January t, 1890





Record  and  Guide.





TO f^ EiSTAJE . BuiLOlKo ApCr<lTECTi-T*E ,Ko\JS€tfOU) DlijCiR^rrild

BtfsiriESS wto Themes or G£>Eiv^ lii^^^n





PRICE, PER FEAR IN ADTABfCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.
Tblbphonb^     •      •     -      -      CoBTiiAimT 1370.

Communicationa should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET,  14 & 16 Vesey St.

J, 1. LINDSEY, Svsiness Manager.

"Entered at the Post-ogUie at New York, N. 7., as second-class matter.''





Manhattan Company at its best could not give New York the kind
of rapid transit that the city's present and future imperatively
demanded; and this shadow of reason disappeared before the con¬
sideration that in granting these privileges, we should be simply
throwing up a makeshift to tide us over the few years which would
be necessary for the planning and erection of a permanent sys¬
tem. But neither Tammany nor the newspapers would listen to
any reason; and, of course, they had theii' own way.





Vol. LI.





JANUARY 7, 1893.





No. 1,295





BUSINESS on the stock mai-ket is very dull and prices have still
a tendency to droop. The immediate cause of this is not so
much the gold shipments that are taking place; they could be
cheerfully endured if there was any assurance of meastu'es that
would prevent them under any but normal conditions. The largest
cause of the monetary bad business in secxu-ities is the fact that Walt
Street stands fairly aghast at the thought that has lately arisen that
the present Congress may adjourn and leave the Sherman Silver
Act on the Statute-book. The evils resulting from this measure
have been so pressed home in financial circles that it was taken for
granted that, the little farce in Brussels having been ijlayed out, and
common business sense indicating so plainly what should be done,
that Congress would at once get to work and repeal the act of 1890.
But the men who make the Congress do not seem to be affected by
the mischief that act is causing ; so with the indifference to other's
misery, not peculiar only to Congressional humanity, though
strikingly exhibited there, Congress dallies with the question and
fears arise that it may not deal with it at all. This puts the market
back into the position it was in so long last year and is destroying
the promise of better things which was founded upon the expecta¬
tion of an early cessation of silver piu'chases by the Treasury and a
knowledge that throughout the country generally business had for
a year been active and good. With the evil in the situation so well
known there can be no improvement in the market for securities
until it is removed. The situation is that everything that complies
with all the gilt-edge investment conditions is in demand and very
difficult to obtain, but everything else is discredited. As the latter
is in great majority its discredit contracts business very materially,





MAYOR GILROY'S appeal to citizens to aid in keeping the
streets of the city in a seemly condition by uofc thi-owing
papers and refuse onto the pavements is, of course, an appeal with
which decent people will heartily accord. But the Mayor can do
something better than exhort. He should cause receptacles for re¬
fuse to be placed at every street corner. Like a good housewife
the city should provide public waste-paper baskets for its citizens.
Where the useless lampposts are to-day handy iron boxes securely
closed with a moveable self-acting lid should be placed, as per¬
petual standing reminders to passers-by to preserve the peace and
the pieces of their old letters and discarded newspapers and not
scatter them in the streets. The consents of these boxes could be
sold and the returns would pay for their maintenance.





IF any one should have predicted four years ago the attitude of
the press in general to the present phase of the rapid transit
situation the prediction would have been scouted as utterly pre¬
posterous. Shortly after ex-Mayor Grant assumed office for the
first time the Manhattan Company presented to the officials and
people of this city a very moderate plan for the improvement of its
service to the public—a plan which did not propose theestension of
its lines into any new districts, but simply such additions to its
present structure and terminals as would bring them up to their
maximum utility. The proposal was so utterly unobjectionable
that in an intelligently governed city it would have been accepted
without a murmur, and questions would have arisen only concern¬
ing the terms upon which the increased privileges should be granted,
But the government of the city saw in the proposi¬
tion an opportunity to make cheap capital out of
a monopoly supposed to be unpopular, and the clear¬
headed, public-spirited newspaper editors, by holding up their
hands in ainazement and consternation at the xjresumption of this
conscienceless corporation in making such a sinister proposal,
assisted Tammany in shutting off the Manhattan Company from any
concessions. The only shadow of reason behind the acrid and viru¬
lent opposition offered to the suggested improveojents w^s th^t the





