Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXVIL





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1881.





No. 675





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
O-VE yE.luK.. in advance....810,00.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   SWEET,
No. 137 Broadway

Massachusetts, as usual, is moving in the
right direction. A bill is now pending before
its legislature for relieving mortgages from
taxation. Let New York now follow this
example. We gave ample and cogent reasons
for the abolition of the tax on mortgages in
a recent issue of The Record. It is time that
the veil be lifted from the eyes of those who,
while professedly favoring the lessening of
taxation, are not able to see wherein lies the
true source of wealth and prosperity for our
state.





It may interest the present generation,
who notice the demands now before the
legislature for charters on the part of new
water companies, that the city of New York
before the Croton water was introduced was
supplied with water by the Manhattan Wa¬
ter Company. This company, under its
charter, had banking privileges and when
the Croton was introduced, it took advant¬
age of these clauses in its charter and went
iuto the banking business. Hence, the Man¬
hattan Company, now one of the best finan¬
cial institutions in Wall street, which knew
how to judiciously control a bank, even after
it had watered all of its previous operations.





RENTS AS INCOMES.
Rents are the profits or rather the income
au owner receives for disposing of his prop¬
erty, which, in this instance, is real estate.
A merchant who disposes of a lot of dry
goods even should he charge flve per cent.
beyond the actual market rate, is not subject
to a tithe of the abuse the landlord receives
when he talks of raising his rents. He parts
witli his property, be it for one or two years,
as fully and completely as the merchant
who sells his goods. True, he recovers pos¬
session of the same after the expiration of
the lease, but cannot the merchant who sells
his case of denims and ducks or hogshead of
molasses, replace the property he disposes
of u\uch quicker than the landlord, who, as
everybody knows cannot duplicate his lot
say on Thirty-fourth street or his building
on Broadway ? Thia being the case, and tak¬
ing into consideration the total amount
of expenditures an owner of real estate has
while he is holding it, compared to the
merchant who simply pays his rent and his
clerk hire, why this outcry we hear of oc¬
casionally against landlords, when they raise
reats?  In our review of the rent market,





as published last week, we showed how
one-quarter of certain incomes from real
estate goes towards maintaining our city
government. Do groceries, dry goods, fancy
goods, boots and shoes and other lines of
trades pay such a direct tax ? We may be
told they pay it indirectly in the shape of
high rents. So be it, but when the balance
sheet is drawn at the end of the year it will
be readily found that notwithstanding their
professed indirect payment of this tax, the
disposal of these commodities leaves a much
larger margin of profit than the renting of
real property. It is about time that in an
intelligent community like this, where every
citizen, if he so desires can become the
owner of the soil, there should be an end to
this annual outcry against the landlords.





repairs upon the ships purchased from
abroad would give them profitable occupa¬
tion. Ships wear out rapidly and require
frequent repairs. The liberty to purchase
vessels abroad for a year would, in that time,
give us a fleet second to none in the world,
save that of Great Britain alone. Once more
would the American flag be seen upon every
sea and the profits from cari-ying American
products, which are now monopolized by
foreign merchants, would naturally find their
way into the pockets of our own capitalists.
Why will not some member from New York,
or one of the sea-board cities, so largely in¬
terested, try to bring about a combination of
the two schemes for reviving our commerce,
free ships and generous payments for ocean
mail service.





WHY NOT AMERICAN SHIPS AND
COMMERCE.

What an addition it would be to the wealth
and importance of the metropolis, if the
United States once more disputed the sover¬
eignty of the seas with Great Britain. The
passage of a wise bill by Congress for the
encouragement of our steam marine, would
create a profitable mercantile interest in this
city, which would add largely to the capital
invested here, and which would, in time,
greatly inctease the value of real estate.

Look at the facts, as shown by the follow¬
ing table:

Tonnage of    Foreign Corn-
Shipping,           merce.

1860................    2,379,396        $667,192,000

1880.................    1,314,402       1,503,593,300

In other words, in twenty years the ton¬
nage of our merchant marine has declined
45 per cent., while the value of our mer¬
chandise has increased during that period
125 per cent.

How are we to restore our commerce ?

Senator Beck says, let us repeal our absurd
navigation laws, and allow the merchant to
purchase Clyde built ships, or wherever he
can get them cheapest. But Senator Blaine
objects to this proposition. Let us he says,
subsidize steamship lines, as England, Ger¬
many and France have done, and that would
not only help oux commerce, but our manu¬
factures and ship building interests as well.

Why not adopt both plans ? We want
these ships immediately. The money is
available, and we should secure our profit
upon the transport^of our own productions.
Why not, then, permit the free purchase of
foreign ships, to sail under the American
flag, for one year, and at the same time of¬
fer a generous subvention to American
steamship lines carrying the mails. The fact
that the navigation laws would again be re-
imposed at the end of the year, would give
an assurance to the ship building interests
that they would have an abundance of work
for years to come. For, even if they con¬
structed no vessels for five or six years, the





THE PLUMBER'S BILL.
It is a mistake to presume that the bill
affecting plumbers, pending before the legis¬
lature, is disapproved of by a majority of the
trade. The very contrary is the fact. The
only complaint is that the bill does not go
far enough. The very best plumbers are
delighted at the idea that a more strict su¬
pervision is to be kept over their business,
but they claim that the mere registry of
names at the Health Board does not answer
present requirements. It should be enacted
along with the bill now pending, that a
board of experts be ordered to examine all
applicants for a license now granted to any
one calling for same at the Department of
Public Works. Not every one capable of
soldering a pipe, or stopping a leak, is
worthy of receiving a license, and knowl¬
edge required from plumbers, considering
the labors entrusted to them, is a mere bag¬
atelle when compared to the danger that
may result from defective w^ork. If our
Health Board be at aU what it is said to be,
there ought to be no difficulty in causing it
to control the appointment of and exact su¬
perior work from all plumbers permitted to
hang out their shingle in this city.





THE RAID ON SHANTIES AND ITS
RESULTS.
Our readers must have noticed in the
market reports of The Recoed during the
past two weeks that bo7ia fide sales of lots
have been made to builders and capitalists
on the West Side, and that these lots are to be
immediately improved. We merely allude
now to the sale of Seventy-third street lots,
between Ninth and Tenth avenues, by the son
of the late Fernando Wood, and the sale of
eight lots by Mr. Higgins in the same street,
all of which will be improved at once in
order to bring into prominence the causes
which led to these purchases. These sales
were made only after the shanties in this
vicinity had been removed. A year ago there
were at least a dozen shanties in this identi.