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August i8, 1906.
RECORD AND GUIDE
293
ESTABUSHED ^ MARpHSl-^ 136 S-
Dn^TEO JO Rea,L Estajt.SuildijJg Ar.ch'itzcture.HouseiIoibDEGOfiAnorf.
Bbsii^Ess Ai^Themes Of Gt;JEr(ftl I^^ter^est.
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Published eVern Saturday
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C. W. SWEET
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Telephone, Cortlaudt 3157
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-Entered at the Fast Office at Neic Tor!,:, N. Y„ as second-class matter.'
Vol. LXXVin.
AUGUST 18, 1906,
No. 2005
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.
Page. Page,
Cement.......................xxx Law.......................xi
Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber ....................xxx
Clay Products ..............xxiv Machinery ....................iv
Contractors and Builders.......v Metal Work ................xvll
Electrical Interests ...........xx Quick Job Directory ........xxix
Fireproofing ..................ii Real Eslate .................xiii
Granite ....................xxvi Roofers & Roofing Mater'ls.xxviii
Heating ....................xxii Stoue......................xxvi
Iron and Steel..............xviii Wood Products ..............xxx
TT 7ALL STREET brokerage houses and financial writers
* * persist in construing the advancing market action each
day as a desperate eftort of big interests to unload. The fact is,
tliat when big interests want to accumulate stocks they can
only do so by creating this very suspicion, malting each seller
pat himself on the back and say, "The big interests are not
fooling me; they cannot unload on me, I will unload on them,"
and so the street has been unloading ou tliese great controlling
interests as they supposed for the past month, and it would
appear it was just what these interests in question wanted. The
manufacture of new stocks having ceased for flve years, whereas
the manufacture of new money has proceeded at a greater pace
than ever known, is it not conceivable that the floating supply
of stocks is smaller than five or six years ago, so that when
large operators wish to acquire a line of securities their task
will be impossible of accomplishment if the public were con¬
temporaneous buyers? Such operators must necessarily create
the prevailing sentiment and caution to "beware of distribu¬
tion" in order to have the buying to themselves. All signs
point to a sold-out condition of the average Wall Street com¬
mission house, and this belief will find expression later in low-
priced railroad and industrial issues which have not yet par¬
ticipated in the advance. The sold-out public will resort to
these issues so as to get back into the game. This they will
prefer to purchasing again the stocks they have lost by their
smart unloading, so it would seem that stocks like Inter¬
borough, Erie, Wabash, Iowa Central and Wisconsin Central at
current quotations offer the preponderance, of ehrfnces in favor
of an extended advance, and this might also be said of United
States Steel Common. The threshing returns of wheat are
greatly exceeding the early estimates of the crop, and should the
Canadian crop realize its promise we may see an approach to a
thousand million bushels as a product of the North American
continent. A month ago there was some disquietude about
money. It has now ceased to be a cause for alarm. Never has
the money market been so closely watched nor more sensitive;
yet it is not now believed that an acute situation will develop—
"A watched pot never boils." Whether true or not. Wall Street
has also come to the belief that there is a distinct slackening in
real estate speculation, for which great relief is expressed, as
the Street had worked itself up into a state of "nerves" over the
impression that the speculation had become strained and could
not stand up against a long period of tight money, for Wall
Street finds it pleasant to believe that its panics have always
been caused not by its own excesses but by some reckless per¬
formance of outside interests.
