Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 50, no. 1275: August 20, 1892

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AugUstSO, 1803 Record and GuÍde. 336 OeV&TEO TÛ P^ EsTME , euiLOlf/c ííR,CrílTECTiJ(^E .HoUSnfOlJ) IlEBOff^TiDd. Btf5i[/E5SAlÚ)THEMESŨfGEíJEIVili.HTtI\ESÎ E5TABUSHED-S^W\MVCH21-^ 1859- FRICE, FER TEAR IN IDmCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturda'y, TBLBPHONB - . - - CORTLANDT 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 1. LINDSEY, Busîness Manager. "Entered at the Fost-offlce oí New York, N. Y., as second-class moíier." VOL. L. AUGUST 20, 1892. No. 1,275 THE foreign markets are almost devoid of interest at the present time. The fluctuatious in prices are small and unimportant, and of news there is none. In Germany the good Jiarvest reports from all parts of the country have exercised a cheeriug influence. It Í8 estimated that graiu imports may be reducedabout $75,000,000 this year, Germany being able to furnish that amount herself. Neverthpless, a serious decline bas recently talíen place in Imperial and Pruasian luans, and to explain this it has been pointed out that the PrusBÍan Budget will probably show a deficit of $10,000,600. Another explanation is that a large amount of the last three per ceut loan is still afloat in the market, and besides, there is an idea that theautumu may bring higher mocey rates and that some people are already preparing for that contingency. At present, however, the atockg of specie held by the English,FreDch and German bauks are abnormallj large. It is noticeable tbat the agitation among ludian offîcials who wĩsh to put that country on a goid basia is growîng louder iũ spite of the fact that auch a atep would be almost a finan- cial impossibility. In Austria stock exchange prices are somewhat stronger owing to the proluulgation of the new currency laws, aud trade alaoappears to berather more íictive thau it has beeu, For the tirst part of this year the Austro-Hungarian railways show a considerable ĩucrease in the conveyaDce o£ passengers and freight, but a decrease iu gross income owing to a reduciion in the rates, What the augmentation in business on the Hungarian State rail- ways is amounting to may be judged from the fact that the gov- emment proposesto purohase 100 uew engines, 600 passenger cars and 8,000 freightcars. AT tbe beginniug o£ the Homestead strike we said that in all probabiiity l'or some time to come violence of a more pro- nouncedkind thanordinary would mark the diíficulties between Labor and Capital. The switcbmen's strike, foUowing right onthe heels of the trouble in Pittsburgh, bears out this opiniou, attended as the trouble has been by wantou and exasperating destruction o£ property. The perfunctory expressîon of disapproval wiih theae outrages have drawn from trades-union ofiÊcials when the occasion required it, does not £ree Labor either from the disgrace of these barbaric proceedings nor from the suspicion that at heart it is par- ticips crimi'íiĩs, and " regrets," etc, are little more than a lip tribute to decency and civilization, The riotera evidently are quite capable of eatimating what the denunciations o£ the leaders are worth and how mucb real backing they have for their deeds in the rauk and file o£ their comrades. If Labor ia earnest in digapproving of violence committed in its name, let it see that the perpetrators of the outrages are handed over to the Law and punished. That fine iustinct o£ sel£-preservation that aids the unions iu '• spotting" rats afld scabs wiU surely make tbe detectíon of these enemies of the real cause of Labor an easy matter. HARASSING ae ordinary trade atrikes may be to the mercantile interests of the country, tbey occasion nothing like the widespread, personal inconvenience and suffering that invariably accompanies strikes on the railways. The principlea involved in the latter struggles are no doubt the samo as iu the former, and it may be said that the right to strike is no strouger in the one case than in the other. This, however, cannot be conceded, for the great trausporlation lines have come to be ao vital a part of the daily lives of, we may say, everybody, that, in the case o£ a strike, the iutereat of thĩs "thirdparty" is really the greateat interest of any, and cannot be put on one side while .tbe otber two parlies aetlle their grievances oue with another. Public policy demands that steps be immediately taken to prohibit railroad slrikes, or at any rate puE a stop to the sudden cessatiou of work on tbe part of employes, Buch as we have wituessed this week—the greater part of which, it should be uoticed, was due to " sympathy," and uot to any real immediate grievauce o£ the strîkers. Sooner or later, pro- hihitive measures will have to be taken, aud the sooner the matter is taken up for consideration the better for all concerned, as the likelihood of temperate action will then be stronger. Each strike, and we may be sure we have not yet got to tbe last of them, will strain the public temper more and