March 10, 1888





The  Record  and  Guide.





293





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Vol. XLI,





MARCH 10, 1888.





No. 1,043





On the 21st day of this month The Record and Guide will have
completed twenty years of its existence. In commemoration of its
entry upon the year in which it loill attain its majority, an extra
large edition will be issued on tke 2ith inst., which will be sent
broadcast all over the country, the business establishments to which
it icill be mailed being those that will le of most service, not only
to increase ihe circulation of Tns Record and Guide, but io bene¬
fit its advertisers. It will be read by real estate brokers, agents
and investors, architects, builders, merchants, bankers, lauryers,
decorators, properly owners, mortgagees and purchasers of build¬
ing materials, and its advertising columns will form an index aiid
guide to thousands of firms in and out of town to refer to when
they stand in need of estimates on any and every description of
ivork connected with the constructio)i, improvement and alte- ation
of buildings. Intending advertisers should send in their copy early,
not only to insure a good position, but to avoid inconvenience aiid
errors. In honor of the occasion the paper will be printed on new
and handsome type.





The past haa been a blue week. Stocke, cotton, grain and coffee
have all had a black eye in tbe markets, and the outlook is anything
but favorable to those tbat hold either Becuritiefl or goods of any
kind on margins. We will soon be exporting gold, and money will
become tighter as tbe spring trade develops. Wall street has been
looking in vain for the advance of pricea which usually followa the
disbursement of tbe January dividends, Tbe accidents have all
been against the market, but the great difficulty has been the enor¬
mous mistake on the part of tbe Administration in precipitating a
debate on the tariff before disposing of the surplus in the Treasury,
which bas been such a menace to the trade of tbe country since
last June.





The occurrences of the laat week emphasizes the point so often
made by The Record and Gdide that the engineers, conductors,
brakemen and switchmen of the railway systems of the country
should be made a part of the military or police force of the nation.
Let the corporations, aa heretofore, hire, pay and employ them
under rules drawn up by some board or commission called into
existence by Congress. This would not add anything to the patron¬
age of tbe government, while it would forever insure us against
railroad strikes, and would be even a guarantee against civil wair
in the future. The journals of the country are getting very angry
over the state of affairs out West, and the Brotherhood of Engi¬
neers are being denounced vigorously for their threat to tie up the
raiIrog.ds of the country if the C, B. and Q. does not come to their
terms. It is regarded as monstrous thai a few thousand workmen
should bave it in their power to put a stop to all transportation.
And this is true enough; but what are we going to do about it?
The Burlington Company, ib seems, does not pay as higb wages to
its employes as tbe Northwest, the Chicago and Alton, the Rjck
Island and some other companies, hence there is a real grievance;
but none tbe less is it dangerous to the public interest that a labor
union has the power to threaten disaster lo every business in the
country by stopping work on all the railroad lines. Government
employfis never strike. Such an occurrence was never heard of on
the continent of Europe, where so much of the railroad lines are
in the hands of the military arm of the several governments. An
extension of tbe powers of tbe Interstate Commerce Commission
to pass on all disputes between the railroad corporations and their
emplojifl would do mucb to avert these dangerous strikes. But
the making of all tbe working force on the roads a part of our mil¬
itary eritablishsieot would effect a permanent settlement.





There dees not seem to be one cbance in a thousand that the tariff
and tax bill reported by the Ways and Means Committee -of the





House will be enacted by the present Congress. It will be debated
and amended, but it will be killed before reaching the Senate. Mr.
Randall's position is fatal, and then the Republicans, as well as the
Democrats, are apparently willing to make the tariff the issue in the
pi>nding Presidential contest. The disorder in the finances will be
charged by the Democrats on the Republicans because tbey would
not vote to cut down the revenues, while the Republican contention
will be tbat tbe Democrats would not consider any measure to spend
the surplus so as to help the business of the country. We have alwaya
faid that tariff reform must be effected by piecemeal; to attack
all ihe protected industries at once is to induce tbe formation of a
corrupt union among manufacturers, which will be altogether too
powerful for tbe virtue of any Congresa that ever sat in Washing¬
ton. A bill adding to the free list could easily be carried on its
merits, ao could another getting rid of imposts which yielded little
revenue, and which are an embarrassment to the Custom House
while protecting no vital interest. Then Mr. Hewitt's l&st year's
bill for reforming the Custom House methods should also he
passed by itself. But the Ways and Means Committee are trying
to do everything in one bill, which includes the internal taxes
as well as the tariff. It will be almost a miracle if any such
measure should pass in an evenly divided House, with all the
rich manufacturing corporations of the country opposed to it.





Surely Congressmen are losing their beads in thinking of order¬
ing the Secretary of tbe Treasury to buy bonds with the surplus in
the government vaults. Why give thia premium to the rich bond¬
holders and corporations by creating a corner in government
securities ? It is the very rich, like tbe Vanderbilts and the great
banking institutions, who are tbe owners of these bonds. AVe have
no fault to find with them, but why should they be picked out
over other citizens as government beneficiaries? We are in need
of so many things, aa a nation, that it is an outrage to thus mieuae
the money. Our harbors need improving; our waterways are a
hindrance to internal commerce instead of a help, because the
necessary appropriationa to improve them are not available. We
need steamships to give us our share of the foreign commerce of
our own country, and which could be turned into commerce de¬
stroyers in the event of war. We need public buildings in every
State, Our enormously rich city sea coasts are not defended. We
have no guns or torpedo service. Were money to be spent thus
productively it would stimulate tbe depressed industries of the
country and give employment to labor. The buying of more
bonda in Wall street would be simply to add to the wealth of the
very wealthy, and start a fresh and unnatural speculation in Wall
street. But it really seemp as if llie only two classea which Con¬
gress ia disposed to favor are the millionaire bondholders and the
swindling pension agents.





Although Deacon White had only three backers in the Houae of
Representatives when he protested against the passage of a bill
ordering the Pacific Railroads to build new telegraph lines, he was
right and the House was wrong. It would he the height of folly
and a shocking waste of capital to build new telegraph lines to the
Pacific Coast. The Union Pacific is honestly trying lo pay its
debts; why cripple it still further?





The newspapers are unanimous in condemning the demand of
the working people for uniform wages, no matter what the expe-.
rience or ability of the individual workman. This is a criticism of
long standing against all tbe labor unions. They have ever since
their original organizations insisted that thsre should be no dia-
crimination by tbe employer between the ordinary and the supe¬
rior workman. Owners of newapapers, and professional men
generally, cannot understand why the unions are po earnest in this
matter. In a newspaper office the editors and reporters are paid
in accordance wilh their experience or capacity, but in the com¬
posing room every compositor is treated alike and gets so much
per thousand fcr tbe type he handles. One lawyer will get a thou¬
sand-dollar fee, while another, who works much harder, can com¬
mand only a hundred, and so with physicians. But there ia some¬
thing to be said on the other side. Great masses of men in one
employment raust be treated as a whole. In the army every pri¬
vate gets $13 a month and his rations; the brave and faithful
soldier is given no more than the coward or the skulk. The same
rule obtains in the navy. On the Stock Exchange every broker is
forced to charge exactly the fame commission, although one may
be far more efficient than the other. Hence Chief Arthur objects
to the grading aystem on the Burlington road, He wants all the
engineers treated alike. It will be noticed it is never the superior
workmen that get the best wages who object to establishment of a
uniform rate. It is always their employers or the latter's advocates
in the press.   There is a good deal to be said on both sides of this

interesting question.

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The Standard, Henry George's paper, thinks the readers of The