January 31, 1885





The   Record  and Guide.





101





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Puhlished evcrff Stturrfat/.

191 Broad-way, 1>T- Y-

TERMS:

OIVE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLL.IRS.

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





JANUARY 31, 1885.

There is a better feeling in real estate circles due to the proba¬
bility that building operations will lie more active this year than
was exi)ected at the close of the last season. Architects, builders
and dealers seem to agree that cheapness of material and the ease
of money will stimulate building ojjerations. The fact is now
recalled that real estate held its own, both in price and rents, for
fuliy three years after the panic of 1873. There is some improve¬
ment in business throughout the country, and many closed
foundries and mills are again in ojieration. Stocks and grain, how¬
ever, were depressed in price during the past week, and there is a
suspicion that the little Januai-y "boom" we have had is over for
the present.

Mayor Grace is suspicious of the civil service advisory board or¬
ganized by his predecessor. He thinks $25,000 ])er annum is too
mucli for examiners. He professes to l)e in favor of the reforra>
but wants the examination to be i)ractical. The JIayor under¬
stands, of course, that the public are in dead earnest in deniring to
divorce the minor appointments from politics. If at the end of liis
term his civil service should prove to be a failure, be will go out of
oflice amid a storm of public indignation. The danger of the one
man power is that it may be abuspd for personal emls to build up a
I^ersonal party. The Mayor should have the ap))ointment and
removal of all heads ot departments, but the subordinate clerks
should !)« appointed and promoted according to merit without any
regard for politics or the personal wishes of those in authority. If
things go wrong imder our new system of munii-iiial government,
there will lie no doubt as to who is to blame.





Onr reporters state that the architects and leading builders speak
cheerfully of the outlook this summer. They say a great many
projects are under foot to construct new houses in different parts
of New York. It is said that speculative builders are tempted by
the cheapness of materials and the ease with which money is bor¬
rowed to put up new structures. True, there may not be much
demand for houses, but then it is argued that times may mend by
the fall, and at any rate purchasers maj- Me tempted if offered new
e liiices cheaper than any now in the market. Bad times do not always
prevent over-building. Certain provisions of the French law have
so encouraged sjieculative building associations that the large cities
of France, and esjiecially Paris, have just now great numbers of
untenanted houses. Over |5,000,000 worth of house property in
Paris is untenanted, and thus a large income is lost to investors.





Should there be an active building movement and many new
edifices be brought into existence it would be a good thing for lot
owners on this island, because of the demand for new land for
improvement. But the multiplication of cheaper houses would
hardly suit the views of owners of improved jiroperty who ))uilt on
a higher .scale of expenditure. It is the lurse of lowering prices in
all departments of business that they inflict such heavy losses upon
owners of stock in hand. Cheap cotton goods may be desirable to
consumers, hut the manufacturere who produced goods at a higher
cost than the price they bring in the market may be seriously
injured. An so with houses. A thousand new ones that can be sold
very cheap, and which net the builder a reasonable profit, may inflict
positive losses upon the owners of ten thousand other houses wliich
cost from 25 to 33 per cent, more to build and finish.





But whether realty is high or low or the times g<K)d or bad build¬
ing in New York is certain to (continue. The rage for great apart¬
ment houses and oflice buildings is at an end, and it now seems as
if there will be a new departure in the opposite extreme. Small
houses will hereafter be in demand, and the suburbs will have their
turn as scenes of building activity. There has, for instance, been
more improvement in New Rochelle within the last year and a half
than in the previous fifteen years. The price and rentals of small
houses held their own during the depression, and builders would
naturally prefer to meet whatever demand exists. The time has
come for owners of cheap unimproved property to get their innings,
for, of course, a multitude of small .houses will demand more land
than a few large'apartment houses or office buildings,   •





The gas consumers are justly incensed at the way in which they
have been treated by the consolidated gas companies. The latter
to make up for their reduction of price are furnishing jK>orer gas,
and increasing the pressure on the mains so as to swell the biUs of
their customers. It is stated by Mr. John H. Sherwood and others
that despite the redaction in price their gas bills are larger than
formerly.

