January IG, 1886





The  Record  and  Guid





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THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,





Published every Saturday.

1©1 Broad-^av, IST. If.





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TERMS:

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Cominiuiications sbould be addressed to

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J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XXXVII.            JANUARY 16, 1886.





No. 931





Co^yies of ihe semi-annual Index of the Conveyances and Pro-
j'ecled Buildings in New Yoric and Kings Counties, for the last six
months of 1885, will be delivered to all subseribers of The Recobd
AND Guide toith this issue. Jt is xjrepared ivith the usual care, and
tvill he furnished on the usual terms ; that is, free to all on the sub-
seription list of the paper. Binders may he secured at this office
for one dollar.





The business situation is not as bright as it was during October
and November last. Tlie January boom, so far, has not come to
time. Stocks look weak. General business is hardly so promising
as it was. All the world is suffering from depressed markets, and
the I'eaction upon us does not favor higher prices. Our agricultural
products are sinking to lower quotations. Outside of real estate
circles the prospect is not very reassuring. But, aa will be seen by
our Real Estate Gossip, everything promises a big business move¬
ment in this city during the coming spring.





The Evening Post publishes a document, issued by some German
doctrinaires, in which it is maintained that low prices are a benefit
to mankind, and that, hence, if there is a change in the unit of
value, by which that becomes scarce and dear, the world ia conse¬
quently benefited. The debtor class throughout the commercial
world, who owe, it is said, iu national and individual obligations,
some $34,000,000,000, will not be likely to give their assent to any
proposition which would add twenty or thirty per cent, to their
indebtedness. An addition to the purchasing power of money
would inevitably lead to the universal repudiation of all debts.
Then the experience oE mankind is that a period of advancing
prices are years of great prosperity, and that when prices are
declining acute suffering is experienced by all except those who
have ready money in hand. Wherever on earth low prices prevail,
there misery .makes its home; while high prices accompany
national prosperity. Compare China, India, South America, the
Asiatic countries, where the returns for labor are on a low scale,
with more prosperous Europe and the United States, where every¬
thing bought and sold brings good prices, and there can be no
doubt which is preferable. Our hard times are always when
the markets show a lowering tendency, for then no one cares to
produce. The better times we are experiencing is because bonds,
stocks, iron, etc., are rising in value, and hence there is a stimulus
to industries of all kinds.





It is to be hoped that no one interested in property in the
vicinity of the Harlem River will be lulled to repose by the an¬
nouncement that a bill has been introduced in Congress ostensibly
to push forward the work of improving that channel. Bills for
this purpose have become, in the joker's vernacular, chestnuts;
and the new bill will require considerable examination, from all
points of view, before it can be pronounced even a sound chestnut.
It will be observed ihat the bill introduced in the Souse of Repre¬
sentatives under the call of the States, last Monday, by Mr. Johnson,
was " by request." This may mean that the gentleman does not
mean to champion the measure, nor to work very assiduously for
its success. In that case, or in any case, it will be well for those
who requested the introduction of the bill to make the further
request that it shall be pressed with the utmost vigor until it shall
be made a law. Indeed it would be well enough to supplement
the request with a demand, and to send a committee to "Washington
to see that the matter be not neglected.





The time has clearly come when the Indian reservations should
be opened for settlement, and the very best plan for doing so is that
just suggested by Lieutenant-General Sheridan. It seems thait
the Indian reservations include about 200,000 square miles. Were
every Indian family to be given 320 acres of land it would take up
about 26,000 square mites, leaving over 170,000 square miles which
the Govei-nment could dispose of to actual white settlers. This
land General Sheridan proposes the Government should pay for, at
the rate of |1.85 an acre. If bonds are issued to take up these lands,





the annual interest would be $4,480,000, which sum, General Sher¬
idan proposes, should be kept for the benefit of the Indians to help
them in stocking their farms and the like. Some of these reserva¬
tion lands are in distant regions, and would not be immediately
available for white settlers, but probably 1.30,000, square miles,
which includes all of this so-called Indian Territory, would at once
come into the market^ and if it did so would be a vast benefit to
our railway system. It will be a great credit to the Democratic
party if it should settle this Indian question, equitably. The record
of previous administrations in this matter, is simply scandalous.





