The New York Herald Newspaper, February 20, 1868, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD. BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PEROPEIETOR. Volume X XXIII. No. 51 AMUSEMENTS TUls EVENING. Pied TABATRE.—Lezs Beacx Mxssizvrs vx Bois- OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Fancuon. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tax Wmire Fawn. “WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 13th street.— Paviure. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Psr or tax Perri- CoaTe—FamiLy Jans. BOWERY THEATRE. Bowery.—Inisu Girt In Ameri. Ca—Le amp Ovt or Piaca—MyY Banau Times. NEW YORK THEATRE, opposite New Ye@k Hotel. Srasars or New Yous. RD'S OPERA HOUSE AND MUSEUM, Broad- wayacd'wih sh-—Tiexst ov Lave Max. | UM ORK CIRCUS, Fourtesath street, —Gramnasri NEW Y¥ = 8, cs, THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway,—Hantox Comni- mation Teourm ap MiniaTURS Gincuse KELLY & LEON’S MINSTRELS, 720 Broadway. —Sonas, Danogs, Eocentaicitizs, &c.—Gaann Dytcu “d."" SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 58% Broad way.—Ermio- viaw Bwrastainwents, 5ivcina, Dancing 4x> BuRLesquas, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Comic Vocatism, Nzgno MINsTRELSY, 40, BUTLER'S AMERICAN THEATRE, 472 Broadway.— Baist, Farce, Pantomime, &c. STEINWAY HALL.—Oratonio or Jupas Maccasgvs. BUNYAN HALL, Broadway and Fifteenth street.—Tax Piccmm, Matinee at 2. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—La Traviata. MR8. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— ‘Tas Mountain BELL. HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE. Brooklyn.—Ermior1an Munerexisy, BaLiads anv BuRvesquas. BROOKLYN OPERA HOUSE, Williamaburg.—' Niguts 1 4 Barroom—Tux Lorrery ‘Ticker. Lael ‘TRIPLE SHEET. THB NEWS, ZUROFE. By special tolegram, dated in Madrid on the 18'h of February and forwarded through the Atlantic cable, we learn that the Cariist leaders have commenced a revolu- tion against Queen Isabella’s crown in the North of Spain and that fighting has already taken place between the insurgents and the civil officers of the government in Navarre. Revolutionary manifestocs were printed headed with a wood-cut likeness ofa grandson of Doa Carlos, the young man being styled Charles the Seventh of Spain. The news report by the cable is dated yesterday even- ing, February 19. Portugal is agitated against the government, and tumul: prevaits at many points, The exiled members ofthe royal family of Hanover assembled at a banquet iu Vienna, The ex.K'ng George is reported to have said that he would be again on his throne ‘despite of Prus- sia.” Charges have been made in the Prussian Diet against the conduct of the Consular representative of the United States in J jem towards a Jewish family, subjects of King William. Italian reports say that a Frepch frigate is to watch the movements of Farragut’s fleet in the Adria‘ic and Mediterranean. Consols, 92% in Londoz., five-twenties, 723, in Lon- don and 75% in Frankf; Rentes strong in Paria. By steamship we have mail details of our cable de. spatches to the 8th of February. CONGRESS. In the Senate yesterday Mr. Wilson introduced a joint resolution to restore Alabama to representation. It declares that at the late election the voters were under restraint and that Congress is satisfied that the constitu- tion of the State meets the approval of a majority of all the electors, The case of Mr. Thomas, of Maryland, ‘was again taken up, and the resolution for bis admission to a seat in the Senate was defeated by a vote of 21 to 28. Ino the House the bill providing for the surrender of convicts was passed. Mr. Wilson, im reporting the bill, said it was originated to serve in @ particular case, the circumstances of which he did not feel authorized to state, The Legisiative, Executive and Judicial Ap- Propriation bill was considered in Committee of the Whole, The amendments cutting down the clerical force at the Executive Mansion and forbidding officers of the army and navy being employed there on civil duty were rejected, and the bill was passed, ‘The Army Appro- Priation bill was also conridered in Committee of the Whole. It appropriates $33 032,093. After some caustic discussion the committee rose without disposing of the bill Aresolution was adopted cal'ing for the corre- spondence relative to General Sherman’s nomination as Brevot General and the estabiishmeat of the new Mili- tary Division of the Atlantic, The Board of Aldermen held an extra session on Tues- ay evening, concurred with the Board of Councilmen in a resolution to pave Seventh avenue with wooden pavoment, and received and laid over resolution re- questing the members of the Legislature from this city to urge the passage of a bill annuiling the action of the Common Council and the courts in extending Church street. The Board of Supervisors met yesterday morning, in- creased the salaries of the Recorder, City Judge and Surrogate to $10,000 each per annum, and the salaries of numerous other judicial officers correspondingly. The Board of Education met last evening, and among other business