May 13, 1888





Record   ancl   Guide,





597





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Vol. XLI.





MAY 13, 1888.





No. 1,053





The stock market does not look hopeful. The public have stopped
buying, and professional trading means disti'esa and ultimately
lower prices—^perhaps. The iron market is dull, crop reports are
bad, and there is more trouble among the leading roads. Then it
looks as if we are about to resume gold shipments. But the worst
blow of all is the reductions in dividends by sterliug companies liJte
the Chicago, BurHngton and Quincy. Our only hope is in generous
government disbursements, but tliis does not seem likely. Still,
things may change, the crops may look better, Congress may help,
and the foreigners resume their purchases.





Governor Hill's veto of the High License bill wiU be regretted by
real estate taxpayers, as the cities and counties of tiie State will
thereby lose a large revenue from the liquor dealers, which must be
made good by owners of real property. Liquor dealers arc practi¬
cally untaxed and their busiuess is a very costly oue to the State.
Still, we suppose Hill will not lose politically, as the liquor interest
is very powerful in the machinery of both jjai-ties. Wlien it can¬
not control votes it can carry nominations aud help doctor election

returns.

----------■----------

We hope that the present River and Harbor bill wUl jiass, aud by
a majority large euough to overcome a possible veto by President
Cleveland. When Governor, Mr. Cleveland won a gi-eat deal of
cheap applause by liis vetoes. Since he has beeu President liis veto
messages outnumber all the vetoes of all oui- Presidents uj) to the
time he occupied the Wliite House. There was no River and Harbor
bin last session, to the graat deti-iment of many needed public
improvaments. It is a matter of regi'et that the sum appropriated
is not at least flfty millions. The waters in the neighborhood of this
city require an expenditui-e of at least If 5,000,000 ; the present bill
gives us about $800,000. Buttermilk Channel, Gowauus Bay, the
channel in the Lower Bay and the Harlem River improvement need
to be attended to without delay, but the appropriations are miser¬
ably inadequate ; yet our provincial city press, instead of uniting to
demand just appropriations, waste their editorial space iu calling
attention to some three or fom* thousand dollar '' jobs " wliich have
been inserted in the bill in order to secure votes.





How curiously unwise are our gi'eat conservative corporations.
Take the case of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, as well as the
New York Central; they, as well as other leading ti-unk lines,
have made a great deal of mouey witliin the last three years. The
Btockbolders have not profited, for the extra money earned has been
spent on betterments. This would have been justifiable if the
managers of these great companies bad chosen a time to make these
improvements when the price of labor and raw material was low,
but they picked upon the two years when the value of labor, the
pric'e of iron and steel, as well as all railroad equipments, were at
their very highest figures. When labor is cheap and steel ia a drug
in the market these wise railroad managers refused to spend an
extra doUar; they let their roUing stock wear out and the roadbed
get out of repair. This is what the New York Central and Pennsyl¬
vania Central did in 1883,1884 and 1885. They could have kept up
their roads at one-tliird leas cost than during the " booming " times
of 1886 and 1887. Our own government follows the same foolish
practice. It cuts down expenses and discharges labor when prices
are low and business bad, and so adds to the prpvaUtng distress.
When it gets ready to do necessary work ii enters the field of
bid-up labor at a time when the demand is greatest and prices are
the highest; thus making private production as costly as possible.
But the men who conduct our pubhc aifairs are called statesmen;
while the railroad managers who spend at the wrong time are
called wise and conservative officers.





The Senate will undoubtedly pass the House River and Harbor
bill after amending it by making the. gi'oss appropriations some¬
what larger. As passed by the House of Representatives the pro-
pOBe4   jffiprpTementL' will   t^k§   s-ljout   $20,000,000   put   of   the





