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598





The Real Estate Record





June 11,1881





now is that there cannot be any serious
break while Gould is developing his South¬
western scheme. His friends say that the
new stock and certificates of Western Union
will sell at par, Missouri -Pacific at 130, Kan¬
sas & Texas at 160 and Texas Pacific at 90,
before Gould will give his signal to unload.
There is immense activity in railway cir¬
cles and large caUs for money. Where the
money comes from to take up all the bonds,
is a standing puzzle to the street. There isa
very rapid absorption of capital all over the
country, not only in new railways but in
buildings. What we see in our own streets
is parallelled all over the country. Tliis, in
time, ought to add to the value of money.
Yet it is the impression of Fiske & Hatch
that money will loan this summer at less
than 2 per cent. We adhere to the impres¬
sion that sometime during the summer there
wiU be seen the highest prices ever paid for

stocks.

-------------< . >-------------

THE FALL PROSPECT.
Some far-si.ghted speculators are under
the impression that the early fall will wit¬
ness an advance in prices in other saleable
articles than stocks. These last have had a
great advance, due in part to the great
cheapness of all usable products, and the
great additions to our currency. But is not
consumption overtaking production in some
articles V Take the metals, for instance. It
is known that the supplies of copper and
lead are light, aud tbat the consumption is
enormous, but buyers have got so habitu¬
ated to low and steady prices, that theypur-
• chase literally from hand to mouth. A little
extra demand would put the jprice of all the
metals up several points. The state of the
markets shows that general business was
never so active. The exchanges during the
month of May were extraordinarily large.
The strikes of the mechanics and laborers,
and the success which attends them, shows
that business is everywhere active, and man¬
ual labor in demand. There is no cloud in
the sky so far as the business world is con¬
cerned. The banks are increasing their is¬
sues : the Treasuiy keeps on coining silver
dollars and issuing certificates against them ;
exchange keeps low enough almost to induce
gold shipments. In short, there is every
reason to believe, even should the crops not
be up to the average, that immense business
activity will prevail during the fall season.
The cheapness < f money all over the world
has so far affected government bonds and
first-class public securities. Its next effect
will be to swell the volume of prices and all
merchantable articles will be affected. And
then will come the time for real estate. It
will be the last to boom, but it is the surest
and wisest of all investments.





THE LEADERS OF THE "STREET."
In Wall street there are always certain noted
people whom the smaller speculators follow. ISTow
it is one person, then another; but the most power¬
ful operator is he who for the time can command
the largest and the strongest following. There
have beeu some im]iortant changes recently. For
a long time James R. Keene was one of the mag¬
nates in the speculative arena, but he lost pres¬
tige in the spring of 1880, for he got on the wrong
side of the market and stayed there. What little
credit he had left, he has lost entirely during the
past spring, as he stuck to the bear side all
through a bull market. He has no following
to-day, though he stiU influences powerful news¬
papers. He is so disgusted himself with his posi¬
tion, that he seriously talks of confining himself
to the mining busiuess, in which he is at home.





Next after Jay Gould, the most powerful
manipulator of stocks is Charles F. WoerishoflEer,
the German banker. His ability to mark prices
up and down comes chiefly from his German
following. He has Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin
and other great German cities behind him, and
this gives him a large American following. His
specialities are St. Paul, Denver & Rio Grande,
Colorado Coal, Ontario & Western; but he does
not confLae himself to these stocks, for he is a
heavy dealer in New York Central and Lake
Shore. There is a story to the effect that on the
Saturday when the reftmding scheme was an¬
nounced, his chief clerk asked him what he
should do on Monday morning. " Buy," said
Mr. Woerishoffer, " 500 shares of every stock on
the list." He is understood to be a bull on tlie
general situation to-day. ^Mr. Woerishoffer is
not only taking Keene's place, but has beeu his
active Wall street opponent. He accuses Keene,
it seems, of playing him false in a deal in Ontario
& Western, and he has gone for the Californian
with great effect in St. Paul and other stocks of
which Keene was shoit.

Should there be a great fall in stocks, ex-Sur¬
rogate Hutchings will come to the front as one
of the most daring and far-seeing speculators of
the day. Should, however, the market continue
strong or become bull again, he wUl not only
lose credit, but a portion of his large fortune.
He was wonderfully successful in the fall of 1879
and the spring of 1880, as well as in the fall of
1880. He is, however, a sensational operator,
and may come to grief through over-confidence
in his own power.

-------.*.------

REAL ESTATE TITLES.
Mr. Dwight H. Olmstead is now preparing the
draft of a law to be submitted to the Legislature
next winter, having for its object an i'vportant
and far-reaching change in the official registry
of real estate titles. Mr. Olmstead declares that
the present system cannot last much longer;
that there is such an accumulation of indexes
that it has become physically imposssible to
make a perfect search of a title to real estate.
It has got to be so onerous to search a title that
lawyers accept the official transfers as accurate,
when they know that there is great liability to
error, not from fraud, but because of unavoid¬
able mistakes in the copying out of papers.

