January '23,18&6





The  Recofd and Guide.





9B





1





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Saturday.

IQl Broacl^wav, IST. Y.

Onr Telepltone Call Is.....JOMN 370.

TERMS:

OIVE YEAR, in adyance, SII DOLLARS.

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Braadway.

J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XXXVII.           JANUARY 23, 1886.





No. 933





The business situation looks better at the close than it did at the
begiijning of this week. The reduction of the charge for money
from four to three per cent, by the Bank of England insures easy
rates on both sides of the Atlantic, postpones indefinitely gold
exports from America, and will probably lead to a renewal of spec¬
ulation in American bonds and stocks by foreign capitalists. The
domestic exchanges show business to be more active than at this
time last year. There will be no stoppage of the coinage of the
silver dollar, and hence there will be no break of prices from this
cause. There will be some disappointed in the railroad returns
. for January, but before a month is over it will be found that all the
roads are doing a profitable business, which was not the case last
year.   The real estate outlook continues excellent.





The Field civil code will soon be up before the Legislature for
adoption. The lawyers will fight it bitterly, as they have in all
ages opposed reformed codes, from that of Justinian to the code
Napoleon. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and when a
professional rnan has spent the best part of his life in learning one
form of legal procedure it is not unnatural that he should object to
mastering the details of a new code. But these codes are for the
benefit of the general public, not for the lawyers; and while the
professionals may delay their adoption tho interests of the commu-
,nity are. apt in the end to prevail. Say what the lawyers will, a
reform is imperatively needed. There is too much delay and
expense attending the present machinery of our courts. Justice is
practically denied, and the public patience has been tested by the
dilatoriness of our courts and the monstrous expense involved in
going to law. It is the lawyers who make, expound and execute
our laws, and hence the community hold them accountable for the
miscarriage of justice. The determined opposition to all legal
reform shown by the profession is not calculated to raise it in the
estimation of the general public.





The New York Stock Exchange has a chance to do something
worthy of its great future. It has the refusal of all the ground on
New,Wall and Broad streets, north of its present site, and it should
take advantage of the opportunity to secure ground for what might
be the finest Exchange building in the world. Five million dollars
will buy the ground and erect a splendid structure, and that amount
ought not to be a difficult task for the Stock Exchange of New
York to raise. It ought also to make some offer to the members of
the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange to occupy a part
of their new building, if not to become associate members. The
present front on Wall street is discreditable to the Exchange. It
would pay the owners of property in the neighborhood to contri¬
bute something towards the erection of a splendid addition to the
Exchange that would cover the ground on Broad, Wall and New
streets, north of the present site.





Engineer Gillespie, of the United States] Navy, is authority for
the statement that the Gedney and other channels leading to our
harbor have not shoaled appreciably during the last flve years,
hence the talk about the garbage and manure dumpers injuring
the channels is unfounded. What has happened is the greater size
and heavier draft of the steamships which come to New York from
foreign ports. First-class steamers now demand three feet more
of water than did the vessels in use ten years ago. It is of the
utmost importance to the commerce of this port that one or more
of the channels in the lower bay should have at least thirty feet of
water at low tide. To do this will cost a great deal of government
money, and it behooves the New York press and our representatives
in Congress not to antagonize plans of improvement for benefiting
other parts of the country. We require large sums of money for
coast defenses and harbor improvements, arid we cannot expect to
get it by shouting "job" whenever appropriations are asked for
our internal waterways.

--------------9-------------.

The Knights of Labor have several significant limitations to their
membership. Anyone in sympathy with them can join, except
Dangers, lawyers or liquor dealers.   It is easy to understand why





this remarkable organization of working people should dislike
bankers, but what can the objection be to lawyers ? The latter are
willing enough to advocate any interest in return for fees or politi¬
cal preferment. Perhaps the Knights think the lawyers have aU
they ought to get in the astonishing monopoly they enjoy of filling
nearly all legislative and executive positions in the country. The
objection to liquor dealers is, however, a very good symptom. It is
to the great discredit of our voting population, mainly working
people, that they have returned so many liquor dealers to muni¬
cipal and legislative positions. There could be no reasonable objec¬
tion to a popular saloon keeper being occasionally chosen to office;
but it is disheartening to a believer in universal suffrage when,
year after year, fully one-third of our Aldermen and city Assembly¬
men are chosen from the ranks of the most disreputable rum-
sellers in the city. The Knights of Labor would do a public service
if they create a feeling among the working classes that retail
peddlers of liquor are not the best persons to become legislators for
the State or city.

