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The Record and guide: v. 37, no. 945: April 24, 1886

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April 34, 1886 The Record and Guide. 528 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Sroad^w^av, IST. Y. Our Telephone Call is.....JOBEN 370. TERMS: ONE ¥EAR, in adyance, SIX DOLLARS. Coramunications should be addressed to €. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVII. APEIL 24, 1886. No. 945. It is not much use to say anything about the business outlook this week. Everything depends upon the labor disputes. The working people seem to be crazy, and, until this mania for strikes is over, people contemplating new enterprises or extending their business will wait until a more reasonable frame of mind shows itself among the laboring classes. A check has undoubtedly been given to business, and perhaps after all, the final result of the labor disturbances may be wholesome. We will have a duller summer and more unemployed working people, because of these strikes, a state of things which will doubtiess bring the discontented to their senses by the time the fall trade commences. not submit it and end the difiSculty at once ? What is to be gained by prolonging riot, disorder, and destruction of property ? What can be Jay Gould's object in continuing the strike when it is within his power to settle it immediately and have the issues decided in his favor ? It is not to be believed that he woidd prolong this ruinous and destructive con¬ troversy without having some ulterior ptu-pose in view, but it ia plain that his com-se is calculated to depreciate Southwestern stocks, and furnish just the opportunity desired by a raUroad wrecker who rejoices in a Black Friday. Jay Gould's course is inexplicable on any soimd business principle, but entirely consistent, if viewed as a part of the vrrecking policy of a stock gambler. We repeat that this matter ought to have been adjusted rather than allowing an appeal to be taken to Congress. The great cor¬ porations will have little or no chance with Representatives eager to propitiate the labor vote. President Cleveland's message on the labor troubles has the merit of good intentions. But that is all which can be said in com¬ mendation of it. Voluntary arbitration will be no settlement of such disputes as have occurred in the railroads of the country. If the President had only favored some such plan as that advocated in this journal, making railway employes a part of the police force of the nation, he would have committed himself to a programme which would give us peace forever after on the transportation lines of the country. The only other solution is voluntary arbitration between the great capitalist corporations on one side and the great labor organizations ou the other. The experience of builders and other employers in this city is that local trades unions are tyran¬ nical and irresponsibl••. They are a source of grave disturbance in conducting building operations, especially as people who take con¬ tracts do not know on what to depend, for the local unions take advantage of their necessities. But in England the experience is that manufacturing companies and large employers who deal with the national unions get fair treatment, and agreements can be made ahead so that there will be no interruption during busy seasons. National organizations, such as the Knights of Labor, are managed far more wisely than are the local unions. Voluntary arbitration with them is likely to have better results than if the disputes should be brought before State, national and arbitration courts. --------•-------- When these labor troubles first commenced we suggested that Mr. Jay Gould made a capital mistake in so manipulating the dis¬ turbance as to get it into Congress. The corporate wealth of the country cannot afford to appeal to that tribunal in view of the servile attitude cf Congressmen to the labor vote. Mr. Gould would not arbitrate the troubles, for in doing so he would be forced to recognize the Knights of Labor. But he will find that unreason¬ able as the workingmen may be. Congressmen will be far more so in their hunt for supposed popularity. The Tribune Washington correspondent thus comments upon the manner iu which the Con¬ gressional committee paid court to Mr. Powderly and the other labor witnesses: The delicacy with which the witnesses were handled by members of the committee presented a strong contrast to the short work made at that very time .of the Pan-Blectric statesman in a room two floors below. The vote of the laboring man seemed to be always uppermost in the thoughts of the committee. One member actually asked a witness's pardon for pre¬ suming to ask a certain question. A correspondent calls attention to the relationship that apparently exists between the Southwestern strike and that on the Third avenue road. Mr. Jay Gould, president of the one company, !s an intimate personal friend, and practically a business partner, of Mr. Henry Hart, the ex-pawnbroker, who is the controlling owner of the Third