July 14, 1888





Record   and   Guide.





885





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Vol. XLII.





JULY 14, 1888.





No. 1,061





2/ie Index to the Conveyances and Projected Buildings published
in The Record and Guide duHng the first six months of the
euTvent year unll be ready on the 21st inst. The Index will, as
usual, include New York and Kings Counties, and will be the most
exhaustive ever published. The Record and Guide has for many
years presented its subscribers ivith this Index semi-annually, but the
labor and expense connected with the work has now become so for¬
midable that a charge of fifty cents will hereafter be inade for each
isszie, as announced in these columns on January 2lst last. Sub¬
scribers requiring copies should send in their orders early.





Wall street has had quite a Httle boom during the past week.
Of course the trausactions, compared with former periods, are very
much smaller in volume as well as prices, but they show a distinct
imjirovement over the business which preceded the national hoU-
day. The crops really look well, and Wall street has begun to dis¬
count the partial prosperity wliich would follow the gathering of a
good harvest; moreover, the price of grain promises to be veiy
much better, due to the shortage in all wheat countries, Russia and
India excepted. But is the worst over? It has been predicted that
when pay-day came the cities in the West and on the Pacific coast,
wliich had such pronounced land booms, would pass through a
season of severe distress for want of money. A few months will
tell the story. In the meantime WaU street will reap its httle har¬
vest from the promising look of the cereal crop, and the better
prices our farmers will obtain for the residt of their labors.





There is no denying the fact that the building movement keeps
up better in Brooklyn than in New York. Judged by the projected
buildings the population of Brooklyn must be increasing faster than
that of New York. The trouble seems to be that Brooklyn has
been improving her rapid transit facilities, wliile the " L" roads of
New York have been unable to respond to the demands for swifter
travel. Our horse cars ought to be replaced by cables or electric
motors. The city authorities should co-operate with the Manliattan
Company so that the hues could he extended to the ferries, and
extra tracks he put upon the 3d, 3d and 6th avenues, in
order to permit the i-unning of trains, making infrequent stops the
whole length of the island. The Harlem River might thus be
reached from the Battery in forty minutes; but there could not be
more than seven or eight stopping places on the route. Mayor
Hewitt, however, is opposed to increasing the facihties of the " L "
roads, and Brooklyn will contuiue to grow at our expense until
we have swifter means of transit.





Senator John Sherman does not appear to advantage in Ins denun¬
ciation of trusts. He ought to know better than to pander to a
mere prejudice. Tnists are a legitimate outgrowth of the lousiness
methods of the time we live in. They have their objectionable
side as have aU devices of men in every department of human
effort; but the good they do and are doing far outweighs the evil.
The Senator must have been a little staggered to find that that gro¬
tesque personage. General Spinola, he of the shh-t collar, was declaim¬
ing in the House against trusts, at the same time using the same
demagogical arguments, and claiming that Tammany Hall was the
first to see and condemn the evil resulting from the great aggrega¬
tion of wealth in business. This position is worthy of Tammany
Hall, but the pandering to the aame prejudices is not creditable to
the Ohio statesman.





Parnell's scheme of a great British federation has the merit at
'east of boldness, and it ranks him as more than an Irish agitator.
It is the work of a philosophic statesman. He wants Engl'Bnd,
Ireland, Scotland and Wales each to have Parhaments which will
manage then local affairs. Then he would so reconstruct the
House of Lords as to make it a great imperial Senate composed of
members not only from Great Britain and Ireland, but from all the
dependencies of the British Empire, sucli aa India , Australia, New





Zealand, South Africa and Canada. This outlines a splendid pro¬
gramme, but one altogether too radical tiiid speculative to be satis¬
factory to the matter-of-fact Englishman, yet a gi-eat federation
of tliis kind lias been written about more than once by historians
like Froude and others. It is not, however, likely to be adopted
unless Great 'Britain meets with some national disaster, such as the
loss of India, or a tlu-eat of secession on tiie part of its Pacific Ocean
colonies.   Tlien Great Britain may become a great federal republic.





