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February 19, 1910
RECORD AND GUIDE
373
ESTABIJSHEIl-^MRBr'H2l5i^l868.
Bi/snfcss Aifo Theses of GEjiER^V!l^?^^*T*j
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Conimnnlcations should be addressed tO ^
C. W. SWEET
Published Every Saturday
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTtN W. SWEET "' Treasurer, F. W. DODGE
Vice-Prea. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T. MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 Bast 24tli Street, New York Cltr
â– ^ (Telephone. Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered at tlic Post Off tee at Ncic
York
N. Y..
(IS
second-class matter."
Copyr
Shted, 11.110, by
The
Record
Se
Guide
Co.
Vol.
LXXXV.
FEBRUARY
19.
1910
No.
21S8,
THE alterations in the general business situation that
have been taking place since the beginning oE tbe year
have all been by way of improvements. If tiie conditions
which had prevailed during the last part of 1909 had not been
cheeked, the country would sometime during the current year
have run upon the rocks of a panic. The high cost of living,
the high prices of commodities, the dwindling exports, the
enormous expansion of business and credit—these conditions
would assuredly have resulted eventually iu the dangerous
collapse of the top-heavy structure of prosperity and a pro¬
longed period of industrial depression. But since the first of
the year the speculative movement iq stocks has collapsed,
and the general credit situation has been relieved thereby.
Stocks have become cheap; but they have become cheap
enough to stimulate a moderate amount of investment buy¬
ing. Capital has been released for necessary business purposes
and business expansion has suifered a wholesome check. The
small exports and the large imports continue aad, so long as
they continue, are bound to constitute a drain on the im¬
mediate resources of the financial community. In all prob¬
ability the large exports will remain a feature of American
foreign trade, but with the coming of spring it is probable
that prices of commodities will be reduced to a poi-nt low
enough to stimulate an effectual foreign demand, and if the
crops of 1910 are as large as the increased acreage promises,
the country should be able to command during the latter
part of the year a larger credit balance in the Euporean
financial centres. The situation has not by any means been
relieved of all of its dangerous aspects, chiefly because the
country is still living at too high a rate, but at any rate
there seems to be a good chance that the process of de¬
liberately re-creating panic conditions has been checked.
All of these changes in the general condition should help
the real estate market. What real estate needs above every¬
thing else is an easy money market and a sound general
business condition; aud the first of these needs at least has
been satisfied for many months to come. Stocks are not so
cheap as to cause a rush of capital into Wall Street, and
they are not so dear as to strain credit. The improvement
in investment conditions will have its effect not only upon
bonds aud mortgages, but upon improved real estate. The
daily reports indicate, indeed, the existence at the present
time of an excellent demand for this class o£ realty, and it
must continue as a condition of a persistence of that very
considerable building movement iu Manhattan borough. The
way in which that movement maintains the high level of
last year is very extraordinary.
two aspects of the official policy of the city in which real
estate is most interested are, in the first place, some relief
from the excessive burdens of taxation and from the vexa¬
tious use of the police powers of the State and, in the second
place, some arrangement at the earliest possible date
of a comprehensive plan of rapid transit improvement. In
relation to taxation the brokers were addressed by Tax Com¬
missioner Purdy, who made an able plea for the abandon¬
ment of the' general property tax. Everything which Mr.
Purdy said about the injustice and inexpediency of this tax
is unquestionably true, but no matter how unjust it may be
in its application, it is impossible for real property owners to
be very enthusiastic about its abandonment just at present.
