January '23,1886 The Record and Guide. 9B this remarkable organization of working people should dislike THE RECORD AND GUIDE, bankers, but what can the objection be to lawyers ? The latter are Published every Saturday. willing enough to advocate any interest in return for fees or politi­ 1Q1 Broadwav, 1ST- "5T- cal preferment. Perhaps the Knights think the lawyers have all they ought to get in the astonishing monopoly they enjoy of filling Onr Telephone Call Is ... JOHN 370. nearly all legislative and executive positions in the country. The objection to liquor dealers is, however, a very good symptom. It is TERMS: to the great discredit of our voting population, mainly working ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. people, that they have returned so many liquor dealers to muni­ Communications should be addressed to cipal and legislative positions. There could be no reasonable objec­ C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. tion to a popular saloon keeper being occasionally chosen to office; but it is disheartening to a believer in universal suffrage when, J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. year after year, fully one-third of our Aldermen and city Assembly­ men are chosen from the ranks of the most disreputable rum- VOL. XXXVII. JANUARY 23, 1886. No. 932 sellers in the city. The Knights of Labor would do a public service if they create a feeling among the working classes that retail The business situation looks better at the close than it did at the peddlers of liquor are not the best persons to become legislators for beginning of this week. The reduction of the charge for money the State or city. from four to three per cent, by the Bank of England insures easy • rates on both sides of the Atlantic, postpones indefinitely gold J The City and the Legislature. exports from America, and will probably lead to a renewal of spec­ The nine bills drafted by the Gibbs' Senatorial Committee, in­ ulation in American bonds and stocks by foreign capitalists. The tended to secure better government for New York city, will doubt­ domestic exchanges show business to "be more active than at this less form the basis for some action or attempted action on the part time last year. There will be no stoppage of the coinage of the of the Legislature now in session. It looks as if something might silver dollar, and hence there will be no break of prices from this cause. There will be some disappointed in the railroad returns be accomplished this winter. All accounts agree that the personnel for January, but before a month is over it will be found that all the of the Senate and Assembly is much superior to any that has roads are doing a profitable business, which was not the case last assembled in Albany for many years past. Thejcommittees of the year. The real estate outlook continues excellent. two Houses are well organized to give us some useful legislation, « while the public utterances of Governor Hill would seem to indi­ cate that he would like to pose as a reformer of municipal charters. The Field civil code will soon be up before the Legislature for The drift of all legislation affecting municipalities for the past ten adoption. The lawyers will fight it bitterly, as they have in all years has been in the direction of adding to executive authority ages opposed reformed codes, from that of Justinian to the code and responsibility. Boards and commissions are just now in Napoleon. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and when a deserved disfavor. They have been found wasteful and irresponsi­ professional man has spent the best part of his life in learning one ble. It is curious to note that this willingness to add to the power form of legal procedure it is not unnatural that he should object to of mayors and heads of departments at the expense of city mastering the details of a new code. But these codes are for the councils, boards of aldermen and commissions shows itself in benefit of the general public, not for the lawyers; and while the all parts of the country, west as well as east. Brooklyn led in test­ professionals may delay their adoption the interests of the commu­ ing the experiment of great executive power lodged in the nity are. apt in the end to prevail. Say what the lawyers will, a Mayor, and Mr. Seth Low acquitted himself so well that all the reform is imperatively needed. There is too much delay and leading municipalities throughout the country have shown a dispo­ expense attending the present machinery of our courts. Justice is sition to imitate the example of our sister city. The Massachusetts practically denied, and the public patience has been tested by the Legislature has enacted laws affecting cities obviously based upon dilatoriness of our courts and the monstrous expense involved in the Brooklyn experiment, and now we have full reports of the going to law. It is the lawyers who make, expound and execute results of such legislation in the recent history of Boston. In • our laws, and hence the community hold them accountable for the times gone by that city was ruled by its city council; all the de­ miscarriage of justice. The determined opposition to all legal partments for sixty years were under the control of the municipal reform shown by the profession is not calculated to raise it in the board and the final result was anything but satisfactory. Being estimation of the general public. practically irresponsible the manipulators of the various depart­ ments cared little for economy or efficiency. But now all this is The New York Stock Exchange ha3 a chance to do something changed. An article in Bradstreets thus sums up the character of worthy of its great future. It has the refusal of all the ground on the present government of Boston. New,Wall and Broad streets, north of its present site, and it should At every official desk, from the Mayor down, are vested the executive take advantage of the opportunity to secure ground for what might powers formerly enjoyed by the board of aldermen or the city council, be the finest Exchange building in the world. Five million dollars to be brought into action through the several heads of departments, under will buy the ground and erect a splendid structure, and that amount the Mayor's general supervision and control. The chiefs of departments ought not to be a difficult task for the Stock Exchange of New make all contracts for labor, material, public works and the maintenance York to raise. It ought also to make some offer to the members of of public institutions; and the city council' as a whole, as well as by its the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange to occupy a part respective branches, or its members individually or as committees, is utterly of their new building, if not to become associate members. The forbidden to take part directly or indirectly in the administrative business present front on Wall street is discreditable to the Exchange. It just indicated. Contracts involving $2,000 or more must be approved by would pay the owners of property in the neighborhood to contri­ the Mayor before taking effect; and in order to emphasize the unity of the bute something towards the erection of a splendid addition to the executive branch in its single head the chiefs of departments must meet with the Mayor once a month or of tener for consultation, advice and the impart­ Exchange that would cover the ground on Broad, Wall and New ing of information. The annual estimates of the heads of departments streets, north of the present site. relative to the amount of money needed are to be submitted to the city council through the Mayor, with his recommendations. The Mayor is Engineer Gillespie, of the United States] Navy, is authority for further given authority to veto separate items of bills involving the appro­ the statement that the Gedney and other channels leading to our priation or expenditure of money or the raising of a tax. The Mayor harbor have not shoaled appreciably during the last five years, now in fact as well as in name the supreme executive magistrate. hence the talk about the garbage and manure dumpers injuring While differing in many respects from the Brooklyn charter it the channels is unfounded. What has happened is the greater size will be noticed that the main point kept in mind is the authority and heavier draft of the steamships which come to New York from and responsibility of the Mayor. The proposed Gibbs' enactments foreign ports. First-class steamers now demand three feet more have the same object in view—an executive with uuthority and of water than did the vessels in use ten years ago. It is of the heads of departments responsible to him; commissions and boards, utmost importance to the commerce of this port that one or more as far as possible, to be dispensed with. In other words, the public of the channels in the lower bay should have at least thirty feet of business to be assimilated to the best methods of conducting private water at low tide. To do this will cost a great deal of government business. money, and it behooves the New York press and our representatives While favoring; this change from irresponsible boards to responsi­ in Congress not to antagonize plans of improvement for benefiting ble executives we do not believe that, even if it is accomplished, other parts of the country.