davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
PROPHETS WITH FLINDERS.

The future historian who may burrow into
the archives of the United States for 1900 will
notice the singular fact that on the Goth Of
March both the great parties were beaten ac-
cording TO decara tions made by some of their
leaders. There were Republicans who were dis
pleased because of things done or not done
about Puerto Rico, and who We're solemny as
suring hearers that if the election were held
that day Bryan would be chosen. The same
day there were leading Democrats whose dis
gust al the platform adopted and the speech
made by Mr. Bryan at the Nebraska Democratic
Convention led them TO declare that he would
be buried under a mountain of hostile iori-
ties, and beaten worse this year than in 1896
Evidently the two sets of prophets cannot both
be infalble. Something has been overlooked by
one or the other, or by both. But when men in
sst upon looking at nearby objects only through
a narrow tube they always fail to see some
things, possibly Of more Importance than the
things they do see. Ii is we'll to put binders on
a cart horse so that he may nothing but the
narrow path ahead, but it is not well to put
blinders the driver.
Infallible estimates of the future are not to
be expected from men whose minds are fixed
exclusively on a single phase of events The
Republicans who assert that Indiana and Min
nesota, and even Illinois, would vote against
the party to-day because OF Puerto Rico can re-
member if they try how dire disaster was pre-
dicted four years ago if the Republicans put
gold plank into their platform. 1t was in about
the same States, too, that idiocy on the part of
voters was then predicted But Indiana gave
$1,000 plurality for the gold plank and McKin-
ley, Minnesota $4,000, and Illinois $4,000. The
things these prophets did not see were evi-
dently much bigger than those they saw.
The people who predicted Democratic victory
through alliance with the Populists had not a
much wider vision In a Presidential year II is
quite the fashion 10 be certain that things dis
liked will bring utter ruin.
4 rather useful exercise of the mind Just now
is to consider what the millions of voters who
supported each party in 1896 will think of the
results after they have spent some months in
discussion and I'm personal reflection on the sub
ject When the campaign gets warm the mill
ions Of Republican voters will hear from their
Democratic neighbors much about the "out-
rageous'' and shameful behavior of their
nartE. and they will naturally answer by recit-
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
THE REFOLUTION IN PRICES.

1t is generally supposed that prices are I'M
naturally high. The advance last year was in
deed remarkably large and general, and vet it
did not lift the level of prices to that Of former
prosperous years A few comparisons will help
to make this clear. The consumption of wool
len goods which cost according to the census Of
1880, in that year 81 45 per capita, now costs
81 ~. Cotton goods which then cost So 38 now
cost 81 80, and iron and steel products which
then cost S17 60 now cost So 60. although prices
are at present considered unusually high In
hides, leather and leather products boots and
shoes, articles costing $60 04 in 1880 now cost
So 81. In coal, petroleum, minor metals glass.
silk and india rubber. goods costing in 1880
about S11 ~ now cost only $40 a. These prod
ucts of few of the chief industries cost in
1880 in the aggregate $40 81, but March l the
same quantities Of the same articles cost $50 13.
Including breadstufs, which are about IL per
cent lower than in 1880; meats which are I per
cent lower; dairy and garden products which
are 10 per cent lower and the miscellaneous
food class, which is over 20 per cent lower the
cost of all products represented by 1886 quota
tiOns was ola per cent lower on March than
on January ], 1880.
OF much more general interest is the question
whether the expected reaction after the great
rise last year has begun. There was prolonged
dulness in many lines from January TO March
and the wayering movement which commonly
precedes n decline Prices of raw materials
have generally yielded a little, often because
the demand for finished products at the high
prices asked was found insufficient Yet other
finished products have been advancing which
had not yet been lifted in proportion to the cost
of materials, and the remarka BILE rise in cotton
caused considerable advance in cotton goods
Lumber speculation lifted the quotation for tin
and the market for lumber and building mate-
rials has somewhat advanced as is usual at
this season. Wheat advanced little with ra
ports that supplies were remarkably short. and
corn with the persistent foreign demand so that
breadstuffs averaged nearly per cent higher
than January l. Meats have advanced
nearly per cent, which is not unnatural at this
season, while in dairy and garden products
there has been some decline with the approacb
Of spring. In miscellaneous food there Is only
slight advance.
The change In cotton and woollen goods has
been wholly because of the rlarket for mota
rials. Mainly because OF the rise In cotton. the
goods averaged on March nearly Der cent
higher than on January l. Prices OF woolen
goods were also advanced on the whole about 4
per cent prior to the decline in wool which bos
appeared since the London sales began Tbess
changes more important in general effect
than the decline in hides Of per cent during the
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22

