J





Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXIV.





NEW YOEK, 8ATUKDAY, DECEMBEll (>, 1879.





iSo. 012





Publuihed Weekly by

Cbc %m[ Estate Eetortr ^ssoctatton,

TERMS.
0!VE YKAIt. in ad vance.... SIU.OU.
Coinninnications should be addre.ssed to.

C.   W.   SW^EKT.

Nos. 135 AND 137 Broadway

COiSGRESS AND PRICES.

The sharp break in the price of stocks on the
E.Kchange, which took place a couple of weeks
since, was in great part due to the certainty that
when Congress met various disquieting financial
iiuestious would inevitably be discussed. It is one
of the misfortunes of the situation that a congrega¬
tion of political lawj-ers, influenced by local con¬
siderations and swayed by political passions,
should have pow-er to augment or contract tbe
currency of the country. In other nations the
volume of the circulating medium is controlled
partly by the public demand, but iu a great
measure by their existing National Banks. We
have no such institution, and in some respects it
is unfortunate that we have not. The poweiw
exercised by a National Bank are distributed by
us among several agencies. First, there is
Congress, then there is the Secretary of the
Treasury, then the associated banks of New
York, and lastly, but very often by no means the
least in real power, the local money lenders.
These last have a great deal to say as to how
much or how little currency shall be afloat at any
one time. It is useless just now to try and get
tho country back to the partial control of its
finances by a National Bank, but it is a grave mis¬
fortune that so much power over the monetary
interests of the country is lodged in a Congress of
political lawyers and in a Secretary of the
Treasury, who is, first of all, a politician, and
very often a candidate for the Presidency.

It .is perhaps fortunate for the business of the
. country in some respects that John Sherman, the
present Secretary, is a candidate for the Presi¬
dency. He will do nothing during his term of
oflice to make money artificially tight or to
decrease the amount of currency afloat. But
Wall street has been arguing for the past two
weeks that it was inevitable when Congress met
that measures would be proposed looking to a con¬
traction of the currency. If such contraction
were ever seriously pressed it was realized that it
would for a time cause a halt in the speculative
movement.

Among the measures likely to be propofed in
the National Legislature is one stopping tho coin,
age of the silver dollar, and another looking to
the withdrawal of all small bills, both greenbacks
and bank notes of less denomination than twenty-
five doUai-s. Were the silver dollars no longer to
be coined, it would be taken as another blow at
one of the precious metals, and would be looked
upon as virtual contraction. It is since the re-
monetization of the silver dollar that business
has revived. It is recalled vividly, by all buti-
ness men, that the demonetization of the silver
dollar in 1S7.S was followed by a disastrous panic,
and though there may be no real relation betvreen
the two facts, yet still it would help to make
people apprehensive if the coinage of the silver
dollar were stopped.   It is very natural to sup¬





pose, also, that a strong effort will be made to
withdraw small bills, so as to eject'tbe surplus
silver dollars, gold eagles, and half eagles into the
currency of the country. We are a bullion pro¬
ducing nation; we mine both gold and silver, and
we should as far as possible, use these two metals
in our local trading. In California, Canada, and
jll Western Europe, one sees nothing but gold and
silver coinage in the retail channels of trade.
Bills are rarely used abroad, for the five pound
Bank of England note is the lowest denomination
issued by that institution. It is something of an
anomaly to see nations which do not directly
produce either gold or silver, making those metals
the only popular coinage, while the United State?,
which is vitally interested iu the products of the
bullion mines, should be using paper money for
its daily local exchanges.

