Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXVII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1881.





No. 676.





Published Weekly by

C^£ Eeal Estate %ttaxti%Bsacmiian,

TERMS.

OS& YBAfC. in advaaca___9lU.0<l.

Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.  SWEET.

No. 137 Broaoway

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE ELEVATED
ROADS.
It is understood that negotiations are
pending between the city and state govern¬
ments and the elevated roads, as to what
taxes the latter shall pay the city. The de¬
cision of the Court of Appeals has settled
the question of the power of the city to tax
fche line and the tracks as real estate. The
proper officers are now at work to fix upon
what would be a fair rate, one that would
not be irksome to the companies, while do¬
ing justice to other tax-payers.

In times past we have criticised unspar¬
ingly the speculative methods of some of
tlie projectors and manipulators of the ele¬
vated roads. We can afford, therefore, to
present a point of view which is not often
given to the public, that of an impartial
arbiter between the claims of the companies
and the demands of the public.

It cannot be denied that our system of
steam elevated roads has been an almost un¬
mixed benefit to the city and property of
New York. It has rendered our inter-mural
travel the pleasantest, swiftest and cheapest
Icnown to any city in the world. This no
one can gainsay. Our elevated roads have
added enormously to the taxable value of
New York realty, and as to the matter of
damage, where one property holder has been
injured, five hundred have been materially
benefited.

But, it may be said, the projectors and
managers of the elevated roads have made a
j^reat deal of money and do not deserve any
special consideration-
Well, they deserve all the money they
made. The elevated roads were a new
tiling, and it was a great risk to invest
capital in an enterprise so novel. But it
must be borne in mind that if Messrs. Field,
Harrison, Navarro, Foster and their friends
liad invested thsir money in Iron Mountain,
Kansias & Texas, Kansas Pacific, Wabash,
and a score of other properties which might
be mentioned, they would have made ten
dollars where they made one doUar in build¬
iug and managing their system of elevated
roads. The past four years have rolled up
enormous wealth for men of capital and en¬
terprise who invested wisely.

The city of New York can afford to be
generous as well as just to the builders of
tiie elevated roads. Their charter gives
them the right to ask 15 cents a ride, but they





have never charged more than 10 cents, and
they have, on their own motion, increased
the commission hours so that any one can
ride for 5 cents six hour a day. This is the
cheapest railway traveling known to any
part of the world.

In view of these facts, why should not the
city agree with the elevated roads that in
consideration of a reduction of fare to a uni¬
form rate of 5 cents at all hours that the
roads should be relieved of all taxation. The
companies might be permitted to run extra
cars for exclusive customers, in which 10
cents would be charged. Then, to acccom-
modate out-of-town travel, the elevated roads
ought to be permittted extra track's to ac¬
commodate through passengers, and, during
the night, freight trains.

It may be that the Comptroller will not
take this view of the matter. It is his busi¬
ness to increase the taxes and to collect
them. But surely all who are interested in
the city's prosperity should see to it that our
elevated roads are no!, so crippled by taxes as
to force on them economies which result in
discomforts to our citizens. Five cent fares
and a night service will be worth more to
the mass of the traveling community in
this city than the few thousand dollars that
can be raised by imposing taxes upon corpo¬
rations, who regard them as an unfair impo¬
sition upon capital which has been used for
the benefit of the metropolis.





NEW YORK CITY AND   THE WORLD'S
FAIR.

"It strikes me now that some movement is
necessary to interest this city in the enterprise.
Just what is best to do I am at a loss to recom¬
mend."

These are the words uttered by General
Grant at a meeting of the International
Executive Committee held on Wednesday
afternoon last, and, with aU due respect to
the General, we may be allowed to say that
the longer he continues to be a resident of
this city, he will be still more at a loss what
to recommend. New York city takes as yet
very little interest in the Exhibition of 1883,
simply because it never permits itself to get
into a fever of enthusiasm in regard to any¬
thing, as its population lives, exists and has
its being in the midst of ever-continuing,
never-ceasing periods of excitement. It
would take more than an ordinary earth¬
quake to get NewYork interested in any¬
thing that is more than two years off. But
when all is pre-arranged and the projectors
of the Fair require the enthusiasm backed
by capital that will carry them on to success,
we may safely count for assistance on our
enterprising citizens, wherever may be the
site selected for the Fair. Until then the
ball set in motion right here will be suffi.-
cient to keep other states wide-a-wake, and
show what a fine opportunity is afforded
them for the display of their particular no¬





tions and industries, and in the mean time
give them for two long years something to
talk about in anticipation of an event, which
New York city will crown with success,
financially and otherwise—whenever the
proper time arrives. In the meantime
General Grant himself, as chairman of the
Executive Committee, will support the de¬
mand of a pretty well satiated metropolis,
when fully two years beforehand it ex¬
claims, " Let us have peace."





CORPORATIONS AND MONOPOLIES.

There is a disposition in certain quarters to
look upon all corporations as monopolies,  a
mistake that ought particularly to be avoided
at a time that an attempt is being made to
create agitation   on  a  subject,  heretofore
little discussed in this section of the country.
True,exceedingly wealthy corporations may,
by this very accumulation of capital, become
for the time being monopolies, but as wealth
increases in our midst, so does competition
which soon strips such a corporation of the
monopoly feature.   A country like this, and
a city like ours for instance, could never have
been developed in so short a time as it has
been    without   the   aid    of    corporations
that built the various railways and also our
surface roads.   Our Third, Fourth, Sixth and
Eighth avenues would  not  be  the  great
arteries of traffic and trade but for the cor¬
porations that built the surface roads.   We
now also see what the Elevated roads are
doing for the upper part of the island.   All
such corporations are the pioneers in enter¬
prises that add to the grandeiir of a country
or city, and the very nature of such enter¬
prises requires a vast outlay of capital, afc the
start at least.   Somebody must begin the
work, and if a single individual cannot do it
owing to his want of capital, a group of in¬
dividuals forming themselves into a corpo¬
rate body can,  owing to the aggregate of
capital possessed by them.   It is unfair to
cry this system down with the hated word
of "monopoly."   As time progresses other
bodies of equal volume and importance can
and will form themselves, and competition
results as sure as night  follows the   day.
There is another   aspect of  this   question
which is'frequently overlooked. It is claimed,
that corporations are the enemies of labor.
The very contrary is the fact as abundantly
proven for instance  by the Massachusetts
Bureau of Statistics, the very best bureau of
the sort we have in this country.   The larg¬
est mills in New England, the most extensive
shoe factories are now-a-days owned by cor¬
porations, and the figures as given by said
bureau show that though the number of sin¬
gle firms is much larger than that of the cor¬
porations, the latter, in the aggregate, em¬
ploy a much larger number of Lands than do
the single firms.   Even in the Western part
of Pennsylvania, where not less than fifteen