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Vol. XLII.





OCTOBER 20. 1888.





No. 1,075





In response to repeated requests "Sir Oracle" has collected and
rewritten his vaticinations on matters of general interest, and
they will be published in booJc form next week by G. P. Putnam's
Sons The price of this work will be one dollar, and it will
contain aboiit one hundred and eighty pages. Should any of
our readers like to keep in some permanent form the best of
"Sir Oracle's^' outgivings on what the future has in store for
us they would do well to send their orders in at once to
The Record and Guide office. In this work " Sir Oracle" under¬
takes to deal with a larger and wider range of topics than woidd be
suitable in the pages of a business journal. He touches, for instance,
on the future of religion, marriage, and the Wee. "Sir Oracle"
needs no indorsement in these columns, and it cannot but be that
many of our readers would like to have a permanent reminder of
the " Prophetic Department" which has been so notable a feature in
this journal for so many years past. Nearly all the matter in this
work has been written expressly for it, though the conversations pub¬
lished in The Record and Guide furnished hints which have been

expanded and elaborated.

--------•---------

Tlie adjournment of Congress tbis week will help general busi¬
ness, and ought to improve tbe value of securities on the Stock Ex¬
change. It is not creditable to our National Legislature that, when
it commences its sessions the business of tbe country suffers, while,
when it adjourns there is a sense of relief in the business commu¬
nity. The Congress that adjourns to-day has failed signally in one
vital matter—when it met it had to deal with a daugerous surplus
in the Treasm-y. If it had at once set to work to spend this unneces¬
sary accumulation, productively, business would have revived
early this year; then it could have addressed itself to the task of
revising our tariff and tax laws so as to make an equilibrium be¬
tween the receipts and the expenditures of the government. What
we mean is this. Congress during the first two months of its session
should have made liberal appropriations for internal improvements
for the navy, guns, sea-coast defences and for rehabilitating our
cimmerce. Two hundred million thus appropriated, to be spent
within three years, would have provided for tbe surplus and would
have stimulated every industry in the country. A debate on tbe
tariff and tax laws would then be in order, and while it was going
on tbe bu iness interests of the country would not have suffered, for
there would liave been no danger of locking up money in the
National Treasury,





But the administration selected a very different policy. President
Cleveland thought he eaw^ a chance to force Congress to reduce the
tariff so as to get rid of the Treasury surplus. Hence tbe fierce
debates prolonged up to the very adjournment, with the sur¬
plus as great and dangerous as [ever. Although the ordinary
appropriations are liberal, they will not avail to distribute the
money to people in the channels of trade, and Congress, when it
reassembles in December, will have tliis problem still to solve. In
the meantime we have been getting rid of some of the money by
passing swindling pension bills and by making a present of it to the
rich individuals and corporations which hold our national obliga¬
tions. This squandering of our national funds on wasteful pensions
and rich people has tbe approval of both parties. General Harrison
and Mr. Blaine favor this misuse of the national funds as does the
Democratic administration, which inaugurated the policy. When
Congress reassembles in December doubtless some scheme will be
devised to get rid of the accumniations in the Treasury. What
shape the plan wUl take will be determined by the  result of the

Presdential election,

--------•---------

With nearly all the factors in favor of arising market, securities
have been depressed and slow of sale in Wall street dm-ing the past
week. The further revelations about the great corporations which
have been in trouble lately are not of a character to enthuse inves¬





tors. Jay Gould told a great many lies about Missouri Pacific a
year ago when he was personally selling his own stock, but his
" fibs " were very innocent ones compared with what the pious Bos¬
ton managers of the Atchison & Santa Fe road have been telling
their dupes for two years past. The condition of that road is very
bad indeed. Biirhngton & St. Paul is uo better, Tiien the report
of the Baltimore & Ohio corporation is anything but reassuring.
Here is a road, supposed to be tbe most solvent of any in the coun¬
try, with $48,000,000 assets, yet it has passed three dividends, and
will not be able to resume payment to its stockholders for probably
thi'ee years to come. Still the improvement in business and that
great corn crop must in time give us higher prices; but it is scarcely
reasonable to expect a revival of speculation until the Presidential

election is over.