The writer had a conversation with Mr. Olm¬
stead on this subject during the past week, and
was much impi-essed by the facts which were
brought out. Mr. Olmstead showed him several
of the printed abstracts of title, which, it was
plainly to be seen, would take a world of labor
to verify. It has been proposed in other quarters
to get rid of the verbiage and leave out the
technicalities which now cumber the deeds and
indexes. In short, that the deed, like a well-
written letter, shall teU the story of the trans¬
fers without any unnecessary words. But Mr.
Olmstead wants to do more than this. His ob¬
ject is to give every real estate owner a title
which is as certain and as easily transferred as if
it was a Government bond or evidence of owner¬
ship in a railway company. Why, he asks,
should not the possessor of a piece of realty be
able to transfer his evidence of ownership as
readily as Vanderbilt or Jay Gould could buy or
sell ten thousand shares of railway stocks? That
can be done in a few minutes; but when Gould
or Vanderbilt purchases real property he must
submit to tedious delays, and even then is not
sure of his title. In short, Mr. Olmstead would
get rid, if he could, of all the legal fictions and
survivals of feudal'usages which surround the
transfer of real property from one person to
another.

" When I delivered my lectui-e," said Mr. Olm¬
stead, " on this subject, I supposed the politicians
and lawyers would very generally oppose any
change; but I find that I was mistaken. I have
received scores of letters from lawyers, warmly
advocating the change. They aU admit the evils
of the present system and say they cannot'do
their clients justice."

A reform, such as that proposed, would have





many important consequences. It would abolish
the right of dower, as well as the courtesy in an
estate. Land would be capitalized and certifi¬
cates of ownership would be negotiable in the
banks. Business would be enonnously stimulated
if titles to real estate could be used as collateral
for call and time loans, lu other words, real
estate would become a collateral on which money
could be temporarily loaned. This, in itself,
would be an immense stimuliis to trade all over
the country. Its effect on prices would also be
worth considering. Would not realty become
very much mdre valuable, if it could be readily
bought and sold. It is safe to say that it would
add from two to three hundred millions to the
assessable value of land on this island.

Mr. Olmstead is hopeful that this matter may
be taken up by the great insurance and money
lending corporations. They are now forced by
law, in their charters, to invest a great portion
of their assets in realty. The reform proposed
would save them time, money, and give them
perfect titles which they cannot have under the
present system. It would do much more; for if
their realestate was immediately negotiable like
bonds and stocks, it would be a far more desira¬
ble investment than now.

The present system is certain to break down
within a few years. The indexes are accumula¬
ting so rapidly, that the most acute and indus¬
trious lawyer despairs of being able to search
titles properly. All we have to do is to copy the
New Zealand law, to rid ourselves of the doubt
about our titles, and the needless expenditure of
time and money in selling or buying real estate.

ABOUT   FINANCIAL  WRITERS.

The agent of the Associated Press, over his
own name, charges that there is a regularly
organized conspiracy on the part of certain per¬
sons to disseminate false news for the purpose of
depressing values on the Stock and Produce
Exchanges. The World newspaper says that
this " syndicate of liars " bas wide ramifications,
that they have Chicago and I-ondon agents, and
that at least three New York papers are in their
interest. It is undoubtedly true that the New
York Herald, in its financial columns, has done
all it could to help the bears in stocks. Any one
influenced by the Herald lost his money, for it has
told all the bear stories and given them currency.

The Herald has vainly tried to keep its finan¬
cial columns pure, but, notwithstanding the care
exercised, the temptation has been too much for
the various editors. Among the people who
are said to have made money out of the Herald
this way were John Bonner, the defaulter, and
Edward N. Hudson. But few of its financial
editors, in tliirty vears, have not used the papei'
for their private ends. A sketch of the financial
editors of the daily press would be very instruc¬
tive. One money editor of the Tribune, named
Snow, died worth a quarter of a million of dollars,
while his salary was but twenty-five dollars a
week. He was succeeded by a man named
Clark, who made a fortune while financial editor
of the Exjjress. The Brooks Brothers sued him
for the money he made, but while the suit
was pending, the Tribune apijointed him its
financial editor. The World had a financial
editor for the first twelve years of its exist¬
ence who used the money columns of his paper
for his private gain. The managing editor
tried to oust him, but could not do it, as he was
backed by the publisher and chief proprietor.
But all financial editors ai-e not dishonest. The
chief writer on the Tribune is nearly always
wrong, but no o.ne doubts his incorruptability.
The Evening Post, also, is well served in this
respect. The readers of its money articles can
rest assured that they will not be tampered with,
as the writer is an honorable gentleman. The
new management in the paper did a wise thing
in retaining his services.

It ca,nnot, however, be said that a perfectly
trustworthy money article appears in any of the
New York papers With the two exceptions
named, they are all suspected of being in the in-
terest of the great speculators of the day.   James