two months, in leather per cent in boots and
shoes less than 1per cent and in silk per cent.
Thus the cost of all articles In the clothing
class in spite of decline In the greater num-
Der, has advanced about per cent In the two
months In the metal class tin only advanced,
and without transactions of Importance but the
rise from 25A TO 33 cents represents greater
change In relative Importance than the small de-
cline which has appeared in pig iron and In iron
and steel products. Thus the change in the
metals class is but tritling advance. Paints
are unchanged, and fertilizers and drugs are
slightly higher. Soft lumber has advanced about
per cent, with slight gains in brick, turpentine
llnseed oil and hemp. The lumber change ac-
counts for most of the rise in the miscellaneous
class, which averages per cent.
Prices of products In the aggregate We're only
~ Of per cent higher on March than on Jan
uary 1. Since the month began the tendency
has been toward lower prices for materials of
manufacture. The changes recorded however
We're mainly beneficial to producers of bread
stufs, cotton and wool. since the advance in
cotton and woolen goods was found not enough
to support the rise In quotations for the ma
terialS
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
Aetp21ork Dailp Gribn1re:
THURSDAY, MARCH %. 1900.
THE NEWS THIS MORNING.

FOREIGN.-It is reported that negotiations to
end the South African proceeding, which
accounts for the lull in hostilities many Free
Staters surrendering to the Basutoland off,
cials and the proclamation of Lord Roberts con-
tinues effective; the Beers opposing Lord
Methuen at Warrenton, on the Vaal River,
retiring toward Pretoria; the Swiss Council has
replied to the Boer republics appeal for media
ton. regretting inability TO grant the request;
Cecil Rhodes sailed from Cape Town for Eng
land - Sir Wilfrid Laurier announced at
Ottawa that the Joint High Commission would
reassemble on date to be given shortly. prob prob
Council, Calcutta, that in spite OF the famine
the gold basis had been attained in India, and
the uncertainty of exchange had become thing
of the past. - A disappointed litgant in
Paris court tried to assassinate Judge on the
bench, firing three snots st him without effect
CONGRESS.-Senate: A resolution of inquiry
as TO mining concessions at Cape Nome was
adopted: the Urgent Deficiency bill was passed;
in executive session efforts TO amend the in
herftance treaty with Great Britain were de-
feated - House: Debate on the Loud Postal
bill continued throughout the session.
DOMEsTIC.-Secretary Hay and Ambassador
Cembon signed a protocol extending for one year
the time set for the ratification OF the Franco
American reciprocity treaty. - Comma nder
seaton Schroeder was appointed Governor Of
GUAM to succeed Captain Leary. - Friends
Of the Puerto Rican Tariff bill express increased
confidence Of its passage by the Senate. -
The alleged assassins of Goebel in Kentucky
claimed to be able to prove alibis, while the
Democrats have found difficulty in showing that
Goebel resigned as Senator before he was sworn
In as Governor. - high tribute President
Mckinley given in speech at the Dewey
dinner in Savannah by Judge Emory Speer
CiTY.-Stocks were strong and active
Arrangements are practically completed, it was
announced, for the amalgamation by the Whit
ney syndicate and allied interests of all the big
air power companies in the country, with a
S200000Oo0 capital H H VreeIand was
elected president pro tenn. of the Third Avenue
road; the Metropolitan people entered into full
control. -= Judge Cowing took the police to
task for going after the small instead of the
big gamblers - Colonel Gruber. at a Repub-
lican meeting in the XXIst Assembly District
made charges against l. E. Quigg.
THE WEATHER-Forecast for to-day Fair.
The temperature yesterday: Highest 40 de-
grees: lowest, 81; average, 331a.
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22

