Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 42, no. 1075: October 20, 1888

Text version:

ecord and Guide. 1247 .^^- e^ y' \_. ^ ESTABLISHED Dev&teD to I^L Eswte . BuiLDif/o A^rfitectji^e .Household DEcoiiAnofJ, Bi/sit^ESs a(Jd Themes of General ljJT£n,EsT ESTABUSHED W W^ARfH 2^^ IS68. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Fuhlished every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - - ■ JOHN 370. Conmnmicatioiis should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. 7. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLII. OCTOBER 20. 1888. No. 1,075 In response to repeated requests "Sir Oracle" has collected and rewritten his vaticinations on matters of general interest, and they will be published in booJc form next week by G. P. Putnam's Sons The price of this work will be one dollar, and it will contain aboiit one hundred and eighty pages. Should any of our readers like to keep in some permanent form the best of "Sir Oracle's^' outgivings on what the future has in store for us they would do well to send their orders in at once to The Record and Guide office. In this work " Sir Oracle" under¬ takes to deal with a larger and wider range of topics than woidd be suitable in the pages of a business journal. He touches, for instance, on the future of religion, marriage, and the Wee. "Sir Oracle" needs no indorsement in these columns, and it cannot but be that many of our readers would like to have a permanent reminder of the " Prophetic Department" which has been so notable a feature in this journal for so many years past. Nearly all the matter in this work has been written expressly for it, though the conversations pub¬ lished in The Record and Guide furnished hints which have been expanded and elaborated. --------•--------- Tlie adjournment of Congress tbis week will help general busi¬ ness, and ought to improve tbe value of securities on the Stock Ex¬ change. It is not creditable to our National Legislature that, when it commences its sessions the business of tbe country suffers, while, when it adjourns there is a sense of relief in the business commu¬ nity. The Congress that adjourns to-day has failed signally in one vital matter—when it met it had to deal with a daugerous surplus in the Treasm-y. If it had at once set to work to spend this unneces¬ sary accumulation, productively, business would have revived early this year; then it could have addressed itself to the task of revising our tariff and tax laws so as to make an equilibrium be¬ tween the receipts and the expenditures of the government. What we mean is this. Congress during the first two months of its session should have made liberal appropriations for internal improvements for the navy, guns, sea-coast defences and for rehabilitating our cimmerce. Two hundred million thus appropriated, to be spent within three years, would have provided for tbe surplus and would have stimulated every industry in the country. A debate on tbe tariff and tax laws would then be in order, and while it was going on tbe bu iness interests of the country would not have suffered, for there would liave been no danger of locking up money in the National Treasury, But the administration selected a very different policy. President Cleveland thought he eaw^ a chance to force Congress to reduce the tariff so as to get rid of the Treasury surplus. Hence tbe fierce debates prolonged up to the very adjournment, with the sur¬ plus as great and dangerous as [ever. Although the ordinary appropriations are liberal, they will not avail to distribute the money to people in the channels of trade, and Congress, when it reassembles in December, will have tliis problem still to solve. In the meantime we have been getting rid of some of the money by passing swindling pension bills and by making a present of it to the rich individuals and corporations which hold our national obliga¬ tions. This squandering of our national funds on wasteful pensions and rich people has tbe approval of both parties. General Harrison and Mr. Blaine favor this misuse of the national funds as does the Democratic administration, which inaugurated the policy. When Congress reassembles in December doubtless some scheme will be devised to get rid of the accumniations in the Treasury. What shape the plan wUl take will be determined by the result of the Presdential election, --------•--------- With nearly all the factors in favor of arising market, securities have been depressed and slow of sale in Wall street dm-ing the past week. The further revelations about the great corporations which have been in trouble lately are not of a character to enthuse inves¬ tors. Jay Gould told a great many lies about Missouri Pacific a year ago when he was personally selling his own stock, but his " fibs " were very innocent ones compared with what the pious Bos¬ ton managers of the Atchison & Santa Fe road have been telling their dupes for two years past. The condition of that