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Vol. LXI.





JANUARY 22. 189S.





No. 1,558





/*^ ONGRESS is getting the fidgets. The record it was gaining
^^ for sense and business consideration seems to have irri¬
tated its -wilder members, and, consequently, we are getting
shocks on Cuba and the Currency which have a tendency to
scare some people. To the gambling element this does not mat¬
ter, because money can be made hy selling short as well as by
buying, and the members of this element would just as soon
trade on one side as the other. But to the business world, that
is engaged in more legitimate pursuits, peace and confidence
are necessary, and the slightest prospect that the one will bo
broken or the other disappear makes it timid and unwilling
to take the chances it otherwise would do. That fear of this
kind has arisen is shown by the movements of the stock market
this week; and, if Congress wants to see similar evidences oi
alarm in other quarters, it has only to keep up its belligerent
talk. So far the wiser minds have kept the foolish in check,
and will doubtless continue to do so until the session comes to
an end, but that the necessity for special action in this direction
has arisen has destroyed one of the hopes of the business com¬
munity, that this session would be a businesslike one aud also a
short one. This hope, small and modest as it was.was not Justified
by experience, it is true, but a sanguine people will indulge
themselves this way. It was not confidently expected that legis¬
lation of a positively beneficial character would emanate from
this session, though there was some leaning in that direction,
but negative good in the form of abstention from harmful tac¬
tics and dangerous topics was relied upon. Now, in view of the
discussions of the past week, the commercial world will only
pray for a speedy adjournment. There is outside of Congress
nothing to check the advance of improvement, that body being
realiy the only bear feature in the situation.





THE industrial event of the day is the final collapse of the
British engineers' strike. This, it is needless to remark,
is no ordinary event, because it settles for a long time to come
the eight-hour labor question, not only in Britain itself, but
elsewhere also. If the claim for an eight-hour day could not be
successfully made under the conditions recently prevailing in
the engineering trade of Britain, there is no likelihood of its
succeeding at any time about which the trade need now concern
itself. The time for making the demand was not badly chosen,
and the men were financially well equipped for a fight. The
shops were busy, having in hand much public and private work
which was urgently wanted by customers, including the gov¬
ernment, and the Union had a large accumulated balance in
its favor. The moral and.to some extent, the material aid of
other labor organizations, both at home and abroad, were ac-
sorded the strikers. But the sympathy of the British public
was rather with the employers than with the men; it was cer¬
tainly not with the latter, and consequently their effort failed,
and the men return to work on the masters' terms and their
Union, once probably the strongest in the world financially, is
practically bankrupt. So it can easily be seen that an eight-
hour day is not for this generation of workers. However, only
the limited number of active participants in the late struggle
and their closest sympathisers will regret that. Politically,
there is considerable couse for anxiety. The Dreyfuss agita¬
tion in France may have more serious consequences than can
now be imagined. Certainly, until the whole story is told, the
government will get no peace. There are too many concerned
in keeping up the agitation for that. The Dreyfuss family,, of
course, will not let it rest. If, as seems now likely, it was
Russia and not Germany that bought the military Information,
whether from Dreyfuss or someone else, the latter is interested
in keeping open the scandal in order to withdraw France from
the former.    Added to these are the party opponents of the





French President and Ministry, and we know with what persis¬
tence "outs" pursue "ins" whenever they have an opportunity.
The position of affairs in China is distinctly a dangerous one.
Britain's declaration of her policy toward China, and the lengths
to which she is prepared to go to maintain it, constitute an open
challenge-to the three protectionist powers, who are her rivals
at Pekin, which they may take up, though the force with which
this declaration is now being backed up—British warships sail¬
ing from every point, with China as their destination—makes it
unlikely that they will do so now, though not positively that
they will not. Collaterally the Cretan and Armenian questions
may become prominent again, but this depends upon how things
go in China, the recent declaration of Mr. Chamberlain that
Britain may take independent action on them can only mean
that if obstructed in China she will create obstructions for her
opponents in Europe





^^\X7 E will not sign a single bond this year for any im-
^ ^ provement which will bring us any nearer to the
dePt limit of the city unless we are compelled to do so by order
of the highest court in the State." That is what Mayor Van
Wyck said this week at a meeting of the Board of Estimate.
It isn't pleasant reading for the flrst city of the country; but
it is the plain working meaning of "consolidation." Before the
event we had the poetry, afterwards we get down to the facts.
We would like to know how much "greater" is New York now
that it is close to the end of its resources than it was before
the first of this year when. it possessed funds ample to pro¬
vide for its urgent necessities? The Mayor, of course,
spoke only of the current year, but we would like to
know how long it really will be before the city will be
in a position to issue bonds, not only for those long-
planned improvements which old Manhattan needs, hut for those
that have actually been arranged for, such, for instance, as the
Public Library, the West Side water-front improvement, the
Manhattan Valley viaduct, new schools, new pavements, new
parks. Are all these enterprises suspended? If they are; until
when? Must they be driven through by order of the courts, if
at all? for clearly if there is any money to spend at any time
there will be the demands of Brooklyn and Staten Island in ad¬
dition to those of the waste country places of Greater New
York which must of course be recognized. Clearly, many years
will elapse before the municipal improvement of the boroughs
of Manhattan and The Bronx can be continued.





WE do not imagine the new Ellsworth bill at Albany will
be allowed to pass, unless it be that our "great"
dailies are blind to a candid description of themselves. Here
is what the bill says: "A person who, either as principal or
agent, conducts or engages in the business of editing, pub¬
lishing, printing, distributing or circulating any licentious, in¬
decent, corrupt, depraved or libellous paper, or a paper which
corrupts, depraves, degrades or injures, or has a tendency to cor¬
rupt, deprave, degrade or injure tiie mind or morals of the pub¬
lic, or of its readers, or of the people among whom it circulates,
is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction of such offense
shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by im¬
prisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine
and imprisonment, for the, first offense, and upon conviction
of any subsequent offense shall be punished by imprisonment
for not less than one year or more than five years; and in addi¬
tion thereto the defendant aud his agents and employees shall
be prohibited from thereafter publishing, printing, selling, dis¬
tributing, or circulating such paper or any paper of the same
name." This plainly hits a majority of our newspapers. The
"tendency" clause reaches all but one or two. No competent
observer denies that much of the bad morals and bad manners
of the times is directly attributable to the evil influence of our
Press, which of late years has cut loose entirely from the de¬
cent standards of thinking aud feeling. Journalism as con¬
ducted at present seems to be an organized effort to make
money by disseminating the dirt of society. The evil, of course,
is that in doing this a currency, otherwise impossible, is given to
the lower acts and instincts of humanity. We see that a man
may murder his paramour, commit a forgery, apply for a di¬
vorce, give a dinner accompanied by the unspeakable, pervert
the political system of his country, yell like a lunatic for war—
and the newspapers will give him publicity, with a capital "P,"
throughout the length and breadth of the land, whereas, the
clergyman, the scientist, the student, the Reformer, and the
deed itself that makes for high living and noble thinking is
utterly ignored unless tricked out in some sensational or noisy
circumstances. A low standard of life, if not the lowest, ia
thus kept perpetually before our people, as before no other
peGi?l« under the sun.   U MUet not be overJooked besWea thai





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