Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 30, no. 760: Articles]: October 7-14, 1882

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October "T—14, 1882 The Record and Guide. THE RECORD AND GUIDE. Officje, 191 Broad^AT-ay. OCTOBER 7—14:, 1882. now and the meeting of a convention, -would elevate tlie whole tone of our political discussions, which by the way, they very much need. TO THE READERS OF THE RECORD AND GUIDE. In the issue of to-day ivill be found matter to suit many and varied tastes. Publicists and politicians ivill find food for thought in the suggestions made for changing the fundamental laiv of the nation. Business men ivill peruse loith avidity the extracts ive give from the press of the country on the conditions of the markets, the crops and the finances of the nation. All ioho have houses to decorate tcill find many useful hints in the department devoted to that specialty; ivhile political gossips ivill be amused at the piquant disclosures, concerning the lives and tvays of President Arthur and Senator John P. Jones. » The revelations of our finan¬ cial xorophet may prove profitable to investors; tohile the prediction concerning the men of the Nineteenth Century may be attractive reading for those u-ho have faith in the better tin-es coming. --------------9-------------- A superb picture of Morningside Park ivill be given as a supple¬ ment ivith The Record and Guide of next iveeh. It null include a plan of the park, as it is to be, with an elevation and a parapet, the lohole being in colors, so as to shoio how this unique park ivill appear by next summer. Property holders and real estate dealers who wish extra copies may have them for five cents each, or fifty cents a dozen, and they would do well to send in their orders immediately. WHY A NEW DEPARTURE ? In enlarging this publication, and adding to its departments, its proprietor has had certain definite aims in view, the fulfill¬ ment of which, it is believed, will add to the value and useful¬ ness of the paper. It has prospered for over fi fteen years, as the metropolitan organ of the Real Estate and Buildiug interests. But as land is improved in other ways than by building uron it, and as houses, after they are coostructei, have lo be fin¬ ished, furnished and decorated, it follows, naturally, that architecture, the plumbing, fitting and adornment of a dwelling are necessarily related, each to the other, and all of them are proper subjects for discussion in a journal devoted to the gen¬ eral interests ®f Realty. Nor is this all. The investor in landed property, is always a person of means, and he is interested in the state of the money market, the condition of the crops and the general causes which appreciate or depress the securities sold on the Stock Exchange. Hence the aim of The Record and Guide will be to present, each week, such facts and considerations as will help to instruct the judgment of people who deal in any of the great productions of the country. The design is to make this, in every way, a business man's journal. With party contests, proper, this paper will have nothing to do; but it will discuss, in its own way, the larger interests and issues of the day. A business paper, to be true to its mission, could not afiford to overlook in its discussions, the government¬ al and political influences which affect prices and imperil the financial stability of the nation. The Record and Guide has positive views of its own, which it proposes to present to the public. It believes that the power of legislatures and con¬ gresses should be curbed and limited, that executive authority and responsibility should be largely increased, and that the general management of corporations should be subordinated to that of the national authorities. As the tendency of the age is toward the centralization of power in the heads of the nation, it follows that our civil service should be radically re¬ formed, so that political considerations should not interfere with the eCQcient performance of the new duties required of our public servants. In view of the marvelous changes that have occurred since the adoption of the present constitution of the country, it is one of the purposes of this paper to present to the American people reasons why it might be wise to hold a new national conven¬ tion to propose needed amendments and alterations in our fundanrental lavs^j^^The discuMiaary^^ WANTED—A REVISED CONSTITUTION. The Constitution of the United States was not framed for the United States of to-day. The men who framed that instrument were politicians and statesmen, not prophets. When the astonishing development of the nation is remembered, the wonder is, not that the constitution has worked so badly, but that, on the whole, it has worked so well. The population of the country is now probably 5-2,000,000 of persons. At the time of the adoption of the constitution there were barely 3,000,000 of persons in what was then the United States. The area of the new nation was then about 821,000 square miles. The area of the nation is now about 3,600,000 square miles. Our population has incieased about seventeen-fold, while our territory has been increased by conquest and purchase nearly four and one- half times. Wealth has increased with popiJl'ation. Gigantic cities have grown up from petty towns, and even in what was but a few years ago a wilderness. Manufactures have grown wiih great rapidity. Our mineral wealth has beeu discovered and utilized. The conditions of our life have grown more complex with every decade and with every step we advance in wealth and population. The development of railroads, tele- giaphs and insurance within the last thirty years has been so great and so peculiar that uo human foiesight could have an'iclpated its dangers or its advantages. The war brought a number of questions to the front which called for solution. Some of these questions are solved, but the consequences remain to plague us. In the South the negro has the suffrage, but as a relief from the domination of ignorance, thereby pro¬ duced, flrst the rifle, than club and bull-.dozing and now the false voting and false counting have taken their places as institutions to limit and control universal suffrage. Every competent observer has noticed that very many con¬ stitutional questions of the flrst importance are pressing forward for discussion. The problems of the hour must be met. To enumerate a few of them: 1. The relations of the government to the questions growing out of the existence of monopolies is of, the flrst importance. The power to tax freight and traffic between different slates and sections of the country and to discrimina-e for or against localities or individuals and thus emich or impoverish favorite places or persons at hhe pleasure of the master of the railroad is now engaging the earnest thought of earnest men every¬ where. The anti-monopolyi.issue is a growing one. It is even now making itself felt in politics. It is usually regarded as dealing with the questions of transportation, but, as a matter of fact, the anti-monopoly issue is much wiier than this question. All monopolies should be regulated, telegraph, gas, insurance and other like companies, as well as railroad companies, 2, Legislative bodies arebretiking down all over the world. The English House of Commons has become a byword. A few men have shown how easy it was to demoralize the most famous deliberativebody in the world. The parliamentary regi¬ me in France hasrelegated that nation from the head of the great nations of Europe to 1 he foot Making due allowance for the disastrous results of the Eranco-German war, it is plain that the freaks of an unstable parliamentary majority has had much to do with placing Erance in the'-humiliating position in the diplo¬ matic world which she to-day occupies. In Germany, Prince Bismarck governs, in reality, as he pleases. He plays fast and loose with'parliament, sets off one party against another and usually ends by having his own way. Knowing- what he wants, he is generally victor over a company of mere talkers, who rarely know what they want outside of an opportunity to spout and denounce. But there is still another charge that must be brought against representative bodies. They are supposed to be the collective wisdom of the state or nation for the making of laws. It is now a commonplace that laws are badly made. It is not too much to say that if legislation were entrus'ed arbitrarily to the most ignorant portion of the com¬ munity, laws could not be worse made than ihey now are. Our congress seems as unable to legislate wisely as any of our state legislatures. The fact is, a special form of talent is required in framing wi;e and sani'ary laws, and this form, of talent neither our mode of choosing legislators nor our system of enacting laws by our legislators seems fitted to develop or to select. Our system of government is not truly parliamentary. We have neither a responsible congress nor a responsible exec¬ utive. Congressmen are anxious to usurp the prerogatives of the executive, while the executive has no way to make its influence felt in congress but by some dicker or trade, uS'Ually about patronage. The result is the well-known degradation of our politics, which constantly turn upon some selfish squab¬ ble fo^ffice. ^ . . 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