A BUSINESS PROPOSITION

Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, May 8, 1897.

A BUSINESS PROPOSITION.

H. L. BRONSON SPEAKS ON THE CINCINNATUS ROAD.

Traction Company Stands Ready to Give a Bond as a Guaranty of its Good Faith

—Wants to Protect Its Own Interests— Can Have the Road in Operation Before the Snow Flies.

   A STANDARD reporter yesterday afternoon called upon H. L. Bronson, attorney for the Cortland & Homer Traction Co., to see it he had anything to add to the proposition which he, authorized by the Traction company, had made for building the railroad to Cincinnatus, [N. Y.,] and which was published in The STANDARD the previous afternoon. Mr. Bronson was out of town on business and did not return till last evening so that the reporter was unable to see him. This morning a second call was made and in the meantime Mr. Bronson had read the interview with I. H. Palmer, attorney for the Erie & Central New York R. R., which was published in The STANDARD yesterday afternoon.

   It is not worth my while, Mr. Bronson said, to reply in any way to the suspicions and guesses of Mr. Palmer. We have simply made a business proposition and we stand ready to back it up and fulfill our offer. We will give a bond for $100,000 or for any sufficient amount as a guaranty of our faith. I said the other day that there was no question but that Cortland would be benefitted by the road, the question is whether or not the road would pay, if built and that I claim is doubtful. Mr. Palmer thinks we are inconsistent in making that statement and then in following it up with a proposition to extend the road. We should not have made this offer as an original proposition.

   I said further the other day that one thing was sure, two roads between Cortland and McGrawville could not and would not pay. I repeat that to-day. And it is because the Erie & Central New York is threatening to parallel our road between Cortland and McGrawville that we now make the offer to extend and complete the road. We do this to protect our own interests. We are willing to take the risk of the balance of the road paying to secure what we already have invested, for our road to McGrawville will cease to pay if another runs parallel with it. But having made the offer, we are prepared to stand by it, and, as I said, to give a sufficient bond for the fulfillment of our obligations.

   The people want the road, and here is their opportunity. They are not asked to go down in their pockets for a cent. We will build it, begin work within thirty days and put it in operation before snow flies if the right of way can be secured to us. That is all we ask.

   What does the Erie & Central New York R. R. ask? It wants the people to raise $25,000 in cold cash before it lifts a finger, that is to say, it requires that $25,000 of bonds shall be sold, which amounts to the same thing. I doubt not that Mr. Bundy, Mr. Palmer and the Otselic Construction Co. are anxious to build the road too. That is what they have been working for for years, but they want the $25,000 from the people and they want to secure enough from some source to pay them well for their time and labor.

   We can build a road that will give just as good service as the proposed steam road. There are many contingencies which may yet prevent the project for the steam road from reaching a fulfillment. The bond which we are ready to give is a backer for our good faith and ability.

   Mr. Palmer says that if a trolley road be built to Cincinnatus it will end there and will not be continued to Hancock or Deposit for connection with New York.

   That is not so sure. That is not a wise statement to make at this end of the century. See how the electric roads are being built all over the country, see what a freight business they are doing. Look at them in New England. If there is anything of advantage in extending the road beyond Cincinnatus, depend upon it the Traction company will be ready to undertake the project. In the meantime is it not far better for Cortland, for McGrawville, for every point touched by the road to connect that fertile Otselic valley with Cortland at once by a railroad capable of doing the business rather than by waiting for a possibility that has been before the people for thirty years and which may or may not ever reach fulfillment?

   With regard to Mr. Palmer's insinuations and innuendos about the D., L. & W. R. R. being back of this plan because of its hostility to the steam road, he says they are only suspicions and beliefs. I do not care to make any answer to them, they are too trivial. I have only time to answer positive statements. I will, however, say that I am confident that he is in error in regard to his suspicion about Mr. Hand. He does not say which Mr. Hand he means. There are two of them. Judge Alfred Hand, the father, who is a millionaire, and Mr. Horace E. Hand, the son. Judge Hand, I understand, is a stockholder of the D., L. & W. R. R., but he has not a dollar invested in the Traction company. Mr. Horace E. Hand is a stockholder of the Traction  company, but I never heard and I don't believe that he has any D., L. & W. investments. In any case the assumption that the D. L., & W. is pushing this project is absurd. We are simply protecting our own interests.

   The STANDARD man also called upon Superintendent F. P. Mooney of the Traction company to inquire if he had anything to say in regard to the project or in reply to Mr. Palmer's statement. Mr. Mooney declined to say anything for publication.

The Animotiscope.

   The Epworth league of the First Methodist church is making arrangements for what promises to be the greatest exhibition of the kind ever given in Cortland, to be held in the church on Wednesday evening, May 12, commencing at 8 o'clock. Prof. Lyman H. Howe's animotiscope, the world's greatest marvel, will be the leading feature of the entertainment.

   The Owego Daily Times has the following in reference to the entertainment which was recently given at that place:

   Wilson opera house was crowded from the orchestra's front row to the standing room against the gallery's furthest wall last evening by the audience which assembled to witness the animotiscope entertainment given by Prof. Howe under the auspices of the W. C. T. U.