ing what ii has done for the whole body OF
workers whose wages have been largely in
creased; for the business men, whose transac-
tions have more than doubled; for the great in
dustries, whose progress has been such that
diagram of them for the last three years looks
like the profile of the Palisades, and in vlctori-
Gus war. for the honor ana future safety of the
Nation. How large a proportion of them will
have these fruits of their wise action in 1896
recalled TO them every day for five months and
then vote the other way: OF course. there are
crapls so constituted that it is to them intoler-
able 10 agree with sensible men, even with
their sane selves of yesterday. But are they
more numerous than the Democrats who have
learned something from the last four years:
Men who have the prophetic fit on them may
with advantage think of the revolution which
has been wrought in the feelings of American
citizens. 1t used to be little fashionable for
sons of other lands to cOmmiserate the weak
ness of the Republic. 1t used to be doubted
whether the people OF Southern States, in case
of any foreign war. would stand under the
Stars and Stripes. 1t used TO be impossible to
put through Congress in day or two, all par
ties helping bills appropriatng S30,OO0,OO0 for
defence or S2,GOO.0OO for charity, raising
S200,000000 by loan. This Nation has not only
been united as II never before by events of
the last three years. but 1t has reached ma
turity and soberness of thought about National
interests and duties utterly unlike anything In
its previous history. The demagogues who ex-
pect ancient tricks to worl. in the old way may
report the result next winter. The prophets
who ignore all the recent past may discover that
they a whole generation behind the new
born American Nation.
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
4 PROPER VETO

Mayor Van Wyck's veto of the bill permitting
the extension of private piers in the Borough Of
Brooklyn is one which the Legislature may
wisely heed 1t is not for the interest of the city
of NewYork that its land under water should
be given away. The time is coming when the
demand for public ownership of docks will re-
quire the authorities to purchase much private
waterfront property, and it is not right that the
value of the present private holdings should be
increased by gifts of public land which must
ultimately be bought back by the city at great
expense.
There may be some ground for argument that
ownership of upland fronting navigabe water
carries with ii a right to lands under water,
though the practice of New-York for two cen
turies was founded on the contrary theory Per
haps the city cannot condemn for purposes of
future dOckage an unimproved piece Of upland
without paying the value that it would possess
if adjacent lowlands had been granted to the
owner and it had been converted into actual
dock property. Possibly the general prosperity
is promoted by encouraging the building of pri-
vate docks in outlying sections of the city. If
the theory announced excuse for the re-
cent Astoria grant is correct and the private up
land is everything and the public lowland moth
ing a factor in estimating the value of a
riparian right, then possibly it will cost the city
no more TO purchase some years later a COM
pletely developed dock property than to pay in
terest on the present cost Of keeping control Of
unimproved waterfront and paying upland own
ers the present value of the whole riparian right.
But. however that may be In the case of prop.
erty not vet used for commerce, owners Of exist
ing docks can show no natural right or equitable
claim to further concessions of public land under
water which are not needed to enable them TO
use the riparian privileges which they claim as
an appurtenance of their upland. They have
already received grants under water. built docks
and secured access from their lands to the
ocean. That is the full extent of their most ex-
treme claim, claim which, as we saw our old
law did not recognize, for 1t permitted the city
to build out docks shutting off from navigable
water highland owners, in some cases even those
who had built docks on previous riparian grants
The only object of the new grants proposed in
the bin vetoed by the Mayor is to increase the
value of existing private docks There is no
reason why the city State should do this If
the dock owners want that benefit let them pav
the value Of the benefit into the public treasury
The fact that nobody but themselves can use
the land beyond the present pier line is no rea-
son why they should reap revenue from it with
out compensatng the city for the privilege The
history of grants of land under water shows
clearly that they would not do this under the
bill in question. They would simply as a result
OF it have more valuable docks than before and
in the end make the city pay more when II
wanted to buy them out. There is no reason
why the taxpayers should be legisated into
future assessment Of this kind
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
GRAND OPERA IN ENGLISH.
A NEW EXPERIMENT TO BE MADE AT THE
METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

