Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 37, no. 938: March 6, 1886

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March 6, 1886 The Record and Guide. 277 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broad^T^av, 3Sr. "Y, Onr Telephone Call is .... . JOHN 3TO. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVII. MARCH 6, 1886. No. 938. Iti a special article attention is called to the remarkable real estate and buKdiag movement which is now under way in New York city and vicinity. As the same phenomenon is observed in other large cities it follows tliat the general trade of the country must be in a hopeful condition. The building of new houses and liberal buying of real estate never occurs in dull times, or when the business outlook is unpromising. Manufacturers are generally doing well. The consumptive demand for goods is larger than ii has beon for year^. Toe working classes are asking and getting better wages. Ifc follows from these facts that, on the whole, we are fairly prosperous on this side of the Atlantic. Our only draw¬ back is the depressed condition of industries in Europe. The working class there, who are the best customers for our grain and cotton, are so impoverished that they cannot pay for as much food or wear so much cotton goods as. in former years, when they had better employment and made more money. As the nations which are the most distressed have all the benefits of a single gold standard, while we continue the coinage of silver, it would seem as if the contrasting state of trade on both sides of the Atlantic had something to do with the battle of the standards. the franchise of seventy miles of road in New York to the Cable Company. If this enterprise succeeds it will be a great accommo¬ dation to New Yorkers, for pasaengers will be able to travel to any part of the city for five cents by a system of transfer checks ; and tbey will be carried far more rapidly than by the existing horse-car system. Bat it is monstrous, if the popular suspicion is justified, that it is the aldermen who wUl benefit by the giving of this city franchise and not the treasury. If we had an honest and respon¬ sible system of local goverment, the right to lay tracks and run cables would be worth a large sum of money, in addition to the royalty which the company should pay out of its gross receipts into the city treasury. The stoppage of local travel yesterday, caused by the general strike of the employes of the horse-car companies of this city and Brooklyn, was little less than a public calamity, and provision should at once be made to prevent the repetition of any such occur¬ rence. The parties to blame primarily are the stockholders and managers of the roads of the companies who refused to grant the just demrnds of the men. Two dollars a day for twelve hours' work, to drivers and conductors liable to be exposed to such terri¬ ble weather as we have had during the past month, is not too much to ask. Indeed, it is too little ; and there ought to be a provision in every future charter granted to any corporation asking special privileges from the State or municipality that the employes should receive a "fair day's wages for a fair day's work." Public senti¬ ment ought to be on the side of the men, unless tlie latter forfeit it by riotous conduct or extravagant demands. It is notorious that upon the capital actually expended on the street car lines handsome dividends can be declared on fares of two and three cents per pas¬ senger. But all the horse-car stocks have been enormously watered, which has not prevented the companies from declaring from 8 to 15 per cent, on the same to the fortunate stockholders. The com¬ panies could well afford to pay even better wages and demand less work, and still continue paying dividends greater than is expected in any average business. --------«-------- In these columns we have repeatedly urged that it would be a wise step on the part of the State and city governments to make the employes of the State railroads and city horse-car companies a part of the police force. They should be uniformed, their wages and hours made a matter of State regulation, and then we would never be in danger of a strike ; while, in the event of riots, there would be a reserve police force to fall back on which would prove more effective in dealing with a mob than an equal number of militiamen. Of course, if under State or city control, there could be no Knights of Labor or trade union interference any more than there is in the existing police department. Government employes never strike on the continent of Europe; the employes of the railroad are generally soldiers, or, at least, in uniform and subject to military discipline. What an advantage it would have been to this country if in 1877 the railroad employes were under the orders of the central or State governments. There would have been no riots such as then imperilled the peace and prop¬ erty of so many States in the Union. As for the present trouble, the best way to end it is for the public to insist that the company shall treat their employes fairly; but the latter should under¬ stand that there must be no violence. If the Broadway franchise for running horse-cars is taken away from " Jake" Sharp and his friends, why should not the city itself assume the ownership and reap the profit from the enormous pas¬ senger traffic of our great thoroughfares ? Tlie municipality could settle with private owners of the stock on a fair basis, and the pos¬ session of this, which may be called the trunk line of the city horse-car system, would put our local authorities in a place where they could command the situation. It would put a check on the rapacity of not only the horse-car companies, but of the new cable company. There need be no more waste in running a line of horse~ cars than in controling a fire, police or water department. It is when corporate interests come into play that local government is seen at its worst. Our post-office departn-ent, for instance, is a model of cheapness and efficiency. It is the contractors and cor¬ porations which are the evil influences in our government work of all kinds. Where the officers of the national State or local govern¬ ments steal a cent in dealing directly with the public, the contractor or the corporation rake in their dishonest gains by the thousands of dollars. David Dudley Field, in advocating the adoption of the civil code before a committee of the Legislature, stated that in New York city there were 0,000 lawyers and 5,000 more in other parts of this State. France, with a population of 38,000,000, has only 6,000 lawyers in all. The extraordinary number of lawyers in the United States is probably due to the fact that that profession practically has a monopoly of the government of the country. Our presidents, cabinet ministers, governors, members of the National and State Legislature, as well as the great bulk of the minor officials, have been and are almost exclusively lawyers. Then we have more law and litigation than any nation on earth; while the profession exacts far more for their services here than elsewhere. This multiplicity of lawyers is a positive danger to tbe community. The corruption in public life is in a great measure due to the number of lawyers who must make a living in manipulating the business interests of the community. It is on evidence that Jake Sharp spent only $160,000 in constructing the Broadway Railroad. To get permis¬ sion to do so he paid out $375,000 to lawyers. The failure to adopt the civil code in this State shows how pow¬ erful is the baser element in the legal profession. The constitution adopted in 1846 provided for the codifying of our laws. David Dudley Field, William Curtis Noyes and A. W. Bradford were appointed to carry out the constitutional requirements. They were all lawyers of first-class ability. Their work was completed in 1856. The new code is simply a condensed statement of the statute law relating to civil cases, which is otherwise only to be found by examining thousands of law books. The aim was simply to let the non-professional public know what the law really was. The better class of lawyers have always favored the adoption of the code, but their efforts have been thwarted for thirty j ears, simply because those who have profited by the old system and the pettifoggers were able to defeat the matter year after year in a Legislature composed of lawyers like themselves. The code is up again for adoption this year, and it certainly ought to be indorsed by the Legislature. The aldermen don't seem to scare worth a cent. Notwithstand¬ ing the attitude of the press and public anent the recent disclos¬ ures, the existing Board of Aldermen have deliberately voted away The controversy betvreen the President and the Senate on the office-holding question is not creditable to the members of our highest legislative chamber. It is clearly the prerogative of the President to appoint, and for the Senate to reject or confirm. The present Executive has made so few removals and has been so care¬ ful in his appointments, so much so as to offend his own party, that it puts the Republican majority in anything but a favorable light when they seek to coerce the President to retain their parti¬ sans in office. The great mass of the office-holding body are still Republicans, although that party has not more than half the voters, and, in view of President Cleveland's conservatism in making changes, the anti-administration party in the Senate should have treated him with the utmost consideration. Senator Edmunds has Tieretofore been regarded as a very superior type of a public man, but the low party aims to which he devotes himself is calculated to alienate the great body of Independents who care more for good government than for party patronage. President Cleveland has