Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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192 The Record and Guide. February Ig, 1887 it, in gambling in its stock, but outsiders would do well to leave it alone, for its manipulation will be in the hands of people who will work the market for their own personal profit, and will get the best of the " street" every time they can. Inq.—You do not seem to have much faith in the people who are now coming to the front in Wall street? Sir O.—No! If anything could justify the Communists and Socialists in their disrespect for the rights of private property, it is the way in which money is made in the " street" at this time. A more conscienceless set of manipulators never appeared on any Bourse in Europe. They are taking advantage of the public credulity and manufacturing securities for the n?arket. Still, these people have their uses. They are unifying and consolidating the railway systems of the South, and that is a good thing in itself. The United States and Great Britain seem to have a monopoly of the very rich men. From the official income tax returns, just pub¬ lished, the wealthiest man in Prussia is Herr Krupp, the famous gun maker. His income is assessed at something over $1,000,000 of our money. He pays $37,000 annually. Baron Rothschilu, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, comes next. He has an income of nearly $700,000, on which he pays about $30,000 per annum. Baron Bleichroder is the third. He pays about $17,000 per annum. There are only four others who have incomes of over $50,000 per annum. But such wealth as there is in the German Empire is far better distributed than in England or the United States. The same remark is true of France, Belgium, and Holland. There are far more chances to heap up enormous fortunes in a lifetime in English speaking countries than on the Continent of Europe. Whether that is an advantage to us admits of considerable debate. generation is to be commended. We can do without ' The Federalist,' and the commentaries on it when we have such interesting reading as the reports of the commercial agfincies, and the statistics published from time to time concerning the progress of our great industries. After all, business is a greater thing than politics. The man who is nothing but a politician can not be much of a business man, but the citizen who is strictly and thoroughly business, is capable of dealing with politics in a sensible way." It is ideas such as these which give one assurance that the new South is a very different community from what it was before the civil war. Its industrial experience is now modifying and clarify¬ ing its former political theories. The Senate has responded to the popular demand and has voted $31,000,000 for guns and seacoast fortifications. The House may concur in voting appropriations, but under the leadership of Ran¬ dall and Holman they will not be large enough. But how much better would it have been if adequate appropriations had been made in 1883, when business was depressed, and large amounts voted for guns and ships would have given a health¬ ful and much-needed stimulus to our coal and iron industries. Large appropriations now, when our steel mills have all they can do for a year to come, will create confusion in the labor mar¬ ket, and will undoubtedly lead to the importation of British steel and iron. Our main want is great guns, and then Congress ought to authorize the construction of twenty swift steamships which could be used as commerce destroyers in case of war; but which, in times of peace, could be contracted out to private companies so as to put an end, if possible, to the monopoly of our foreign commerce now held by the merchants of other nations. But we do not want any expensive navy,- as our attitude should be one of defense, not of aggression. --------------9-------------- A law is before the Illinois Legislature requiring County Record¬ ers to furnish abstracts of title to any citizen upon payment of a moderate fee. This proposed enactment is strongly backed up by the Chicago Real Estate Exchange, but, of course, the real estate lawyers do not like it, as it interferes with their regular business. It might be a good idea for our Legislative Committee of the Real Estate Exchange to get a copy of this law and see if it would be worth while getting it enacted in this State, An official search into a title certified to by the Recorder, or, as we call him in New York, the Register, would put a stop to the continued researching of titles which now causes so much expense and delay. The renewed prosperity of the South is working changes in the political theories of its new leaders. In its past history the Southern statesmen were extreme defenders of Jeffersonian Democracy. " Give all the powers to the State," they said, " and limit the control of the Federal government," This old Bourbon view of the functions of government still obtains even among Republican journalists and politicians of the North, but it is gratifying to note that Mr. Grady, who made such a sensation by his speech at the New England dinner, regards the governmental question from an entirely different point of view. In his paper, the Augusta Constitution, he says : "Our people no longer get excited over the centralization and local self- government theories. They are satisfied with the broad proposition that this is an indestructible union of indestructible States. Deeper into the question they do not care to go." How different this reads from the editorials in the Charleston Mercury and Richmond Inquirer previous to the war. The Con¬ stitution continues: "In such a state of society live men can not be expected