more, uutil patience wili be all gone, and hasty intemperate measures, iu a matter which requirea a nice balanceand adjusting of interests, will beresortedto. " T ABOR " aiid labor questiona, involving, as they do, such diffi- J-J cult problems, baveunfortunately got mixedup with "poU- tics" and political questions in which there ia ao little sanity, and where clear, high thinkíng has so small a chance of a hearing and 3till less of any influence upon actiou. It is consequently hopeleas to expect that auy steps that should be taken in relation to these rail- roadstrikes will be taken. We must have our disease, it seems, aud then be cauterized and physîced and get over it as best we may. Labor just now is on the " rampage." Ita spirit is revolu- tionary, if not ausrchistic, and the revolutionary spirit has always run to extremes. Nevertheless, much that it is struggliug for is just, and in time will surely be attai.ned. The difficulty at preseut ís that Laboris so very much behind the positĩon it is claimiug for itself. It is moved so much by the spirit of demagogic swagger; it needs so much a somewhat sweeter temper than it possesses, and a larger intelligence. We caunot naturaliy touch anything higher than we can reaeh, and Labor cannot get the real possession of anything it cannot naturally touch, Revolutionists have tried for tbe contrary time and time again, aiways with thc same result. They have obtained nothing hy force but what they were entitled to by theii own intelligence and morality, We cannot bury our own deficĩencies by overthrowing our enemies. Many of Labor's socîa! aud physicaldeficiencies aremerely the uatural accompani- ment of Labor's motal and inteJlectual deficiencies. The school- master {of a aort) could do more for Labor than the Walking Dele- gate wiU ever be able to. SocialÍBm, Democracy and Municipal Goveriimeiit. SOME time ago a reporter of this journal interviewed a prominent city officíal on the expediency of permitting the muuicipality to own the gaa maius, eJectrÍc light conduits, aud other properties of the kind that are laid under or over city streets. The official in questiou had evidently not giveu very miich thought to the matter; but, apparently, he did not believe that any such conaideration was necessary in order adequately to pass ou the q'testion. He stated unhesĩtatingly that the assumption by the municipality of auy such functions would be *' uudemocratîc," Doubtlesa, one reason why municipalities have not been assuming these functions more rapidly is that similar impressíon exists elsewhere. Our models in in this kînd o£ reform are German cities like Berliu, and Englishor Scotch cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. People who advocate the^exteusion of municipal management are obliged frequently to refer to these models, which doubtless gives to the reform an odious flavor of effete despotism. In the aame way the reform has suffered through the advocacy of such a witless set aa the Eostonían Nationalists, as well as by the name which it has received as a movement towards "muuĩcipal socialism." lu this way it is vaguely ideutified with the thorough-going socialism of Mr. Bel- lamy; and respectable citizens who acceptthecurreut catch words are instlnctively prejudiced against it. In much tbe same fashion advocates of laissez-faire create a prejudice against all moderate forms of State iuterveutiou by denouocing them as socialistic, althougb the supportera of this governmeutal înterference dislike as profouudly as do they themselves the philosopby and revolu- tionary metbods o£ Marxian socîalism, It is time that the word socialism should be confiued to the restricted meauing which alone properly belongs to it, and that a coufused prejudice agaiuat a word should cease to be invoked against reformers who abbor nearly everything which the word represents. It ia time, also, that the word " undemocratic " shouid not be flouriahed in the face of any and every American reformer. Wbat this prejudice against the word " aocialiam " amounts to may be gathered from the following rather curious iUustration: Some yeai's ago ru American economist. who bas since made some reputation by bis articles on foreign municipalities inapopular magazine, was at work in Glasgow studyiog its municipal institu- tions, That city, as we have írequently pointed out, not ouly began earlier but has gone farther in its municipal management of nat- ural monopolies than any other European city. It has its own water works and gas works; it owns and rents tbe local tramways; it has built a great mauy uew model tenements and municipal lodg- ing-bouses; in sliorE it performa many functions which in our own couutry are in the hands of private corporationa or individuals. In wrĩting an account of these facts Dr. Shaw described G'asgow as being iu the front rank of cities that were making great strides in the direction o£ muni- cipal socialiem. His account of tbe matter attracted wideapread atteution, No eet of men were, however, more surprÍBed and