avenue stock and vice-president of the company. Hart, like Gould, has forced the fight from the beginning, and his tactics were the same—declining to arbitrate and refusing in any way to recognize the organization of the employes. There is reason to believe that the actions of both were after consultation. The Western papers are beginning to take ground against Mr. Gould's position. The Chicago Tribune, which is bitterly opposed to Knights of Labor and all labor organizations, declares that Mr. Jay Gould has taken a position— Not justified by ordinary business sagacity or policy. If his case is such that a board of arbitration would be compelled to decide ia his favor, why The Tribune has just found out that the prohibition vote is likely to be an important factor in future political contests, not only in this State but throughout the country. We have been sayiug this for several years past, but the Republican party of this State was so unwise at the last election as to nominate a candidate for Governor who was particularly obnoxious to radical temperance people. This moral issue will prove stronger than any of the old political points of difference between the two parties. The local option question has divided the Southern white and colored vote in a most surprising way, and it is destined to create equal havoc in the rank and file of the Democratic and Republican voters of the North. Another fact it wotild be well for politicians to keep in mind is that the labor question wiU enter lagcgelj into politics this coming fall. Governor Hill owes his election to his indorsement of the extreme demands of the labor representatives. And Mr. Gould's singularly perverse management of the Southwestern difficulty has forced the labor issue into national politics. Hereto¬ fore the working people have declined to vote for the agitators who claim to represent them, but there is no telling what they may do next fall. Between the prohibition and labor issues it looks as though the two old party organizations will, temporarily at least, be disintegrated. --------•-------- Both branches of the Legislature have by an overwhelming vote agreed to annul the charter of tbe Broadway Horse-car Company. Governor Hill is committed to this annulment, but it is tobe hoped he will carefully scrutinize the bill before affixing his official signa¬ ture. There is no doubt as to the turpitude of the Aldermen, although it was not legally proven, as Mr. Conkling^dmitted; but wUl not the courts be disposed to take a somewhat different view of this matter than that expressed by the press, which has fairly bullied the Legislature into taking this extreme action. It should be remembered that this charter was granted under forms pre¬ scribed by an act of the Legislature. Every legal requirement was complied with. The Court of Appeals may refuse to go behind the machinery for granting charters, and hold that the evidence against the Aldermen was ex-parte; for as yet not one of them has been legally proven guilty, nor is there likely to be any conviction until after the Legislature adjourns. Then the court may say that innocent holders of the Broadway bonds cannot have the value of their property destroyed by an act of the Legislature. There is the case of a Maine bank, which bought a large quantity of these bonds. Can this institution be mulct of its property which was bought openly in the New York market on the faith of a charter granted in accordance with the laws of the State ? Then may not the court hold that this would be a dangerous precedent to establish, for it is notorious that all our horse-car charters and ferry franchises were procured by means more or less corrupt. Can the State afford to render insecure the vast mass of property held under State charters when there is a strong probability that questionable means were employed in secur¬ ing them ? ----------« However, this whole investigation will do good. It will be a warning to corporate wealth that it cannot with impunity employ money in a lobby to corrupt legislative bodies. It is quite time this lesson was taught. There is a possibility that, notwithstand¬ ing the action of the Legislature, the charter may stand. All that is certain is that the lawyers will have very fat pickings. The case will be fought in the courts, and, whoever will lose, the legal pro¬ fession will reap a golden harvest. --------•-------- The livening Post which was amongst the first and most pro¬ nounced of the city journals in demanding the repeal of the Broad¬ way franchise is forced to make the following admission : It is a measure of great importance, being the exercise of a power which is reserved to the Legislature, but with the expectation that it vriU be hardly ever used, and used only in the gravest and most extreme cases, for the defense of some great public interest. It cannot be used without inflicting more or less damage on individuals. Use et it is emphatically a dose of medicine, and in no sense an article of daily food or to be thought of as such. We have supported the repeal with a full sense of the