March 25,1893





Record  and  Guide.





411









if/^y/____

ESTmiSHED'^"'WPK21'>'18(j&..;^
"^id) TO f^ ESTAJE eulL01^'c ARC><!TECTJ!',E .HoUSDiOlJJ DE^3aR^H>^&,

PRICE, PER YEAR IIV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

i*ul>itsAe<2 every Saturday.





Tklbfhokb       ...
CommtinicatlonB should be addreased to





Cortlandt 1370.





C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St.

J. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

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





Vol, li.





MARCH 25. 1893,





No. 1,E06





HOLDERS of railroad securities have taken some comfort from
the fact that the peoplewho manage their properties hav^
at last got into the last ditch and decided to sustain each olher in
resisting the demands of labor. Probably the trouble with the
switchmen ia Buffalo last summer could have been settled as easily
as was tho trouble with the switchmen in Chicago recently if the
railroads entering Buffalo had been as united as those in
Chicago were. Mr. Depew's opinion on the situation and
the failure of the threatened gold exports have also been
factors on the side of higher prices. So far, however, the market
has been largely in professional hands, the buying from tlie outside
lieing small. There hasbeen none of the investment buying which
is generally characteristic of a return of public favor to the stock
niarket. Tliis is due to the fact that the monetary situation has
not changed materially, nor will it until the big speculation in
natui'al products is ended. There is an expectation of gold exports
and stifEer rates for money in the coming week, and if these come
they will work injury to prices, but the same causes that pre¬
vented the fulfillment of similar predictions a week ago maj be
still at work.





DISCUSSION concerning the Webster bill, which allows the
city to condemn property and lake possession of it before
the question of compensation is determined, certainly reveals more
than one serious objection to the measure, which we believe the
city officials who are behind the bill should consider before they
press it on to the statute books. Opposition at present comes
entirely from the owners of property on Elm street, but all owners
of real estate in the city are interested in the bill because it is possi¬
ble that at any moment its pi-ovisions may operate in the case
of their possessions. Necessity for the proposed legislation
lies wholly in the fact that condemnation proceedings are
now tedious operations, wherein lbe gieater interests of
the public frequently suffer. There is real need for hastening
condemnation proceedings; but some method for accelerating tho
present legal process can surely be devised, which does not work
injury to property-owners; and, upon consideration, it does seem to
us that this Webster bill is likely to work injury. As we have
already stated in these columns, it proposes that the city may, after
a certain course of advertising in the obscure City Record, take
possession of whatever property it needs, and leave the adjudication
of the claims of property-owners to practically any future time.
The bill sets no limit to the patience which the property-owner
must exercise.





ONE of the reasons why condemnation proceedings drag their
weary length along from month to month and year to year
is that the pay of the Commissioners, who have charge of these
proceedings, augment by deiajs. The Commissioners do not want
to " close shop " any sooner than they can, so long as they are get¬
ting $10 a day. Here lies the root of the evil. The proper course
for the city officials.to pursue is to "reform the Commissioners,"
make thein act in the interest of property-owners and of tbe
city. The promoters of the Webster bill, however, dodge this
course. The old delay is to continue, but under tbe Webster bill it
is to continue to the detriment of property-owners. They
are to wait, and not the city, until the Commissioners
consider that they have received a sufficient number of
$10 bills. This is the sort of reformation that does
not reform. IE works injustice. It puts property-owners whose
property has been taken by the city in a position of the utmost
difficulty to prove their loss. For example : 20 feet of a building
is taken for street purposes from a large manufacturing estabhsh-
menc ; heavy, expensive machinery has to be moved and, perhaps.





