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September 17, 1904.
RECORD AND GUIDE
569^
DB/opD 10 REA.L Estate.BuiLdijIg AR.cKrTEcmmE.HouseHoid DEQ(Bfjmi(,
Busiitss Alio Themes OF GEitoifl Ij^ter^st.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
Published eVerg •Saturday
Communications should be addressed, to
C. W. SWEET, 14 = 16 Vesey Street, New Yorll
J. T. LINDSET, Business Miinager Telephone, Cortlandt 3X57
"Entered at ihe Post Office at New York. N. Y.. os second-class mallei-."
Vol. LXXIV.
September 17, 1904.
No. I'JUS
THE stock market lias shov«-n unmistakable signs during
the past week of having been worked up into an over¬
wrought condition. The transactions were very large; the
changes in prices considerable and dependent chiefly upon
' speculative conditions, and there was every evidence of manipu¬
lation on a large scale. It has looked very much as if the
speculators who have been responsible for the advance have
heen getting rid of their stocks as fast as they could, and that
as soon as the operation was compleLed tbe stock market would
he deprived of the support, which has been chiefly responsible
for the recent rise in prices. On the other hand there has been
evidence, also, of a more general interest in stocK exchange
speculation than has heen "apparent for some time. On tbe
whole, however, we cannot believe that the existing market
can run its course much further witlioiit bringing about a sharp
.reaction. Bankers have every reason to discourage a top-heavy
speculative movement, which would simply prepare the way
for another collapse. It was all verv well to run prices up to a
point which was justified by the earning power of railroad and
industrial corporations; but there is no excuse for running them
up any further. Business prospects are better it is true; but
they are not so much better as to warrant the belief tbat the
railroads or the industrials will earn any more money than
they bave been doing. On the contrary tbe general conditions
are of a kind to act as a drag rpon business activity and pros¬
pects. Commodities, which enter into general consumption, like
wheat and cotton, are high, and wages are high also. The for¬
eign trade of tne country is not likely to be profitable or large.
Bankers cannot depend upon the same large foreign credits, and
this will have its reaction upon the domestic money market.
In short it is time for conservatism, for slow aud wise read¬
justments; and a revival of unwholesome speciilaUon in securi¬
ties can only be attended by eventual disaster.
ALMOST every successive week shows a seasonable increase
of real estate business. During tbe past six days, for in¬
stance, the total numher of sales reported of Manhattan and
Bronx property came to over 110, against a total of about 80 for
the preceding week, and a total of only 61 for the corresponding
week last year. These sales contain no news of any particular
importance, because all such news will naturally be eitber with¬
held as long as the lockout lasts. But they do indicate a nor¬
mal and growing" demand for real property in the city. The
number of dwellings sold each week is increasing, the majority
of them being situated on the West Side, and this is, perhaps,
the most encouraging sign of all. It is encouraging because the
demaud for private dwellings is the best test of tbe popular
Interest in the real estate market and of the popular power of
purchasing real estate. Furthermore, a good demand for pri¬
vate dwelliugs throughout the coming winter and spring will
encourage builders to begin the erection of such buildings on
Washington Heights, which will be a good thing for everybody
connected wltn the real estate and building material markets.
Private dwellings erected and sold in large numbers means
more money for brokers, builders and material dealers, than do
flats. The general conditions certainly favor a revived interest
in real estate. The low prices for standard stocks and bonds
which prevailed until recently diminished the general demand
for real estate in several different ways. In the flrst place, it
tempted people who had any money to invest to buy the cheap
and exGellent securities which wer'3 available. Then it prevented
a,dpider of securities who might want to buy a house from sell¬
ing,'Jiecause he would not he able to obtain a price correspond-
â– Ing to the investment value of bis stocks. Now, however,
stocks are-much less tempting to buy than they were, and they
are mucb'^^^">re tempting to sell—a fact .which should have a .
good sf^'\ 5ub-i-| ^j^g demand for real estate by individual in-
TJf OW long it does taire to erect an important public building
â– ^ -^ in New York City! The new Library and the Custom
House have already been under construction for more than flve
years, and are still several years away from completion. As to
the new Court House, it takes as long for the city or the county
to decide what it wants to do as it would for a private cor¬
poration to construct a building of the same cost. The com¬
mission constituted by the Legislature for the purpose ot select¬
ing a site for the Court House and superintending the construc¬
tion, have been unable to agree even upon the site, and are going
to tbo Legislature for a change in the terms of the enabling act.
