Real Estate Record

AND    BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





Vol. XIL                  NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1873.                     No, 294





Published Weekly by

THE   REAL  ESTATE  RECORD ASSOCIATION.

TERMS.
One year, iu advance...........88 00

All commnnicationB shonld be addressed to

Whiting Building, 345 and 347 Beoadwat.





WESTCHESTER ANNEXATION.





Notwithstanding all tbe opposition which
in the past has prevented, and in some quar¬
ters is still objecting to, the annexation of
Morrisania, West Farms, and Kingsbridge to
the City and County of New York, there ex¬
ists no reasonable doubt to-day, but the long
looked-for scheme will at last be consummated
on Tuesday next. Those residing in West¬
chester County are unanimous in favor of
annexation, and whatever opposition there is
still manifested in the upper wj»'"''s of the city
will be overcome by the po; .iu.i verdict in
the central and lower parts of New York.
Some very excellent arguments have been put
forth by the joint Citizens' Committee on An¬
nexation, and also some figures which we re¬
produce for the information of tliose who may
still have their doubts as to the urgency of the
plan. It is claimed tliat the New York of to¬
day has but limited accommodations for what
are generally called the middle classes. Owing
to the inroads of coramerce on the one side of
the city, and the increase of costly mansions
on the other, there is but little room left for
those of limited means. Hence, the removal
of this latter class to New Jersey, which, as
we have stated before, has thrived at the ex¬
pense of the metropolis. The following fig¬
ures, showing the ratio of increase in New
York and New Jersey, are suggestive on this
point:

Increase of New York, 1870 over 1860, 16
per cent.; Paterson, N. J.; 171 per cent.;
Elizabeth, N. J., 180 per cent.; Hoboken, N.
J,, 210 per cent.; Jersey City, N. J., 283 per
cent.; Newark, N. J., 146 per cent.

The Annexation Committee further state
that the city of New York loses annually
40,000 inhabitants who cannot find suitable
homes in this island, and in closing their ad¬
dress to the people, say:

Those who are thus leaving New York have
an accustomed to a city life, and seek in
Ur?>«<unpul3ory exile the advantages of
lu,..^ ''^31 administration to meet the wants of
homes Vofc^his valuable class of the popula¬
tion annually leaving us in such numbers. It
is proposed to increase the territorial limits of
this city by annexing to it the towns of Morri¬
sania, West Farms,-.and Kingsbridge; in the
county of Westchester, This district seems
to have beeninteifded' by nature as the terri-
toiy upon which New York can overflow. Its
westerly bouiidai'j^'are tlie Hudson iand Harlem
rives, nearly all of "wiiich aff^-^ds i navig^^





water front, which will, of itself, add ten miles
to the dockage facilities of New York city.
From the North to the Bronx River a series
of ridges, all running southerly, extend toward
the city, having between them broad plains
upon which the homes of the people can be
built, and at the same time opening out upon
the Harlem River, Harlem Kills, and Long
Island Sound in such a manner as to cause a
natural drainage into tide water.

The United States Government in three years
hence will have removed the obstructions at
Hell Gate, so that New York will have anoth¬
er gateway to Europe via Long Island Sound,
and, in a few years, Westchester wards will
be so thickly populated that the Harlem River,
instead of being the boundary of the city, will
be the centre of its commerce.

The adoption of the a,nnexatlon measure
will afford homes for all those who now can¬
not find them on Manhattan Island, and in
our next issue we hope to announce that this
considerable addition has actually been made
to the limits of the city of New York.

THE PRICE OF MONEY.





The present disturbed state of the money
market shows the fallacy of usury laws in
our midst. By this time there are very few
men in the city of New York that have not
ascertained, to their bitter cost, that the value
of money varies considerably from time to
time. It is an article always in demand, but
just now considerably so as any one can ascer¬
tain who is endeavoring to get a cash value for
something. While there is a scarcity of cash
and a heavy demand for it, cash or money
commands its price as well as any other article.
Whatever some of the unsophisticated may say
about excessive rates for money, there are
many who need money even with the very
best securities, who are satisfied to pay those
excessive rates, and it is but right that they
should. When there is no money, or a scarci¬
ty of money, those in need of it must pay for
its use the same as they must pay for any other
article of merchandise. That mbhey cannot
be so easily obtained even on the very best of
securities is evidenced by what one now can
see almost daily at the County Clerk's; office,
where searches of property are lying untouched,
simply because at the outbreak of the panic
various financial institutions turned their
money into other channels and declined to
take the mortgages that were offered. Since
then those in want of the money have ascer¬
tained the fact that the price to obtain it is
high, but in some instances it has been paid,
while others refusing to pay the price had to
go without it.

All these things go to show .that in a com¬
munity like this where money has its market
price, and especially so. diering times like the
pre^^nt, it is simply ridiculous to talk of usury
laws, and almost impossible to enforce the^^





wherever they yet occupy their place upon
statute books.





GIVE THE ALARMISTS NO QUARTER.

The daily press have of late thought it a
part of their duty to criticise the management
of the leading journals abroad, especially
those which, through years of all sorts of
vicissitudes, have not only gained the esteem
and confidence of their own countrymen, but
have achieved a worldly reputation for their
excellence and trustworthiness. If a little of
that criticism was bestowed upon some of our
own daily journals, how well deserved would
it be. In times like the present, with the pub¬
lic mind sorely agitated in regard to the fin¬
ancial status of the country, we have a public
press that either has no conception of the mag¬
nitude of the financial shock as was plainly
evidenced during the recent panic when we
were told day after day that it would all be
over in a day or two, or it exas:gerates, for the
sake of a sensation, all that it hears or rather
all that it pretends to hear, as we now witness
almost daily in the columns of some journals
which, morning after morning, present us with
the most sickening prospects of what the
workingmen and the poorer classes must ex¬
pect during the coming winter. These jour¬
nals may pretend to be the time chroniclers of
the events of the day, but they certainly cannot
conceive it their mission to be chroniclers of
future events. Granted, that all the horrors of
a terrible winter are upon us, is it right that
merchants, manufacturers, traders, and others
who are struggling manfully with the un¬
toward events of to-day should find themselves
confronted morning after morning with gloomy
forebodings of the very events which tliey are
now striving hard to overcome, or is it done
to discourage and to unman them ? In this
hour of pluck and endurance on the part of
property owners, capitalists, and merchants, it
is the duty of eveiybody to put his shoulder to
the wheel and lighten the burden of his neigh¬
bor. The common weal demands this. And
from this duty the public press cannot claim
exemption. It cahnof inaintain the position
it now occupies and continue to add fuel upon
the burning flames unless it means to precipi¬
tate matters and make things AVorse all around.
We have seen this done before in New York;
where a senration n-ess, simply for sensation's
sake, precipitated j. J-iot upon its peaceably-
disposed citizens •• • )y inflammatory appeals
and exai-»erated^]ip>:)Unts of coming outi'agea
on the p£y:t of tioh nstituted authorities, ac¬
tually b laghtj^r bloody collisions in the
streets. It w^ Cli-nlj^ two weeks ago that we
calliBd upon ^^^^sfs, generally, to go to the

i'ear, and .^tg. /say now with more emphasis

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