The City and the Legislature.

The nine bills drafted by the Gibbs' Senatorial Committee, in¬
tended to secure better government for New York city, will doubt¬
less form the basis for some action or attempted action on the part
of the Legislature now in session. It looks as if something might
be accomplished this winter. All accounts agree that the personnel
of the Senate and Assembly is much superior to any that has
assembled in Albany for many years past. Thejcommittees of the
two Houses are well organized to give us some useful legislation,
while the public utterances of Governor Hill would seem to indi¬
cate that he would like to pose as a reformer of municipal charters.

The drift of all legislation affecting municipalities for the past ten
years has been in the direction of adding to executive authority
and responsibility. Boards and commissions are just now in
deserved disfavor. They have been found wasteful and irresponsi¬
ble. It is curious to note that this willingness to add to the power
of mayors and heads of departments at the expense of city
councils, boards of aldermen and commissions shows itself in
all parts of the country, west as well as east. Brooklyn led in test¬
ing the experiment of great executive power lodged in the
Mayor, and Mr. Seth Low acquitted himself so well that all the
leading municipalities throughout the country have shown a dispo¬
sition to imitate the example of our sister city. The Massachusetts
Legislature has enacted laws affecting cities obviously based upon
the Brooklyn experiment, and now we have full reports of the
results of such legislation in the recent history of Boston. In
times gone by that city was ruled by its city council; all the de¬
partments for sixty years were under the control of the municipal
board and the final result was anything but satisfactory. Being
practically irresponsible the manipulators of the various depart¬
ments cared little for economy or efficiency. But now all this is
changed. An article in Bradstreets thus sums up the character of
the present government of Boston.

At every official desk, from the Mayor down, are vested the executive
powers formerly enjoyed by the board of aldermen or the city council,
to be brought into action through the several heads of departments, under
the Mayor's general supervision and control. The chiefs of departments
make all contracts for labor, material, public works and the maintenance
of public institutions; and the city coimcil' as a whole, as well as by its
respective branches, or its members individually or as committees, is utterly
forbidden to take part directly or indirectly in the administrative business
just indicated. Contracts involving $2,000 or more must be approved by
the Mayor before taking effect; and in order to emphasize the unity of the
executive branch in its single head the chiefs of departments must meet with
the Mayor once a month or oftener for consultation, advice and the impart¬
ing of information. The annual estimates of the heads of departments
relative to the amount of money needed are to be submitted to the city
council through the Mayor, with his recommendations. The Mayor is
further given authority to veto separate items of bills involving the appro¬
priation or expenditure of money or the raising of a tax. The Mayor
now in fact as well as in name the supreme executive magistrate.

While differing in many respects from the Brooklyn charter it
will be noticed that the main point kept in mind is the authority
and responsibility of the Mayor. The proposed Gibbs' enactments
have the same object in view—an executive with authority and
heads of departments responsible to him; commissions and boards,
as far as possible, to be dispensed with. In other words, the public
business to be assimilated to the best methods of conducting private
business.

While favoring^his change from irresponsible boards to responsi¬
ble executives we do not believe that, even if it is accomplished,
the millennium will come. We will, of course, sometimes elect
mayors who will try and use their executive powers to advance
their own fortunes. We cannot expect ideal municipal govern¬
ment ; but it will be some satisfaction to know who is to be held
accountable for waste, corruption, or inefficiency. This is impos¬
sible, as we know, with municipal government by boards of
aldermen. Should this changed administration for municipalities
prove popular the time may come when our people may demand