ordered an investigation into the cause of complaints that have been made regarding the course of studies and amount of labor imposed on the teachers aad pupila, The pay of clerks to loeal Boards was in- creased to six cents per head on average attendance at the schools im each ward. A communication which stated that tbe Church street extension would cut away an important school edifice was referred. The Attorney General of New York State has com- enced proceedings against Danrel Drew, and yesterday Sled & petition m the “upreme Court asking bis re- moval from office aa a Director and Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company, Judge Barnard, upon this petition, granted an order of injunction temporarily Suspending Drew, and directing bim to show cause to- Morrow morning why the injunction should not be made perpetua!. Mary Ano Duffin, of No, 60 Mulberry street, died you. terday of injuries received by an oil lamp explosion on Friday. Aa agent of “non explosive oil’? was trying to convince her of the merits of his article, when it ex- ploded and be made his escape, Ia the Supreme Court, Special Term, yesterday a citi- ven of New York sued a firm in Texas for the recovery of certain goods delivered during the war. The plaintif was nen-sulted on the ground that his contract was treasonable and uolawful, Jadge lagraham, of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, ‘a bis charge to the Grand Jury yesterday directed them to investigate the affairs of the private lying-in and jofant-adoption establishments in this city. The jury in the trial of Richard Casey for murdor, Fotired early in the afternoon yesterday upon a verdict, and remained out all night. The stock market was unsettiod yesterday. Govern ment securities were dull, “but Orm. Gold closed at 14054 0 140%. MISCELLANE 08. Our special correspondent with the Britisn expedi- tionary force in Abyssinia, dating at Muliatto on the 16th of January, furnishes @ very intoresting military review of the organization, position and prospects of the army, estimating the difficultion of the campaign aod detailing the every day camp life of the troops after landing. “ Advices from Brazil, by the Atlantic cablo, state that ‘& general conscription had been ordered by the govern. mont to furnish reinforcements for the army on the river Plata, By the Cuba cable we have spocial telegrams from Nageau dated the 13th inst. A mass meeting of negroes bad openiy charged tho Colonial government with b ing Gaadle to extricate itself from the Gasngial diffiouliica OO ( ® NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2), 1868.—TRIPLE SHEET. _— engendered by its own extravavance, The Legislature Was opened ov the 12th. Governor Rawson's address was Rot considered satisfactory, Telegraphic advices from Colombia, by way of Havana, state that Congross bad deciared Santos Gutierres Presi- dent of the republic, In the New Jersey Senate yosterday the resolution withdrawing the ratification by the State of the consti- tutional amendment kmowa as article 14 was prsaod. In the State Constitutional Convention yesterday the article on the judiciary was completed and ordered to a final reading. Section 18 provides that justices of the peace and police justices shall be elected. The Miesiselpp Comvention yesterday adopted a modi- fled tax ordimance, and then adjourned to allow the use of their hall for the Democratic State Comvention. It is thoughs probable that the work of tne South Carolina Convention will be completed within two weeks. The North Carolina Convention has adopted a Bill of Rights, A majority report of the Suffrage Committee favors the enfranchisemont of all males twenty-one Years of age. In the Florida Convention yesterday four members were declared ineligible, and their seats weie vacated. After the adjournment another fight occurred, in which ‘@ negro was shot, The recruits for the Fapal Zouaves departed from Montreal for Rome yesterday. A great crowd attended them to the depot, and several persons were nearly crashed to death. Father Honessy, a Catholic priest, claiming to belong to the French Legatiow at Washington, was trought into © St, Louis police court yesterday as a witness, when he refused to be sworn, denying the right of the court to Fequire his attendance except asa vielator of the law. ‘Ha was finally permitted to testify without taking an he Governor Bullock, of Massachusetts, has vetoed the Dill repealing the State Constabulary aw. The Indiana Republican State Convention moots in Indianapolis to-day, The New Alnbnaina Question in Congress What Is To Be Done? There are two Alabama questions. The first relates to the piratical depredations upon our merchant ships on the high seas by that re- morseless anglo-rebel priva‘eer, the Alabama, until sent to Davy Jones’ locker by Captain Winslow, in the English channel. This ques- tion has given a world of trouble to the State Department, and Mr. Seward, we apprehend, is no nearer a setilement now than when he first began the wearisome discussion, The second Alabama question relates to the readmission into Congress of the State so named, as