December 4,1886





The   Record   and  Guide,





1477





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Saturday.
191 SrOad^WaV,  IST. 'X'-
Onr Telephone Call is      .....JOHN 370.





TERMS:

ONE ¥EAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS.

Communications shotild be addressed to

C. W, SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XXXVIII.         DECEMBER 4. 1886.





No. 977.





Speculation is raging on several of the exchanges of the country.
The petroleum market is exciting, and literally millions of barrels
are bought and sold every hour. The volume of transactions on the
Stock Exchange is the largest known to the " street." There are
now two exchanges which deal in railway securities, and between
them it is probable that over a million shares were daily dealt in
last week. In periods of excitement the total number of shares is
understated. Then there is another mining " boom" under way.
Consolidated Virginia in the Comstock Lode has advanced within a
couple of months from less than a dollar a share up to fifty dollars
a share, and there is the wildest kind of purchases of mining secur¬
ities without respect to merit. These are unwholesome symptoms.
No doubt but what the country is prosperous. This is shown by
the demand for the metals and for manufactured goods; by the
increase in the domestic exchanges and the splendid business which
is being done by the great railway systems.





But these indications of better times does not justify this ex¬
cited speculation in the stock market. Then the mining fever is a
peculiarly bad symptom. If one of the Grangers, Coalers or the
Vanderbilts should advance in value upon merit, it would be an
argument in favor of buying others of the same group of stocks.
F©r what would benefit one would benefit all. But it is prepos¬
terous to purchase mining shares in California, Montana or Vir¬
ginia because a new bonanza had been found in the Comstock
Lode, in Nevada. Yet, here are people buying mining shares of
all kinds because of a presumably favorable development in one
mine. There will be a crash some day. Our advice to ail who are
interested in the markets would be to realize and have money on
hand to purchase good securities when the evil hour comes. But
in no case should sensible people have anything to do with mining
stocks.





There is one class of investment, however, about which people
with money can make no mistake, and that is real estate in and
near New York city. The returns may not be as quick as in Wall
street, but they are far surer. Any good, cheap property bought
to-day near the lines of improvement is certain to enhance in value
before the close of next spring. There has rarely been such a
chance for making money in real estate as at the present time.
A crash in other markets only helps real estate, for investors who
are bitten in speculative ventures turn naturally to real estate
when they have met disappointments.





Before the next number of The Record and Guide is issued,
the message of President Cleveland and the report of the Secretary
of the Treasury will have been read and digested by the American
people. Nothing very startling is to be expected in either docu¬
ment. But it is sincerely to be hoped that the administration will
put itself in accord with the country as well as the great bulk
of the Democratic party on the silver question. The United States,
situated between gold monometallic Europe and silver mono,
metallic .a.sia, with silver-producing and silver-using countries in
the South, should favor both the precious metals equally. We are
the greatest producers of gold and silver of any nation on earth ;
indeed, as much as all other nations combined. But, as we produce
more of the white than the yellow metal, we ought to give it, at
least, an equal show. Unless he is one of the most obstinate men
that ever sat in the White House, Mr. Cleveland must see that the
great revival in business is due in great part to our use of silver,
and hence that he was entirely mistaken in the letters and mes¬
sages he wrote after his election to the Presidency. If he wants to
make himself *' solid" with the country and his party, let him sug^
gest measures that will lead to the rehabilitation of silver as a
money metal among all the commercial nations.





a very few—swift war vessels. We have plenty of money in
the Treasury; indeed, the Democratic Congressmen profess
to be very much perplexed as to what to do with the surplus.
There need be no embarrassment. Let us spend it in gun
factories, seacoast defences, ships of war, and internal and
harbor improvements, such as the deepening of the channel in our
lower bay. There will be no time to tinker with the tariff this
session, but the bill prepared by Mr. Hewitt to reform the proce¬
dures in our Custom House ought to be taken up and promptly
passed. Then a bill extending the free list to encourage manufac¬
turing could be so framed that free-traders and protectionists alike
would vote for it. On civil service reform, despite the clamor of
disappointed politicians, the President cannot afford to take any
step backward. The business of the country must be conducted on
business principles.





