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The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 910: August 22, 1885

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August 23, 1885 The Record and Guide. 927 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broad-w^av, KT. T^'. Our TolepUoue Cull is.....JOIIN 370. TERMS: ONE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Co 111 uiuiiica tions should be addressed to €. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVI. AUGUST 22, 1885. No. 910 The favoraVde outlook for the iron trade reported from Pittsburg this week is only the inevitable corollary to the nioveraent for au agreement among the railroads. The iron industry, the most important manufacturing industry in the United States for stimu¬ lating exchange, is so directly dependent on the railroads for its prosperity that its late prostration must bo charged exclnsively to the railroad war with the consequent partial cessation of railway construction and repairs. But with the adjustment of the railway differences and increased earnings must come a return of the demands on tiie iron mills. We are told already that orders are increasing rapidly and tliat many of the Pittsburg mills are run¬ ning on double time. But this may be interpreted as not Pittsburg news exclusively. The improvement will be universal, and with it will come an increased demand upon tlie products of tho woollen and cotton mills, the shoe factories and the farms. All branches of industry will be stimulated. It is curious to see how elaborately men reason to attribute their misfortunes to wrong causes. There never should have been a doubt of tho principal cause of the depression of the past two years, and If the railway managers are not leading us on a false scent, a. circumstance hardly conceivable, we are nearly at the end of the very hard times. We think, too, that some experience has beeu gained whicli will render the coming boom more durable than the last. That the Harlem district of this city is growing populous enough to a,ssert itself is evident in the statement tliat the New York Central & Hudsou River Railroad is preparing to erect a large station at Mott Haven, which, for all practical purposes, shall serve as a terminal depot. This will be extremely good news for the people of the annexed district; and if it could be supplemented with the further statement that all the dilapidated and tumble¬ down stations of the Harlem road, north of the Harlem River, are to be replaced by elegant little structures surrounded by neat parks, after the model of the station houses of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, they would have still greater reason to rejoice. The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, whicli, of course, includes practically the Harlem road, is getting rich now. Its managers will soon have the resources of the West Shore road to help them, aud they should be liberal in providing elegant accom¬ modations for their passengers. The stations in question are cred¬ itable neither to the railroad which they serve nor to the city whicli they fail to decorate. The oldest inhabitant can hardly remember when they were built, and, unless they are replaced, the youngest inhabitant w^ill hardly come to years of discretion before they tumble down. The strikes among workmen, reported from the West on the Gould system of railroads, and witnessed on a limited scale also in the cloakmaking and other trades of this city, are echoes of the storm which, for two years jjast and more, has been reducing wages and causing general industrial demoralization. Since work¬ men are organized, and bound by the purposes of their organizatitm to resist reductions, such incidents are inevitable when the market is falling; but we do not believe that, in the present instance, the contest will be very prolonged or the results very mischievous. The general feeling is hopeful, and as business is really improving, and the prices of commodities are either rising or at the turning pomt of the tide, there is really no necessity for any further reductions in wages. Even employers who but recently thought it necessary to make reductions may now very well reconsider their action, and, in many instances, mark up the totals of their pay-rolls with the prices of their commodities. It happens, unfortunately, that there are too many ignorant leaders in the different labor organizations, with also too mauy men of equally feeble judgment among employers; and the perversity of ignorance in wrong-doing is always some¬ thing remarkable. But, in this instance, the necessities of the combatants will be likely to serve us a good turn. Neither side to the controversy can afford to stand off and fail to take advantaee of the opportunities which all men of sober judgm ont see api'iiK-ch- ingf Tbe road to compromise sIiquIv!; tHerafii^e, bt^ ^^j, Thf- sit¬ uation now, compared with the situation at the time of the tele¬ graphers' strike, two jears ago, is greatly changed. Then we were just at the beginning of troubled waters; now we are emerging on the opposite side of the