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September 17.1893 Record and Guide. 343 ^^ ^ ESTABLÎSHED"^ MARpH 2ii^^ 186B. OeATED ro R^^L EsrWE. BuiLDIf/O A;RClílTECTaiíE .HoiJSeiíOLD DeQORATWIÍI, BlIsiiJessa^1dThemesofGeNeraLIUt€ĩ\esĩ ESTABLÎSHED-^ MARpH 2\'^ PRICB, FER TEAR IN ADVANOE, SIX DOLLARS. Pĸblisheã every Saturday. TBIíBPHONB ... - COBTLANDT 1370. Comiuunicatioiis sbould be addresseâ to G. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St J. 1. LINDSEY, Susiness Manager, ^^Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, N. T., as second-class maiter." VOL. L, SEPTEMBEĨi 17, 1893. No. 1,379 ALIQUIDATING movement haa set in in tbe stoek market the extent oí which it would be hard to calculate. Tbe day-to-day decline con?equent on this \s aggravated by the operations of the professional element, Recent cholera news is making people con- eervative in tbeir management of undertakings on hand &nd very chary in their regard of new ones. Moreover, money is hardfuing in such a -way as to make a regular 6 per cent rate possible in the near future; naturally money will be more desired than securities, particularly tbose in the investment class, which pay less or whose realîzation of that rate of interest ie uncertain, For these reasons lower prices may BtiU be looked for in the long run. The declinea ĩn some cases, however, have been sufflcient to make the present expectation of a temporary rally reasonable. PROBABLY the Board of Street Opening and Improvement would not have requested the Commissianerof Public Works to present a plan of the Elm street improi. ement unless it intended to proceed in that matter withoufc delay. It ia certaiuly very much to be hoped that this is the case. From the start there has been no question as to the public utility of the proposed widening and Gxtension. The matfcer was thoroughly discussed both in the press and at public hearings; and the arguments in favor of the improve- ment were irresistible: Why the matter has been postponed for such a long time is one of those mysteries connected with our local adminietration about which the oracle is discreetly silent. Perhaps the old law compensating the Commissioners in streefc openingpro- ceedings had aomething to do withj^the contiuual postponement of the improvement. Under the circumsfcances, however, we need nofc indulge in speculations as to the causes of past negligence. The preeenfc activity is a far pleasanter and more fruitful subject for contemplation. That the improvement is now to be elowly con- simimated is probably due in part to the fact that the Rapid Transit Commissioners will need the widened street for their east side route. It haa been apparent of late that their plan of connecting the eaet side route with the Broadway tunnel^at 14th street, evenif good etigineering, was bad from a financial poiut of view. The fran- chise for either route could be sold separately to far greater advau- tage than they could be aold together, The purchasers of the west side privilege would have all fchey could do in afcfcendíng to the construction and operation of that Ilne of road, and if the Vander- bilts wanted the east side route they would need four clear tracks right down to tbe CÍty Hall. Consequently it is reasonabJy certain that when the east side route is again laid out fche Commission will retum to the plan of the original Belmont Commissĩon. For this purpose it wiU need to have Elm efcreet widened and exfcended, Thus the two improvements^will dovetail very nicely. The taek of determining the damages to property-owners in the street-widen- ing proceeding wiU take suoh a long time that it wiU not be any more than underway by the fcime the Rapid Tranait Commisaion wîll be ready for its second great task. THE Elm street improvement, partîcularly ifyâupplemenfced by the location of a rapid transit railroa,d along the new thor- oughfare, will do much both for the particular itocality affected and for the whole city, In the first place ifc will aive us what we very much need—another broad avenue runnĩng nLrfch and eouth. The Bowery and Broadway are by no means adjpquate to the present traffic. Much of ifc is obliged to fcake circuipoua routee along side atreeta in order fco make better time. The Elm afcreet ímprovement wilt, in the first place, relíeve the pressure on Broadway. Then it will certainly result in the opening up for busĩness purposes of that unsavory dislrict south of Lafayette place, between Broadway and the Bowery. Along the edge of Broadway the nide streets in that vlcinity are already used for warehouses ; but the abominable intricacy of the atreet system has kept it for itiie most parfc a tenement-iiouse district. Dui-ing recent ye ' , wbile there has been a strong fcendency for wholesale firms to move to the new warehouse section north of Spring atreet and wesfc of Broadway, the afcreets to the easfc of Broadway were comparatively unaffected—just because of the labyrinth which those sfcreets made. In time tbere will be plenty of businesa to occupy solid blocks of warehouses from fche