Maurice Grau, of the Maurice Grau Opera Com
pany. and Henry W. Savage of the Castle Square
Opera Company, have perfected definite arrange
ments to give grand opera In English the Metro
poltan Opera House The agreement is for a
of years, and company is now in process
OF incorporation. to be known the Metropolitan
English Opera Company of which Messrs Grau
Frank w. Sanger member of the Board OF
Directors.
The season will begin about October l. and will
continue until December 15. The company will
then make tour of the principal cities returning
to the Metropolitan Easter week for a spring sea-
son. to continue through April and May Six
evening performances will be given, with matinees
on Wednesday and Saturday. two more operas
constituting the weeks repertory.
Negotiations now in progress with those
singers the American and European operate
stage who are best equipped to give opera In Eng
lish in artistic manner The chorus will num-
ber seventy, largely drawn from the Castle Square
ehoruses and the American chorus of the Metro
potan. The orchestra will comprise forty musi-
clans under competent direction, this number
to be increased when necessary.
The prices OF reserved seats will range from o5
cents to 81. with boxes from 81 to $40 The for
nation of the Metropolitan English Opera Com
pany will in way affect the future of the enter
prises directed by Mr.. Grau and Mr. Savage
A meeting OF the Metropolitan Opera and Real
Estate Company was held yesterday, which ap-
proval of the plan expressed. II Is understood
that most OF the stockholders OF this company
will retain their boxes for the opening nights OF
the English opera seasons.
The future OF the American Theatre. where the
Castle Square Opera Company has been housed
hitherto. Is not vet determined 1t Is not likely
however that opera will be given there after this
season The Castle Square establishments will
be continued in other cities exactly they are
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
OLD AGE PENSIONS IN ENGLAND.