c3'clone after having weathered the worst l)art of the blow. --------•-------- The report made to the American Bar Association, on ** The Delay and Uncertainty in Judicial AJministration," by Mr. David Dud¬ ley Field, recalls a subject that has been very much discussed to very little purpose. The law's delay was one of the causes that led Hamlet to palliate if not to defend suicide; and a lawsuit is a no more prompt process now than in the days of Shakespeare, In fact we doubt if it is so prompt. The obstacles in the way of swift justice are physical as well as administrative, and the faster you remove them the faster you will pile up new obstructions. Does this declaration demand explaining':' The explanation is easy. Not one-half, possibly not one-fourth the lawsuits are brought that would be brought were legal processes simplified aud made less expensive. Could the ideal system of justice be established there is hardly a subject of dispute that could be made to involve even so much as a point of honor that might not be taken lo court for adjudication. What, then, must result? Why, were civil suits settled as promptly as a drunken and disorderly conduct case before a New York police justice, the court calender would soon become so long that were we even to expect prompt decisions we would have to more than duplicate the number of courts. This is a quar¬ relsome world. The law's delay is not, therefore, it will be seen, alto¬ gether an evil. Upon the whole it probably conduces to the culti¬ vation of a compromising spirit and saves bad blood. The discussion about the Grant monument, to which we contri¬ bute some I'emarks this week, has had the effect of making people consider the conditions of our public sculpture. Tliis is thus far confined to the Central Park, not that a park is the best place for portrait-statues, but there is no other. It is diflicult to secure a good site for a statue in the business quarter of the town, although one has latelj' been found in Wall street for Ward's Washington. It is rather odd that tlie best site in all New Y^ork for a piece of heroic statuary should have beeu overlooked—we mean the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge. The towers themselves have been criticised as looking unfinished bj- reason of the flat surface at the top. If they were surmounted with sculpture this defect would disappear, since the top would seem to have been left flat as a base for the sculpture. A bronze group, of colossal size, on the summit of either tower, would certainly have as fine a site as can be found anywhere in the world. The weight of such a group would be a trifle, and so far as it had any effect at all would probably be a positive advantage from an engineering point of view. Portrait- statues would be comparatively ineffective, although one colossal figure over each pier would do something to relieve the ungainliness of the tower tlius surmounted. We have no sculptor who has given evidence of ability to design such a group as an allegory, say, of the Re-union, which might, in proper liands, be made a most impressive memorial to Grant. The obvious criticism, that if one of the towers were completed both ought to be, would bring its own answer. It would not be many years after one group was com¬ pleted l»efore another confronted it from the opposite eminence. If the Daft Electric Motor Company, which is to make a trial of its electrical engine on the Ninth Avenue Elevated Road in a few days, succeeds in demonstrating the practicability of the invention, a new era will dawn for the system of elevated railroads. They are unpopular now for three reasons: tirst, because they are too noisy; second, because they are too dirty, and, third, because they are unsightly. The first and second of these objections the Daft Com¬ pany promises to remove. There will be no more coal-dust, cinders, greasy water and oil, to make well-dressed foot passengers on the streets frantic if the electric motor can be made to take the place of the steam locomotive. The noise may not decrease so much as we are taught to expect, the rattle and thunder of the trains coming, we think, more from the cars than from tlie engine. But there will be a cessation of the rush of escaping steam and some¬ thing of a decrease in the noise of clanking wheels. These improve¬ ments alone will go far to restore the roads to public favor, already recognized as the pleasantest possible means of transit. With regard to the unsightly character of the elevated structures, that, of course, is an objection which no motor can remove, and the scarecrows are in possession of several of our chief avenues. But they are not necessarily unsightly. An elevated road, if tastefully designed, could be made an ornament to any street—to Broad way, for example ; and after the suppression of the noise and filth there is no reason why they should not be constructed wherever there are passengers to carry. It is a little remarkable, when you think of it, that the pedestal for the Barthokli statue has been permitted to reach its present altitiide \vith9ut the discovery that thp eugiweeri Geni Cbas. P*