   There were many excellent phonographic selections, but the interest centered in the wonderful and, to the majority of those present, yet new invention, the animotiscope, which was applauded to the echo time and time after time.

   To attempt to describe the mechanical arrangements by which it to possible to reproduce in life size pictures of the whirlpool and a portion of the falls at
Niagara, the capture of a runaway horse by a mounted policeman, the response to an alarm by the fire department, the rush of the famous Black Diamond express right across the stage and, apparently, half way up the gallery, as well as other pictures, would be in vain. It is done and Owego people saw the result to their entire satisfaction.

   Admission 25 cents, reserved seats 35 cents. Tickets on sale at Yager & Marshall's.

Given a Suspended Sentence.

   Nellie Martin went before Police Justice Mellon last night and asked the privilege of withdrawing her former plea of not guilty and entering a plea of guilty to the charge of violating section 887 of the criminal code relating to vagrants. She was given a suspended sentence of six months in the Onondaga penitentiary on condition that she leave town.

First in Cayuga County.

   AUBURN. May 8.—The trial of the first case under the Raines law in this county resulted in the acquittal of the defendant, Thomas Quinn, a hotel proprietor who was charged with selling liquor on Sunday. The evidence for the prosecution was solely that of two excise agents. The jury, after being out nine minutes, returned a verdict of not guilty.

Thomas C. Platt.

POLITICS IN NEW YORK.

Platt Tells How Republicans Must Organize

IN ORDER TO DEFEAT TAMMANY.

Republican Candidates Must Receive Their Solid and Harmonious Support—

Citizens' Union Is Denounced by the Easy Boss.

   NEW YORK, May 8.—Senator Thomas C. Platt sent to this city from Washington a statement on the municipal political situation, in which he says, in part:

   No matter how far apart individuals, who desire to save the new city with its magnificent possibilities from Tammany misrule, may be, as to methods and men, there are certain facts which they must admit, and by which, as intelligent human beings, they should be controlled.

   The first is that Tammany still possesses a great party organization and a powerful following.

   The second is that the Republican organization is equally powerful, if not, indeed, stronger than Tammany's, and that from the Republican party must be contributed at least four-fifths of all the votes that can be cast against the Tammany ticket.

   And the third is that the surest way to defeat Tammany Hall is by a union of all the anti-Tammany elements under the leadership of the Republican organization.

   These facts are axiomatic. They are so plain that the man who disputes them confesses a selfish purpose in doing so. But these "best citizens" have been "a gang in their ain gait" [sic] recently in a way that suggests their deliberate purpose to compel a break with the Republicans.

   They seem to be doing their crazy utmost to render the defeat of Tammany an impossibility. Professing to abhor every such thing as a political organization, they have started one of their own. Professing to detest machine dictation they have created a nice little compact machine, which they call their committee of organization and they have sent around to all the registered voters a printed power of attorney requesting each voter to sign away all his primary rights with regard to the making of platforms and the naming of candidates, and to empower these "best citizens" to fill all the offices within  Greater New York, binding themselves to accept any results they may please to give them.

   I have seen a good many insolent attempts to usurp power and grab public benefit, but this performance of the "best citizens," for sheer audacity and wanton recklessness, has no counterpart within my experience of politics.

   Mr. Platt then denounces the Citizens union by name and avers that its performances tend directly to turn the city over to Tammany and Bryanism.

FOREST PRESERVES.

Board Has a Meeting and Gets Down to Work.

   ALBANY, May 8.—The forest preserve board got down to work in earnest at the first meeting it has had since it met for the purpose of organizing, and the work of the board preliminary to the actual purchase of forest lands was mapped out.

   Colonel Fox of the fisheries, game and forest commission, whose services as a land expert were secured, took an active participation in the meeting.

   It was decided that during the next two weeks the commissioners and Colonel Fox would personally look over lands in the vicinity of the watersheds of West Canada creek and Black river, which are at the extreme west side of the Adirondack park, and the watersheds of the Sacandaga and Hudson rivers, which are located at the extreme east side of the park, with a view of purchasing land in those localities, which have already been offered for sale to the fisheries, game and forest commission.

   The first named locality is the source of the canal water supply, while the last named is the source of the Hudson river.

   Over 225,000 acres of forest land has been offered for sale to the commission, and owners of as much more property have signified their desire to sell their land, but have not actually made application to do so, and with only $1,000,000 to spend, therefore, it will not be necessary for the commissioners to use their prerogative to condemn any land they deem desirable, for very much of the land offered for sale is the portion of the Adirondacks which the state most desires to get to protect the water supply.

   An opinion was received from the attorney general to the effect that the creation of the board did not in any way abrogate the powers of the fish, forest and game commission, and it was yet the duty of that commission to care for the forests.

U. S. Grant's Tomb.

Li Hung Chang.

TRIBUTE TO GRANT.

In Commemoration of His Memory by Li Hung Chang.

