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Record and Guide.
71"3
ESTABUSHED-^ (JWPH gyi^ 186B,
Dd&jeD to Rp^l EsTAjt. Building Ap,cKrrECTuis'i{GUSEi(Mii DEi3(H^fi4
Btfsu/ESs fMo Themes of GEifeRM- llftEftpsi.
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Published every Saturday.
Tblephonb,......Cobtlandt 1370
commtmloattona shonld he addressed to
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/. 3. LINDSEY. Business Manager.
"Entered ai the Post-office ai Sew York, N, ¥., as seeond-aass matter."
VOL. LVI. NOVEMBER 23, 1895. No. 1,445
The Record and GviiyR will furnish you with daily detailed reports
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for information.
WITH SUPPLEMENT.
THE return of the Treasury to the practice o£ issuing gold
"bars to exporters was doubtless occasioned by the fact
that the forcing of coin ou shippers entailed a larger amount of
work upon the officials and not sufficient annoyance on the
others to appreciably cheek gold exports. It maybe taken, too,
as an evidence that the Treasury is confident of its ability to
replenish at anytime the gold reserve and, therefore, feels that
it is unnecessary to place any obstacles in the way of gold leav¬
ing the Sub-Treasuries. In the face of the large exports this
week, the decline in stock market quotations is perfectly
natural; anything else would have been suspicious. It is gen¬
erally supposed that this movemenl. will continue for some time
longer and that its influence on prices w^ill be maintained. So
far, outside of a few Industrial stocks, the losses have not been
great, and the circumstances which should check violent de¬
clines now and assist a substantial rise later on are existent just
as much as they were a week ago, of which circumstances the
Octobei.' earnings of Northwest, showiug an increase ot nearly
$890,000, are an example.
---------•---------
RETURNS for October of British imports and exports showed
moderate expansion, which has been the feature of these
statements for several months. They showed also that the
United States had beeu a large buyer of British goods, with no
improvement in the American position as a seller of wheat.
There was a great falling off in the receipts of this cereal from
the Argentines for the month, they being only about one-sixth
of what they were in October, 1894, but Russia and India sup¬
plied the difference. One point in the policy outlined by the
new French ministry is of particular interest in this country.
It is that new measures will be asked for to defend the French
farniei's "against certain international speculations." That
being taken to mean that increased duties will be put upon for¬
eign produce, the flrst efieets should be to raise the price of the
articles against which the proposed measures are levied. In
line with this matter are the demands of the Agrarian party in
Germany, which, it is said, will play an importaut part in the
coming parliamentary session. They are: A State monopoly for
the imports of grain; duty free transit (bonded) warehouses;
a warrant law specially suited to the agrarian views; an increase
of the sugar export bounties; a closo control of the import and
sale of articles of food. Apropos of the panic in Vienna, where
the decline in values in the recent shake-up was proportion¬
ately greater than at other centers, it is said that Austria has
very few disreputable securities, has orderly flaances and a
Well-regulated Budget, aud if its agriculture is depressed, as
is that of all the world, its industry is sound and ought to be suc¬
cessful. But, this notwithstanding, the Vienna bourse has been
niore subject to panic in the last two years than any other, pre¬
sumably because Austrian and Hungarian banks have large
amounts of capital tied up in land speculations aud in industrial
establishments which are not expected to make any return for
some time to come. The direful anticipations of war which
Were so prevalent a short time ago seem to have reduced them¬
selves to a fear that the Sultan of Turkey will continue unwill¬
ing or be unable to stop the disturbances in his dominions, and
will meet auy attempt of outside powers to force him to do so
with armed resistance. The probabilities are, however, that
the very difficult task of making him see that he cannot carry
oil hie goverument in a way that shocks and disgusts the whole
civilized world will ultimately be successful, or that he will,
with the consent of the abler-minded of his own people, be de¬
posed and another ruler put in his place who will permit the
organization of a ministry of ability tbat can act with vigor and
will give to his distressed subjects something like an orderly
government and security, whatever their religious faith may be.
