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September 14, 1895
Kecord and uuide.
331
a 9il\ I flea.
De^-jeD 10 Re^l Estate. SuiLDif/c 75;ppifrTEeTURE>{ousEi(oLDDEa(Hfiii»,
Si/SDfess Alto Themes ofGeSer^ IrrtER^I,
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"Entered at the Post-office at Neiv Torh. N. S., as second-class matter."
Vol. LVI.
SEI'TESIBER 1-1, 1895.
No. l,i:{.">
Ati time ptoyTcsses it becomes more jiuil nuire. <;leitr liow
siibstautial has been the improvumciit in the Unaucial
coudition of the woiUl <'.oiimieuced this year. AVhcu the tirst
iiKlicatiou of: better IIdics became visible there was a general
feeling of distru.st, even about the mo.st obvious facts. Every
oue was in ii pessimistic mood and much readier to ^ive the
utmost credence to dark anticipation.^ than to have a slight
belief iu the most conservative prognostications of better times.
Tbe world ia uever very quick iu generalizing:. Facts have to
accuuinlate aud form a large body of evidence before they are
universally recognized. So, perhaps it is not amaziufi' that it is
ouly lately that the pulilic niiud everywhere bas become satis¬
fied tbat we have in all probability entered upon a new era of
prosperity and that there is uo longer any doubt tliat com¬
mercial oouditions are, speak iug geuerally, in a thoroughly sound
condition, and that there is no reason to anticipate a serious
backward m'^vemcnt by aud by. Indeed, there are uo grounds
for fear tbat the visible improyeuient is not permanent. Signs
are rapidly accumulating now that we ;ire entering a period of
activity and higher prices. The upward tendency iu prices is
receiving a good deal of attention in London, and rigbtfuliy is
regarded as ouo of the most satisfactory indications that better
times are substantial. The Economist'^ index number shows
that the movement iu prices of commodities since the iirst of
the year has been as follows: Januaiy 1st, ld'23; April 1st,
1921; Juue 1st, 194i; Jtdy 1st, 193^1; August Ist^ 1928; Sep¬
tember 1st, 1967, Tbe bankruptcy record, too, iu ail the great
comraercial centres is also a substantial proof of the improve¬
ment in trade. The unemployed everywhere, particu¬
larly iu the skilled trades, are few. Then, too,
it IS seen that the severe depression whicb culmi¬
nated in 1893 undoubtedly cleared the field of a great
deal of weak timber. Money remains abundant and cheap
everywhere, bnt those who hokl it are eviucing au ajnount of
caution which promises secnrity. Indeed the main trouble at
piesent is to tind uew and safe outlets for the enormous stored
up capital now existing iu the chief commercial centres. No
matter where oue looks at preseut it is impossible to discover
any large tield likely to attract it. Iu Europe cvGvy fieid is well
developed. In this country the whole industrial machinery is
considerably iu advance of actual requirements, and the same
is true, but to a still greater exteut, of Australia and South
America. There has been agood deal of talk in the newspapers
about the •'opeuiug up" of China as a couseqiience of the late
war, but it is obvious that the introduction of Western civiliza¬
tion into the Celestial Empire will be a very .slow process.
Uuder these conditions it is apparcut that souud as the situation
is commercial progress must necessarily be slow—better times
Avill Coutinue to creep on to us as they have been doiug iu the
past few mouths.
THE criticism which is beiug leveled at the Department of
Public Works for not providing a supply of water at a
pressiu'C sulficient to reach the topmost stories of our highest
ofiice bniidings seems to ns quite uuwarrauted. It comes, of
course, trom the owners of tall ofiice buildings aud their tenauts,
although the latter probably care very little who i)rovides the
water supply, the city or the owner of tbe building they inhabit,
so long as they are supplied continuously and abundantly.