There is really only one solution to this gas que.stion. The city
must manufacture and supply gas or electricity, as does the Phila¬
delphia local authorities. Our water supply is far cheaper than if
it was farmed out by companies, as in London and Paris. There
is a prejudice against work done by public officials, which has been
very cunningly fostered by corporations and contractors; but for
one dollar stolen by officials the corixirations and contractors haro
profited $10,000. When the government built ships they were good
ones and not costly. Our post office service is as economical and
efficient as any private business; and now that civil service reform
is under way the city could manufacture and supply good gas for
probably one-half the price of the gas companies, with their
watered stocks. But the private and corporate interests which
profit so enormously bj- the present system will never permit the
city to undertake this work. The facts are never told in the press
about the superior cheapness and efficiency of government work.
There is no restraint upon the greed of private persons or corpora¬
tions who profit by monopolies, such as this gas service; but,
although politicians will plunder when they have a chance, the.r
are amenable to public opinion, and they do their best lo serve the
public. We have no hope that the gas consumers' organiEation
will accomplish anything permanent.





Mr. George W. Van Siclen's contribution to our columns will be
founil timely. There is a great deal of uncertainty a."i to the legal
methods of transacting a real estate business. What has long been
needed is some terse, accurate and complete statement of the legal
forms required in acquiring, selling or dealing in real estate. This
brochure, when complete, will fill the bilL





The Future Government of New York.

Chauncey M. Depew, in his speech at the dinner given to Mayor
Grace at the Lotos Club last Saturday evening, announced him.self
as in favor of trying or rather returning to the New England town
meeting system of local government. He confessed that he had sym¬
pathized with the Republican party in its establishment of board*
and commissions non-partisan in composition to govern this munici¬
pality. He had argfued that so miscellaneous a body of voters a«
ours, drawn from all parts of the world, the great bulk of whom
paid no taxes and necessarily were without any high ideals of citi-
zenshii), were not proper sources of municipal authority. But the
non-success, feebleness and corruption of the boards and commis¬
sions had satisfied him that he was wrong, and he liad come to the
conclusion that local government after the town meeting pattern
was the only practicable method In this country of free institutions.

Mr. Depew's changed position undoubtedly represent* the views
of many who formerly favored government from Albany instead of
the kind administered at the City HaU. State legislation ha«
undoubtedly had much to do with the misgovernment of this city ;
but Mr. Dei)ew and those who think like him fall into a serious
error in supposing that the New England town meeting can be
revived in our day. The system in vogue among the early Puri¬
tans can never be made vital, except in communities where popu¬
lation is sparse, property almost evenly divided and the voters
homogeneous in religion and race. But these conditions cannot
co-exist in any modern American city of over 200,000 inhabi¬
tants. Our primary elections have been a farce for the
last half century. Our local party government must neces-
sarilj Ix' entrusted to recognized leaders or " bosses" who hold
their positions by consent and who are restrained in their action by
public opinion and the operation of our system of laws. We CuaUot
go back to the iown meeting. That is a thing of thePariit—a
memory not an actuality. The government of the future is to be
that of executives with large powers ; in other words, what may be
called a system of municipal Csesarism, in which responsible
authority is lodged in Mayors and heads of departments. Indeed,
Mr. Depew recognized the fact of the necessity for such officers,
armed with large powers and under no control save that of public
opinion, but he failed to realize that the New England town meet¬
ing had nothing in common with this new syscem of responsible
government which we are tentatively testing in New York and
Brooklyn.

It is strange how history repeats itself. In very ancient empires
so history tells us, the reigning despot, to insure responsibility,
appointed a satrap over portions of his dominions. The pasha of
the Turkish empire wields many of the same functions, and now
our modern Democracy is forced to rely on rulers rather than on
commis«ions or legislative chambers. In no age have boards proved
efficient or useful governments.    It has passed into a proverb that