EAL  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXVII.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, JANUARY 8, 1881.





No. 669.





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   S"WEET,
No. 137 Broadway





OUR ANNUAL MARKET REVIEW,
With this week's issue of The Record, our
reporters present their regular annual review
of tiie markets for building materials, with
comparisons of prices, statistics of receipts,
shipments, etc. Even to those not directly
interested, they furnish many items of an
attractive character. The prominent fea¬
tures are to be found, in the absence of the
violent fluctuations during the year 1879, a
fair margin for profit during pretty mucli
the entire season, and a liberal increase in
the volume of business, not only on local
account, but in distribution to dependent
points. Speculation, with few exceptions,
has been frowned down ; sellers have ac¬
cepted a reasonable return, and so preserved
confidence among buyers as to stimulate an
immense consumption. Supply and demand
were at a pretty close balance during a
large portion of the season, and of a few of
the leading articles there is an unusually
small accumulation for winter use. Dealers
ah'eady commence to feel the influences of
the coming season, and negotiations in hand
indicate preparations for liberal amounts of
work as soon as the weather permits.





! road Company to construct the Second
I ayenue bridge. The delay has been caused
because of the necessity for some amend¬
ments to the charter. Already gangs of men
are at work laying out the three branches of
railroad in the Twenty-third ward to connect
w^ith "this bridge.

In the meantime numerous plans are on
foot to erect buildings for workingmen in
the Twenty-thu-d and Twenty-fourth wards.
Mr. Leonard Jerome is associated with sev¬
eral capitalists who have in view the erec¬
tion of small houses, with gardens attached,
in the picturesque and healthful region to
be traversed by the nev/ railway, extending
from High Bridge to Fordham Heigh iis.

The close of the year 1881 will see trains
running regularly over the bridge near High
Bridge, and before the next race season
Jerome Park can be reached by rail via the
Metropolitan Elevated. The Second avenue
bridge will also be constructed, and not only
wiU the Portchester trains on the New Haven
road be connected with the Second avenue
road, but the line to Mount Vernon will be
an important feeder to the same railroad.





RAPID TRANSIT IN THE 23d AND 24th
WARDS.
The bridge over the Harlem River, which
is to connect the Metropolitan Elevated with
the New York & Northern Railway, will be
completed before the 15th of February. This
is stated upon the authority of Mr. Galloway,
President of the New York & Northern Rail¬
road. The bridge at Eighth avenue will be
three hundred feet span. The draw is being
constructed in accordance with plans ap¬
proved by General Newton. Upon the com¬
pletion of the bridge, travelers for Boston
by the new route, via Brewster Station, can
get tickets at any of the stations of the
Metropolitan road.

Another effect of the opening of this
bridge will be the commencement of a rail¬
road, a mile and a half long, to connect it
with Jerome Park. All that high ridge of
land lying between High Bridge and Ford¬
ham Heights will be at once utilized for
building purposes. The new road will run
from Morris Docks to Jerome Park. The
coming year wUl witness the erection of still
another bridge over the Harlem at the end
of Madison avenue.

The Suburban Rapid Transit Company has
associated itself with the New Haven Rail-





THREE PER CENT. GOVERNMENTS.
In view of the discussion now going on as
to whether it is possible for the Government
of the United States to successfully float a
three per cent, loan, the following considera¬
tions should be kept in sight:

The United States is a young country and
needs all the money it can get to develop
its resources.   There are tenipting openings
for business in every direction.   We have a
continent to subdue, mines to open, towns
to build, farms to clear, railroads to con¬
struct and all these enterprises require cap¬
ital.   We shall be in the market as borrow¬
ers for many years to come.   As a conse¬
quence, normally, money ought to be worth
naore here than in the countries of Euiope.
There their resources are developed.   They
have large capital and but few means of
making use of it, of utilizing it.     Hence
money naturally at the principal Bourses
rules low.   A foreigner does not know what
to do to profitably employ his means.  Great
Britain has a public debt known as consols.
It is a perpetual debt. That is, he who buys a
portion of it gets an annuity.   It has a high
market value because if is an annuity, for
the Government must purchase the shares in
the open market, they never becoming due.
Such a debt is the most attractive that can
be offered to an investor.   The policy of the
United States is different. We pay our debts
at the end of a certain fixed period, five,
ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty or forty years, as
the case may be, the longer bonds always
commanding a higher price than the short
time bonds.   As a matter of fact, English
consols have rarely touched par.   They did
so during Novemher for an exceptional rea¬





son.     Their average  quotation   would   be
somewhere between -f 97 and |98.   They pay
three per cent.   Therefore an investor will
generally get something more than three per
cent, for his money in that very wealthy
nation, which lias so large an amount of
funds to loan.   It is now seriously proposed
for us to issue a three per cent. Government
bond which shall not be sold for less than
par.   We do not believe that any consider¬
able amount of bonds at that rate can be
floated in this country.   Something less than
three hundred million of our bonds are pay¬
able this year.   May it not be that persons
who are receiving five and six per cent, are
behind this proposition, to try and float an
unmarketable bond so as to continue the in¬
terest for a year or two longer ?  Certain it
is that no three per cent, bond terminable in
twenty or thirty years, can ever remain at
par for any long period in this country. We
have too many uses for money in securities
and investments which pay far better.   But
the effect of this endeavor to float a three
per cent, loan is wholly mischievous.   This
unnatural cheapening of money and "bul¬
ling" of Government bonds,  gives an im¬
mense stimulus to speculation in other secur¬
ities   already  altogether too   active.      It
creates an unnatural inflation of values and
the result wiU be, sometime, a most disas¬
trous national panic.    The balloon wiU be
pricked and the gas will escape, and then
will come a collapse.   The advance in prices
has been too great; it has been unnatural.
We have all along believed that good rail¬
way securities would command higher fig¬
ures this year than ever before in history.
We believe that next year they will in time
command,   and  permanently,   still  higher
figures, but the recent advance has been too
rapid and cannot be maintained,  and the
chief danger is in this stimulus of cheap
money, made sp artificially by the Govern¬
ment and the whole speculative interest of
the country.    We do not believe that a three
per cent, bond is practicable, and if it was
we do not think it desirable. Three per cent,
money means four and four and a half for
investment in real estate, and that business
ought to pay better.   The person who is en¬
gineering this in Washington is Fernando
Wood, and we submit that he is not a wise
leader to follow.





MAYOR GRACE.
Ou?* new Mayor has proved a successful
man of affairs, and he brings to the office
capacity, energy, ambition and thorough
business habits. Unfortunately the Mayor
of New York is seriously limited in his capa¬
city for Tisefulness. The aim of legislators
seems to have been to protect us from bad
Mayors; instead of giving us the benefit of
the imelligeace and energy of good ones.
Hence.our  chief magistrates  are hedged