recon- structed by the late radical Constitutional Con- vention, in pursuance of the laws of Congress. The constitution thus produced is free and equal and radical enough. The State officers and members of Congress elect are thoroughly radical and all white men, but it is still feared that the total vote cast in the late election will be less than a majority of all the voters regis- tered, the majority required by the law to make the election good. While the military authorities of Alabama are counting up their election returns the Reconstruction Committee of Congress, acting upon the presumption that tho election has gone by default, have been debating the ques tion, what‘are we to do with it? They think that, as the’ Jeff Davis confederacy was organ- ized and aet in motion in Alabama, Ala- bama ought'to be and must be, in the way of retributive justice, the first of these so-called Confederate States readmitted with the bottom railon top. Mr. Bingham the other evening, in a consultation of the commitiee, proposed to push through his new bill, or, in other words, to fall back upon a preceding law, and to admit the State under a provision thereof which declares that a majority of the votes actually cast in these reconstruction elections shall be decisive. Mr. Stevens waa opposed to any special legislation for the ad- mission of this or any other State, and advised the committee to await the receipt of the offi- cial returns, so that they may exactly under, stand the réal condition of affairs. He gave notice that he would oppose Mr. Bingham’s bill, if introduced, because he deemed it inex- pedient to introduce any such bill at this time. Mr. Stevens’ views were adopted by the com- mi‘tee, and the House therefore will await the official returns of the Alabama election before proceeding to further measures on the subject. We dare say that the official footings up will show the vote required, because we suppose that the officers concerned understand their business, and so that Alabama reconstructed, blacks up and whites down, will probably be readmitted in time for the New Hampshire election (March 10) or = day or two thereafter. Meantime the Reconstruction Committee, as it appears, have authorized Mr. Stevens to re- port his bill for the division of Texas into three States in the processes of reconstruc- tion. Such a division being provided for in the original biil admitting the State of Texas, there can be no objection to this proceeding now, especially as the area of the State is over two hundred and thirty-seven thousand square miles (equal in extent to five such States as New York, with New Jersey thrown in), and as she has s# popu- lation of over six hundred thousand, with a rapid increase from year to year. The special object of the Reconstruction Committee may be the addition, with the two new States, of four more radicals to the United States Senate; but all these petty expedients ofa day will soon be swamped and buried out of sight in the constantly changing currents of public events and political parties. So we say to this radical Congress, hurry up your work. Restore Alabama and all the other outside States to their normal relations as States with the general government, and divide Texas into three States, and bring them all in with the negroes uppermost, and then let us see what the masses of the white element of the North will have to say to this Southern negro balance of power in the elections for the next Congress, Why stand upon useless ceremonies or stick at paltry technicalities? There has been no general usage in the admission of new States ; the same terms have not been applied in any two cases, but the discretion of Con- gress has governed their admission in each case. The organization of the new State of West Virginia was a queer thing, but it was satisfactory to Congress, and so being admitted, who can touch her now? Tennessee was rather loonely reconstructed ; but even Presi- dent Johnson now recognizes the State rights of Parson Brownlow as Governor of Teunessee, The great thing is to got these still excluded rebel States relievod of their military dictator- ships and back again into the general govera- ment and back to the control by their own people of their own local affairs, Those great ends sequred, the whirligig of politics will soon régtilate this thing of negro supremacy. Besides, we want @ olear case against this revo- lutionary Congress upon thia matter of Southern reconstfaction, 60 that the people of all the States may be enabled to express — clear decision upon it in the elections for the next Congress, We oxpect that from some of those outside States which have yet to make their elections there will be a sprinkling of Africans sent up to Congress, as the beginning of genuine negro balance of power in the two houses, and we want to see if the Northern States are prepared to accept a negro oligarchy at Washington from the South in place of the late domineering and intolerable white oligarchy of slaveholders. So we spy, let Congress hurry up the work of negro recon- struction and Southern restoration. The Poor of New Yerk. A perpetual