May 10, 18&0





Record   and   Gu ide





681









ESTABLISHED ^ t^fJ<pH gl'-^^ 1868.
"De/oteO to H^L EsWE . BuiLDIf/c AJIcKITECTJI^E .KOUSEHOID DECORATlOri.

BUsih/ESs a[Jd Themes ofGEfjEi^l 1;Jt£h,esi

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Published every Saturday.
TELEPHONE,          -          -          -          JOHN   370.

Communieatioiis should be addressed to                                           ^

C.W. SWEET, 191   Broadway.
T. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XLV.





MA.Y 10, 1890.





No. 1,156.





Wall street is a scene of aniLaation and cheerfulaess, never
apparent in tliat interesting locality except when ifc is enjoying a
bull naarket. As a general thing people prefer to buy than to sell,
and wliile in bear times business may be brisk, the frequenters of
the Street do not portray in their countenances sucli satisfaction
as in periods like these. Quotat ons started up again, fresh from
their little rest rather than reaction of the middle of the
week, and a number of stocks which had previously been
inactive begin to take part m the rise, giving a healthy,
broadening appearance to the .market. It is cux'ioua to
note in connection with the oft-repeated announcement
that Mr. Gould was not in the market, that the beginning of
the rise was coufcempofaneous with the offer of the new Man¬
hattan 43, aud tliat yesterday ii- took a new start in a story that Mr.
Gould had given out large buying orders in Missouri Pacific, which
was followed by the notification that the,holders of that stock were
to receive bond subscription privileges. Of course, as time goes on
reaction must be expected from time to time on realizations of
profits by speculators, but there is nothing in the condition of
affau-s which indicate anything but further advance in the long
run. The effect of the large shipments of securities to the other
side has yet to be seen in the movement of gold, which can only be
favorable to this countiy.





The net result of over fom- months of talking, writing, disputing,
amending, appointing commissioners, appointing other commia¬
sioners, sending delegations, passing resolutions, and the other
interesting performances incidental to the failure of any rapid
transit bill, is, as usual, absolutely nil. The brave assertion of
Mayor Grant wben he took his position, that the ending of his
two-years' term would see an adequate rapid transit system fairly
under construction, has been disproved by the sad logic of facts ;
and New Yorkers must-be content for some years to come to hang
on straps, be packed liki; sardines in a bos, and watch the increas¬
ing exodus of population to the more accessible regions of Long
Island and New Jersey. It is true that the Bridge bill has failed
also, but it is not impossible that a tunnel under the East River
may provide an outlet for the lateral current on one side, while
the improved facilities of the New Jersey roads will assist mate¬
rially a similar current on the other. It may be well to consider
how much delay bas to be faced. Nothing, it is quite certain, can
be done for twelve months—nothing, that is, in the way of pro¬
viding those perfect facilities which people have been erroneously
aiming at. It is by no means certain that even next session of the
Leeisiatrure anything can be accomplished ; but assuming that our
Legislature can manage skilfully to combine a rapid transit bill
with their more important political and personal interests, it will
still be a matter of three or four years before the roule can be
selected, the consent of the various persons and officials in interest
obtained, and the road constructed. Meanwhile it is quite certain
that the prcdeut state of things will become unbearable, and we
had better cease the futile attempt to urge the political banditti at
Albany and the City Hall to act for the public interest, and turn
to the Manhattan Company, which holds, as it has always held,
the key of tbe situation. We are in the position of the man who
spends years in bridging a river, instead of taking advantage tem¬
porarily of the ford which is under his nose ; we throw away our
bread because we cannot spread it with butter. It is no use vitu¬
perating over the failure at Albany, The indignation, if it amounts
to anything, should be reserved until the election next fall. But
it is a matter of grave necessity to take advantage nf what facili¬
ties we have and improve tnem as best we can. The Cable Kail¬
road bill is iu the Governor's hamls, and if it is signed it will do
something toward better facilities. It is to be hoped that Mr. Hill
will have the courage to give it his approval; for, although it is by
no means a perfect bill, yet it will help, not indeed so much to solve
the rapid transit problem in iis larger aspects, but to supplement

the imperfect facilities ofom" street-car lines,

----------------------------# ■ --—-

Tte success-of the strike of the carpenters- and framers in thiff
ei'iy fos am i^%I^t<^uc day wit^ liias )^x(s^'^Bi$ wa» ibuoboS ^'