The newspapers whicb have been so industriously and gener¬
ously dividing up the Turkish possessions may lay away the
new maps they have prepared, because they are not likely to be
wanted, just yet at any rate. The Sultan's letter to Lord Salis¬
bury, published this week, is an extraordinary evidence of weak¬
ness, but it shows not only where tbe pressure upon him on the
Armenian question comes from, but also that it is felt.
THERE is a very important lesson to be drawn from one
year's experience of a reformed administration—a lesson
which is for the most part ignored by those who write about the
matter in the newspapers. It is this : The activity of the busi¬
ness men, lawyers and public-spirited citizens generally who
have headed the movement has been too exclusively political;
it is not sufficiently administrative. They are very active round¬
about election time, but in the interval between the elections,
the time in which the battle is really won or lost, they leave re¬
form to take care of itself. There is a tendency to let the whole
burden fall upon the shoulders of the Mayor. Mr, Strong, just
after he was elected, complained that he could not find any men
among his prominent supporters who were willing to accept
important administrative offices, and his appointments aflbrd
sufficient corroboration of his complaint. In the cases of the
Police and Street Cleaning Departments the importance ot the
work tobe done enabled him to secure the services of strong
men ; but neatly all the other salaried offices have been filled
not by business men, but by politicians—men not different in
kind from the politicians whom they superceded. Before any
permanent refoim cau be achieved this must all be changed.
Our committees of fifty and our various reform organizations
must not consider their duties ended when they succeed
at the polls ; they must pervade all departments of the muni¬
cipal government and give them a business iu place of their
present political atmosphere. There is a superstition abroad
that a mayor provided with almost unlimited powers of appoint¬
ment and dismissal can run tbe whole vast machine of depart¬
mental administration without any particular help from his
political supporters. As a result of this superstition the Mayor
has been endowed with duties so many and various that it
would take the organizing ability and tirtiless energy of a Bona¬
parte properly to perform them. He has to make all the appoint¬
ments; the heads of all the departments look to him for
direction and advice; he sits on all the important Boards; he
has a vast amount of political and social business to attend to ;
and finally the new constitution gives him power ot veto over
all city legislation passed at Albany. He is at once required to
do everything and to be responsible for everything; and at the
same time he is so handicapped in his appointments by political
ties and lack of good material thathe can rarely obtain proper
subordinates. Is it any wonder that people tind fault with him
and that the machine is creaking harshly 1
IT is all very well to have a responsible executive, but in the
present case a responsible executive is merely an excuse
for irresponsibility on the part of his supporters. This admin¬
istrative irresponsibility has from the beginning been the curse
of American municipal government. Business men have been
so busy making monev that they let the municipal administra¬
tion all into the hands of politicians who had no interest in gov¬
ernment except to make money. Others have made a business
out of city politics very much more effectively than Mayor
Strong can ever do. The time came when it was necessary
for the good name of New York to destroy this lucrative trade.
Tlie reformers put in a man of their own choice ; but it soon be¬
came apparent that the victory remained not with the refonners
but with the politicians. It has been largely a process of sub¬
stituting one kind of politician for another. Tliorough-going,
permanent reform can be based only in the collective responsi¬
bility of those men whose business talents are the sure basis of
New York's industrial prosperity. The common councils of the
English cities are composed almost entirely of the successful
merchants chiefly interested in the welfare of the locality. Ad¬
ministration is carried ou by committees of this council who oc¬
cupy the same relation to the skilled employes in the depart¬
ments as the board of directors of a railway occupy to its en¬
gineers and operating officials—that is the committee are the
directors; they determine what is to be done, and the skilled
employes do it. Eut our cities have been under the control of
politicians for such a long time that our machinery has been
adapted to government by politicians. The " honor" offices are
few and unimportant; the departments are directed by heads
whose duties are partly directive and partly operative—duties
which require so mucb time that no one who wished to perform
them competently could also conduct a large private business.
Our charter refonners have attempted to remedy the matter toy