presence in our midst are the Poor—the chronic poor, as indigenous to crowded cities as stunted pines to the cold, dizzy mountain height. Able-bodied pauper- ism—born paupers, who deliberately come into this world seemingly to live on others—has become an institution so engrafted on the city’s growth that the wisest of our political econo- mists, when questioned as to the remedy, give their heads a mysterious shake, implying » most bewildering perplexity of doupt in the matter, The fact is the growth of indigence in the city has been six times more than tho growth of population, Twenty-five years ago two bundred snd thirty-five thousand dol- lara answered as the city’s annual contribu- tion to support its pauper population, Last year one million three hundred and forty thousand dollars was the sum disbursed for this purpose. Indiscriminate almsgiving has wrought the mischief, and each year it is becoming more irremediable. Sharp practice towards theso chronic livers on the city’s charitics, resolute, systematic determination to cut them off from further help, will greatly reduce the number and lessen the grievous burdens of taxation weighing down so heavily on our citizens, We did not set out to write up the subject of chronic pauperism, great and growing as the evil is and urgent as is the necessity of vigorous action for its suppression, but to speak of and for that large class of helpless and deserving poor whom the present depression in business has thrown out of employment and made de- pendent on public and private charity. Over one hundred thousand persons in the habit of earning their livelihood by honest labor are now out of employment in this city. Such general depression in business, such extensive suspension of labor, and such an amount of positive destitution and suffering rarely prevail here. Public and private charities are being largely taxed to prevent extreme destitution— to save households from actual starvation. Private philanthropy, working unseen, the noiseless feet of church ,visitors, preaching through their charities a better, truer gospel than is contained in all the noisy declamations of our loudest mouthed clergymen, hunt up these deserving destitute and are relieving their necessities. Wretched want exists to-day all over the city, Thousands are-on the verge of starvation, and on these freezing nights the cold steals with terrible power into their fireless rooms. The picture is asad one. We will not dwell on it further. Deplorable as is the present state of things in our city, growing out of existing stagnation in the labor market, there is nothing that should excite alarm, but only a more general, more active and more systematic benevo- lence. All this pressing want and a repe- tition of it at any time in the future can be relieved and no one feel the poorer for it. The remedy is very simple. Instead of the multiplicity of charitable insti- tutions that now exist there should be a grand central organization, with one board of visitors and another of inspectors, their operations extending over the whole city. The city should be districted, and a comprehensive, uniform and systematic mode of distributing charity be adopted that will prevent imposture. A careful examination of every case and its former character and condition, and the causes reducing to poverty, should be instituted, and with the giving of relief it should be made a fundamental principle to help only those who it ia known help themselves when they can, and prevent their falling into the dismal and degenerate depths of chronic pauperism. There are now in this city some sixty societies for philanthropic purposes, to say nothing of our halfscore of hospitals and as many more dis- pensaries, and the indefinite number of asy- lums, refuge establishments and general re. formatory and benevolent institutions for the aged and blind, the halt and infirm of all pos- sible classes, Let the last institutions remain, but the threescore of others we would sweep away, and the sleek, well-fed and well-clothed presidents and vice presidents, and secretaries and treasurers, and all the hangers-on with them, who absorb in good houses and good dinners and good apparel for themselves, in- cluding the impressively imposing white neck- cloth which most of them wear, three-fourths of the money contributed by the liberal and confiding public to sustain these charities, We would also sweep away the narrow and bigoted sectionalism characterizing the management of most of them. Charity knows no sect, no reli- gion. With the money thus saved we would keep from want, in such seasons as the present, the families of all who are out of employment Happily, the worst of the winter has passed, the ides of March are approaching, and with their coming there is reasonable hope of revived ani- mation in business, of restoration to employ- ment of those out of work, and a lifting up of the great overhanging cloud of want and wretched- ness now overshadowing the city. The News fi Spain. The special cable telegram from Madrid which we give in another column cells the old story of Spain, in which country one