---------*--------,

Mayor Hewitt's letter of acceptance is a very able document and
undoubtedly be will get a large vote from those who tliink it
unwise to elect a Mayor who will distribute all the patronage among
one set of politicians. The appointments during the next two years
are more important than those during any previous Mayor's term
since the beginning of the history of the city. This is why Tam¬
many lias made a dead set for capturing our city government next
election. It will give that organizp^tion, if successful, more power
and pati'onage than even Tweed and Sweeny controlled. But this
determination to make use of the spoils makes Tammany a very
potent force iu the coming election. Mayor Hewitt £ays he will
api^oiut, if elected. Republicans as well as Democrats, that
he will regard only fitness; and it is evident further that active
pai-tisansliip would be a disqualification. This position, of course,
is not satisfactory to the vast army of office-seekers who control the
local poUtical machines of the city. The contest will be between
Grant and Hewitt. The Republican candidate would make an
excellent Mayor, but he has no chance with Mr. Hewitt in the field.
Coogan, the labor candidate, is well spoken of by the newspapers
because he is a liberal advertiser in their columns, but he will not
poll a large vote. He does not represent the laboring people, and
he is running because he is willing to pay tbe expenses of the
canvass. In no sense is he a creditable candidate, but his being in
the field will help Hewitt by keeping some labor votes away frora

Grant.

---------•---------                     •

The coming contest is a very important one for the Mugwumps.
If, with the help of the laboring people, tbey cannot defeat David
Bennett Hill for Governor, tbat will end them in any future polit¬
ical contef.t. They made a capital mistake in committing them¬
selves to Cleveland before knowing who the Republicans would
nominate. Had they made a fight for some candidate like Judge
Gresham and been defeated, they could then have declared for
Cleveland in a way that would have attracted the attention of the
whole country. Their antagonism to Hill is apparently good polit¬
ical tactics ; but if he should succeed and poll more votes than
Cleveland, they wili be utterly discredited. Papers like the daily
Times, Evening Post and Harper's Weekly ought to be able to wield
some influence over the independent voters. The same papers are
advocating the election of Mayor Hewitt. If he also should be
beaten, the greater the blow to the Mugwumps.





The situation in France is very interesting from a political point
of view. The Floquet ministry favors a revision of the Constitution
and proposes to abandon the English system of ministerial responsi¬
bility and adopt the American idea of the Cabinet in which the
Secretaries are responsible to tbe head of the State and not to the
Legislative Chambers. The present Constitution of France was made
by monarchists to tide over an interregnum until a king could take
his place on the French tlirone. The Repubhc bas been in existence
fifteen years, hat the Constitution has not worked well, as ministries
have not lasted on an average more tlian ten months at a time. A
parliamentary crisis is a chronic condition in France. Hence the
desire to bave a Cabinet not directly responsible to a Cliamber and
which could defy faction and accidental majorities. This change is
desirable and must come some day; but will it be accomplished
without a revolution ? This seems doubtful. The French are so
theatric and sensational a people that any vital change in their
national life is sure to be tbe occasion of a scene calculated to
attract tbe attention of the world. The French news from this
time forth will bear watching.





Tbe Chicago cable-car strike was managed in a very bungling
manner by both sides to the quarrel. The employes had real
grievances, which the companies ought to have redressed, and
which had to be taken into account in the final adjustment of the
struggle ; but the really daugerous phase of the strike was the fact
that during its continuance Chicago was under mob law, and the
civic authorities found it impossible to preserve order. Chicago
has a dangerous laboring population. Tens of thousands of men
are employed on the mauy railroads that centre there. Then there
are the cattle killers, pork packers, grain handlers and a swarm of