There could scarcely have been more inop-
perfume moment for the recurrence of the old
age pension scheme in the English House of
Commons than was chosen the other day. when
a blue book was issued containing the report of
the committee Of competent experts" who have
been considering the financial aspects of the mat
ter. 1t is, as one of the English newspapers nuts
it, las if in mockery OF the Chancellor of the
Exchequer and his vanishing millions" while
the burden OF new war budget Is impeudjDg
Though the experts have limited themselves to
Investigating the probable cost OF old age neu-
slons under various contingencies the implica-
tons contained in their report are so clearly
against the scheme that perhaps the choice of
the moment was more than a mere accident
and was intended to help end consideration of
the matter. For The Government that under-
takes old age pension scheme puts itself
under gigantic and. as the English committee
makes pian constantly increasing burden. II
also enters upon course likely to work eco
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
MUSICAL DOINGS.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra Is this "eeA
paying it's last visit to New-YOrk for this seas'".
Three concerts on the list, and the nrst "
these was given at Carnegie Hall yesterday are.
noon II offered nothing in the way OF noVei"1s'
but II was interesting because or the manner "
which familiar music played and IN 'he e"
cumstance that IL enabled one OF the vioNhis's y
the orchestra Mr.. Timothee Adamowski. 70 snos
himself as a solo performer in the brightest hsH
In which he has yet appeared before the peopie -
New-York. lie played Ialos Symptoms
pagnoI' with splendid dash and spirit. ana hS1'
of IL the climactic number of the afternoon ehs
tainment. As for the accompaniment which NJ.
Gericke and his associates gave him. II was
marvel of sympathy and accuracy. and desersAs
of equal praise with the solo performance -
orchestral numbers were the overture 70
Bartered Bride"-a virtuoso performance Oi 70
highest rauk-Tschaikowsky's Hamlet ana ees
thoven's seventh symphony. Scherzo and nha.e -
the symphony were given with splendid daintinss.
in the first instance and dash In the secona. -
lovers of the old work must have found II dihe--'
to reconcile their feelings and prejudiees with A
Gericke's rapid tempo in the slow movement
AT the opera last night Lucia di Lammeru'oo
and "Cavalleria Rusticana'' were given before al
audience of the stupendous order. The ress .
Two prime donne-Mmes. Sembrich ana Cai'
The former opera was cut off after the mao - -
in order to make time for the latter. Herr feiO
sang the part of Edgardo in IL. and-that WIZ a. a.
The opera given in its entirety for the oens-,
Of charity a fortnight ago. and then. as o.
night. Nine. Semorch sang marveilousiy 4He -.
feature in the "Cavalleria'' last night was -
performance of the role of ALTO by Sisnor o1o
Nine Sembrich will not take part in the cones'.
at the Metropolitan Opera House for the oeneH' y
the hospital ship Maine this evening
The management OF the Opera House yes'ei'~'
issued the following announcement;
Owing TO the numerous cases OF indisspesatiss indispGs.ttiss
among the artists this season. neSessss-s
Changes OF casts as well as changes OF opesaee ara
condition Of affairs quite beyond the contIo1 nnsrs
management-the production or MotaIs - ,,rss 70
THE Magic Flute" cannot be ready N tiiDs IN
give representation OF the work az each TSs
scription performance, despite all EFFORTS ...-s
management hope De able TO produce tne oys ypssc
on Friday evening March 80. and are deslroos, -ns
the subscribers the various perfornanSes sJhoud
present season shall have an opportunity =. nss
thav SO elect-of witnessing the production !. "a
been decided therefore, 10 allow suoserioers ,ss
present season 10 retain their seats durins .snf
supplementary season at discount o, =" pe'
from the regular prices. - ,..,xs. Of
SubsCribers desirous OF availing thenseNess s-sSi ~
this orer will please inform the MaeriSSe an or
Opera Company subscription department. -, Ives
before Tuesday March q. "a the seats anu s ssnels
unsubscribed for will be placed on SAFE S IS' "a
performances on Thursday morning, Mar0" -
New-York tribune., 1900-03-22
THE JOINT HIGH COMMISSION.

The announcement is made, on the reputed
authority of the Prime Minister of the Domin-
ion, that there will soon be reassembling Of
the Anglo American Joint High Commission. 1t
is to be hoped the announcement will be con-
hrmed There seems, far has been pub
fcly revealed, TO be no good reason why it
should not be. Indeed the time now appears to
he oppOrtune for taking up the work Of the
Commission and carrying it to a successful con-
clusion.
The Commission in its former sessions is I'M
deTstood to have come to a virtual agreement
upon most of the matters in dispute between
the United States and Canada. and to have got
within sight of an agreement upon all save one.
That one, the rock upon which its deliberations
We're stranded, was the Alaska Panhandle
boundary question. The United States Com
mssioners insisted upon maintaining the rights
enjoyed by this country without dispute for
quarter of a century, and by the Russian Gov
ernment before it for more than half century.
The Canadian Government however, insisted
upon an abrogatiOn of an essential part of those
rights, and, which was most to the point, in
sisted upon that abrogation prerequisite to
the settlement of any other question before the
Commission. OF course that brought the nego-
tiations TO deadlock.
Since then the United States and British Gov
ernmentS nave taken the Alaska boundary queS-
ton out of the hands of the Commission and
have come TO a tentative agreement upon 1t on
their own account. If the Commission does
reassemble, therefore. it will not have that
question to consider. and may devote its atten-
tion to the other matters, all Of which formerly
seemed susceptible of satisfactory settlement.
With Lord Pauncefote remaining at Washing
ton and with the continuance of cordial rela-
tons between the United States and the United
Kingdom, it should be possible to come to a
final agreement upon all the various matters
that have so long been causes of vexaton and
irritation between the two great English speak
ing Powers of the North American continent