revolt is hardly smothered before another bursts into flame. This present disturbance is gathered around another member of that line in whose cause the Carlist war wis waged—the line primarily of Spanish absolutism and legiti- macy. Under the old Spanish law no woman could inherit, but a” the father of the present Queen had no sons the law was conve- niently changed that the daughter might come to the throne. Thereupon the King’s brother, uncle of the present Queen—who but for this change in the law would have become King when her Majesty actually, did become Queen—protested that bis rights were invaded and raised bis standard. He was Don Carlos, and was called Carlos V. He was driven out of Spain. His sou kept up the claim as Carlow VI. Another son, Don Juan, was not less earnest in the family canse, and now we hear of Juan’s son as Carlos VII. Such @ revolt as would gather round the claim of these men to the throne would be of little consequence ia any other country than Spain; but in Spain, where there is so much real reason why the people should never be quict, one cannot tell what pitiful cause may lead to 4 disturbance that would end in the overthrow of the monarchy. The Western Union Telegraph Co Ito Exhibit to Its Stockholders. We publish to-day the exhibit made by the Executive Committee of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in compliance with the resolution adopted by the Board of Directors in December last, calling for a “concise but fall statement of the affiira of the company,” and which we have reason to believe has reached but few of the stockholders for whose information and entightenment it was designed. It is one of the most singular features of the management of this company that no regular statements of its affairs have been permitted to make their appearance. The present un- satisfactory aggregation of figures, conveying no intelligence whatsoever in regard tothe de- tails of any of the operations in which the company has been involved, is only the second statement ‘from the executive office that has ever found: its way into print, the former one, which was issued in October, 1865, having been equally meagre and obscure, The manage- ment of the company has been a secret, close corporation ; the stockholders have been kept in ignorance of the nature of transactions covering millions of dollars of their own money, and other information as to the general affairs of the company which they havo a right to possess has been withheld from them. It is a most reprehensible disregard of a plain duty for the directors of a company of the magnitude of the Western Union to noglect to lay a full annual or semi-annual report before the pub- lic, so that it may be known exactly how its affairs are managed and its stock- holders may be assured that their interests do not suffer either from dis- honesty, neglect or incompetency on the part of those to whom they are entrusted. The company belongs to the stockholders and not to the Board of Directors or the Executive Committee. The latter are simply the trustecs and agents of the stockholders, and are ac- countable to them for all their official acts. There can be no worthy motive in concealing any portion of the operations of the manage- ment or in cloaking the details of any trans- actions of the company in mystery. No one will pretend that the statement now published is such as the stockholders have a right to ex- pect ; but, meagre as it is, it carries with it suf- ficient evidence of a mismanagement and a recklessness on the part of the executive offi- cers of the company that threaten to entirely destroy the large interests entrusted in their hands, td The radical evil at the foundation of all the trouble has been the inflation of the capital stock to an amount enormously in excess of the actual value of the enterprise. The total present capital of the company is stated to be forty-one million dollars. This large sum represents, as we believe the directors claim, ninety thousand miles of wires. As we have already shown ina former article, five or six of these wires are strung along the same routes and on the same poles, and each is counted singly. The miles of route owned and leased by the Western Union will not exceed fifteen thousand at the outside, and it is the number of miles of route and not the number of miles of wire upon which the actual value of a line must be calculated. To make the Western Union worth forty-one million dollars every mile of its wire must be worth five hundred dollars, But let us seo what its value actually is, on the most liberal basis. The most competent practical telegraph men in the country concur in the statement that a new line can be constructed and equipped for two hundred and twenty-five dollars mile. We will raise this estimate to three hundred dollars a mile for the first wire constructed, including the office equipments. Additional wires on the same poles are put up by the existing competing lines at fifty dollars a mile, which leaves a margin of about four or five dollars a mile. We will raise this | estimate to one hundred dollars a mile. We have then the following as the actual value of the whole Western Union line :— No. of Miles, Cost per Mile, Value, Fifteen thousand of first wire...... $300 $4,500,000 Seventy-five thousand additional wires. 