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ESTABUSHED â– S8?''
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Dd^t^ P f^E^L Estate . BulLDl^'G A,acrfrrECTjRE ,t{ousCMoLD DEQtaifTTorf,
BJsiriEss Ai^Themes of CEfiER^l- Ij^TERfsi.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Published every Saturday
Comraunlcatlons sliould be aiidrossed to
C. W. SWEET
Downtown Olfice: 14-16 Vesey Street, New York
Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
Uptown OI[ice: 11-13 East 24th Street
Telephone, Madison Square 1696
''Entered ai the Tost Office at New York, N. Y,. as second-class matter.''
Vol, LXXVIIl,
SEPTEMBER 1, 190t>.
No, 2007
.INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.
Page, Page.
Cement .....................xxiii Law..........:............xl
Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber ...................xxviii
Clay Products...............xxii Machinery ....................iv
Contractors and Builders.......v Metal Work ................xvil
Electrical Interests...........viii Quick Job Directory.........xxvii
Fireproofing ..................li Real Estate .................xill
Granite .....................xxiv Roofers & Roofing Mater'Is, .x>;vi
Heating .......................xx Stone .......................xxiv
Iron and Steel..............xviii Wood Products ............xxviii
WHEN the amount of cumulative bull material at hand is
taken Into consideration the stock market continues to act
in a "safe and sane" manner. The failure of the Real Estate
Trust Company of Philadelphia this week is a misfortune gener¬
ally, and not only to those individuals immediately interested.
It will serve to accentuate the increasing fear that exists with
reference to the so-called real estate speculation. There is prob¬
ably, on the â– whole, no unreasonable speculation in real estate
any more than there is in securities. The temper of the
financial and business world is conservative, and most people
are managing their affairs with excess of caution. As to this
particular failure, the institution was regarded as one of the
strongest financially in Philadelphia. Its late president, Frank
H. Hippie, since its incorporation in 1885 had placed it in the
front rank of the city's financial concerns. The immediate
effect was naturally a sharp reaction in the stock market on
Tuesday afternoon, which interrupted the advance, but never¬
theless there is still confidence that the advance will continue
with renewed vigor. The local character of the collapse of the
company was manifest, and the stock market effect seems to
have passed, and really was entirely what it deserved to be,
for the reason that this failure was not a notice of unsound
intrinsic business conditions. With Tegard to the money
situation there is a growing feeling that our banking interests
have it well in hand. They know that they can command ample
gold supplies from Europe whenever required. Further, if neces¬
sary, Secretary Shaw has ample funds at his command to come
to the relief of the money market. Reverting again to this
Philadelphia Real Estate Trust Company's failure, it may be
said that it is already almost forgotten, an evidence of the
strong underlying fundamental conditions and the general pros¬
perity of the country. Whether the receivership is to bs onlj
tempo'rary and the company to shortly resume business at an
early day is not yet determined, but certain it is that Wall
Street has resumed its usual normal conditions and the market
cannot be said to have been hurt much. There were individuals
who suffered, of course, as there always are on such breaks,
which play havoc with lightly,margined accounts, and is apt to
make the victim believe that the bottom has tumbled out of the
market. It was surprising indeed to see how stocks thrown
on the market were snatched up. and the attempt to break the
list ,to any great e^itent proved futile. The Record and
Guide does-not assume to possess the gift of prophecy, but the
course of the stock and money markets for some time past has
been very much as has been anticipated in these columns.