If the liquor dealers of the State of New York wish to escape the
passage of local-option laws permitting localities to prohibit the
sale of strong drink, they would do well to get the Legislature now
in session to pass a good stiff high-license law. These have worked
well in Chicago and other cities in the West, in reducing the number
of saloons and abating the more grievous scandals of the liquor traffic
while they have added handsomely to the revenues of the munici¬
palities in which they were enforced. This local-option movement
is becommg surprisingly popular in the South and West. No liquor
can be legally sold in 115 counties in Georgia out of the 135 that
there are in the State, Forty thousand prohibition votes have been
cast in Kentucky, the very home and headquarters for old Bourbon,
and in many counties in that State not a drop of liquor can be pur¬
chased. The next election will see a powerful prohibition senti¬
ment in every State in the Union. Liquor selling is now unchecked
in this State, and it contributes little or nothing to relieve the
burdens of municipal taxation which is now borne exclusively by
real estate. The liquor interest ought to, at least, contribute
$3,000,000 annually to our city treasury.





The Battle of the Standards.

From this 4ime forth the press and our national Congress will
have a good deal to say about mono-metallism, bi-metallism and
the coinage of the silver dollars in this country. Not a little
heat has been developed so far in the discussion, and we may
expect the contest to rage until it is finally settled by a vote in
both houaes of Congress. As a general thing the opponents of tha
silver coinage are gold mono-metallists, while those who advocate
the minting of $2,000,000 a month are bi-metallists. That ia, they
wish the nation to use both of the precious metals in measuring
prices. But curiously enough there have been recently developed
silver mono-metallists, a school which wishes to get rid of gold
altogether. Mr. John Thompson, of the Chase National Bank, is an
advocate of an exclusive silver currency, and th© Sun newspaper
has recently taken the same ground. The Sun argues that were
we to get rid of our store of gold, over $600,000,000, it would reduce
the value of the yellow metal throughout the commercial world'
while, if, at the same time, we made silver our exclusive metallic
currency, it would create such a large demand for it that its old
value would be- restored, thus practicailly re-establishing bi-metal¬
lism. In this connection it will be remembered that when Ger¬
many and other States in Europe recognized silver, it created so
great a demand for the white metal that it made no difference if
England maintained au exclusively gold currency. The commerce
of the world could afford for one nation to use gold alone, provided
tho bulk of the other nations used silver. Hence, if so radical a
change aa the Sun suggests could be effected, and the United
States should use silver exclusively, it is not impossible that the
relative value of the two metals would swing back to the old
ratio—that of Europe and the East Indies, of 15% ounces of the
white metal becoming the equivalent of one ounce of the yellow
metal.

But has the Sun considered what a convulsion it would make to
get rid of over $600,000,000 of gold. It would cause a fearful con¬
traction, and ruin every business man in the country. Such a
thing aa the gradual demonetization of gold ia impracticable. It
would have to be affected at once to the ruin of every vital
interest in the country.

The United States had better continue bi-metallic. We produce
as much of the precious metals as all the rest of the world com¬
bined. Our European customers deal exclusively in gold, while the
people we trade with in China, Asia, Japan, Mexico, and South
and Central America use silver exclusively. Our continent is
midway between the gold-using and silver-using nations. Hence
we should niaintatn our hold on both metals, and endeavor to give
them some fixed value.

There is much to be said in favor of the unlimited coinage of
silver. The silver coinage las? really restricts the amount to be
minted. Any one can take gold bullion to the mint and have it
turned into coin, no matter how large the amount. But under our
present silver coinage law,; the authorities must coin $2,000,000 a
month; but cannot exceed $t,000,000 a month. Were this coina»^e
of silver as free as gold, many more dollars would doubtless be
coined; but tbis would do us no harm, as we as yet haveless than
four dollaria per capita agaihst tHree and four times that amount