Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXI.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, APEIL 27, 1878.





Published^Weekly by

Cfjc %vd Estate Efcorb ^ssonatxoii.

TERMS.
O.^E YEAR, in advance.,,,SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  W.  SWEET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





THE DAILY PRESS AND TAXATION.

A distinguished commentator has said that
"the liberties of Great Britain have uo real
security except iu the freedom of the press, which
rests itself rather upou the habits and opinions of
the nation than upou au}- legal enactments or
judicial decisions."

Fortunately for this country the freedom of the
press rests upou uo vacillating or unstable fouu-
diition, but is engrafted iuto tho organic law of
the laud, and is indelibly ingrained iuto the web
nud woof of public sentiment It is the very
corner stone upou w-hich the w-hole fabric of
American government rests.

During the past fifteen years our republican
institutions have beeu subjected to exceptional
.ind successive trials. They have undergone tbe
lui-/.ards of au armed assertion of the right of
.secession, the perils of a prolonged couditiou of
war, the miseries of a protracted iullatiou of the
currency and tho inevitable reaction uuder a
forced resumption of specie pa3'ments; and later
still have been brought face to face with the con¬
sequences of a disputed aud doubtful presidential
count

Out of all these signal ci-ises the goveiimient
has emerged unbroken aud unscathed, and iu
the midst of them the press of the countr}' was
found equal to the demands of each emergency,
a formidable engine iu tho vindication of right
and the exposure aud extii-pation of wrong. The
growing and cumulative power of the press would
bo menacing aud startling w-ere it not invariably
prompt and i-eady,in given emergencies, to espouse
the cause of popular rights. As an educator of
the people it has fairly usurped the place of the
indpit and it does not shrink from addressing
counsel aud wai^ning to the bench itself. All the
learned professions have become tributary and
subservient as well as amenable to the great
power of journalism.

The salient aud threatening evils of the present
day in our American system, -which need to be
vigorously and shai-ply combated and -which
become alarming and portentous mainly on ac¬
count of their insidious operation, are these two:
the perpetration of wrong-doing under the forms
of law and the absorption of the means of the
people through oppressive systems of taxation.
The fii-st of these is confessedly the monster
abuse and vice of modern times. The prostitution
of the forms of law has been pi-actised not merely
for the accomplishmant of political and partisan
ends, but the same daring and reckless spirit has
invaded tlie domain of finance. Under the pro¬
tection of fraudulent charters and the screen of
questionable legal enactments, no small num¬
ber of the fiiduciary institutions of the country'





have been quietly absorbing aud appropriating
the savings of the jieople until their exposure aud
destruction have become a national duty aud
necessity. Iu the crusadc"againstfraudulent fidu¬
ciary institutions, the press has lent a helpful
hand aud proved itself a sullicieut antidote to the
purposes of fraudulent trustees, bringing them to
swift and condign punishment The other issue,
that of the depredation of private propertj' by
tiixatiou and the harsh injustice of unequal levies
has graduallj- loomed upon the public mind, until
now it is beginning to claim the serious attention
of the pres.s. OC the onerous and blighting lega¬
cies of the war, perliaps the most diflicult to erad¬
icate or dispose of are tho maiumoth debts which
now bear so heavily upou the p^op^e. The
effort to provide for the principal and interest of
vast indebtedness together with more or less ex¬
aggerated expenses of goverumeut 1ms occasioned
a volume of taxation, which is all but destructive
to the prosperity and industry of the countrj-.