1 7,500,000 The company claim that they franchises ;” but what are they? There is a general law under which any competing company can organize, and hence the Western Union has no exclusive charter whatever in any part of the United States. It has leases of lines along railroad routes, but these can be transferred to any competing company. Besides, the lines that it leases are included in its ninety thousand miles of wire, but are not owned by the company. Any value that may attach to such leases is, therefore, more than set off by including the value of the lines them- selves in the assets of the company. We have, then, twelve million dollars as the whole actual value of all the lines owned by the company. Their true assets will, there- fore, stand as follows :— Telegraph lines, equipments, &c Weeters Usion stock owned This gives us following as the dition of the company’s affairs :— true con- Liabilities (as shown by report) + $46,355,800 Real anes... ...scseeeeee eee + 12,962,300 Balanee against the company............. $33,373,600 The company has thus clearly over thirty- three million dollars Mabilities over and above its actual assete. Let us now see what is the present condition of the stockholders at the marketable price of the stock, which is, say, thirty-three :— 410,000 shares at the 33, would bring Bonded debt to be Leaving for stock hoiders.....6....+ tevee So that if the whole stock of the company should be sold to-morrow and the bonded debt paid the present stockholders would realize but eight million five hundred thousand dol- lara, or a little over twenty dollars a share. This is a startling exhibit for the stockholders, especially when they boar in mind the fact company individually liable to the amount of one-foarth the par value of their stock for all the debts and Liabilities of the company. The Erie Railroad Injavction—Stockjobbing and Speculation Against Business Priu- ciples. The Supreme Court is just now engaged in the very commendable enterprise of uncover- ing certain Wall street speculations of a pecu- liar order, and Pertaining to the operations of Daniel Drew, a leading spoculator in Erie stocks. The action appears against Mr. Drew in the form of an injunction restraining the Erie Railway Company from paying any part of the sum of three million dollars loaned to the company by the defendant prior to May, 1866, previous to which date the defendant played tho réle of a bear in Exie stock specula- tion, For the consideration of the above- mentioned sum (three million dollars) the company hypothecated fifty-four thousand shares of new stock with Mr. Drew, permitting him two years of speculative operation there- with on covenant that at the expiration of that period the stock be returned to the company upon payment of the three millions, the in- junction to restrain payment of which by the company 1s granted on the ground that Mr. Drew has already amassed more than suff- cient profits through his control of fifty-eight thousand shares (in all) to pay both principal and interest of the three millions originally advanced, and upon petition of Mr. Frank Work, one of the directors of the company. Nor is this the end. Mr. Drew not only loses the original three millions, but an effort is being made to oust him from his office as treasurer and as a director of the Erie Railroad Company on the ground of malfeasance, the Attorney General having commenced an action for this purpose on behalf of the people of the State of New York. Thus stands the case at present, and from all appearances Mr. Drew seem3 likely to be the losing man in the issue. Aside from all issues as to tho merits of the case, it maybe shrewdly suspected that the defendant has been simply entrapped by Van- derbilt, who is, no doubt, the operating strate- gist of the whole transaction, Mr. Frank Work and others being simply component parts of the trap, the pawns anJ knights of the con- trolling mind. Having compassed the control of the Hudson River, Harlem and New York Central Railroads, a shrewd suspicion may be entertained that Vanderbilt is figuring for the control of the Erie, thereby making himself complete master of the situation and introduc- ing a new system into the generally specu- lative modes of railway management. The lines now controlled by Vanderbilt furnish excellent examples of what may be done ty managing railroads upon strictly business principles—that is, by lopping off the excrescences of the contract and deadhead system and running roads for the benefit of the great travelling and trafficking public ; and there can be no doubt that the Erie Railroad, were it once placed in the hands of 4 thorough manager, might be made a dividend paying concern, which it never has been. With the case of Mr. Drew, therefore, the pub- lic is little concerned except so far as its dis- closures may have tho effect of an argument in favor of conducting our railroads upon strictly