April 1,1898





Record  and  Guide.





481







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Vol. li.





APRIL 1. 189S.





No, 1,807





AS has not been unusual of late years on the eve of a holiday,
the stock market closed very strong. In this instance it is
remarkable, because the rates for money ou the [laat day indi¬
cated scarcity, and with a certainty of serious curtailment of
home and foreign business for some dajs prices might naturally
be expected to sag. But there are evidently strong hands on the
reins, and while the success of their efforts has not been very great,
still a market showing such strength under such conditions prom¬
ises well for the near future. A week haa made serious declines in
the prices of some few securities, but the advances, notwithstand¬
ing that weakness prevailed during most of the week, have been
in a very large majority, and in not a few instances substantial.
Tne talk recommences aboui tne benefit the roads entering Chicago
and the Eastern trunk lines are to receive from the World's Fair,
whose opening is now so near, and this has encouraged the buy¬
ing of Erie and the Chicago Grangers. It has been alway& in
people's minds that the Fair must work advantageously to Ameri¬
can securities, and with its advent so near at hand and with pow¬
erful forces in control this advantage may be discounted in the
coming month. If it w^i-re not that the unfavorable features that
caused the weakness and dullness of a month past still exist
thisjnference might very confidently be turned into a prediction.





ONE of the favorable conditions of the commercial outlook is
that, for the first time in ten years, we are entering upon a
Spring with Labor on the defensive. After a bitter experience,
the manufacturers have learned the lesson of combination, and it
now looks aa though for some time to come they will act on the
offensive if forced to. The present strike or lock-out on the part
of the clothing manufacturers shows the employers united, and the
men or unions fighting one another. But, with plenty of money
behind the manufacturers, they are morally certain to achieve suc¬
cess. It really means a great deal that at last a check has been
called to tha steadily increasing demands of Labor, which, slowly
but surely, from year to year have been sapping the profits of capi¬
tal. Fighting, of course, is to be deplored, for in the end nobody
gains by strikes or lock-outs, but if there must be
fighting, it is well that ifc should not be a one-sided
affair as it has been in the past. Capital has its just
rights the same as Labor has and, for some years past. Labor bas
had everything its own way. Some of its demands have not been
for the best interests of the country. For instance, the passing and
enforcing of the Contract Labor Law was a mistake. That dema¬
gogic measure has been detrimental to the general welfare, by
keeping much-needed skilled labor out of the country. It was
passed solely in the interests of the unions and should be repealed.
We fear, however, that tbere is little hope for tbat. Secretary
Carlisle is already truckling to Labor, as is shown by his recent
decision about artists.





ONE does not care to pronounce very positively upon the plan of
the New City Hall, which the Building Commissioners and the
Advisory Committee have determined upon. The value of the
plan will depend so much upon the architectural skill applied
to the design. Certainly, great opportunities are given to the
architect in the ample dimensions of the site; but the retention
of the Court House must surely prove puziiling. Is this monstrosity
to be a permanent fixture among our municipal curiosities? If
so, what architect of repute will jeopard his reputation by
designing tbe new structure in harmony with it, and if he does not,
what an incongruous result will affront us on Chambers street!
Mr. Eidlitz's addition will be nothing to it.





rriHE tax bill providing that a tax of half; of 1 per cent shall be
-L levied on all mortgages, is a measure that belongs to the class
of legislation attempted from time to time for purposes that cannot





be honest. It is, of course, well for the Eeal Estale Exchange to
keep an eye on the bill and even, a demonstration against it may not
be without value; but on the other hand there is' no reason to' fear
it will pass. It is fairly stuffed with provisions distasteful to cor¬
porations, and their influence may be relied upon to defeat it.JTh i
is the way bills are made and unmade nowadays. Public opposition
in most cases is a farce. Legislation is purely a matter of com¬
merce. The Real Estate Exchange need not bother about agitating
for immunities which other interested people  will  indirectly pur

chase for them.