It may he pointed out that a sky-scraper is, after
all, a necessity; that iu building it the owuer meets
a public requiremuiit, and that he is just as mnch
entitled to receive from the city a supply of water on his
twentieth ur tweufcy-fifth story as any other cilizen has in the
basemeut of a residence. If there was nothing to interfere
with this simple view of the matter, the. owner of tiie tall
bnilding would have made out his case. It happens, however,
that the question is complicated by the existence iu this city
by a vast number of buildings under six or seven stories which
M'ere erected long before the sky-scrapei' was thought of. The
])lumbiug of these buildiugs is uot constructed to meet anything
like the pressure that it would have to stand were the city to
put a. pressure on the mains sufficieut to carry water even fco
the top of the tenth story uf buildings. At the lower part of the
eity to day tlie pressure varies from 15 lbs.to 20 lbs., aud wore
it increased to:").'! lbs. or 10 lbs. water would asceud only to
perhaps an elevation of 75 feet at Wal! street. This pressure
would be <lestriietive to the plumbing in a great uumber of
buildings, and auy greater pressure would work havoc among
even the uewest plnmbing in residences and in the ordinary
apartment lionse and hotel. For the present, at any rate, the
city can do uo more thau furnish au abundant supply of water,
leaviug it to the owners of the tall buildings to see that it is
properly distributed to their tenauts.
WE have another example of the etftcieucy of international
sport in promoting international "good feeling" in the
yachting fiasco which has .just tetmiuafced. It has quite outdone
the Coruell muddle as a cause of hysteria and bad feeling.
Millions of people on both sides of the Atlautic who don't know
one eud of a boat from Ihe other are calling each other hard
names aUuit a series of incidents of which they have, of course,
uo personal kuowledge and, indeed, no knowledge of any kind
sufticient tu enable them to form a .iudgmenl. uf auy value.
At this wnting the Diobabitities are that henceforth
the .'\.merica's Cup will be merely an historic jjiece of
silver, Tt is just as well that it shotild be so. These races have
no poiritive practical value. They have begotten a great deal of
brag on one side and much of ill-concealed spleen on
the other, manifested amid a great deal of high-flown talk
about " sportsmen," "gentlemen" and the like. The race as a
test of skill has become a secoudarv matter. The chief thing is
to hold or to wiu the cup. The perforniauce necessary for this has
degenerated into a species of liaruum's Circus. All the circus
accompaniments are present—-tbe big head lines iu the news¬
papers, the talk, subterfuges, supinessious, and the big tooting,
yelling crowd of spectators out to get their dollar's worth of
fun, a crowd whose fairness is exemplified in a certain impar¬
tiality iu the distribution of noise aud which of the boats, they
interfere with. We hope uothing will arise to prevent this last
race being the final international contest of the kind. National
â– feeling, wherever it is manifested, is too brntal aud unrea¬
sonable aseutiment to be freely dealt with. It is better to let
the sentiment lie dormant until the world is really civilized.
National sentiment is now almost entirely an aftair of large
armaments, big guns, jingoism, newspaper bluster aud a desire
to " lick the other fellow," whether he be big or little, light or
wrong.
IT probably is uot auy worse thau the political stufl" aud the
long drawu out details of murders, suicides and divorces,
but it strikes us that even the most omnivorous devourer of
newspaper reading must begiu to feel surfeited with the columns
and pages of gush abont the boat rate which have been put
before him. day after day, for the last few weelis. To what a
strange diseased condition our newspapers have come! Is it
possible that they really supply in proper proportions what the
geueral reader demands ? A column or a columu and a-half about
a boat race, written by one who really knows the significance of
what he sees would be well enough, but the pages of inconsequen¬
tial drivel about how the sun shone aud the sea sparkled and how
the flotilla of steamers came together, and who the crowds abroad
were, aud what they thought aud said, audhow the races appeared
from almost each separate steamer in the excursion fleet, who is
it that reads that stutt', repeated not ouly onee, but thrice—on
the occiision of each race. Newspaper reading undoubtedly is
becoming a disease. It is producing a mental weakness which
is obvious enough. The masses are losing interest in serious
literature. It is becoming impossible to print iu a newspaper
anything worth readiug. The mau who cannot give attention
to a half a column article seriously |written on a serious
subject will peruse without a yawn ten columns of slush on a
matter like the boat races. It was expected that universal
educatiou would i)ut the works of the great masters of literature
into every body's hands. Due almost entirely to the newspapers
it is probable that the masses are further away to-day from
sound, wholesome reading thau the multitude ever was.
IT happens sonictimes that a man has an idea, and at others
that the idea has the man. In the latter case it assumes the
form of au iiiipenctrable fog which allows nothing to be aeen
but itself. Some of the people who arc so environed are those
advocates of licensing architects who are using the circum¬
stances of the collapse of tho Ireland bnilding as an argument
in favor of the view by which they are enveloped, "A one per
ceut architect!" they exclaim with a sneer, as if that were the only
commentary necessaiy on this calamity, aud a moi-uing paper