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Vol. XLIV.





SEPTEMBER 21. 1839.





No. 1,183





WaU street seems to be full of stocks bought in anticipation
of big crops, and consequently heavy business to the railroads.
The big crops are here, so are the customers with their stocks, and
both are awaiting the next development—a good market to sell on.
As for our wlieat, Europe seems to be in no hurry to buy, and when
we consider how weii tlrey got along last year, with short croiss all
around, it is plain enough that they are not at all frightened about
the present outlook. Our farmers do not care to sell at ruling
prices, aud railroads can get no further very kirge earnings
until wheat begins to move. As for the coru crop it takes
a long time for this to be reflected in the benefits to
railroads, as it must go largely into animals before
it conies to the market, and the corn croi* is moved
more in the shape of hogs and provisions than in any other way.
Our cotton, however, Europe must have at some price, and the
clique which is buying it knows that not only must Europe have
cotton very soon, but everyone of our own mills is also short
for manufacturing purposes. EngUsh and Continental spinner.f
will put off buying as long as possible, but tlie best cotton is always
that which comes first to the uT.arket; so we can surely count upon
a lot of exchange being made in oiu' favor in the immediate future
whether grain moves or not. The rate question with the railroads,
though far from being settled, seems to begradually conSning itself
within narrower bounds, and should it be satisfactorily adjusted
"WaU street will soon again start off on the road to higher prices.
The money question may be relied upon to soon settle itself, and
tight money with plenty of business in sight is a very different
thing from tight money brought on by over-speculation.





The government report of the ex]iorts of iirovisions from the
United States during the past mouth shows that we are continuing
to reap the benefit of the large coru crop of last year. Coming as
it does at the moment when another large crop is assured it is
pleasant news, as it foretokens a continuance of prosperous times so
far as several of tlie principal products of the country are concerned.
During August we shipped abroad uaore than twice as much corn
as we did a year ago, twice as much ham, nearly twice as much
lard, 50 per cent, more pork andover 10,000,000 pounds more bacon.
Of course, all this is nothing but corn in a different shape. Every
largo crop of this cereal increases the live stock of tbe country,
cheapens food, in this way reacting upon other industries, and adds
to tbe surplus of provisions for export. With wheat it is becoming
more and more difficult for us to meet the competition of other
countries, and there is little doubt that in the future our supremacy
in the markets of the world as to this cereal will be disputed more
strongly than ever. Indeed, considering the rapid growtii of our
population, it may not be long before the home market will be the
only market we need. But with corn we are so easily first that it
is likely to become a more important factor on om' foreign com¬
merce than it is.





So far as the newspapers are concerned, the opjjosition to the
Bowling Green site for the new Custom House and Appraiser's
buildiugs is principally political. The selectiou was the act of a
Republican administration, hence every paper Democratically
inclined feels called upon to condemn it. No good can come out of
Nazareth ; though at the time ex-Secretary of the Ti-eastiry Fair-
child was considering this same site, and was inclined to select it
these critics had not a word to say about its uudesirableness which
DOW strikes thera so forcibly. But tlien, Fairchild was a Democrat.
Quite apart from politics, however, the site is about as good as could
be chosen, despite aU that has been said by up-town importers, who
have talked from flrst to last to suit then- own interests. So far as
it goes that is all right. The selection of a site should be a matter
of interest as distinct from other considerations, but the interest
that decides the question should be not the interest'of tbe up-town
importers, or the down-town importers, but the interests of the
entire port of New York, wbich it should not be forgotten includes
Brooklyn, the seat of about one-half of the commerce of the port.
Apart, however, from the interests of oiu" sister city,, which  after





