AugUstSO, 1803





Record   and   GuÍde.





336





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VOL. L.





AUGUST 20, 1892.





No. 1,275





THE foreign markets are almost devoid of interest at the present
time. The fluctuatious in prices are small and unimportant,
and of news there is none. In Germany the good Jiarvest reports
from all parts of the country have exercised a cheeriug influence.
It Í8 estimated that graiu imports may be reducedabout $75,000,000
this year, Germany being able to furnish that amount herself.
Neverthpless, a serious decline bas recently talíen place in Imperial
and Pruasian luans, and to explain this it has been pointed out that
the PrusBÍan Budget will probably show a deficit of $10,000,600.
Another explanation is that a large amount of the last three per
ceut loan is still afloat in the market, and besides, there is an idea
that theautumu may bring higher mocey rates and that some people
are already preparing for that contingency. At present, however, the
atockg of specie held by the English,FreDch and German bauks are
abnormallj large. It is noticeable tbat the agitation among ludian
offîcials who wĩsh to put that country on a goid basia is growîng
louder iũ spite of the fact that auch a atep would be almost a finan-
cial impossibility. In Austria stock exchange prices are somewhat
stronger owing to the proluulgation of the new currency laws, aud
trade alaoappears to berather more íictive thau it has beeu, For
the tirst part of this year the Austro-Hungarian railways show a
considerable ĩucrease in the conveyaDce o£ passengers and freight,
but a decrease iu gross income owing to a reduciion in the rates,
What the augmentation in business on the Hungarian State rail-
ways is amounting to may be judged from the fact that the gov-
emment proposesto purohase 100 uew engines, 600 passenger cars
and 8,000 freightcars.





AT tbe beginniug o£ the Homestead strike we said that in all
probabiiity l'or some time to come violence of a more pro-
nouncedkind thanordinary would mark the diíficulties between
Labor and Capital. The switcbmen's strike, foUowing right onthe
heels of the trouble in Pittsburgh, bears out this opiniou, attended
as the trouble has been by wantou and exasperating destruction o£
property. The perfunctory expressîon of disapproval wiih theae
outrages have drawn from trades-union ofiÊcials when the occasion
required it, does not £ree Labor either from the disgrace of these
barbaric proceedings nor from the suspicion that at heart it is par-
ticips crimi'íiĩs, and " regrets," etc, are little more than a lip tribute
to decency and civilization, The riotera evidently are quite capable
of eatimating what the denunciations o£ the leaders are worth
and how mucb real backing they have for their deeds in the rauk
and file o£ their comrades. If Labor ia earnest in digapproving of
violence committed in its name, let it see that the perpetrators of
the outrages are handed over to the Law and punished. That fine
iustinct o£ sel£-preservation that aids the unions iu '• spotting" rats
afld scabs wiU surely make tbe detectíon of these enemies of the
real cause of Labor an easy matter.





HARASSING ae ordinary trade atrikes may be to the mercantile
interests of the country, tbey occasion nothing like the
widespread, personal inconvenience and suffering that invariably
accompanies strikes on the railways. The principlea involved in
the latter struggles are no doubt the samo as iu the former, and it
may be said that the right to strike is no strouger in the one case
than in the other. This, however, cannot be conceded, for the
great trausporlation lines have come to be ao vital a part of the
daily lives of, we may say, everybody, that, in the case o£ a strike,
the iutereat of thĩs "thirdparty" is really the greateat interest of
any, and cannot be put on one side while .tbe otber two parlies
aetlle their grievances oue with another. Public policy demands
that steps be immediately taken to prohibit railroad slrikes, or at
any rate puE a stop to the sudden cessatiou of work on tbe part of
employes, Buch as we have wituessed this week—the greater part
of which, it should be uoticed, was due to " sympathy," and uot to





any real immediate grievauce o£ the strîkers. Sooner or later, pro-
hihitive measures will have to be taken, aud the sooner the matter
is taken up for consideration the better for all concerned, as the
likelihood of temperate action will then be stronger. Each
strike, and we may be sure we have not yet got to tbe last of them,
will strain the public temper more and more, uutil patience wili
be all gone, and hasty intemperate measures, iu a matter which
requirea a nice balanceand adjusting of interests, will beresortedto.