business principles, and not for the benefit of stockjobbers and speculators. Pre- vious to the time that Vanderbilt obtained con- trol of the several railroads now in his hands the whole railway interest of the State of New York was substantially at the mercy of poli- ticians and stockjobbers. Railroads were simply corporations by which profits were wrung from the pockets of the public; tracks and rolling stock were often in absolutely life- endangering condition, and for lack of the most common precautions accidents were of frequent occurrence; and all this that stock- holders might gorge their pockets with profits and feed their railroad rings to the best ad- vantage. To an extent, therefore, the operations of Vanderbilt have been a public benefaction in proving that railroads may be conducted upon business principles and lessening the danger of accident in travel by steam. The fact is, the one man power—the concentration of the executive part of any enterprise in the person of a single individual—is the true theory of business economy, as has been demonstrated by Mr. Vanderbilt. Stockholders, as a body, are always shortsighted and truckling. Im- mediate realization is their motto, and to immediate realization they subordinate the ultimate interest of an enterprise, This prin- ciple has been illustrated over and over again, and with the utmost emphasis, in the history of New York journalism, by the subordination of newspapers to partisan purposes and to the furtherance of strictly partisan interests; and thus independent and far- sighted enterprise has been hampered and made of no effect in the conduct of news- papers. Before the Heratp was started it was deemed impossible that an independent journal should succeed—a journal managed upon the broadest system of the dissemination of the news of the day and of intelligent and bold criticism of public affairs from a purely non- partisan standpoint. The success of the Hmratp upon those principles has, however, demon- strated the efficiency of this system in its appli- cation to journalism, as the success of Vander- Dilt in railroad enterprise has demonstrated the efficiency of broad business principles in their application thereto. Immediate zegtiza- tion has beep the bane both of raflroad and journalistis enterprise, aia Will continue to be so until the fact of its inefficiency as an ele- ment of success shall have been again and again proved by the inexorable logic of events, The emancipation of the Erie from the control of stockjobbing and political cliques is, therefore, a consummation devoutly to be wished and one which bids fair to be evolved from the present litigation. For Mr. Drew's three million dollars and fifty-eight thousand shares the public care little. The emancipation of a leading line of travel from stockjobbing control is, however, ® matter of importance both to good faith investors in its stock and to the safety of the travelling masses, whose lives are endangered by the shortsighted ineffictency of speculative directors, every one of whom has an interest in jobs and contracts executed by parties who disburse liberal percentage ot their profits to the directorial influence which secures them. The cutting off of jobs, contracts and dead- headism from ratlroad enterprise is certainly — that the general telegraph law of the State | a reform in which the public ts directly inter- renders the stockholders in any telegraph | ested; and should Vanderbilt sneceed in ousting stockjobbers from the control of the Prie he will deserve the thanks of the travel- | ling public and will no doubt receive them. The Dpening of Spring Business—Advertising. There appears to be a great diversity of opinion about the approaching spring busi- ne.s. Prophets are to be found who proclaim that trade is going tobe very dull, while others, more hopeful, anticipate a good spring trade. There isa happy mean which will probably cover the ground. There are many elements of business which may not experience a great impetus ; there are others again that will un- doubtedly enjoy 4 flourishing season; but, upon the whole, we look: forward to a very fair spring trade, This is a growing and a pros- perous country. There is no such thing as retrogression here; so business must continue to increase. As faras depression in general business Is concerned, we have reached the bottom, and we will probably not see again the calamitous panics of former years. Busi- ness men have learned to know how to reach the minds of their customers, and they have wisely selected the medium of leading news- papers for that purpose aa the most promi- nent organs of Intelligence. A great portion of the trade of England is’ done through the columns of the London Times, a few ofthe metropolitan journals, of course, sharing a part of the advertiring with it, The Huraxp fills precisely the same position in wis country, only that its influence and useftiness as o medium of business are perhaps mitre exten- sive thar those of the Times, became of the better classification ofits advertisemens, It is singular that since the Herat was started, in 1835, its upward progress