Treasury; it Tvould be well to remember in this connection that the
government engineers—a perfectly imiiartial body of West Point
officers—think that we ought to spend iS160,000,000 on our waterways
and harbors. It would advantage our internal and external com¬
merce fifty-fold were all the money forthcoming that is absolutely
needed for our public works. The $20,000,0*00 proposed is ridicu¬
lously inadequate, but our Eastern papers very generally oppose any
River aud Harbor biU, and they create a prejudice against them by
showing, wluch they can easily do, that some of the expenditure is
for comparatively worthless objects. By inference, however, they
give the impression that the whole bill is a mass of " jobs." As a
matter of fact there probably is not more than $100,000 of the
$30,000,000 that will be misspent. Legislation of tliie kiud with the
present constitution of our House of Representatives necessarily
involves log-rolling. Each member must look out for his district;
national or trade conditions affect bim only vaguely. Hence the
flaws which papers like our daily Times find so easy to pick in
every River and Harbor bill presented. This is an evil all legisla¬
tion sufiers from, and cannot very well be remedied until our con¬
stitution is so amended as to secure the election of at least one
third of our representatives on a general ticket. This would effect
two very desirable objects; it would put a-stop to !og-rolhng and
would give every incoming President a party majority in the Lower
House.





The Roman Catholic Church stands where it has always stood
since it has been a great temporal as well as spiritual power, on the
side of the powers that be. Its interest is in existing institutions. It
was a bold act for the leading Cardinals and the Pope to condemn
the Irish "plan of campaign" and ''the boycott," and to antag¬
onize its own communicants iu the interest of the Tory government
of Great Britain. The great bulk of Americans will not be disposed
to flnd fault with the Catholic Church authorities. The " boycott''
ie generally held by om' people to be an illegitimate weapon of
Social warfare, wliile the "jjlan of campaign" is so extreme a
mode of procedure that even Parnell would never indorse it. The
Irish land laws, as formulated by Gladstone and administered by
the Tories, would be regai'ded as an outiageous interference with
property rights by the bulk of American landlords. It will be
remembered that no bargain is permitted between the owner and
the tenant. The landlord cannot accept what the tenant is wiUing to
give. All lie is entitled to is the rent flxed by a judge, based upon
valuations in vogue many years back. Bnt the " plan of camiiaign "
involves tbe payment of this restricted reut to a third person, the
landlord to receive uothing until the coercion bill is withtU'awn ora
lower rent is established. The Catholic Church in the past waa a
great land owner, and its instincts, and traditions are with the prop¬
erty owning classes. Hence it regards the "plan of campaign" as
absolutely immoral. It has the courage of its convictions or it would
not condemn so heartily a measure which, either right or wrong,
originated with and is upheld by a population belonging exclusively
to the CathoUc Chui'cli. The action of the Pope and his Cardinals
is a direct aid and encom-agement to the Tory government of Great
Britain, wliich will doubtless retm-n some equivalent for tliis moral
and religious sanction to the rights of propetty. Although
undoubtedly well meant, this edict of the Pope and Cardinals will
discredit the Roman hierarchy among the revolutionaiy classes and
will help the McGlynns and their warfare on Mother Church.





Judge Barrett's article in the Forum, on "The Miscamages of
Justice," is a significant one, as it shows that some of the more
inteUigent of the judiciary realize that a day of wrath is coming
when the public wiU not stand the waste of money and time, and
the shocking injustice which results from existing defects in our
legal machinery. At an age when human ingenuity is exercised in
eveiy way to facilitate and cheapen business transactions, our
retrograde courts are more dilatory than ever in wasting the time
and money of tbe business community. While they ai-e giving ua
a great deal of law they fail in the important matters of equity and
justice. A law suit now in this State cannot be concluded
within two to five years; in the Federal courts business is behind
three years and a half. Judge Barrett sneers at those who
complain of this waste of time; but he admits, nevertheless,
everything charged by the critics of our judicial macliinery.
He explains how it is that our courts exist primarily not to do jus¬
tice as between litigants, but to enable a few lawyers to charge
extravagant fees. The calendars, he admits, are made up wholly
in the interest of these leading members of the bar. These favored
mortals are engaged, say, in four or five different com'ts. When
trials are called these gentlemen can be present at ouly one, and
judges, juries, witnesses, and opposing aud associated counsel lose
their time day after day dancing attendance upon these leaders of
the bar. Of coruse tliis is only one cause of complaint. The pre¬
posterous decisions, appeals, reversals and retrials is another evil,
Tlien the natural tardiness of the courts and the average laws delay
amounts to a miscarriage of justice in nine cages out of ten. There
s^enjg tg bf no way out of this tangle, for pur la'fVR are made by