Pebmary 26, 1887





The   Record   and   Guide.





257





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Saturday.

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Vol. XXXIX.





FEBRUAEY 26, 1887.





No. 989





General trade, outside of dry-goods, was reported as being some¬
what duller last "vreek than previously. Iron is not quite so firm in
price. Wheat and grain of all kinds has suffered another break.
Cotton remains depressed, while petroleum sells for low figures.
These are not specially cheering facts, for the low prices cripple
our agricultural classes, and indeed all producers of raw material.
But the stock market is buoyant, and Wall street is getting ready
for a boom of some sort. In real estate circles there is quite a
confident feeling. Prices hold up well, and speculation threatens
to become rampant. This spring business in the Real Estate
Exchange promises to be the largest known to the history of tho
business.

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The machinery for calling a Constitutional Convention has not
yet been determined upon by the Legislature because of the wish
of the politicians of both parties to get some advantage over the
other. Ifc does not really make the slightest difference whether the
majority of the convention are either Republican or Democrat, but
it is desirable that broad-minded statesmen should compose tbe
bulk of the members and that all points of view shall be presented.
The diflSculty of the existing party organizations is that they repre¬
sent no principle. There is nothing to distinguish a Democrat
from a Republican, except the habit of voting for one or other
organization ; hence the absurdity of trying to get a party advan¬
tage in the composition of the Constitutional Convention,





They are not allowed to meet or to organize in any legal way. Yet
they carry the large cities in all elections, and in Berlin alone poll
not less than 95,000 votes. Mayor Hewitt should remember that
he is the chief magistrate of a great city whose interest he should
represent on every occasion, and that it is not seemly for him to be
dominated by a feeling of " offensive partisanship " against a class
who polled him so many votes in the last election, and to whom,
as an employer,  he is partly indebted for the great fortune he

enjoys.

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It is the so-called Liberals who lost most in the recent German
elections. They represent the school known as political economists
in England and correspond with the Jeffersonian Democrats iuthis
country. They object to paternalism in governments and favor
the supremacy of the Reichstag over the executive as represented
by tiie monarch and his cabinet. It is generally conceded that the
success of Bismarck settles the question that there is to be no
immediate war.





Bismarck's victory at the recent election not only insures the
supremacy of the government in military matters, but is also a
triumph of paternalism. The great German Chancellor has shown
the world that the State can own railroads and telegraphs and get
the profits from them which in Great Britain and the United States
pile up enormous fortunes for private individuals. He also wants
the government to reap the profits from the sale of spirits and
tobacco. He thinks ifc best to regulate the traffic in those commod¬
ities by direct government ownership. Bismarck also has a scheme
for improving the condition of the working classes by insuring
them against want in old age oir when they are sick. By these
and similar measures he wishes to draw the fire of the Socialists.





To account for the large increase in tbe Socialist vote in Ger¬
many, a cifcy paper suggests it is due to the despotic character of
the paternal government of that great empire. But this explana¬
tion does not give the rationale of .the growth of Socialism in other
civilized countries, or the corresponding increase in the labor vote
of the United Sfcates. As a matter of fact this movement to better
the condition of the working classes is a world-wide one. It is
called by a greafc variety of names, and is characterized by a bewil¬
dering number of schemes and theories to improve the condition of
the toiling millions. For fifty years past we have been educating
the children of the poor, and with mental enlightenment has come
a sense of discontent at the hard conditions under which they
live. They see wealth and luxury on every side, and they cannot
comprehend why their labors should not at least give them the
bare necessaries of life. This discontent among the most numerous
class of the community will lead to grave political and social
disturbances, unless society sets to work and in some way meets
the just expectations of those who now do the hard work of the
world.





From a party and personal point of view. Governor Hill's address
in Brooklyn was a very clever composition. Ifc stamps him as one
of the foremost leaders of the Democratic organization. Bufc a
perusal of this address leaves one in doubt as to what are the aims
of the Democratic party. True, the old strict construction of the
constitution is alluded to as the cardinal doctrine of the Jeffer¬
sonian faith, but then the constitution in itself is vitally defective
and needs amending in many important particulars. The
no-government theory is discredited by the progress of events in
all nations. We have inherited the eighteen th century government-
destroying theories, but these have proved inadequate and the
Democracy of the future must be constructive. Thafc great corpo¬
ration known as the nation has, in times past, been used for the
benefit of monarchs, nobles and priests. The more modern theory
is that governmental a.ction shall, hereafter, be a factor
in advancing the welfare of the community ; hence, common
schools, free roads, public parks, government n^onopoly of tele¬
graph and oversight of railroads. Tariffs are levied on the same
assumption of the functions of government. Henator Sherman, in
his recent letter to the Lincoln banqueters, is in much better accord
with modern Democracy than is Governor Hill in his restatement
of the exploded no-goverment theories.





What is the matter with Mayor Hewitt ? Iu every letter he
writes to all kinds of gatherings ; in all the interviews held with
him he complains passionately, of the actions of the laboring people
in striking or in trying to improve their condition. Much that he
says is very just and true, but he seems to think the whole trouble
arises from the trade organizations and the Knights of Labor. But
how does he account for this agitation and unrest among the
working classes all over the world. The great German Chancellor
has used the most stringent measures to put down the organiza- increasing so largely in value that the prices at which Southern
tions of the laboring people.   Their newspapers are suppressed. 1 farms are offered wiil prove very tempting to Northern emigrants.





'"Booms" in  Real Estate,

In the past history of the country there have been periods of
real estate speculation in which nearly all the land of the country
was involved. The last greafc speculative land craze culminated in
1837. Ifc was brought about by a paper money inflation, and while
it lasted was a veritable South Sea bubble. The future was
discounted 10,COO per cent. Vacant land near New York was
divided oft' into building lots and held at prices which would have
required double the population of the United Stafces afc that time to
be located near the city to have justified the estimated values.

It is not at all likely that we shall ever again see such a land
purchasing fever as that which culminated in 1837, SpeculaSion
then had few outlets, for ifc was before the organization of
exchanges. Sanguine people who expect to make immediate
fortunes now deal in stocks, bonds, grain, provisions, cotton, coffee
or petroleum. Real estate is so difiiculfc to turn over in a money
sense that it does not now attract the average speculator, and hence
we have never since 1837 had a "boom" which embraced all
sections of the country at one time.

But we have had numerous local speculations. A few years ago
there were such an one in the extreme Northwest, including Mani¬
toba. It was broughfc aboufc by a rush of emigration to a
fertile region jusfc opened up by railroads. Just now there is a
land craze in Southern California, Fabulous prices are being paid
for lots in Los Angeles, and in farms near by. Ifc wiil of course,
in time, come to grief, as did the Northwestern speculation. Then
there are quite a number of local " booms" due to the wonderful
increase in the population of places like Duluth, Sb. Paul, Kansas
Cifcy, and some twenty or thirty other centres of population west
of the Mississippi. Here in New York there is danger of an un%vise
speculation in vacant lots on the line of improvement. There is
practically a corner in vacanfc land on this island, and thence the
danger that we may get lots so high that ifc will check building,
and our surplus population will be forced to seek cheaper houses
on the other side of the Easfc, Norfch and Harlem Rivers,

It is a noticeable fact that the remarkable improvement in
Southern industries has not as yefc helped the price of land in that
section. The population of some of the cities has increased mar-
velously. New factories are in demand, while iron and coal lands
are eagerly sought for; but, as yefc, farming land is under a cloud,
and no one seems to wish to purchase it. This section will, how¬
ever, be in higher favor in the future.   Lands in the West are