----------■-------—

Exit Oompetition,

IT is not many years ago that a famous English statesman oppose
a motion in the House of Commons because " the reign of nuim-
bers, if it endangered nothing else, endangered political economy.
Nobody can survey the economic and social changes of the pas
twenty-flve years without finding this cry again and again on the
lips of people. The last protest of the reactionary againat reform
has always been '' What is to become of us if this old institution or
that old practice or these old ideas are overthrown?" The English
M. P. could not conceive the world as a fit place to live in if hi
political economy were endangered. The trouble with him an
with those who plaft themselves in his position is that they
opine that ro^reia Tiust and always does carry forward
into the future tje conditions of the present; whereas the
chief business of Progress—the evidence and justification
of itself—is to create new conditions conformable to the new order.
For example, it was urged .against Democracy tbat for its own
interests it could not safely use the large freedom which it demanded.
The Aristocrat could not perceive that Democracy was more than
a demand for actual power, it was a demaud for possibilities. We
see now what the Arisrocratcould not possibly see; how the dissem¬
ination of education, the creation of the Press,[the extension of the
use of steam power and electricity {all if not the direct outcome of
Democracy, greatly developed by it) have aided the People in over¬
coming the very difficulties which seemed so threatening at one
time. The instincts of Mankind have been safer guides than the
intelligence, and people have felt better than they have thought.

During tbe past few years " political economy " has been sadly
"endangered" in this country. The " reign of numbers" has been
arbitrarily ordering affairs iu direct con tra ven tion j of its laws.
Moved almost by the primary instincts, by crude desires, by the
unscientific promptings of the counting house and workshop, many
vigorcus attempts have been made in more than one direction to
oust Competition from its tyrannical position in human affairs.
This, indeed, is " endangering Political Economy." Competition
was one of the dreadest but we were told, most beneficent of the
divinities which the old political economists created to rule over
the affairs of men in the sort of factory Olympus they set up in
lbe first half of the present century. Competition was the
Jupiter, the great regulator, the abaser of the proud and
haughty in their prosy mythology. The world was instructed to
give Competition full swing. As a consequence, the weak might go
to the wall, to the poor-house, to the pauper's grave, to any of the
numerous perditions of the unfortunate, but for the rest all would
be well. With the Wage-fund theory before and Competition be¬
hind, did Mankind ever find themselves in such ahopelesdposition?
Laissez-faire became the new gospel for the regeneration of the
world Protection or governmtntal interference in any direction
was decried. Trades unionism was denounced, and the Law be¬
came active in dealing with all manner of combinations in restraint
of trade. Nothing could be tolerated that interfered with the
working of Competition. It is well for many fco remember where
the world stood not so very many years ago.

But the instincts of Man again saved him from his intelligence.
When he could not argue against the Wage-fund theory, he rebelled
against it. He revolted against Competition, when it commenced
to demonstrate its existence upon his back and within his vitals;
and even snug, comfcitable Capital arose, at last, against the tyrant
when he decreed eitber the closing of factories or their profitless
operation. The outcome, in the case of Labor, was the aggressive
trade union; in tbe case of Capital, the trust—each, in its way, was
a firm planting of the feet in a stand against Competition, The
reactionaries were soon heard from. The cry went up, "if it
endangers nothing else, this endangers political economy."

The agitation that arose against the Trusts has subsided. Scores
of new mercantile combinations and consolidations are now formed
annually, but we hear nothing any more of the evils that we were
once assured must arise trom the repression of Competition. The
dire predictions that did prevail about the freedom with which irre¬
sponsible corporations would plunder the public bave not been
fulfilled, and prices, removed largely from tbe regulation of com¬
petition, are still, contrary to expectation, not wiihout regulation.
Corporations have discovered that the highest prices are not pro¬
ductive of the greatest returns—the^dearer articles become, the less
people buy, and the increase in price is more than offset by the
diminution of consumption.

The world has changed also^quite as much in its attitude toward





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