the curtailed space left to the useof the proprietor necessitates the
purchase of other machinery and, perhaps, occasions loss during
replacement. Under present conditions the manufacturer can
demonstrate his loss ; he can give occular evidence to the Commis¬
sioners of the changes which the city's action would occasion.
But, under the Webster bill, all the proofs would, as it were, pass
into the possession of the municipality and be destroyed. In case
of a dispute, what couid the manufacturer show to demoustra'e
his loss, it might be, it probably would be, two,
three or flve years after he was dispossessed of
bis property. Expert testimony, under tlie present law, can be
applied to each particular case ; but what expert testimony can be
called in when the property has been removed? No. Property
should be left iu the possession of ils owner until bis claims are set¬
tled. The City should buy what it needs precisely as every indi¬
vidual has to buy what he needs, either by paying cash or upon
terms of credit acceptable to the seiter. And, if Commissioners aie
dilatory under the present law, how much more dilatory will they
be under the Webster law V Not even nature will prompt them, as
in tbe case of a properly-constituted hen, to relinquish their setting
when their work becomes useless.





THE events of the past week put an end practically to all legisla¬
tive action this session on the matter of Rapid Transit. Tbe
actual rulers of New York have spoken. They have decreed in
favor of preserving for an indefinite time longer the condition of
transportation that now prevails. As no one can possibly be bene¬
fited by the maintenance of it but the Manhattan tlJompany, is itnot
reasonable to assume that the Manhatlan Company dominato
both official and legislative actiou? Unless public opinion exerts
itself otherwise than sporadically, as inthe past, the city must aban¬
don hope. The Ellison and the Farquhar bills are dead. We shall
only hear of them again in an obituary tone on their way to the
graveyard of pious legislation. Tlie Manhattan Company want
neither of them ; consequently the city officials and tbe legislature
will not consider them. What a pitiful and disgraceful position
the metropolis occupies ! Public decency, pablic morals ave out¬
raged, the development of the city retarded in order to make large
dividends fora private corpoi'ation. Not a single public official
whose voice would be powerful speaks ou behalf of the people's
interests.   But we hear a great deal about speedways !





IT is plain to-day, beyond the possibility of any mistake, that New
York cannot have better Rapid Transit except with the explicit
permission of the Manhattan Company. The Manhattan Company
will neither accept themselves nor sanction giving to anybody
else facilities and privileges that do nob pay thei)i heavily. Any
ideas of developing the " North Side" by improvements m the Rapid
Transit service are vain and foolish. It won't pay the Manhattau
Company to build into the " Nonh Side" or into the 23d and 24th
Wards just at present, consequently they will not accept any priv¬
ileges in that direetion. The idea of a Rapid Transit system, sub¬
servient to the comfort and development of the metropolis, is
not to be realized. We shall have Manhattan elevated roads wher¬
ever they will pay, constructed in the form that wili pay, managed
in the manner that will pay, not according to any ordinary ideas of
remuneration, but, as in the past, upon awatered stock basis, Tlie
sooner the people of New York wake up to the position they are
in, the less hard sitting tbey ^will have to do by and by on the stool
of repentance.





THE bill making it a misdemeanor for a newspaper to exag¬
gerate its circulation should certainly be passed, but we are
afraid it won't. Hardly second to the politician for charlatanry
and humbug is the newspaper, and these two in combination
would probably defeat a measure strictly in the interests of the
l>ublic. Every well-informed person knows that all the "high-
water marks" and "circulation accounts" which screech in the
columns of our newspapers have as little relation to the truth as
the statement of the fake circus proprietor who swore that every
one of tbe advertised features of his show was a sacred pledge.
Indeed, so far has this wholesale lying been carried that the
public judgment has been perverted, and things have come to
such a pass that a reputable journal dare not announce its real
circulation, although that circulatian might be actually a large
one. The public have been made to believe in circula¬
tions running up into hundreds of thousands, and though tl ey
probably allow "a factor of safety" in accepting publishers'
statements they are still dupes of the unscrupulous. We couid
never understand why the Press should be judged by auy other
than the common standard of morals and manners. What it is
disgraceful for a gentleman to pry into, it is disgr.tceful for a news¬
paper to pry into, Catch-penny methods which no reputable firm
would resort to should not be resorted to by reputable news¬
papers; and, to obtain money hy false preten.ses, by lying state¬
ments about circulation, deserves punishment quite as much in the
case of the newspaper proprietor as in that of   the   smart swindler