February 4, 1888





The   Record and  Guide.





137





De/otq) TO I^L Estate , SuiLoif/c ^^Hitectji^e .Household Degm^tioS.
Dl;5l^iEss AftoTHEMES or Ge^JeraI !;^T£I\ES^

PRICE, PER, YEAa liV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Ptihlished every Saturday.
TELEPHONE,        -        -         -         JOHN   370.

ComiuunicatioQS should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway

J. T. LTNDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XLI.





FEBRUARY 4, 1888.





No. 1,038





Mayor Hewitt's brilliant and remarkable message on city
improvements and the possible future of New York has, of
course, been read by all the subncribej-s to The Record and Guide.
It is not therefore necessary to restate any of his propOHals for
benefiting the metropolis. His rapid transit scheme naturally
attracts the most attention. It is a well digested plan, and if it
could be carried out would answer every requirement of city
travel and would be an enormous benefit to the city. But we fear
there is no chance for it, because it is so perfect a plan. The Mayor
takes the ground so often urged in these columns—that the city
itself should build the required rapid transit route, as well as make
otber necessary city improvements. Our Croton water service is by
all odda the most efficient and economical, if compared with the
gas service or the horse-car service, or any under the control of cor¬
porations. The latter naturally desire to give the poorest service
for the most money. Were the city to own ita own gasworks the
cost would not be one-tenth the water capital which represents the
various gas corporations, nor would the cost of gas be more than
half what haa been charged by the companies. Were the horse-
car lines built and owned by the city the cost of construction
would not be one-third, as compared with the bonded and stocked
obligations of these organizations. The fare ere tbis would have
been reduced to '6 cents under the city management, while there
ivould be a general system of transfer tickets, and every one would
have a seat in a comfortable warm car. And then the employes of
the roaJs would have been fairly treated and would have formed a
part of the police force of the city. But we have elected to give
away the street franchiaes to corporations, of which that human
shark, Jake Sharp, ia a very fair specimen.





While Mayor Hewitt's plan is in every way admirable and would
fill the bill, we doubt if it haa any chance of being carried out. It
would be opposed by the Manhattan Company, by the great cor¬
porate interests which expect to profit by construction stock and
by the issue of unnecesBary obligations. Then that most powerful
of municipal interests, the individuals and syndicates engaged in
city contracting, will oppose the plan because of the difficulty of
plundering the city under it. So far the city press has favored the
Mayor's programme on its merits, but soon tbe cry will be raised
against handing over tbe building of such a road to the city author¬
ities. It will be called a scheme to add to the revenues of tbe
New York Central Road, and a thousand objections will be made,
until finally we judge tbe whole preaa of New York will oppose it,
as tbey heretofore have all city improvements. We are still of the
opinion that the Arcade Road under Broadway would be preferable
to the scheme put forward by Mayor Hewitt. But tbat enterprise
apparently lags, becauee not indorsed by capitalists wbo can com¬
mand the means to build it.





Whai the Mayor says as to tbe value of the Erie Canal and the
necessity for improving our harbor ia all true enough. But how
can we espect our harbor improved when our press and our
Eastern representatives steadily oppose the improvement of the
waterways in other parts of the'country. Then look at tbe oppo¬
sition to the Hennepin Canal. The proposition to unite tbe waters
of ihe Mississippi to those of the lakes is urged in the interests of
the commerce of thia port as well as by the agriculturists of the
Northweet, It would be another Erie Canal, yet it is denounced
as a job, just aa " Clinton's ditch " was called a job. The tone of
our press and the opinions of our representatives is provincial,
and ia not creditable to the organs of public opinion of the great

metropolis.

----------•---------•

All the Mayor says'about street paving and the ducks is true
enough. If his splendid plans were carried out the debt Of this
city would be largely increased, far beyond the limit of the 10 per
cent, on its assessed valuation of real estate. Every object the
Mayor haa in mind is undoubtedly desirable. But will our cax-
payera be willing tbjiavp o«r ^ebt increased by forty or fifty miUion.





We believe in liberal expenditures for works of city improve¬
ment. 'New York is growing with marvelous rapidity, and some
of the outlay would repay itself twenty-fold. But property-holders
are conservative, and fear nothing so much as lavish expenditures.