The law under which they were constituted forbade them to go
north of Franklin Street to flnd a site for the new Court House,
and they wish to have this limit removed. They want to bo
able to select a site on Union or Washinston Squares; and ap¬
parently they would have no object in seeking to abolish the re¬
striction in the present law unless they knew that they could
agree upon a site further uptown. Consequently it looks as if
they had practically decided in favor of a location on one of .the
two squares mentioned above. It remains to be seen whether
the influence of the big legal firms whose ofiices must necessarily
remain in the flnancial district, will be sufficient to defeat this
project; .but certain it is that if the site on Chambers Street is
not large enough, it would be better to seek a good site further
uptown than to be content with a poor one in tbe district be¬
tween Center Street and Broadway. The sites uptown would
unquestionably have every architectural advantage; and they
would have the additional advantage of increasing the beauty
and interest of parts of the city which are in danger of being
passed by in the march of improvement. In a city like New
York where there is such intense concentration of activity in
certain small areas, coupled with comparative dullness else¬
where, it is good municipal policy to distribute the public
â– buildings, which add to tbe attractiveness to the business of the
sections in which they are situated, and so increase the number
of really interesting and lively districts. Lawyers, who were
able to move, could get better ofBces for less reni uptown than
they can downtown, while the vacancy they would leave in the
vicinity of the existing Court House, would soon be fllled up.
Of course the Chamibers Street site must eventually be improved
with a public building; but it is better adapted to the needs of a
municipal office building than to those of a county court house.
vesto
: denials, 'v
T N spite of the fact that there is much to criticize in the way
^ that Mayor McClellan's administration has insisted upon
drawing new plans for the Manhattan Bridge, the Municipal Art
Commission has adopted the wiser course in approving the wire
cable and plans and designs drawn by the present Bridge De¬
partment and Messrs. CarrSre & Hastings. It should have been
enough for the Commission that the new designs were as they
are architecturally acceptable. The plans and designs prepared
by Messrs. Lindenthal & Hornbostel were preferable; and it is
too bad that they were rejected; but the present Administration
wanted wire cables, aud it was bound to get them. Moreover, in¬
asmuch as its successor is likely to be of the same opinion, the
refusal of the Art Commission to accept the new plans and de¬
signs would have meant that the Bridge would be indefinitely
delayed in its construction; and such a delay would have been
the worst of all evils that could happen in relation to it. The
Manhattan Bridge will be au extremely useful structure, which
is necessary to the growth of Brooklyn and which should be
erected as soon as possible. The Municipal Art Commission, in,
case it had accepted the advice of the Municipal Art Society and
appointed an engineering commission to pass upon the adequacy
of the engineering pl<ins, would have transcendea its function.
Its function is the negative one of not permitting the erection of
ugly monuments and buildings in New York City; and as Com¬
missioner Best's bridge will be a perfectly respectable archi¬
tectural composition, there was nothing to do but to approve it.
The Art Commission would become a mere obstructer of public
business in ease it interferes in relation to other than purely
aesthetic questions,
-------•-------
WHAT a center of amusement New York is becoming. It
will soon surpass any European city in the number and
variety of the places of popular pleasure within its limits. Ow¬
ing to Luna Park and Dreamland, Coney Island has begun a new
and better career. The new hippodrome will intioduce into the
heart of the city a Luua Park adapted to the cold weather; and
now another Dreamland is to be laid out at the northern end of
Manhattan Island. The proposed park on the Harlem River Ship
Canat will not have the advantage of tbe air fresh from the
water or of the surf bathing wbich draw so many people to
Coney Island; but It w-ill have certain otber merits peculiar to
itself. It will be much more accessible to the people who live
north of 59th St. than are the Coney Island resorts, and the