Real   Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXYII.





NEW TOEK, SATUEDAY, MAECH 5, 1881.





No. 677





Published Weekly by

C|^ %ml €stal^ Mttaxb %Bsatmixan,

TERMS.
ONE YE.4.a. in advance.. ..SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   SWEET,

No. 137 Broadway

It will be curious to watch the clianges in
store for Washington square and surround¬
ings during the next few years. From
time to time we hear of some prominent
citizen returning with his household goods
from the upper part of tlie city and settling
down once more along the square. The
latest addition, as will be seen by our mar¬
ket report, will be Mr, C. Gr. Francklyn,
who has just purchased there a large house
for his own occupancy, thus joining quite a
coterie of first-class families now occupying
the north side of the square. And yet we
doubt whether this forced exception to the
rule will be permanent. The entire neigh-
boorhood is more apt to become somewhat
more of a business centre than a quarter
for fashionable residences, especially when
tlie Hudson Eiver tunnel will be finished.
It will be somewhere near this square that
the tunnel will bring its enormous traffic,
which must have a marked effect upon the
character to be assumed by that section, and
we rather share the belief of several prop¬
erty owners that in the not distant future
Washington square will be metamorphosed
into something like Union square, and filled
more with retail stores than with private
residences.





THE RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF COR¬
PORATIONS.
It needs no prophet to foresee that the re¬
lations of corporations to the Government
and people are to be a subject of much dis¬
cussion for the next few years, and that in
all probability political parties will divide
upon the question of corporation control.
Already the debate waxes warm, and the
popular feeling against corporation monopo¬
lies is unmistakably strong. There is no
doubt but what the great manipulators have
thought of themselves more than they have
of the community. They have built roads
at $25,000 a mile, and saddled them on the
investing public at fifty, seventy-five, and
in the case of the New Jersey Central at
1200,000 a mile. We are asked to pay large
dividends upon $80,000,000 of telegraph
stock, yet the honest cost of the plant was
probably less than $10,000,000. Nowhere
does corporate management show to greater
disadvantage than when associated with
Government help. Not only have they
managed to overcharge the pubKc, but they
have debauched legislation in nearly every





State in the Union; and the most serious
scandal known in the history of Congress
was connected with the Credit Mobilier,
which constructed the Union and Central
Pacific Railroads.

But there is another side to this matter.
It has been presented ably recently by Le¬
land Stanford, George Ticknor Curtis, and,
last of all, by Jay Gould to an interviewer
through the columns of the Herald. One
claim, however, made by the corporations
is wholly inadmissible. They insist, through
the medium of their lawyers and officers,
that railroads and telegraph lines are pri¬
vate property, and that they have a right to
charge what they please, the same as any
other dealer in commodities. But in this
the common law and common sense of man¬
kind is against them. No nation would
ever consent to put their means of com¬
munication by rail or telegraph into the
exclusive possession of a set of capitalists,
with a power to levy unlimited tolls upon
the community. But just here comes in an
opening for abuses and blackmailing prac¬
tices, of which tho corporations can justly
complain. Taking advantage of the privi¬
leges granted by the State to corporations,
swarms of legislative and legal blackmailers
prey upon them. Having no friends, they
are followed up and mulcted without mercy.
In a case of accidenl, juries award heavy
damages against corporations, no matter
whether they are in the right or the wrong.
In a recent heavy verdict against the ele¬
vated roads a German juryman in the case
admitted that the plaintiff was not really
injured, but he was a poor devil and the
corporation was rich and could afford the
$10,000 ; hence the verdict. Then, the legis¬
lative blackmailer, taking advantage of the
prejudices against so-called monopolies, is
unceasing in his demands upon the various
transportation companies. It may not be
generally known, but it is nevertheless true,
that many of the employees of the elevated
roads are forced upon the companies by the
politicians. Influential "boss" aldermen
or members of the State Legislature are con¬
stantly demanding positions for their politi¬
cal retainers. A great deal of the power of
the railroads in the Legislatu'^e is due to
their willingness to help politicians in the
way of patronage for the benefit of their
particular friends. When the elevated roads
were laying their plans they consulted with
law officers and tax experts, and were solemn¬
ly assured that if they invested their capital
in the construction of this needed improve¬
ment they would not be taxed under the
real estate head. But no sooner were the
lines built than thoy were beset by legal and
legislative harpies, and they will either have
to pay a round tax or compromise with the
blackmailers.

Then, apart from every consideration the
corporations have done a work which no in¬





dividuals could accomplish. The railroad
and telegraph system of the country would
not exist or would be in a very imperfect
condition were it not for the union of effort
made possible by the combination of capital¬
ists. The great consolidators of roads, such
as the Vanderbilts, Jay Goulds, Scotts, and
Garretts are really public benefactors. They
are unifying the railway system, of the
countiy and are preparing the way for
governmental control. It is far better to
have one telegraph company than a dozen,
for business can be done by wholesale
cheaper than by retail. One system of
roads from New York to San Francisco or
the City of Mexico is better than three or
four, and far less costly. The multiplica¬
tion of rival lines should in some way be
prevented, as it is a clear waste of capital.
Wiser than the American people, the French
(lOvernment will not permit competing lines,
which it regards as a waste of capital. It
protects the community against excessive
tolls by running the roads itself, or limiting
the dividends.

It is well therefore in the pending discus¬
sion to bear these facts in mind. It will not
do to discourage capitalists to combine for
their own and the public benefit. Their
just rights should not be interfered with,
and public opinion should not permit legis¬
lative blackmailers to prey upon them. The
most serious calamity that could happen to
the country would be to alarm the investing
class as to the security of their property. It
would at once put a stop to all our great in¬
dustrial enterprises, and set back the pro¬
gress of our civilization. " Nothing," said
Wendell Phillips, "is so timid as a million
of dollars, except two milUon of dollars."





CAPITALISTS IN CONGRESS.

It is a notable circumstance that the recent
changes in Congress have been in the direct¬
ion of fewer lawyers and more business men.
Of the seventy-six members of the new
Senate, twenty-three of the number are not
lawyers. This is a larger proportion than
was ever known even in pro-slavery times,
when the South was sometimes represented
by large slave-holding planters. The privi¬
leged class in this country has heretofore
been the lawyers. They have had a monopoly
of all political positions of honor and profit.
AU our executives, our judges and our legis¬
lators, with but here and there an exception,
are members of the bar. This has resulted
in giving us more laws and poorer ones, than
any other civilized country on earth. Con¬
sciously or unconsciously, our lawyer legis¬
lators and executives have worked for the
benefit of their profession, and the result is a
mass of confused, incoherent and litigation
promoting enactments on aU our statute
books which are a reproach to us as a com¬
mercial people.

But our rich men are now desirous of being