foregone eonclusion from the first, and these trades were probably
selected by the leaders of the movement with a view to the '' moral
effect" as well as the practical result. Of course, this shortening
of the hours of labor without an equivalent reduction of pay means
that the increase in the income of these men must come out of
somebody's .pocket; and, clearly in this case, that somebody will
be the public that purchase and dwell in houses. Few seriously
maintain, though it is sometimes asserted, that the carpenters or
the framers wdl now turn out as much work in eis,ht hours as
they did in nine. Eight hours' work will not be more productive
in future than formerly ; consequently, in the wages account for
tbese two trades in the construction of a building there will be an
increase of one-eighth. This may he estimated at about 3 per cent,
of tbe total cost of an ordinary four-story dwelling, and less in a
tenemtnt; so much of the work for which is manufactured outside
of this city. In the latter case, the increase vvill probably be not
very much more than 1 per cent. In the case of a fiat or an apart¬
ment house the Increase will be about the same as in a dweU¬
ing, while with ordinary store and loft buildings the increase
may be as much as 1^^ per cent. Whether owners of
houaes completed before the strike will endeavor to obtain
this increase remains to be seen. Probably they will.
Certainly, in the case of new houses hereafter erected an increase
in cost will take place. A disposition is evinced in certain quar¬
ters to condemn the action of the men, and to regard the eight-
hour movement generally as um-ighteous if not criminal. Thia is
nonsense. Labor is as much entitled to the best terms it can make
for itself as Capital, ao long as those terms are made by legitimate
meajs. Tbere can be very little doubt that the eight-hour day will
soon obtain in maiy trades, but ouly in those that are strongly or¬
ganized. To the mass of workers inthiscountry it is a long way off
—to clerks, domestic servants, agricultural laborers and others, Wa
do not agree, however, with those who hold that these people
never cau obtain the shorter hours, principally because of the
nature of their work. There is no reason why even the agricul¬
tural laborer, whose work is said to be of a kind that forever pre¬
cludes the possibility of an eight-hour day, should not obtain what
the cariientera and framers have successfully striven for in this
city. An universal eight-hour day would, however, benefit no one
pecuniarily, though it might morally and mentally, unless the
shorter day were accompanied by a proportionate increase in pro¬
duction. The carpenters and framers of this city are now better
off than they were, but at the expense of the "public"—all who
use a building for any purpose or pay rent. But should the " pub¬
lic"—all trades and professions—work only eight hours and get
nine hours pay, a general increase in prices would follow and no
one would be better off than formerly.    The eight-hour movement

destroys its pecuniary results more and more with each success.

---------»----.—-^

Governor Hill got in another well-directed blow at the Legisla¬
ture during the past weeb. It is the cue of theRepublicans to class
tbe Governor, because of his opposition to a strict application of
the Australian system and a high license bill, as the supporter of
all that is vicious in our political life—the friend of the briber and
the rum-seller. As a counteractive, the Governor has started a
little reform movement of his own—one which has two advan¬
tages, viz.: that there ij real need for the cJiange proposed, but no
possibility of its accomplishment. "Recent partisan acts," says
the Governor, with disgust at the idea, " both in Congress and in
various State Legislatures have induced me to suggest to your hon¬
orable body whether a radical change is not advisable in our con¬
stitutional methoda of determining contested elections," And he
goes ou to show how four-fifths of all contested elections in Con¬
gress are decided in favor of the dominant party, how a legislative
body to-day has no rules of evidence to guide it in the exercise of
judicial functions, how elections are contested and candidatea
seated on the flimsiest pretences; and he recounts the English
experience in deahng with the same matter, which finally resulted
in placing the judicial function in the hands of a judicial officer.
All this is very true; and it is simply the system of subverting all the
functions of the State to partisan advantage, the system which m our
national government has made our President but little more than the
official distributor of spoils, and which in our municipal politics
has led to the constant necessity of careful scrutiny on the assump¬
tion that there is always some underhand work being done, which
has prostituted this single judicial function which our legislative
bodies have been given. Eut it is supremely ridiculous to see so
uncompromising a partisan as Governor Hill addressing such a
partisan body as our State Legislature for the purpose of gravely
recommending that the taint of partisanship in this matter should
be removed from legislation. What a curious game it is these men
playl Governor Hili tries to get ahead of the Legislature, and the
Legislature tries to get ahead of Governor Hill; and to accomplish
these purposes they both pose as examples of pure devoticn to the
public good and resolute haters of mere partisanship.' As well
might Satan ask his Privy Council to abolish sin^

.....--------^.--------»-.-----------^—i                                             .- 1.

.'    AMd M^ tegislative turmoil at^Alban^ tU^r^ s^^ maiij^ ti^.iaUi^