record of the similar period in the previous year. Presumably
Cor reasons based on the new mortgage tax law, the filings of
mortgages continue to exceed in number the business done in
this line last year, but they have not been nearly so numerically
large as some authorities expected. In fact, in most par¬
ticulars, if an exception is made for speculative tenement house
operations, the aspect of the real estate field is quite normal
for this season throughout the whole city. It is to be said,
however, tliat the public appetite for investment property has
been somewhat appeased, and the buying movement may on this
account be less strong than in the spring. In Brooklyn brokers
are expressing expectations of a "selling" movement in the
fall, in contradistinction to the prolonged "buying" movement
they have had there, the sellers iu this event to be owners and
investors rather than builders. Prices have advanced and har¬
dened to such an extent in Brooklyn, that Queens has derived
a great benefit therefrom. For those for whom real "estate and
building interests have a fascination, a run through Queens is
a thrilling recreation. All the signs and symbols of a boom
can there be viewed. Not since the elevated railways were
opened in Manhattan has there been such a field of excitement
in and around New York City. Many new and not a few old
city firms of brokers have opened ofiices in Queens, while of
operators new and old in the trade the number is incalculable.
Perhaps it is because that so much professional and public
interest has been carried over to Queens that a lessened amount
is left for the older boroughs; but whatever the effect of the
exodus to Queens, there is no denying that another great city
is being erected there—a city for middle class homeseekers,
semi-rural and highly respectable. Probably not enough account
has been taken in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn this
summer of what has been transpiring in Queens and on Long
Island when explaining general conditions,—Builders in Man¬
hattan continue busy with the great works that were laid out
In the spring, but the building projects for the future are
much shortened compared with last year. Since the decline in
brick, there has been no special movement in building materials,
except in painters' supplies. Painters are furiously busy every¬
where. Labor conditions are tranquil in all trades without
exception.
FOR the last week of August the real estate market has been
reasonably active and interesting, and it is noteworthy
that, as regards conveyances liled, the record of the whole month
of August compares creditably with what was done in the cor¬
responding period of 1905, This is true of the whole city. The
conveyances flled In Manhattan this week are fifteen in excess
of the number filed a year ago, and in the Bronx the difference
In favor of this year ia 31, Manhattan's record for the whole
month also surpassed in number of filings for conveyances the
BRYAN'S reception in New York was impressive, and if the
Democratic convention which will nominate that party's
next Presidential candidate were to be held within the next
three months, there can be little doubt that Bryan would be
nominated. Moreover, in case he is nominated when the time
comes, it is entirely possible that he will be elected; and if
such should be the case, it would only be another illustration of
the truth that a politician cannot recommend himSelf to the
American people better than by standing for a definite set of
principles and convictions. Bryan's strength is due to the fact
that he has gradually impressed the American people as an
honest and able man, who can stand firm ih defeat, and who is
neither cowardly nor self-seeking. It is true, of course, that
he no longer insists upon the free coinage of silver, and that
we do not hear as much as we once did about the crucifixion of
mankind upon a cross of gold; but if Mr. Bryan no longer em¬
phasizes the earlier phase of his public policy as exclusively as
he once did, that is only because the whole course of the
economic development of the country plainly proves that he
was mistaken. He has certainly sacrificed in the past as much
as anybody can reasonably ask to his convictions on the money
questions, and if he is willing to drop them now, public opinion
should not quarrel with him. Mr. Bryan is to be accepted or
rejected at the present time according as his present policy
ts or is not calculated to advance the national welfare. There
can be no doubt of his moral integrity and his patriotic inten¬
tions, and, of coiu-se, he now looms up as a moderate, conserva¬
tive and "safe" candidate compared to his most conspicuous
Democratic competitor. It is not Mr. Bryan's honesty or his
patriotism which can be questioned; it is rather his fundamental
good sense. He means well; but he thinks badly. His opinions
are in some respects too conservative, and in other respects too
radical, and it is difficult to tell in advance just how his mind
will act. He is liable to the aberrations of a quick and easy
but undisciplined intelligence, and it is this characteristic which
may again betray him into a mistake as fatal as his earlier
attempt to trace all the ills of our country to the gold standard.
GENERALLY it is not known that New York has 750 miles
of unpaved streets, mostly in Queens and Richmond
Counties. There are only two completely paved or
almost completely paved cities in the United States, and
both are in New England. Boston, with 500 miles of
Street surface, bas only six mUes impaved, arid providence,