During the past two years the tax burdens of New York
real estate have been increased hy about $25^000,000, aud
this iucrease has taken place at a time when conditions have
prevented any considerable shifting of this burden upon the
shoulders of tenants. In the case of certain classes of
expensive property rents have been increased, but through¬
out the residential districts, rentals have been stationary. To
have another ?6,000,000 added to this burden is a pros¬
pect that does not appeal at all to ordinary property
owners, particularly in view of the fact that the
increase in assessed valuation is not sufficient to provide
for the iucrease in the ordinary expenses of the city. Real
estate owuers may regard the proposed change with more
equanimity as soon as they are sure that veal and substantial
economies are being introduced into the municipal Budget,
but until such an assurance is realized, taxpayers will
be inclined to believe that the impostiou of further burdens
upon real estate should be postponed until the conditions
have become adjusted to the recent heavy increase in taxa¬
tion.
THB large attendance at the dinner of the Real Estate
Board of Brokers, aud the excellent feeling manifested by
the attendance are an encouraging augury for the better
organization of the real estate interests of New York. It
cannot be too frequently repeated that what the imperative
interest of real estate demands is that property owners should
get together and make their influence felt, BOTH AT THE
CITY HALL aud at ALBANY; and uo association of people
connected in any way with real estate has helped more to
make property owuers realize their common needs aud
dangers than has the Board of Brokers. The speeches made
upon the occasion of their annual dinner afforded the best
existing means of expressing the demands and the grievances
of real estate owners, and at the dinner lg,st Wednesday
night the opportunity was turned to excellent account. The
THE intentions of the municipal authorities in respect to
improved rapid transit will be explained to the brokers
and their guests by Mr. Mitchel, President of the Board of
Aldermen. From what he said and from what is already known
about the opinions of Mayor Gaynor, there can be no doubt
that whatever the Board of Estimate can do to build addi¬
tional Subways will be done; but neither Mr. Mitchel's
speech, nor the current reports in the newspapers, have
done anything as yet to re-assure Manhattan property owners
about the most discouraging aspect of the existing situation
—viz: the apparent impossibility of any agreement between
the Interborough Company and the Public Service Commis¬
sion as to additioual Manhattan Subways. It is all very well
to go ahead with the Broadway-Lexington route, but that
route will merely develop additional traffic without doing any¬
thing to relieve the congestion on the existing Subway. More¬
over, no provision has yet been made for a West Side Sub¬
way, laid out to satisfy the needs of the new business district
around Greeley Square. In this connection we take pleasure
in printing a letter which the Record and Guide has just re¬
ceived from a prominent real estate owner; and there can be
no doubt that the opinions therein expressed are shared by
a large fraction of the property owners of Manhattan:
To the Editor of the Record and Guide:
Just how the battle-royal is to end that is being fought at
the present time between iUessrs. Shonts and Willcox over the
Subway problem, is a question tliat is interesting the citizens
of this town immensely just now; quite as much so as a little
mill between any of the favorites of the prize-ring. Shonts,
with Morgan's $100,000,000 at his command, is not saying much,
but the accelerating of public opinion on Rapid Transit matters
is proceeding quite to his own satisfaction, with express trains
running on slow schedule by special order to the train dis¬
patcher, and side entrance trains that do not materialize; or
â– for that matter, the extended station platforms about which
there has been so much conversation for a year past or
more. On the other hand, Willcox is boastful in his speech
and arrogant. The thought pleases him that he has forced the
side entrance cars down the objecting throat of Mr. Shonts.
(There are three of these trains so far discovered by the ti'avel- .
ling public, it is believed, and these seem to be falling into
disuse if the truth be known.) This and other achievements
are inspiration enough, and he grows eloquent as the time
goes by,
A lawyer by profession, his statements suggest the lawyer
rather than the practical man of busmess. Witness, for in¬
stance, tjiis: "There is one thing I wish to state definitely. The
Commission is not going to permit the necessities of the City to
become the opportunity of the franchise grabbers." All of
which is good logic, btit opposed to that $100,000,000. Can they
prevent them? Or even so, is it altogether desirable that it ,
should be done in this particular instance? Most people have-
heard some things said about the "law's delay." Postponement
Xurn to the Property Owners' Department and read about the ANTI-VIOLATION CAMPAIGN.