to care very much about political abstractions. A new railroad, a canal, a cotton mill, or the development of a rich mine, interest men of energy and brains more than Mr, Hamilton's opinion of the theory of oUr government. Doubtless it would be a calamity tohave our statesmen indifferent to our history and tradifiona, but the practical tarn of mind cbaraetelisti(} of tbe^ present The London press is commenting in an unfriendly way upon the miscarriage of justice in this country. In England the courts manage to get murderers hung within a few weeks after the crime has been committed. We give homicides a couple of years at least, and any quantity of trials. There ought to be a public sentiment against the immunity we give to criminals. The whole machinery of the law, both in civil and criminal cases, should be rendered more efficient. Concerning Men and Things. *** The Evening Post has constituted itself as a champion of capital against labor, which is all natural enough, and much that it says respecting the pending troubles is very true; but it shows an unnecessary bitterness, almost amounting to malice, towards the working people, and in its zeal is often unveracious. While the recent coal labor disturbance was spreading, causing immense annoyance to business men, it kept on persistently declar¬ ing that the strike was a failure, that the men were demoralized and starv¬ ing, and that tho companies had all the help they needed; when, of course, its business readers knew that tbe commerce of the port was seriously interfered with, and that the employing companies suffered as well as the strikers. The functions of a high-class journal in such cases is to try and allay excitement, not to create it. A malicious temper does not com¬ mend a public journal to sober readers, and untruthful^statements loses it the respect even of the persons and interests it tries to serve. *''' * Colonel Richard Lathers says that New RocheUe has made wonderful progress recently, and he credits Banker Iselin with being the promoter of many of the improvements. The town has no w a large and excellent supply of water, and boasts of a fine library aud gymnasium. House building is all the rage, and a number of beautiful park-like streets have been laid out. The place boasts of two horse-car lines, one of which connects the Neptune House with Hugenot Park. Indeed, there is improvement in every direc¬ tion, always excepting the property owned for forty years by Colonel Lathers himself. He is of opinion that people who formerly went to Jersey would hereafter settle north of the Harlem. The New Haven road promises half-hour trains in time. Ladies in New RocheUe and neighbor¬ hood can make calls in New York with less trouble and loss of time than can the ladies of Brooklyn or Jersey. The Pelham Bay Park improvement is of the utmost value to New RocheUe and neighborhood. In time the Suburban Rapid Transit Road will tap Mount Vernon and New RocheUe. Colonel Lathers is of the opinion that within twenty years New RocheUe and probably Yonkers will form a part of New York city. It** According to the Sun Mr. Joseph Pulitzer had a rough-and-tumble fight with Mr. Joe Howard, one of his employes, in which the latter was put hors de combat. It seems Howard had been hired at a high salary— $150 a week—but his work not proving satisfactory to Mr. Pulitzer it bad been cut down untU the contributor was made a reporter and was paid at the rate of twelve dollars a column. This led to ill-feeling, high words, in a chance encounter ending in a knock down. Howard has long been known in press circles. He was brought into public notice by Henry Ward Beecher, who procured his employment on the New York Times in Henry J. Raymond's time, and subsequently got him out of Port Lafa¬ yette, where he was imprisoned for issuing a forged proclamation calling for more troops whUe the civil war was pending. He has since been employed on the Times, Sun, Herald, World, and at one time controlled the Star newspaper as its nominal proprietor and editor. He has been a popular writer, but does better under control in a regular oflBce than when he writes without responsibility. Then, he is ■ apt to be malicious. It is strange how some very clever writers cannot help wounding the feelings of people if they have a chance. Of late years Howard has not been as piquant a writer as when he was younger. He is verbose, and has too few ideas for the number of words he uses. He has corresponded in time with a great many out-of-town papers. ** * There are certain expedients for selling goods, that were once almost con¬ fined to dealers of low standing, that have for many years been gaining ground in estabUshments of a higher class. A worthy Quaker, who was stopped by a side-street dealer and urged to buy a shirt at a fearful sacri¬ fice, said: " Friend, if thy shirt is worth three doUars, I should do wrong to buy it from thee for ninety-nine cents, but I wUl walk on tiU I find a two-doUar shirt for two dollars." If this conscientious party is stiU living and adheres to his principles he must sometimes walk a long distance before be finds a merchant that makes no pretense of selling for less than actual or current value. In a great many handsome plate glass show-windows he will see articles with such marks as, "$2.99, worth $4.00," or, "reduced from $4.50," or, " sold elsewhere for $5.00." A little of aU this represents actual job lot or auction business, such as cuts seriously, into regular trade, but its vast amount is evidence that the greater part is humbug. These pre¬ tenses have become almost the rale, aud t^e fact that a great many people Who are quite qolck-witted enough torunderstaoid Oaaa are, neTertgeleaa^