How difficult it is to make a body of legislators understand the
value of time. Congress bas been sitting for two months aud haa
done nothing but talk. The surplus in the Treasury is steadily
increasing and no outlet has yet been found to it. It amounts now
to over 180,000,000, of which over $50,000,000 is let out to the
National banks. The check given to manufacturing interests by
the prospect of tariif legislation is again piling up money in the
banks, so that the latter will soon bave no use for the government
funds. Altogether tbe outlook is not promising. The tariff reduc¬
tion bill will soon be introduced, but nothing is more certain than
that it will not pass. Probably at the close of the session some
hastily prepared measure may go through extending the free liata
and taking off the duty on sugar and tobacco. But from present
appearances it is quite impossible to pasa any comprehensive tariff

reform measure.

.---------»---------

Both Senate and House aeem disponed to pasa large appropria¬
tions for needed public buildings. But there is a lack of system in
the way thia is done. Kissing goes by favor, and the largest ap¬
propriations are secured by a species of log-rolling. There ought
to be a bureau of new buildings, which should recommend to Con¬
gress the structures to be erected aud their cost, ho that no un¬
necessary partiality would be shown to one city over another. We
could afford to spend $20,000,000 in new post-offices and Federal
Court-bouaes. We could thus get some of the uoneceaaary money
out of the Treasury, and could give employment to thousands of
mechanica on work that ia very greatly needed.





Some Facts About the Anthracite Coal Imbroglio.

The daily press all published President Austin Corbin's letter anent
the coal miners' strikes, and have commended him warmly for tbe
position he took. According to Mr. Corbin, the Reading Company
mined in twelve years 51,000,000 tons of coal, for which the miners
got $57,110,000 in the way of wagea, which was $13,370,000 more
than the Reading Company itaelf obtained. But the daily press
was careful to suppress the figures published by tbe Philadelphia
Record, which tell quite a different story. According to the
annual reports of the Reading Coal and Iron Company, in twelve
yeara the receipts were $86,024,188.84, or $41,000,000 more than
Mr. Corbin stated them. Of courae tbia different result was
brought about by bookkeeping, for tbere are two companies in the
case. The Coal and Iron Company and the Railroad Company
proper. It was not the miners that plundered that corporation and
bankrupted it over and over again; it was its own managers.

This whole quarrel with the miners seems to have been a pitiful
busineaa. Tbe coal companiea last year were all exceptionally
prosperous. Reading made a profit of $18,000,000 net after paying
all charges. The Delaware & Lackawanna and the Delaware &
Hudson in their recent reports show a profit of nearly IS per cent, on
their common stock, after paying expenses and intereat on theip
bonds. Instead of treating their working people with ordinary
consideration they have provoked these unnecessary strikes ao aa
to have an excuse for raising the price of coal to the general
public. Every railroad corporation, every factory, and every
household is forced to pay extravagant prices for anthracite
because of the quarrel,which should never have been commenced,
and for which these great money corporations are primarily to
blame, It ia to the infinite credit of the Vanderbilt reads—indeed
,we may say of all the railroad companies except those controlled
by Jay Gould and the Coal Barons—that tbey have bad no trouble
with their employes. We have 150,000 miles of railroad in the
country, and there are no strikes or trouble of any kind except on
about 20,000 miles of road controlled by utterly selfish managers.

There is, we believe, one person who is more reaponaible than
anyone else for the present coal troubles. It ia hia Honor Mayor
Abram S. Hewitt of New York; he ia tbe leading spirit among the
syndicate of capitalists wbo control the coal production of the
Lehigh Valley region. This section of countryproduoes the beat
coal and it brings the highest price in the market. When the
Schuylkill and Wyoming corporations, in view of the prosperity of
the trade, were willing to make the modest advance of 8 per ceut.
asked for by the miners the Hewitt ayndicate refused, and the coal
industry in that region has been paralyzed ever since. Austin
Corbin declined to continue tbe 8 per cent, after January 1st
because the Lehigh Valley region would not pay the advance.
This quarrel dates back to the lit of last September. It will be
remembered what furious anti-labor letters Mayor Hewitt wrote
after the quarrel was under way. Mr. Hewitt makes an admirable
Mayor of New York, but' he is directly responsible for a vast deal
of the misery among the'miherg and laborers in the coal regions, as
well aa for the extravagant price which everyone is forced itoipav
for anthracite^