" T ABOR " aiid labor questiona, involving, as they do, such diffi-
J-J cult problems, baveunfortunately got mixedup with "poU-
tics" and political questions in which there ia ao little sanity, and
where clear, high thinkíng has so small a chance of a hearing and
3till less of any influence upon actiou. It is consequently hopeleas to
expect that auy steps that should be taken in relation to these rail-
roadstrikes will be taken. We must have our disease, it seems,
aud then be cauterized and physîced and get over it as best we
may. Labor just now is on the " rampage." Ita spirit is revolu-
tionary, if not ausrchistic, and the revolutionary spirit has always
run to extremes. Nevertheless, much that it is struggliug for is
just, and in time will surely be attai.ned. The difficulty at preseut
ís that Laboris so very much behind the positĩon it is claimiug for
itself. It is moved so much by the spirit of demagogic swagger; it
needs so much a somewhat sweeter temper than it possesses, and a
larger intelligence. We caunot naturaliy touch anything higher
than we can reaeh, and Labor cannot get the real possession of
anything it cannot naturally touch, Revolutionists have tried for
tbe contrary time and time again, aiways with thc same result.
They have obtained nothing hy force but what they were entitled
to by theii own intelligence and morality, We cannot bury our
own deficĩencies by overthrowing our enemies. Many of Labor's
socîa! aud physicaldeficiencies aremerely the uatural accompani-
ment of Labor's motal and inteJlectual deficiencies. The school-
master {of a aort) could do more for Labor than the Walking Dele-
gate wiU ever be able to.





SocialÍBm, Democracy and Municipal Goveriimeiit.

SOME time ago a reporter of this journal interviewed a prominent
city officíal on the expediency of permitting the muuicipality
to own the gaa maius, eJectrÍc light conduits, aud other properties
of the kind that are laid under or over city streets. The official in
questiou had evidently not giveu very miich thought to the matter;
but, apparently, he did not believe that any such conaideration was
necessary in order adequately to pass ou the q'testion. He stated
unhesĩtatingly that the assumption by the municipality of auy such
functions would be *' uudemocratîc," Doubtlesa, one reason why
municipalities have not been assuming these functions more
rapidly is that similar impressíon exists elsewhere. Our models in
in this kînd o£ reform are German cities like Berliu, and Englishor
Scotch cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. People
who advocate the^exteusion of municipal management are obliged
frequently to refer to these models, which doubtless gives to the
reform an odious flavor of effete despotism. In the aame way the
reform has suffered through the advocacy of such a witless set aa
the Eostonían Nationalists, as well as by the name which it has
received as a movement towards "muuĩcipal socialism." lu this way
it is vaguely ideutified with the thorough-going socialism of Mr. Bel-
lamy; and respectable citizens who acceptthecurreut catch words
are instlnctively prejudiced against it. In much tbe same fashion
advocates of laissez-faire create a prejudice against all moderate
forms of State iuterveutiou by denouocing them as socialistic,
althougb the supportera of this governmeutal înterference dislike
as profouudly as do they themselves the philosopby and revolu-
tionary metbods o£ Marxian socîalism, It is time that the word
socialism should be confiued to the restricted meauing which alone
properly belongs to it, and that a coufused prejudice agaiuat a
word should cease to be invoked against reformers who abbor
nearly everything which the word represents. It ia time, also,
that the word " undemocratic " shouid not be flouriahed in the face
of any and every American reformer.

Wbat this prejudice against the word " aocialiam " amounts to
may be gathered from the following rather curious iUustration:
Some yeai's ago ru American economist. who bas since made some
reputation by bis articles on foreign municipalities inapopular
magazine, was at work in Glasgow studyiog its municipal institu-
tions, That city, as we have írequently pointed out, not ouly began
earlier but has gone farther in its municipal management of nat-
ural monopolies than any other European city. It has its own
water works and gas works; it owns and rents tbe local tramways;
it has built a great mauy uew model tenements and municipal lodg-
ing-bouses; in sliorE it performa many functions which in our own
couutry are in the hands of private corporationa or individuals.
In wrĩting an account of these facts Dr. Shaw
described G'asgow as being iu the front rank of cities
that were making great strides in the direction o£ muni-
cipal socialiem. His account of tbe matter attracted wideapread
atteution,    No eet of men were, however, more surprÍBed and