Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. XXV.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, FEBEXJAEY 14, 1880.





No. 622





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance.. ..$10.00.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   'W.  SAVEET.

Nos. 135 AND 137 Broadway





THE ELEVATED ROADS.

The Eecokd has always appreciated the great
work the elevated roada are doing, and will do,
for New York City. We think they are worth not
four times, but twenty times their cost to the
owners of real estate and the people of this metropi
polls. We wish to put it plainly on record that
we are not only friendly to the present elevated
roads but to all proposed ones, hence when the
first Kapid Transit Commissioners laid down a
route for a new one, we immediately favored the
scheme, and had it not been for the outcry of
the daily press of the city, it is probable that be¬
fore the close of 1880 we should have had another
load added to those already in active operation.

The present elevated roads just now are laboring
under difficulties, for many of which they have only
themselves to thank. The legislative commission,
recently in session, brought out some ugly facts,
such as charges having been made under heads
of sundries, office rent, legal expenses and such
like, many of which seem imaginary. It is this
phase of corporate management which is bringing
the whole system into discredit all over the coun¬
try, and it is this which needs probing.

The public, however, in attempting to have these
wrongs righted should be careful how it lends
itself to the use of the lobby, which cares for
nothing except its share of the spoils. And here
is just where the attempt now being made in the
Legislature to interfere with the rates of fare is
likely in the end to be of more benfit to the lobby
than to the public, plainly ibi the reason that it is
questionable to-day whether a five cent fare is
really demanded at all hours. Unquestionably, we
would all ride as cheaply as possible ; at the same
time, there is a latent feeling in the public mind
that, 80 far, people who use tlie elevated roads have
been well treated, and, as much is yet expected of
them, it will not do to cramp or stifle them in the
beginning. Our sister city of Brooklyn is about
to have a system of elevated roads, but if a grant
or franchise is to be played with every year at Al¬
bany, we doubt very much whether the necessary
capital will be forthcoming for them. We hope the
present roads may be permitted to continue their
business in consonance with their charter, and
that the Legislature will watch the interests of
the public by looking aiter ita safety and comfort
by compelling the managers to adopt all appliances
possible, and to strengthen their road at the
curves, and other weak places, so that an accident
shall be impossible.

For the purpose of getting full information on
these matters, we have interviewed one of the lead¬
ing officers of the Manhattan Railway Company,
wbose views we here reproduce.





A dirsctob's views.

Mr. Benjamin Brewster, one of the directors of
the Manhattan Eailway Company, in the pres¬
ence of Mr. H. R. Bishop, another director,
at once acknowledged that no public pres¬
sure, so called, on the part of anjr individuals or
representative bodies of citizens, had been made
upon the company for the reduction of the fares to
five cents. The public, so far as the company
knew, did not demand it, and the only pressure
brought to bear upon the legislatnre was composed
of the clamors of the public press and of some
political associations, that endeavored to make
capital out of the demagogism of their leaders.

" Mr. Brewster," asked the writer, " do you not
actually charge smaller fares to-day than the
charter allows you ?"

" Yes, air, we do," replied Mr. Brewster, " we
are allowed by the charter to charge five cents for
eich five miles of road, and one cent for each addi¬
tional mile not exceeding seven cents during the
commission hours, and ten cents for each five
miles, with two cents for each additional mile dur¬
ing ordinary hours. Now, sir, please bear in mind
that the road was first opened to Sixty-seventh
street, then to Eighty-ninth street, and finally to
One Hundred and Thirtieth street. It is singu¬
lar, indeed, that not a single newspaper, nor
even a single individual, ever has given us credit
for the fact that instead of adhering to the privi¬
leges granted us by our charter, we have preferred
to run our trains at uniform rates, whether to
Sixty-seventh street or to One Hundred and
Thirtieth street, or One Hundred and Forty-fifth
street. The ordinary rules of business, please
also remember, are reversed in the enterprise in
which we have embarked. We did our very best
business at the start. While we were filling a
great public need we were actually carrying people
only over short distances. As we were extending
our road we had to procure fresh rolling stock, and
as we advanced further north we, by making
heavy outlays for increased purchases, actually
assisted in helping to populate districts that were
heretofore desolate."

