The Record and Guide. 245

February 27,1886 The Record and Guide. 245 be in getting angry at a blizzard or an earthquake. Matters have been THE RECORD AND GUIDE, so ordained in this country, that when a great public improvement Published every Saturday. is called for, the privilege of serving the community can only be 1Q1 Broadway, 1ST. Y. secured by bribing legislatures, courts, lawyers and aldermen. Our Telephone Call is JOHN 3 70. New York has been suffering for the want of a Broadway railroad for thirty years. It is an undeniable public benefit; yet, as our TERMS: newspapers know, there was no way of getting the charter except with the machinery employed by Jake Sharp. If the press and the ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. public would unite to put an end to this vicious machinery it Communications should be addressed to would do some good ; but the indigDation should be directed C. W, SWEET, 191 Broadway. against the vicious system even more than against the guilty per J. T. LIKDSEY, Business Manager. sons who take advantage of it. VOL. XXXVII. FEBRUARY 27, 1886. No. 937. The Money Actually Invested. Were it not that newspapers furnish a medium for the propaga We are unable to publish the report of the majority of the Land tion of truth as well as falsehood, and supply an atmosphere, so to Transfer Reform Commission, in advocacy of the lot system, of speak, through which the sun of common sense can sometimes indexing, this week, owing to the failure to get the copy in time penetrate the malarial fogs which they serve to maintain in mid- for to-day's issue of THE RECORD AND GUIDE. Mr. Dwight H. heaven, we should be compelled to doubt the utility of diurnal Olrnstead has one great advantage over his opponents in the printing presses. The most pretentious of our daily newspapers promptness and perseverance which characterises his advocacy of seem to be conducted by an editorial corps of juvenile cadets, with the block system. only an occasional adult or two who can do no more than try to e hold the helm while the youthful and disorderly crew trim the sails It is a pity that we cannot nationalize the Torrens' Laws which to catch the winds aback, or in any manner that will either drive have made the transfer of real estate so cheap and easy in the the craft in the wrong direction or throw her on her beam-ends. British South Pacific colonies. There is no question in those The prevailing cant of the newspapers, echoed in this instance countries as to indexing either by lot or block. The government in legislative chambers and committee rooms, refers to the money keeps an official map in which all properties and their owners are actually invested in any enterprise or work of construction from indicated, and upon payment of a trifling fee the government which incomes are drawn, and the ratio of profits derived in return. guarantees the title when the transfer is made. The same system If a railroad brings in more than 4 per cent, on the money paid to obtains in many of the States of Germany. A subscriber, a native the iron founders, rolling stock manufacturers, track-layers, etc., of Baden, informs us that in that city the municipality guarantees by whom the work was carried to completion, the stock is watered the title upon the payment of a moderate fee. There is no need to and the public is being defrauded. On the same princi hire a lawyer, for there are no searches. This gentleman thinks ple, if a builder succeeds in selling a new dwelling for that the city of New York might realize a large revenue from thisi a trifle more than the amount of the loan that enabled him to source if it would give a similar guarantee to those who bought real undertake the construction, with six per cent, and his living estate. The purchasers would in that case save nine-tenths of the, expenses added, he is a most dishonest man and should be care- money they are forced to expend and the transfer could be made, fully watched in all future attempts at bargain and sale. If a land in a day, whereas it now takes a month. lord charges more thaii enough for rent to pay his taxes and insur . 0 ance dues, and keep his property in repair, he is to be suspected of There is no marked change in the business situation. The trans• being a rapacious gadgrind who wishes to filch from honest poverty actions in real estate continue unusually large ; the building move• and toil the wherewithal to pay for extravagant dinners and. sump- ment shows no signs of abatement, and general business is fairly• tuous apparel. The money actually invested is to be the guage of good. The striking workingmen have no reason to complain, for• all charges and the key of all industrial transactions. in many branches of business the prospects are so good as to> But who ever yet knew an instance where the money actually warrant employers in advancing wages. The stock market may bei invested in production was the true standard for estimating the described as strong, but dull. The Reading* reorganization willL value of any piece of property ? Will two dwellings, each built at certainly go on, as it is now settled that the purchase of the stock: a cost of $50,000, and located, one on Fifth avenue opposite Central from the Vanderbilts was to secure better terms for the junior• Park, and the other on Baxter street, bring precisely the same price securities from the Drexel syndicate. Some gold is still beingj in the market ? It ought not to take a very wise man nor a very old shipped; but there is no likelihood of any large quantity of thei man to see that it is extraneous circumstances that give economic yellow metal leaving our shores, because we have again begun to> values to property, and that cost, except in a very secondary ship cotton and grain. A rise in exchange beyond the gold export- degree, is not even a factor in fixing the standard. The very men, ing point would lead to heavy shipments of American agricultural1 orj boys, who write these sage paragraphs in our daily papers products. The foreign news shows that there is great depression in1 about exorbitant profits on the money actually invested will go business abroad. The United States seems to be the only prosper- forth exhausted or emasculated by their labor in search of a ous country on earth. dinner; and if the condition of their finances will permit the sacrifice to respectability, they will seek a restaurant where they What a muddle this Broadway railroad business is to be sure.• know that the charges will represent a profit of several hundred The.community is so angry over the revelations showing the turpi• per cent, on the food actually eaten. They will go to this place in tude of Jake Sharp and his associates that there .is a demand that preference to the ten-cent restaurant just around the corner, where the charter be annulled, and a resolution to that effect has been1 they could feed quite as heartily with a restaurateur who would be introduced into the State Legislature which, if pressed to a vote,> satisfied with less than one-half the profits. It is respectability for would certainly go through without even a protest from the press.• which these young gentlemen are willing to pay. The cost of the But the case against Sharp & Co. has not been made up as yet. The3 food is only a subject of secondary consideration, or, as Toots says, investigation is still going on; there has been no action of the3 "a matter of no consequence." Grand Jury—no court has given a verdict in the case. No one3 Let us draw a still further illustration from that same fountain doubts the guilt of these people ; but before the Legislature can1 of wisdom from which so large a proportion of the community act surely there should be a warrant from some court. The least drink an intellectual fluid more frequently to be compared to fire- the Legislature should do would be to wait until the end of the3 water than to pure Croton. We will call up the World newspaper. investigation of the Senate Committee, when the evidence wil1l That journal is a champion of the poor and needy ; a bitter foe of be submitted formally. Our perversely unwise newspapers are3 all the Jacob Sharps in the community who insist on doubling and applauding this premature movement to annul the charter, never quadrupling the value of property by seeking fields for investment thinking of the consequences. Apart from the many innocent from whence extraordinary returns may be drawn. Now, it is stock-holders whose property would be imperiled, if not confis'<- barely possible that the present proprietor of the World may have cated, if the Legislature should prove to have the power to annu1l invested, counting money and collaterals together, $150,000 in charters upon ex parte evidence, corporate securities would suffer his new property. Yet, admitting the truth of his claims for a severe depreciation, for the Albany lobby would convert the Leg;- circulation and custom of all kinds, he would not probably to- islature into a huge blackmailing machine. Undoubtedly other day, after two years possession, thank any person who offered to corporations have secured their charters by the same means ass take the paper off his hands for a consideration falling much below were employed by Jake Sharp in getting the Broadway franchises.

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