Bowery west to the North River, ard the sfcreet system fco the east of Eroadway ought to be put in such a condition that busiuess will be >ttracted to fche locality instead of being repejled from it. The Elmstreet widening and extension raay not be all that wĩll be needed fully to open up tbe districtin question, but it is the prerequísifce and the necessary beginning of all thut may follow. The location of fche Easfc Side rapid transifc eysfcem on the new street would of course coDtribute largely to inaking it a desirable businese thoroughfare. Even if the Blm etreet district was opened up at the present fcime the streeta to the west of Broadway would temporarily be more popular, becauee of their neamess to the Sixth and Ninth Avehue Evevated roads. The new Elm etreet wíll need for its proper development a rapid transifc route of ifce own, and if ifc can ever get such an improvemenfc, while it ie never likely to equal Broadway in import* ance, ifc wiU cerfcainly become only second to that thoroughfare as a convenient sfcreet for fche locafcion of large andj'expensive buildings. ----------« IT i8 dîfficult for an impartial observer to quite appreciate all fche fuss both parties are making over tbe Peck report, The precious doeument is supposed to have some magical bearing upon the Taríff dispute, and, in fcbe political stuff in the newspa- pers (apparently, written largely for fools) it is twisted this way and fchat, magnified as gospel and denounced as a treacberoua fabrication, all as though ita figurea aettled fche dispute between Free Trade and Protection. No one for a moment aupposes that Peck's report has been scientífically compiled, At best, it is a sort of rough guess which complete statistics might or might not subatanfciate. Theanthordoesnot claimanyhigber character for his work. It îs of no use to scienCe, for science does not use rough and ready guessing as an instrument of knowledge. Neither ÍB ifc of much importance fco the public, except politically; and even politically, it is of no use to any one who fchinks; for, suppoa- ing wagea have advanced as the report shows, and iu many industries no doubt they have, what of itî The Tariff, even by its fríends, ia not put forward as the oTiĩy cause for high wages. As other causee producin:' fche same result tbere are the efficiency of the workmeu, natural advan- tagee, improvemenfcs ín machinery, combination among laborera, etc; and one of the firefc queefciong which an intelUgent peraon would put fco a partisan using fcbe report for political ends is; Which of the several causes which might be operating to advance wages has produoed tbe advance shown by Peck's fig- ures? The imporfcant fact which every Free Trader who declarea that wages have decreased under ourhighTariff hasfcodemonatrate in order to make bis aasertion relevant and of value ie that fche Tarifi' and nothmg but the Tariff is direcfciy responsible for the decrease. Likewise the onus is on the Protectionisfc to ahow fchat fche Tariff and nothing but the Tariff is the cause of hígh wages in this counfcry. Neither side atfcempts any demonsîration of the kind; and without such demonatration all talk about higher wages here than in Europe, or aboufc increases and decreases in wages, is meaningless. The wages given to domesfcic " Help" in this country are many times greater than similar wagea in Europe. Yet " Help" is nofc exactly a protected article. The same is fcrue of fche wages of bookkeepers, car-drivers, streefc-laburers, which shows that wages can be higher in one country than in another withoufc the direct aid of a tariff. Since the recent strikes in the BuÍIding Trades in thîs city, a great many workmen have resumed employmenfc at much lower wages than tbey received hefore tbe etrikes, clearly sbowing that wages can fall wifchout the intervenfcion of either Protection or Free Trade. In other industries wages have advanced, due fco the force of com- bination and trade conditions favorable to the employe. Wages are higher in Protection Ameríca than in Free Trade England. They are higher in Free Trade England than in ProtcctionÍBt Germany. Thus we see, fco use facts of this sort, something more i8 needed fchan a table of figures. That "sometbing" it is hard to get at, for it is'hidden in a maes of complicated facts. AIl that politiciana and partisans give us is what appears on the surface ; for toe rest they truat to the unintelligence of the people and the prejudice of party. ----------« THERE is something repiignant to the spirit of fair play in kicking even a cm: beyond whafc he deservea. Some of th» newspapere and certain individuals are carrying their denunciation of Dr, Jenkins altogetber too far. That the doctor is the best man for the place he fills is, of course, not to be expected, forheis^a creatíon of "politics," and "politics" we know is not the proper system for fîlling public offices with fit persons. But the doctor is not respon- sible either for himaelf or for the politícs that placed him where he is. He is in the poaition he occupies because indirecfcly the people