road is very bad indeed. Biirhngton & St. Paul is uo better, Tiien the report of the Baltimore & Ohio corporation is anything but reassuring. Here is a road, supposed to be tbe most solvent of any in the coun¬ try, with $48,000,000 assets, yet it has passed three dividends, and will not be able to resume payment to its stockholders for probably thi'ee years to come. Still the improvement in business and that great corn crop must in time give us higher prices; but it is scarcely reasonable to expect a revival of speculation until the Presidential election is over. ---------*--------, Mayor Hewitt's letter of acceptance is a very able document and undoubtedly be will get a large vote from those who tliink it unwise to elect a Mayor who will distribute all the patronage among one set of politicians. The appointments during the next two years are more important than those during any previous Mayor's term since the beginning of the history of the city. This is why Tam¬ many lias made a dead set for capturing our city government next election. It will give that organizp^tion, if successful, more power and pati'onage than even Tweed and Sweeny controlled. But this determination to make use of the spoils makes Tammany a very potent force iu the coming election. Mayor Hewitt £ays he will api^oiut, if elected. Republicans as well as Democrats, that he will regard only fitness; and it is evident further that active pai-tisansliip would be a disqualification. This position, of course, is not satisfactory to the vast army of office-seekers who control the local poUtical machines of the city. The contest will be between Grant and Hewitt. The Republican candidate would make an excellent Mayor, but he has no chance with Mr. Hewitt in the field. Coogan, the labor candidate, is well spoken of by the newspapers because he is a liberal advertiser in their columns, but he will not poll a large vote. He does not represent the laboring people, and he is running because he is willing to pay tbe expenses of the canvass. In no sense is he a creditable candidate, but his being in the field will help Hewitt by keeping some labor votes away frora Grant. ---------•--------- • The coming contest is a very important one for the Mugwumps. If, with the help of the laboring people, tbey cannot defeat David Bennett Hill for Governor, tbat will end them in any future polit¬ ical contef.t. They made a capital mistake in committing them¬ selves to Cleveland before knowing who the Republicans would nominate. Had they made a fight for some candidate like Judge Gresham and been defeated, they could then have declared for Cleveland in a way that would have attracted the attention of the whole country. Their antagonism to Hill is apparently good polit¬ ical tactics ; but if he should succeed and poll more votes than Cleveland, they wili be utterly discredited. Papers like the daily Times, Evening Post and Harper's Weekly ought to be able to wield some influence over the independent voters. The same papers are advocating the election of Mayor Hewitt. If he also should be beaten, the greater the blow to the Mugwumps. The situation in France is very interesting from a political point of view. The Floquet ministry favors a revision of the Constitution and proposes to abandon the English system of ministerial responsi¬ bility and adopt the American idea of the Cabinet in which the Secretaries are responsible to tbe head of the State and not to the Legislative Chambers. The present Constitution of France was made by monarchists to tide over an interregnum until a king could take his place on the French tlirone. The Repubhc bas been in existence fifteen years, hat the Constitution has not worked well, as ministries have not lasted on an average more tlian ten months at a time. A parliamentary crisis is a chronic condition in France. Hence the desire to bave a Cabinet not directly responsible to a Cliamber and which could defy faction and accidental majorities. This change is desirable and must come some day; but will it be accomplished without a revolution ? This seems doubtful. The French are so theatric and sensational a people that any vital change in their national life is sure to be tbe occasion of a scene calculated to attract tbe attention of the world. The French news from this time forth will bear watching. Tbe Chicago cable-car strike was managed in a very bungling manner by both sides to the quarrel. The employes had real grievances, which the companies ought to have redressed, and which had to be taken into account in the final adjustment of the struggle ; but the really daugerous phase of the strike was the fact that during its continuance Chicago was under mob law, and the civic authorities found it impossible to preserve order. Chicago has a dangerous laboring population. Tens of thousands of men are employed on the mauy railroads that centre there. Then there are the cattle killers, pork packers, grain handlers and a swarm of