It seems the cable war is practically at an end. John W. Mackay
and James (iordon Bennett, after swearing they would ne'er con¬
sent, have not only consented, but it is an open secret that for over
a year past they have been eager to get out of their unfortunate
enterprise. The business public will hereafter pay 25 instead of
13J^ cents a word, and the rate will probably be advanced to
40 cents a word before next summer. Cable service can never he
as cheap as land telegrapliic service. Messages can be sent from
a hundi'ed jilacos on a land hne a thousand miles long, but a cable
three thousand luilos long can use only the two ends of the wires.
Usually cheapness largely increases business, but it is said the exper¬
ience of cheap cables fm-nishes an exception to this rule. There
was some gro-wth of business due to tho much lower rates, but it
(hd not begin to make good the deficiency iu tbe revenue. We
shall never again see cheap oceau telegraphy until the suggestion,
often made In these columns, is adopted. We have held that the
cables of tlie world should be owned and controlled by a commis¬
sion representing all commercial nations. The tolls could then be
placed at rates wliich would cover expenses ; but, of course, tbe
governments interested would prefer to advance international trade
rather than make profits. It is inevitable that this -will be done
some time or otlier,.for it is clearly absurd to permit people like Jay
Gould to have control over the indispensable medium of communi¬
cation between the gi-eat markets of the world.





If the Republican members of Congress are wise they -will pro-
jiose a substitute for the Mills bill, should the latter fail to get the
indorsement of tlie Senate; for it seems to be taken for granted
that the bill will pass with a small majority in the House, It may
as well be confessed tliat the Republican platform contains two
unfortunate planks. The one that called for higlier duties, in order
thereby to cut down the revenue, might be justified as the logical
outcome of the Protectionist attitude of the Republican party ; but
then practical politics is often anything but logical. The Repubhcan
party at the time of its origin contained a good many Barnburners,
and Democrats, hke Wdliam CuUen Bryant and David Dudley
Field, who tolerated high duties during the war, but expected finally
that the nation would adopt a liberal fiscal pohcy. Ex-Mayor Seth
Low, of Brooklyn, undoubtedly represents tens of thousands of
Repubhcans who look upon protection as the temporary and not the
permanent policy of the nation. The extreme position taken in this
McKinley platform was clearly a mistake.





But the most fatal blunder was the "free whiskey" plank
There has been a growing popular dislikeof the whole liquor traffic,
Literally hundreds of thousands of men and many more women
are fanatical on this subject. The letter of Dr. Cuyler and the
attitude of Dr. Storrs tells the story of the widespread discontent
vrith this feature of the Republican platform. Mr. Blaine is on
record as protesting in advance against favoring wliiskey by rehev-
iug it of taxation. He was willing to abohsh the impost on tobacco,
or even to take off half the sugar duty ; but bis instinct aa a
pohtician made him see the unwisdom of running counter to the
prejudice against " free whiskey."





Were the election held right aWay Mr. Cleveland would certainly
be chosen to succeed himself ; but, of course, the current of feehng
may change before November. Should Congress adjourn without
any wise fiscal legislation, and the times still continue depressed, it
may be that the popular discontent therefrom wiU show itself at
the polls next November. If General Harrison is bold and sagacious
he may do sometliing to minhnize the bad effects of the ultra,
protection and '' free whiskey " planks of the Repubhcan platform.
He ought, in fact, to make bis own platform, as a wise and strong

man could easily do.

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It must be confessed that the speeches made in the Senate by
General Harrison, as well as his other pubhc utterances, do not
betray a very high order of ability. He probably would rank higher
than Mr. Cleveland as a lawyer ; but he would not stand even in the
second class of that profession. He impresses one as being a straight¬
forward, honest partisan, with a mind of a rather commonplace
type—in this respect not unlike Mr. Cleveland himself. If elected
he probably would surround himself \vith the ablest men of the
Republican party. A rather ordinary President may in this way
give us a brilliant administration.    General Harrison will undoubt-