ail are our interests too, in tire choice between an up-to'wn and a
down-town aite, the facts favor the latter. Surveyor Beattie says
there are fifty-three bonded warehouses in this city, and they are
one-third of a mile nearer to Bowling Green than to the present
Appraiser's Store at Greenwich and Laight streets, and of the num¬
ber of packages sent to these stores the destination of about .51
was south of Canal street, about .36 between Canal and 14th streets,
and only .05 above i4th street: All that has beeu said about the
heavier expenses for hauling that will be entailed upon importers
by the choice of the Bowling Green site for the Appraiser's Stores
is largely nonsense, because packages for appraisement are deliv¬
ered at the expense of the government, while other packages
remain at the wharves where they arrive, and are thence carted
direct to their destination. From the tenor of the objections that
have been made it might be imagined that all merchandise
imported, every ton of pig iron, every baiTel of soda, or beer, all
machinery, aud every crate of goods passed through the Appraiser's
Store, and, iudeed, the Custom House as well.





In the recent strike in London, philanthropists. Socialistic
reformers, Radicals and the " friends of Labor" generally, worked
up a great deal of sympathy for the dockyard men by descanting
on the " tyranny of Capital" and the " duty of employers," until
one might be led to believe that in some way a certain portion of
mankind has become tainted with vices from which another por¬
tion is wholly, or to a great part, free. This idea, or something like
it—that there are two classes of meu, the wolves and the sheep,
and that tlie latter need constant protection against the former—
underlies a great part of the Socialistic and paternal legislation of
recent years, and has created and is creating a mass of purely class
laws whicii in many cases are identical in principle with much of
the olmoxious legislation of bygone centuries. The difference is
this, that the legislative machiuery then ground in the interests of
the aristocracy, whereas to-day it is grinding almost as finely
for Labor.





Tho ci-iticism of Socialists to-day upon Capital is after all
mainly a criticism upon human nature, and such phrases aa the
" tyranny of Capital," " the selfishness of Capital," with which our
oars are filled would merely be completed by being widened into
the " tjranny and selfishness of Human Nature." As a proof of
this one has only to consider the treatment to which Labor sub¬
jected the men who took the place of the strikers in the London
dockyards. They were bodily maltreated and in many cases driven
from work. Every strike in this country wherein the " scab " has
taken a part has furnished examples of this, and everyone who has
had any dealings with Union labor knows how tyrannous and
positively unjust many of the Union rules are, not only to the
employer but to Labor itself, and especially to that larger part
of it whicii is not organized and includes the most unfortunate.
It is as certain as anything can be, that if Labor took the place
of Capital to-morrow the "working class" would be no better
treated than it is to-day, and we know that in co-operative enter¬
prises, wherever they have been established, where the operatives
are at once capitalists and laborers, wages are no higher nor is the
treatment better than in the factories of the cajntalists. That
Capital as a whole is reaping the fruits of the earth and starving
the rest of mankind is disproved by all the statistics that have been
obtained. Edward Atkinson has shown that 90 per cent, of the
firms that go into business go out of it by failure, and the erroneous
ideas which obtain regarding the condition of Capital are largely
due to taking a few extraordinary cases, such as the Vanderbilts,
Carnegie and certain railroad and trust magnates, and holding
them up as typical of all other capitalists. The same method of
arguing applied to Labor would yield queer results.





The question which we should never lose sight of in all discus¬
sion of tbe subject is this : Is Labor less tyrannous, less selfish than
Capital, or are both part of mankind possessed in an equal degi-ee
of its virtues and faults ? The judgments which we pass on others
are, nine cases out of ten, judgments on ourselves. During the
great blizzard in 1888, if we remember rightly, some of the
employes of the Western Union in this city roundly denounced the
selfishness of the management in deducting wages for a part of
the time that they were away from their posts. Yet it was shown
that some of the employes easily made their way to the office- the
day after the storm, and many of those that stayed away spent
their time inspecting the "sights" about tbe city. It might be
added to this that these men themselves demand extra ijay for
overwork, and during this same blizzard were paid extra wages
for the overtime they put in because of tbe rusii of business which
followed the resumption of the telegraphic service.





There are many laws on the statute books regulating eraploj'ors.
What would be said to a suggestion to pass ouly one law to regu¬
late Labor as to its efficiency, cleanliness, industry and so forth.
Some people are crying for a " minimum-ivage" law.    Suppose, afc