THE extraordinary thing about the existing activity of real
estate in Manhattan is that it holds its own so well
under such disadvantageous conditions. The marltet has
against it now two factors of the utmost importance. For one
thing, renting conditions are not at all as good as they were in
certain new districts, which means that tenements in these dis¬
tricts are harder to sell, and that comparatively few new opera¬
tions will be undertaken. But of even greater Importance Is
the c9n(jitlo!i ot the money market, which iqakes it difficult to
obtain building loans, and which is holding up many building
enterprises. The plans filed for new buildings to be erected
in Manhattan and the Bronx during July, 1906, called for the
spending of only about half as much money as the plans filed
during July, 1905. It is extraordinary, consequently, that the
conveyances continue to be as numerous as they are. Their
number does not vary materially from the number recorded
during the-corresponding period last year, and inasmuch as the
number recorded in 1905 broke all previous records by a large
percentage, it can hardly be said that the contraction in the
real estate business has as yet become very serious. It is much
more serious in the Bronx than it is in Manhattan, and as for
Brooklyn, the current activity is even greater than it was a
year ago. It is an interesting fact that during the first week
in August twice as many conveyances of Brooklyn property were
recorded than of Manhattan and Bronx property combined. It
is also to be remarked that, owing to the sudden diminution of
building in Manhattan and the Bronx, the total figures are be¬
ginning to run behind those of last year. The plans for new
Manhattan buildings recorded during the flrst seven months
of 1906 still call for an expenditure of $5,000,000 more than the
plans filed during the same period in 1905, but the Bronx shows
a diminution of about $G,000,000 for the same period, so that
the balance is now in favor of 1905. This balance will probably
be increased before the end of the year, for there will during
the rest of the year undoubtedly be a lull in tenement-house
building. In the meantime the fall renting season has been
begun, and upon its results will depend the activity of the com¬
ing winter. Since 1901 there has been no year iu which it was
so difficult to predict just where speculative activity would be
concentrated. Much, however, will depend upon the fate of
the proposed rapid transit extensions.
â– pv E WITT CLINTON PARK, with an area of seven and a half
â– *-' acres at Fifty-second to Fifty-fourth streets, fronting on
North River, has since its completion in November last greatly
benefited the neighborhood, which was much in need of such
improvements. Much of the old Strykers Lane property was in¬
cluded within this teiTitory, and its exceedingly slow develop¬
ment was long a bar to the growth of property values in this
vicinity and ot tbe West Side generally. The neighborhood
about here for many years was of a rough character, peopled
by some of the most undesirable citizens within the limits of
Manhattan. It was recognized as a slum district, and indeed
so objectionable was the reputation it had acquired that ap¬
parently the growth of the city at this point and hereabouts
had stopped at Fifty-ninth street. The opening of De Witt
Clinton Park has changed all this. Play grounds for the chil¬
dren, a gymnasium, and a model market garden kept ou scien-
tiflc principles now flourish. The garden is unique in respect to
the attention given to the growth of ordinary vegetables. This
section of the city is daily showing signs of progress in a
marked degree, and there is a distinct improvement in the
character and intelligence of those who make this district their
home. The Park is a distinct gain in every way for tliose who
live near it, and cleanliness, self-respect and a moral sense
which in former years were absent to a great extent now gener¬
ally prevail. The Park is a boon to the familes of laborers and
mechanics who haA'e taken up their residence here, and the
uplifting effect of a pleasure ground in bettering conditions
and improving the tone of the people is again demonstrated.
UNRIVALLED in excellence as are the hotels of New York
City, the extent of the accommodations they offer, the
conveniences which they have installed, and their progressive
management, combine to make it the more surprising that New
York should be the only large city in the country which has, in
fact, few "middle grade" family hotels. Between the first-class
hotels and those of the cheapest sort there is little middle
ground in New York. There are no hotels here which cater
or profess to cater to middle class patrons at moderate rates.
All other American cities have three varieties of liotels, those
of the highest class and largest accommodations, those of the
middle class at moderate rates, and the cheap and transient
hotels to be found usually near railway stations or boat land¬
ings. New York has cheap hotels, but it has few family hotels;
that is to say, hotels which cater to "family patronage" particu¬
larly. The reason for this is that the standard of rents charged
in New York in eligible locations is so much higher than else¬
where in the country that to run a New York hotel according
to the standard of family hotels in other cities would result
in a loss. Moreover, the measure of prosperity of hotels in this
city Is based on the extent of the accommodations they offer.
The most up-to-date hotel is by an invariable rule the most