The present Congress was elected at a time
when the Greenback illusions were rife, and it is
net believed that any serious attempt to curtail
our currency will be attempted. Secretary Sher¬
man has every reason for wishing the business
public to be pleased, and he will not seriously urge
anything which looks like contraction. Yet it
would lie really a wholesome thing to do, were
Congress to in some M'ay check the tendency to
inflation, now so rampant. It would be better all
around, were the business public to realize that it
is best to make haste slowly. The New York
morning papers have demanded.tbat the green¬
backs should be %vithdrawn, and-isay witb some
truth that it does not look seemly for a govern¬
ment whose coffers are filled with gold and silver
which it cannot get into circulation, should still
have over three hundred million of unredeemed
promises to pay floating among the community.
And here is another cause for uneasiness in the
minds of the business public. There is a likeli¬
hood that at any time the Supreme Court of the
JJnited States may declare that paper money can¬
not be a legal tender in time of peace. Gold and
silver alone are regarded as constitutional cur¬
rency by many eminent lawyers. This has been so
held by hundreds of decisions, and the only valid¬
ity of the legal tender npte was that it was issued
in time of war when the laws were silent. Those
w ho know best are satisfied that when the United
States Supreme Court has to pass upon this mat¬
ter it will declare the legal tenders unconstitu¬
tional. This will surely create a disturbance in
values, for it then will become the duty of Con¬
gress to order the liquidation of the greenbacks
and the payment either in bonds, or in gold and
silver coin. This will further necessitate the re¬
organization of our national banking system, for
then the country will have to provide against the
danger of an over-issue of currency by the banks.
Indeed one ofthe most potent causes of the recent
inflation was the large issues by the national
banks. The newspapers of the day were blaming
the greenbacks for the inflation, whereas they
are a fixed quantity and cannot be increased.
Tha editors have been urging that the whole busi¬
ness of the currency issues should be left to the
National banks, and yet it was these last that
were increasing the volume of the currency and
not tho Treasury Department.

It will be seen that the national bank question
is by no means settled. What with the dispersion
of the powers of a great national bank among





several factors, the problem of the withdrawal of
the small notes; the funding of the greenbacks, and
the re-organization of our present national bank
system on a peace basis, there will be required
judgment, consideration, and statesmanlike
caution, which we hope will not be found wanting
when Congress has to act upon these important
mattei-s.

Persons who purchase land, or think of doing
so, .should bear all these contingencies in view;
money lenders should be cautious and not advance
too largely upon landed property; buyers of
realty should remember that the days of th*
fluctuation of the currency are not yet over, and
that while the party in power will make thing*
pleo-sant until after the election, next fall, yet it is
not wise to extend obligations which w^ill run over
more than two or three years. While the out¬
look is promising, it ought to induce caution upon
the part of investors.





IIE.YL ESTATE THE SGAPEGO.\T.

Governor llobuison last year vetoed a resolution
passed by both houses of the LcKislature creating
a tax einnniissuiii, if not to revise then at least
to reuoninieiid what revi.»dous were iiec< ssary to
place our tax laws somewhat upon a just and
equitable basis. We arc not disposed to discuss
the wisdom of this veto, nor is it our province to
enter into the po'itical motives, underlying any
actions that have been taken in the Legislature or
siiuelched in the Executive Department at Albany,
bearing on this question. We know this, however,
that iu very a few weeks the New York Legislature
will meet again and that the taxation laws will
como in for at least a decent share of Legislative
attention during the continuance of the session.
It is with the view of presenting some facts that no
doubt are unknown to the intelligent Soloiis
who are to frame the State laws forj about live
millions of active and level headed citizen* of
this State that a representative of The Heai-
Estate Record looked over the files and archives
of tho tax oflice a few days ago—not for the pur¬
pose of drawing therefrom argnnients to be spread
in these colnmiis, but simply to supply food for re¬
flection to the Legislature of the State of New
York.

To begin with, it must be borne in mind tbat the
real estate of our city bears the greatest burden of
taxation, and that the personal property—also
subject to tax aa well as real estate escapes this
burthen in the most free and easy manner that has
ever been heard of. Now, it will not do to charge
the Coramisionera of Taxes with dereliction of
duty. They have but to follow- the law, and if
this law furnishes loopholes for a large number
of our millionaires to excape Jrom this burthen, it
is the law- and not the CominisBioncra that must
be held responsible. When men like August
Belmont, for instance, or W. H, Vanderbilt
can claim exemiition from personal tax because,
forsooth, they have their summer residences else¬
where, it ia time the law on this subject should
bo amended, so aa to reach these nabobs. Let
them pay all they please to the municipalities that
give them tho opportunity to display their eiinip-
ages or other luxuries, but that ia uo reason
why the city that gives them their being and their
income should be deprived from the equitable per
centage that others less favored must pay on their