It becomes an iuquirj- of the highest uiomeut to
know what position tbe press will assume toward
this subject Heretofore it has been slightlj- or
superlicial I J- treated. Until quite recently it had
become almost the chronic habit of tho press, par-
ticulai-ly of the press of this citj-, to frown down
anj- criticism of the volume or methods of taxa¬
tion. The tone aud spirit which characterized
the editorials of the loading journals were decid¬
edly favorable to the uiaiuteuaiice of large bud¬
gets, without auj' consideration of the sources
whence taxation was being derived. With rare
exceptions, tho jiress has beeu allied to the prin¬
ciple of prouiotiug and expanding public expend¬
itures, especiallj- for cosllj' works aud alleged
uuprovements. In the name of building up the
suburbs, enlarging the bordei-s aud beautifying
the physical conditions of the citj-, claims have
beeu constantly pressed for this and that expen¬
diture, either for improved docks, new pm-ks, ex¬
pensive boulevards, supplemental water supplies,
or many other mammoth aud costly public enter¬
prises. However meritorious such demauds may
seem, and however laudable may bo a w-ise fore¬
cast of the future needs of the citj-, it is warrant¬
able to aver that the merit aud wisdom of these
public improvements must rank as secondary to
the consideration of where the funds are to come
from, which will be required to pay for them.
Already it is acknowledged that the debt of this
city is as large as its credit can comfortably
stand, and certainly the present budget of taxa¬
tion has reached a volume w-hich can admit of no
further enlargement. Premature aud extrava¬
gant public -works have plunged property holders
in the depths of poverty, and brought the govern¬
ment to the verge of insolvency. We must defer
the projection of further public enterprises until
the city gro%vs up to the capaci y of those already
provided. It behooves the press, therefore, as
guardians of the public safety, to forego for the
present tho urging of auy further elaborate or
expensive works, aud direct its attention to the
matter of providing for the existing obligations
of the city, and of devising such a rational, com¬
prehensive and equitable scheme of taxation as
will distribute the bm-den pf necessarj' taxes
upon objects and persons best qualified to bear it.
Instead of opening new outlets of public expendi-
i-ure, let the press study to de-vdse proper methods





of raising aud apportif-uing city revenue. In a
great and active citj- like oui-s, thero need be uo
fear of public expenditures becoming pai-simoui-
ous or illiberal. The contrary result is the one
more to bo feared. The temptation to adorn aud
build up the city is constant aud pressing, and the
danger is imminent and present at all times of
exceediug the abilities of tax-payei-s, and of load¬
ing the busiuess interests of the city w-ith an un¬
manageable and intolerable burden of debt.

It is a truism to allege that all great popular
movements derive their germinating force from
the dailj- press; that uo important reform, either
in political, commercial or social life, has ever
beeu successfullj- accomplished w-ithout the
initiative or at all events the co-operatioii of the
daily press. We will invoke this luightj- and
majestic power to bend itself to the relief of the
over-burdened tiix-pajcis of New York. We
have uo idea of minimizing or depreciating the
abilitj- of the business interests of this citj- to
respond to both the obligations of present city
indebtedness and to the requirements of au honest
and even liberal city budget. But tbe difficulty
is, that uuder our present fossilized and imprac¬
ticable tax system the whole burden of these obli¬
gations rests oppressively uixm oue interest, to
w-it., real estate. It is venturing but little to say
that this oue unaided interest is not able to beai-
up uuder the strain. The operatiou of taxation
has iuteusified the universal depression iu this
interest, and threatens now at a time wheu we
might reasonably expect the operation of recup¬
erative forces to prolong aud petrify the dis-
astei-s which have overwhelmed it

The doctrine of the self-diffusion of taxation is
a verj- pleasing and captivating oue for philoso-
pliei-s to discourse about, but that doctrine finds
uo fit or sufficient illustration wheu taxation is
applied solelj' to real estate. The article is too
unwieldy and uuuegotiable to admit of anj-
certain tlistributive ov dilTusive eil'ects. It is
incapable iu its vcrj- nature, aud owing to the
methods by which it is dealt in of giving reliable
distributive or diffusive power to taxation. Tax¬
ation falls upou real estate w-ith a heavj- thud
without reaction or rebound. The owuei-s of real
estate have the alternative coustantly presented
to them of foregoing all return or beuefit from
their property, or else of voluutai-ily assumiug to
pay the tax out of their own means aud allowing
the purchaser or lessee to escape free of tux. As
a consequence, this interest seems to be blighted
beyond any hope of eai-ly recoverj-, aud until
substantial relief is afforded, the perils of the
situation must grow greater i-ather than less.
The inevitable outcome of those perils will be to
concentrate the title of real propertj- into fewer
and fewer hands. The meu of colossal wealth,
the great financial institutions and the city itself
will in time so tighten theu- grip upou real estate
as to render its ownership tmattainable, aud its
occupation impossible by the average citizen.

We hold it to be plainly demonstrable that the
real estate of this city is not designed nor fitted
to be the foot ball of spectdators, or the impaled
victim of the cormorants of government In its
natural character and capacity, it is best qual¬
ified to be the depository of the savings of
average well-to-do citizens. Tbe safety and
prosperity of the mimicipality depend largely