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EAL Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol XXIX.
NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1882.
No. 744
Published Weekly by The
Real Estate Record Association
TERMS:
05fE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
We call special attention to a despatch to
The Real Estate Record from a well in¬
formed correspondent now in Chicago. It
seems to us of special importance to the
real estate as to all other interests. E very-
business in the country depend si upon hav¬
ing a good crop this fall. A deficient har¬
vest would depress our real estate market,
while large crops would start afresh every
department of trade. Our correspondent is
a gentleman who has done business in
Chicago and the West, but who now resides
East, keeping up, however, his Western
connections. He has no interest except
to tell the truth, and we believe his sum¬
mary of the situation is the most trust¬
worthy that has yet been published. Un¬
less some untoward event occurs we shall
have large crops, though corn, a very im¬
portant cereal, is in some doubt owing to
the wet and late planting season.
A new broom sweeps clean. Mayor Low,
of Brooklyn, has given Park Commissioner
Stranahan his walking papers and it really
looks as if our sister city has opened a new
set of books and that it really has a reform
government. The new appointees may turn
out bad, but Mayor Low evidently believes
that good will come of all the changes he
has made. The yovmg Mayor has cut loose
from the politicians and it looks as if the
experiment of lodging responsibility with
the Chief Executive is successful, at least so
far as this case is concerned. The curse of
our local governments is the irresponsibility
of the legislative bodies.
a law, we hear there is a company ready to
give 1^,000,000 for the charter and would
not charge more than three cents fare. The
stages should be banished from Broadway,
but if the law goes into force the proper au¬
thorities should see to it that the highest
bidder, who is responsible, shall get the
franchise.
Would it not be well for Mayor Grace and
Comptroller Campbell to flrst read the bills
they ask the Governor to veto? They
demand of Governor Cornell that he should
not sanction the Railroad bill, because, they
say, it gives away the franchise of a Broad¬
way street railroad for $750,000, which stage
owners and others would give $1,000,000 for.
Now, the fact is, there is nothing in the law
as passed by the Legislature, which will pre¬
vent the city getting $5,000,000 for the fran¬
chise if anybody is willing to paj it. The
law provides that not less than $750,000 shall
be taken for the right to run street cars on
Broadway. The owners of the stages which
lumber up Broadway have made the Mayor,
Comptroller and certain careless newspaper
editors believe that the bill does dispose of
the charter for three-quarters of a million ;
but it is not true, and as this is the only ob¬
jection to the bill urged, it must be a very
excellent on<i in other respects. Should the
Governor sign the bill or allow it to become
ADMINISTRATIVE DEFECTS.
It must be confessed that the administra¬
tive machinery does not work well in this
country. What with our frequent elections,
our numerous legislative bodies and the
changes which occur so often in the person¬
nel of our executive officers, we are con¬
stantly embarrassed in the transaction of
necessary public business. We live in an
age when mechanical invention is economiz¬
ing time, space and money. All the forces
of society and business act more rapidly
and effectively than they did of yore, yet
the public business alone is retarded; as law¬
yers are our only rulers and executive officers
they instinctively waste time after the man¬
ner of their profession. Congress is always
in arrears with its business, the Supreme
Court is three years behind its calendar, our
courts seem organized to practically deny
justice by wasting the patience, time and
money of litigants. Then there is a lack of
responsibility in almost every public depart¬
ment.
Certain recent occurrences have brought
this state of affairs home to our property-
holders Alderman Robert B. Roosevelt has
resigned his position as a trustee of the
Brooklyn bridge, because, he says, it is im¬
possible for him to find out anything about
that costly folly. He does not know how
the affairs of the Commission are managed,
who gets the money or who is responsible
for tlie bills. Its construction has enriched
scores of people, but it will never be known
how large were the profits derived from the
contracts or to who were paid the commis¬
sions for -getting them. Then, take the mat¬
ter of tne Croton aqueduct. It has been no¬
torious for years that the present water sup¬
ply is in a dangerous condition. It is inade¬
quate, and is liable any time to do such dam¬
age as might cut off entirely the water supply
of this vast city. But when a bill passes to
construct a new aqueduct, Governor Cornell
vetoes it for political reasons, while the Leg¬
islature of the last season refused to provide
for an aqueduct, also, for political reasons.
It has been an open secret for years that
something over $3,000,000 per year is spent
in this city for salaries and sinecures, which
is mere waste, and might just as well be
saved and remain in the pockets of the tax¬
payers. But when once a bill was passed
that would cut off a couple of millions
it was vetoed by Governor Robinson
because of some legal quibble. Then as to
national affairs. It is notorious that our
tariff needs revision. Free traders and pro¬
tectionists alike agree that a system of im¬
posts which was put in force when the
country was in the midst of a civil war,
should be revised to meet more recent ex¬
igencies ; but it seems to be impossible to
bring any change about. The Congress
which we elect on the tariff issue in the fall
of 1882, will not sit until the winter of 1883,
and there can be no revision of our custom
duties for two years to come.
There must come a change some time. In
this intense, rapid age, when the telegraph
is at every street corner, and the telephone
almost in every house, when the ocean is
crossed in a week, and time is almost anni¬
hilated in the conduct of business, an ener¬
getic, enterprising people like the Americans
will soon become impatient with the politi¬
cal methods which now waste the money,
time and patience of the community. Other
nations have adapted themselves to our
modern era. The German Reichstag, the
French Cliambers, the British Parliament;
meet promptly after the election of their
members and transact their current business
far more promptly than do" our legislative
bodies. Jhe secret of the Prussian superior¬
ity over Austria and France with the splen¬
did and perfect organization of the staff of
its army. The telegraph had been made use
of, the army could move like clockwork,
because Von Moltke could act directly by
means of his staff over any section of his
army, and over every field upon which they
moved. In other words, it was the adminis¬
tration of the army which beat the foreign
enemies of Prussia. Here is our weakness.
We want reorganizing; there is public work
to be done, and we must provide the machi¬
nery for accomplishing it. On Fourth of
Julys our orators are wont to indulge in
eulogies on the progress of the American
people ; but Americans who go abroad come
back very much dissatisfied with the con¬
duct of affairs in their own country. We
have too much legislating, an overabundance
of talk, but very s'ack and wasteful methods
of transacting public business. The party
of the future should be the one that will
promise us complete administration reform.
<«>— â–
There has been a spurt in the siock market
as was to have been expected some time in
June. D. O. Mills, his brother and a few
other great operator.'?, are understood to be
the manipulators of this new rise. Gould,
it is said, has nothing to do with it, except
that he agreed to support Western Union,
but Vanderbilt and his friends gave their
help. The market, it seems, was largely
oversold, indeed the whole street was
bearish; this was a splendid basis for a
rise. It is to be hoped that the buoyant
feeling will continue in the street, for if it
does it would help our real estate market
when the fall seasion commences towards
the middle of September.
--------•--------
And now another telegraph company is
talked of. The capital is $21,000,000, of
which $700,000 is said to have been paid in.
It is the old postal telegraph over again.
I Several well-known mining swindlers appear
j among the promotors. It may be intended
w to blackmail Western Union.