who does not wish to make any indiscreet utterances to
hurt his chances. It is no discredit to Mr. Blaine that he wishes
to be President. The recent appointment of Collector of this port
would seem to indicate that President Grover Cleveland would
not be unwilling to succeed himself.





The news from Southeastern Europe is unusually important and
not a little puzzling. The deposition of Prince Alexander from the
throne of Bulgaria ought to mean the immediate Qutbreak of a war





The Canal Convention, now in sescion, declares in favor of a
State enlargement and improvement of the Erie Canal, and objects
to the general government having anything to do with it; but the
Erie Canal affects national interests. It marries the lake and river
systems of the West to the Atlantic Ocean at the East. It ia
of far less consequence to the State of New York thau it is of the
region west of Buffalo. In point of fact the government should
nationalize the Erie Canal.   It sl^ould also build the Hennepin