Admiral Porter confesses we need seacoast defenses far more
than ships of war. He asks, however, Congress to authorize the
construction of a number of swift, armored vessels as commerce
destroyers. A few such are doubtless needed along our coast in
case of war, but we cannot send war vessels into distant seas, as
we are without naval stations in any part of the world. Great
Britain has coaling and refitting stations all over the world. But
it would be useless for our war ships to make captures, as they
could not make prizes of the merchant ships of the nation with
whom we might be at war. We want fortifications, floating bat¬
teries, and a few great war ships, to help beat back an attacking
fleet. If we want commerce destroyers, why not encourage the
building of twenty or thirty swift and strong merchant steamships,
which, in the event of war, could be altered into government ves¬
sels and armed wiih a few guns, which would make them master
of any ordinary merchant ship on the high seas. Such vessels
would carry our flag into every sea in peace as well as war, and
would allow American merchants to make some of the profits out
of the immense foreign commerce of this country.





Then the President ought also to urge Congress to provide ample
funds for fortifying our exposed seacoasts. We want great guns and
plenty .of tbem. , plotting batteries are required, and ft few—





The late Republican Candidate for Mayor.

Although defeated in the late contest for Mayor, Theodore
Roosevelt, nevertheless, promises to be a foremost figure among
the political leaders of the near future. Indeed, it is not improbable
that he consented to run for Mayor and thus lead a forlorn hope
with the understanding that he was to be the standard bearer of
his party in the next State canvass.

The views held by a man*of so much mark and prominence are
of interest to the public. He has been talking with a reporter in
London, and his utterances are noteworthy. He does not think
that the workingmen will be able to organize a new party; but, he
says, " a new element has been introduced into our politics to be
bid for by the old parties." He scouts the idea that the George
vote in this city represents the strength of Socialism. That was
only one of many factions represented in that demonstration.
Socialism, as he understands it, is, he claims, un-American.
Individualism and self-help are the very basis of our New World
civilization. But, curiously enough, Mr. Roosevelt himself
advocates State Socialism when he proposes that the tenement
house system should be supervised and improved by State inter¬
ference. He thinks the workingmen have jnst cause of complaint,
in that they are forced to live in unwholesome and foul abodes.
If we understand him aright, he would charge the Board of Health
with larger powers, so that nuisances would be abated and the
homes of the poor be under the care of State officers.

Bat Mr. Roosevelt, like many others, does not define what he
means by Socialism. Most people confound it with spoliation by
law and with Anarchism. But, really, it is as wide apart as the
poles from the latter. The Anarchists are simply Jeffersonian
Democrats run mad. They wish to get rid of all government,
whereas the Social Democrats, as they are called in Europe, clamor
for a great deal of government, only they demand that the powers
of the Sfcate should be used for the good of the greater number and
not to enrich the favored few. In this point of view public schools
are Socialistic. Property has to pay for the education of all the
children of the community. The rich are forced to contribute to
the education of the children of their poorer neighbors. Our com¬
mon roads, our public parks, our post-office department—all these
are Socialistic in the sense of those who advocate enlarged powers
for the government to advantage the common weal. This school
advocates State control and ownership of the telegraph and rail¬
way system. The United States is the only government where a
private company is allowed to make profits from the telegraphic
service, and on the continent of Europe State ownership is the rule
and private ownership the exception. The advanced thinkers
among the Socialists want the State to own the mines, even Henry
George, although a free-trade-no-government Democrat, insists
that the government should be the sole owner of the soil.

In writing and talking about Socialism it would be well for jour¬
nalists and orators to keep these facts in mind. In a certain sense
the Socialiets can claim relationship with the conservative parties