has yeon continuous. From the beginning of its exst- ence to the present day it has grown step ty step in circulation, advertising and influence, until it has come to be the great medium be- tween man and man in almost all the trans- actions of life. It is singular, also, that the Henan attained its largest circulation during the troublous period of the war, reaching am issue of a hundred and forty-five thousaud to = hundred and fifty thousand daily, and on one day actually circulating a hundred and seventy thousand, the largest circulation ever reached by any newspaper in the world. After the war the Hrratp began to resume its normal circu- lation, which, although a little less now than during the war, is still larger than that of all the other morning papers’ put together. Now that the spring is coming, and a revival of trade in conjunction with a revival of nature will set everything in motion, we shall probably have to issue a triple sheet every day, and per- haps a quadruple sheet occasionally, so as to place in possession of the public all that is valuable in the way of news and afford busi- ness people every facility tor an interchange of thoughts and interosts. The Murder of a Street Rallrond Con- ducter. One of the most cold-blooded and atrocions murders that has been committed in this city tor some time was tho agsassination of a con- ductor on a Seventh avenue car on, Monday evening. The testimony at the inquest yester day shows conclusively that the murdered maa gave no cause of offence at the time, and that the assassin abused, insulted and threatened him in the most wanton manner, refusing to pay his fare when asked for. The conductor, after vainly endeavoring to bring his refractory passenger to reason, was at length compelled to eject him from the car. Thereupon the ruffian ran after the car and stabbed the con- ductor, who was standing on the rear platform. In the confusion the assassin escaped, leaving his victim in a dying condition. While we hope that the murderer will be secured and punished, we must say also that this atrocious deed calls imperatively for an investigation into the management of our street railroads, as fae as the conductors are concerned. There is hardly a class of people against whom a greater outcry is raised, and yet none who are placed in a more perplexing and dangerous position. The conductor ot » street car has to endure sometimes abuse, fulse accusations and threats from drunken rowdies ; and in the discharge of his duty, as in the present instance, his life is in danger. It has often been charged on con- ductors that they allow pickpockets and intoxicated men on their cars at night. They cannot prevent this evil without subjecting themselves to insult and injury. There is a large class of people who ride in the street cars and look upon the conductor as an inferior and fair game for their tongue or fists. Per- sons who will, even in the last stage of drunk- enness, hesitate at interfering with others on the street or in the house, think it one of their rights and privileges to abuse the conductor of a street car. Of course there are many just causes of complaint, from time to time, against conductors, but to proceed against them as a class on account of the faults of some of their number would be unjust and wicked. The real parties to blame for the outrages nightly committed on the strect cars are the directors and superintendents of the various city lines. The unfortunate conductor or driver is saddled with everything that takes place on his car, while bh® judges forget that he is powerless to prevent most of these out- rages. His superiors, however, can easily adopt measures to protect both pomengers and em- ployés against ruf8>""sm and violence. OK placing mex at different points along the line, by strictly prohibiting any person from getting on & car when all the seats are taken, and by more thorough unanimity with the police authorities in relation to carrying out the rules of the company, many of these disorders could be prevented by the directors of the city lines. In view of the present management, it is clearly the duty of the State Legislature to inquire into the matter and sift it thoroughly, so that a satisfactory conclusion may be reached. The travelling public, which includes all classes, have a vital interest in the subject, and demand its investigation and setilement at the hands of their representatives, Wanxtep—A democratic candidate for the Presidency. Pendleton has monopolized the West, but his name excites no enthusiasm among the brethren in the East. Nor do they brighten up at the hint of MeUlellan; nor do they insist upon Andrew Johnson; and they are satisfied with the declination of Seymour ; and they have their misgivings about Sherman ; and they never mention poor Pierce, and they scout the idea of nominating Jerry Black. We still have an occasional echo from the moun- tains of Pennsylvania in favor of Hancock ; but Hancock, they say out West, was the hangman ot Mra. Surratt, and so they won't have Hancock. Seward is out of the question; old Mr. Welles is too slow: the Blair family are,