   NEW YORK, May 8.—Yang Yu, former minister of China to the United States and now special representative from China to the court of St. Petersburg, planted a tree on the ground under which the casket of General Grant lay for 12 years, as a tribute to the memory of the great soldier by Li Hung Chang.

   Several members of the Grant family and 3,000 other persons were present. The tree is called ginkgo biloba by Chinese and Japanese botanists; in Latin it is the salisburi adiantiolia. It is often called the "Leaves of Maidenhair." It was selected as being the best Chinese tree which could be procured at short notice and was taken from Morningside park.

      The Chinese minister, after throwing some earth around the roots of the tree, read from Chinese manuscript, which was translated by the secretary as follows:

   This tree is planted at the side of the tomb of U. S. Grant, ex-president of the United States of America, to commemorate his great loss by Li Hung Chang, guardian of the prince, grand secretary of the state, Earl of the First Order.

   YANG YU,

   Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

   KWANG HFU, 22, 4th Moon.

   Mrs. Grant then asked the minister to present her thanks to Li Hung Chang, both for the tree and for the flowers that had been sent for the Grant memorial day. The party then went to the tomb and remained in the crypt for a short time.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Rights of Man.

   A paper in Harper's by Professor Francis N. Thorpe shows the trend of modern economic thought. The paper is called "The Hundred Years' Campaign." It deals with the issues in our political campaigns for the past century.

   How those issues have changed is well indicated in the following paragraphs:

   The new industrial doctrines which had triumphed over the doctrines of 1798 were briefly set forth in President Lincoln's first inaugural: "The Union is much older than the constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the articles of association in 1774."

   Few indeed of those who heard him could have told at that moment what were the articles to which the president referred. Two years older than the Declaration of Independence, they declared the industrial independence of the colonies. They were a solemn non-importation agreement to encourage "frugality, economy and industry and promote agriculture, arts and the manufactures of this country." The nation rested on industry; the nation was sovereign—ideas antagonistic to the doctrines of 1798, and those ideas were now to be tested in administration.

   At the close of the eighteenth century reformers were still talking of the rights of man and meant by that phrase equal civil and political rights. At the close of the nineteenth century reformers are interpreting the same phrase, but it now signifies economic equality.

   In the last presidential campaign the idea was freely advocated by the friends of the laboring man, who are unusually numerous at such a time. Economic inequality versus economic equality—that is the great political issue of our day. The basis of democracy in America is industrial. Does Lincoln's remark in his inaugural indicate the course democracy is taking, and does the new political phrase, economic equality, intimate that it shall dominate American democracy before the close of the twentieth century?

BREVITIES.

   —A regular meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A. will be held in the Y. M. C. A. parlor, Tuesday, May 11 at 3:3 0 P. M.

   —L. D. Carns of The Kremlin has received word that about twenty-five members of the Ithaca Cycle club expect to ride to Cortland to-morrow, and will take dinner at that popular hostelry.

   —If the day be fair and warm to-morrow a [trolley] car will run to the park in the afternoon, leaving the Messenger House at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and every forty minutes thereafter during the afternoon.

   —Mr. Charles W. Butts of Dryden and Miss Ida M. Winters of Groton came to Cortland yesterday afternoon and were married at the First M. E. church parsonage by Rev. O. A. Houghton, D.D.

   —A committee from the baseball association is preparing an elaborate score card for use at the games this season. The score card will contain advertisements of the leading business men and firms of Cortland.

   —The Wickwire wire mills shut down at noon to-day to give the employees a half holiday, as has been the custom on Saturdays for several summers past. It is likely that the custom may be continued through the summer.

   —New display advertisements to-day are—Bacon, Chappell & Co., specials, page 7; W. W. Bennett, oil stoves, page 7; Tanner Bros., parasols, page 6; Baker & Angel, fine shoes, page 6; E. R. Lindsey, typewriters, page 4.

   —At the First Baptist church the pastor, Rev. A. Chapman, will on Sunday evening begin a series of short sermons for summer nights on "The Fools of the Bible: Who They are and What They Did." The subject of the first sermon will be, "The Royal Fool, or a King's Regret."

   —T. H. Dowd as attorney sold at the court house this morning on a mortgage foreclosure the house and lot on Clinton-ave., owned by the late M. A. Rice, and by him mortgaged to Mrs. Florence Rice Knox. There was due on the mortgage $1,771.80. The place was bid in by M. A. Rice of Brooklyn, to whom the mortgage had been assigned.

   —Prof. Welland Hendrick will have charge of a summer institute at Thousand Island park this summer from July 12 to July 30. Two other summer institutes will also be held at the same time under the direction of the department of public instruction, one at Chautauqua in charge of Prof. I. H. Stout, and the other at Glens Falls in charge of Prof. P. I. Bugbee.

   —Probably every one who has used a monkey wrench has wondered at least once why that useful tool is so called. It is not so named because it is a handy thing to monkey with, or for any kindred reason. Monkey is not the name at all, but Moncky. Charles Moncky, the inventor, sold the patent for $2,000 and invested the money in a house in Williamsburg, Kings county, where he now lives.