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The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 904: July 11, 1885

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July 11, 1885 The Record and Guide. 777 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broadwav, IST. "y. Oiir TcloiiUone Call Is.....JOHN 370, TERMS: ONE TEIR, in adrance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVI. JULY 11, 1885. No. 904 Hostility to the new high bridj^e across the Harlem River was to l»ave beeu anticipated. The looation is not in the midst of a densely populated district, and it looks to many like forcing improve¬ ments to i>ut between two and three million dollars into tlie work at this time. The cost will not add appreciably to the tax levy, for though, under the constitutional amendment, we must pay as we go, the amount will only reach about $700,000 per year for three years ; but it is believed that more important improvements might have been undertaken. This belief is probably well founded, but the more important works would not have been advanced by the failure of the bridge project. This, also, is a point to be con¬ sidered, for there is no question that the bridge will be a useful as well as an ornamental structure, and if we cannot secure the most desirable improvements, such as new school buildings, sewers, etc., we shall do well to welcome the best that we can get. Let us be only careful now that the work shall bo begun and brought to com¬ pletion without any scandal. One hundred years ago, during the Revolutionary War, between McComb's Dam and the Hudson River we had Kingsbridge—to-day we have no more, no less. The same reasons given then against any increase in the means of communi¬ cation are given now—that the city cannot afford it, and popula¬ tion does not demand it. Successful railroad men say : Build your road, population will follow. Our Mayor says : Get your popula¬ tion and then we will give you the bridge. "Who is right? Said Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, the other day, when discuss¬ ing with an interviewer the subject of the car drivers' strike: " You see I cannot say I will not protect the company, for they could then sue the city for damages. I must protect them the best I can." It is a grave question where the responsibility of a city for acts caused by rioters should cease. The courts may hold that when no further exertion of restraining force is possible, a city should not be made to meet the losses incurred through riotous acts. But it is very difficult to decide when all the force possible has been applied. Given a Mayor who is something of a demagogue, and a cause for rioting which appeals to popular sympathy, and it will be difficult, sometimes, to decide if all the efforts made to preserve the peace and protect vested rights are moro than mere feints. No matter how strong the pretense, in cases where no honest effort is made to preserve order, and in this country no honest and determined effort will fail, a city ought not to escape responsibility for losses suffered. True, tliere may be causes for disj^ute wliere compromise is desirable ; but that is a question of no concern to an executive officer. The first right of every citizen ■vt'iU be secured by the preservation of order, for it is only when the law reigns that any rights either public or private, can be maintained. The managers of the horse-car companies in Chicago are a very foolish set of men. They ought either to have been perfectly cer¬ tain that they would win or else to have acceded to the demands made by their men at once, aud thus to have prevented the strike. Instead of that they talked big and acted small. They said that they would not relinquish their right to manage their own business and to discharge men for reasons satisfactory to tliemselves. They refused to submit the dispute to arbitration, saying they had nothing to arbitrate. This would have been all very well if tliey had backed it up. There was no excuse for their not backing it up. There are thousands of men in Chicago who would have been glad to take the work on the terms the strikers reftised. Althougli the Mayor behaved in a very pusillanimous way at first, he finally used the force of the city in the proper way to keep order and prevent violence without taking either side of the dispute. In spite of this and of all their loud talk the mana¬ gers backed completely down, took back all the strikers, discharg¬ ing the men employed in their places, and agreed to **investigate" the conduct of the men on account of whose discharge the others struck. Most likely this investigation will end in taking these men back also. The result is that the strikers feel that they have beaten their employers and that they can strike again, whenever they see fit, ^with a good chance of success. The employers have not gained the good-will of the strikers, while they have gained the ill-will of the men whom they employed only to discharge them again. The next strike they have on their hands thoy will get nobody to work for them except men who do not know where their next meal is coming from. The strike in Cleveland is a much more serious matter. The novel of "The Breadwinners," which most people have read, and of which the scene is laid in Cleveland, sets forth that the working- men of that city comprise in their number many dangerous agitators. This showing was much complained of when it was made, but the events of the week indicate that it was perfectly true, Cleveland was in fact in the hands aud at the mercy of a mob. As soon as the strikers passed from doing as they liked with their own business to interfering with other workmen in order to injure the employer of these workmen they became rioters. Powder and ball is the only proper medicine for that complaint, and it is a flisgrace to Cleveland that it was not promptly applied. The whole story of the riot has a very un-American character. In fact, the foreign population of Cleveland is large and is very imperfectly assimilated. It is characteristic that before starting out for its deviltry the mob listened to a speech from "the agent for the Anarchists' Committee," who probably told them that the majority could live by robbing the minority, and the fools believed it. So long as these Anarchist blatherskites confine themselves to talking, and no mischief follows, the law does rightly in taking no notice of them. This Cleveland orator, however, succeeded in inciting a riot, and he ought to bo laid by the heels. The main difference between a foreign and an American workman is that the former considers himself as a member of a class, and thinks that whatever lie can get out of the class above him is clear gain. The American expects to rise, or, if he does not, he experts his children to rise, and he has some anxiety about the rights of the property he expects to acquire, A good deal of insight might be got into the labor question if a magazine were to send a more competent person than the reporters of the newspapers to investigate the disturbance at Cleveland, and write a careful and analytical account of the whole matter. The New and Ihe Old Wards of New York. In forecasting the future movements of population and values in the citj' of New York it is necessary to keep in view not alone our municipal area, but the somewhat indefinite boundaries of our metropolitan district. The territory covered by the cluster of cities around New York Bay is so vast, and the local interests of the dif¬ ferent sections are so large and all-absorbing, that men are liable to fail in their judgment through lack of general information. They are like boatmen placed so near the surface of a river that they can¬ not observe the general direction of currents, and often find them¬ selves rowing against the flow when a higher point of observation would have taught them a less laborious trick. This reflection will be found to have peculiar force when it is used for illustrating the circumstances of the annexed district. As a rule, property holders in that section of the city regard its future as under the control of the laws that have covered the Yorkville and Harlem district with a dense population, and finally turned the tide of improvement in the direction of the section west of Central Park. They think it destined to be the home of men whose daily vocations are pursued south, let us say, of Union square. But this is only partially a true view. Whatever the facilities for rapid transit we cannot cover a long distance so quickly as we can cover a short distance. We cannot go from the New York terminus of the East River Bridge to Fordham, a distance of thirteen miles, in the interval of time which it would cost us to go to East New York, over a distance, as the crow flies, of less than six miles. It is unquestionably true that as transit facilities improve in every direction, almost the entire eastern end of Long Islaud and the northern end of Stateu Island will be as quickly accessibla from the present business centre of New York as even the neighborhood of Harlem, south of the Harlem Bridge. It is important to keep this prospect in view, not so much for the purpose of knowing where to make profitable investments as to learn the proper course to pursue iu protecting and advancing the undeveloped interests of New York as a distinct city. In making investments a man with ability to hold tho property purchased can hardly go wrong. Real estate may temporarily decline in value ; but in every part of tl^e city or vicinity, taking a not very long series of years for the estimate, there will be a continual and large increment. But in managing our real estate interests we should not be governed altogether by the instinct of buying and selling, or buying and holding. A broader view, derived from considerations of public policy, may improve our chances even upon the market; and it will certainly tend to favorable results on the future pros¬ perity of the city. In the view of rivalry with other sections of the metropolitan district it would be fatal to the prospects of the annexed district in New York to regard that section as a mere dwelling place for our mercantile and industrial population. For reasons already sug-