"^"OW, at the end of some years, we find that private capital is
■^^ not willing to undertake the construction of the most
unobjectionable and feasible plan as yet outlined. The emergency
thus created has been too much for the consistency of the news¬
papers. Instead of insisting that the Manhattan Company is still
a sinister monopoly, incapable of supplying the city with the
facilities it needs, many of the newspapers have flopped over
to the opinion that the elevated roads are our oitly resource.
Doubtless the death of Jay Gould is partly responsible for this
astounding change of front, for the press have no longer anything
to gain by taking advantage of bis unpopularity; but they are prob¬
ably more influenced by their fear of facing the situation as it
really is. They know just as well as the Rapid Transit Commission
knows that the elevated roads are not oui- only resource. The city
can build the road, and build it at a big profit. But the newspapers,
with the exception of the Times, are afraid to favor this inno¬
vation, partly because it is an innovation (the unintelligent
always dislike sensible innovations) and partly because they trem¬
ble before the threatened popular disapproval of placing the
improvement in the hands of Tammany. Tammany, however,
whose leaders are engaged upon more congenial political duties,
is equally afraid of assuming such an important responsibility as
the municipal construction of the road. The cousequence is that
in the face of the past records, both of the local officials and the
newspapers, and in spite of the criminal waste of money involved
in the step, there is talk of turning the new transit service over to

the Manhattan Company,

----------»

IF this is done it will be done with a wanton disregard of the per¬
manent interests of New York. Curiously enough tlie construc¬
tion of moreelevated roads is defended by the very arguments which
the newspapers scorned a few years back. It is alleged that thes«
new elevated roads are only a temporary expedient and that as
soon as they are erected the Rapid Transit Commission can again
return to the task of planning a system which will place the north¬
ern wards more on an equality with places to the east and weot at
an equal difference from the City Hall. This argument is per¬
fectly valid so far as it applies to the improvement of the present
sti-ucture of the Manhattan Company up to its full carrying
capacity. Such an improvement would tide us over the next few
years in pretty fair shape. As we have always held', it is a conces¬
sion which the Manhattan Company has a right to ask and the
authorities every reason to grant. But it is not valid as applied to
the construction of the two elevated roads, one on each side of the
city, which the Commission have announced that they intend to
lay out, because such elevated roads would partially take the place
of the permanent system, and so make its construction more than
ever difficult. Does anyone mean to say seriously that if a fran¬
chise for an expensive but adequate system is unsalable at the
present time that it will be salable a few years hence, after two
more competing lines have been built? No responsible private
capitalist would take $5,000,000 out of the city treasury
as an inducement to construct such a road as the
Commission has planned. More elevated roads would
do what the elevated roads have already done. They would pro¬
vide a stop-gap for a decade or so, and then act as an impediment
to a better system. If they are constructed, the demand for rapid
transit will temporarily subside, and any talk of a really adequate
system will be futile mouthing until our present inconveniences
again appear. When that time comes the difficulties of the prob¬
lem will have been multiplied several times over ; its expense will
have been increased ; its engineering obstacles will have become
even more trying, and the combination of capital against it more
powerful. Tlie only time to hiiild our permanent system is thejjre-
sent time Existing facilities should be improved just in so far as
the improvement does not displace the permanent improvement.
As to the permanent improvement, it should be constructed at the
expense of the city ; and if it is not so constructed, the bill of
damage from the neglect will amount to hundreds of millions of
dollars.





THE closing suggestion of Mayor Boody's message is enough to
provoke unrestrained hilaritj in those who understand its
significance. He reminds the Common Council that the repeal of
the Cantor Act has placed on that " honorable body " a special and
important responsibility; and he recommends that a policy be
adopted that will secure to the city the full value of all privileges
granted, A wise recommendation, surely, considering that appli-
cation? ^re pending before that body for the use by private corporf},-.