"Now we hear a great clamor about the cost of
maintenance, and that it is a mere bagatelle com¬
pared to what it is given put to be. What are the
tacts Mr. Brewster ?"

"Time only can tell what the actual cost of
maintenance will be," replied Mr. Brewster. " The
two years just passed have been mere experi¬
mental years. Nobody can tell to-day what it will
cost ultimately to run this property. The ques¬
tion of maintenance is, so far as permanency is
concerned, as yet a mystery. It is unknown. It
is a. q estion we are studying; a problem that we
are endeavoring to solve, but what it actually will
be, no one living can tell to-day. The starting of
elaborate machine shops in East Ninety-eighth
street for the East Side branch, and other machine
shops to be started shortly on the West Side, give
you just a little insight as to the uncertainty of
any calculations for the future, based upon to-day's
estimate. The people, no more than the public
press, have the least conception of the vast under¬
taking we have in our charge. Every day, every
hour almost, new subjects of study and investi¬
gation are brought to our attention. We endeavor
at all times to meet these new emergencies with
promptness and liberality.   Ifc is an enormous





work to transport thousands of people at lightning
speed, almost constantly, from one end of the
Island to the other. We don't know what improve¬
ments may yet be called for, though we are every
day mastering the problems more and more,
whether it be in the calibre of the men we employ,
the machinery we use, or the rolling stock at our
command."

" And yet it is claimed that even now, already,
your profits are enormous ?"

" Our extensions," replied Mr. Brewster, "have
not yet paid interest on the cost of construction,
while the increase of business to these roads will
come from the upper wards. You must not forget
that there is a great difference between running
per mileage, and running per capita. We are
running per capita, and ten cents do not pay lor
this running. We have offered our very beat lines
thus far, and have to make a long haul of passen¬
gers at the average fare of 7| cents for each
passenger. Over the Third avenue line we are won
running forty-eight trains an hour during the
busy time of the day, and our average stops now
are only fourteen seconds, all these matters, how¬
ever, as I said before, are even yet to-day questions
that are being studied so as to enable us to accom¬
modate the enormous traffic that ia pouring in
upon us. But as we go along we improve. We
well know that more termini or pockets are
required and the same as wo are now doing on the
East Side we will very shortly do on the West Side
You were mentioning that between the hours of
nine and ten in the morning it is even now difficult
to obtain a seat at the Twenty-third street station,
going southward. This will be remedied by the
additional termini that will shortly be opened on
the West Side, so that fresh traina can be started
from certain stations. Of course a very large
sum of money, as yet unknown, will be required
to complete that system of pockets and termini
thoroughly. In addition to all this, the extraordi¬
nary shape of Manhattan Island, with the people
all living at one end, and doing business at the
other,, a tremendous rush down-townward in the
morning andup-townward in the evening must not
be overlooked. We have to haul empty rolling
stock in a reverse direction, without compensation,
twice a day, conditions most unfavorable to the
principles of lowest economy. It certainly does
not require an expert to tell you we cannot carry a
man to Albany for 25 cents, uo more than you
can carry a man to Harlem for 5 cents. The horse
cars could not do it, neither can we. One hundred
and seventy-five thonsand passengers weigh 12,000
ions. To earn the same gross receipts, at 5 cents
fare, we must have 18,000 tons, and this can only
be done at an increased cost to us and at 50 per
cent, extra, wear and tear.

"What is the truth of the charges about the
watered stock and the inflated securities ?" asked
the writer.

'' At every stage of the progress ot this road, the
securities," said Mr. Brewster, " have been mar¬
keted at the highest figure they possibly could
bring. People must not forget now that in times
past thia entire system of elevated roads was ridi¬
culed as impracticable, and its projectors de
nounced as men of unsound ideas. Every security
to-day outstanding against the company is for
value received, and full value, too, and any movo
on the part of the state to injure these securities ia
unjust, because an element of value in the issue of