Djc ember 5, 1885





The   Record and   Guide.





1333





I





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Safnrdai/.

IQl Broadway, IST. IZ",

Our Xelepbone Call Is.....JOHN 370.





TERMS:

0:VE ¥EAn, In advance, SIX DOLLARS.

Coininumcations should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager.





Vol. XXXVI.





DECEMBER 5, 1885.





No. 925





General trade continues to improve. Storekeepers expect to do
a better holiday business than they have for years. The domestic
E.xchanges show that trading of all kinds is very active. And yes¬
terday the announcement was made that pig iron had advanced
$1.50 a ton, and ore 50 cents a ton. This last is the best sign yet.
There has been a notable advance in steel rails; but when the
advauce began there were such large stores of pig iron ahead,
that it did not advance in price until during the week past. The
feeling in real estate circles is excellent. Notwithstanding the
approach of the dull season there is a great deal doing, and all
dealers look forward to the new year with confidence. Tho stock
market looks somewhat shaky, due to a number of causes, but
more especially because the Baltimore & Ohio refuses to agree to
the passenger pooh Railway securities, however, have had such
a large advance that even a decided sft-back should not be a
reason for discouragement.   The general situation is quite hopeful.





If the Republicans in the United States Senate were wise in their
generation, they would elect a Democrat of high character as their
presiding officer; so that, if Mr. Cleveland should die, the party who
wou the victory at the last election should administer the govern¬
ment up to the time a new President was chosen. The Democrats
have been two decades out of office; and after a sharp contest they
succeeded in securing a majority in the electoral college, as well as
in the popular vote. If the Republicans should elect John A.
Logan, they would perpetrate what would seem to be a party
blunder, as well as a political crime. There is nothing to be said
against Mr. Logan's fitness as a presiding officer; but he ran for
the Vice-Presidency, and was defeated. To put him in a place
where he may become President, would be a monstrous thing to
do; and would shock right minded people of all parties. He
showed his good sense in declining the caucus nomination. In any
event, Sonitor Hoar's bill, vesting the Presidential succession in the
members of the cabinet, should be passed through both Houses
before they adjourn over for the holidays.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------•---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------■

"If in this city the li<(\xor trade were conducted under a systera of high
license, requiring every dealer to pay from $'3lX) to $:i,000. according to the
inagnitude of bis establishment, tbe city treasury would easily derive from
it a revenue of a couple of millions a year; the trade itself would be safer
and better; public order would be promoted, aud temperance would be
encouraged without auy oppressive iuterfereuce with the liberty of the
citizeu."—»S'u)i.

This is the position taken by The Record and Guide long since.
Apart from any question of public morals, it is desirable that the
lifpior dealers should pay their share in sustaining municipal bur¬
dens. We ought to raise between $-3,500,000 to |3,000,000 per
annum from the licensing of beer and liquor shops. The liquor
trade is an expensive one to th-i city. It necessitates additional
policemen and criminal courts, and swells the bills caused by crime
and pauperism. Instead of taxing them, as we do other citizens
whose property has to be protected. New York City has in every
way favored those who sell ardent spirits. They have been
scarcely taxed at all, while the liquor traffic is better represented
in the City Hall than is any other interest in the city. By afl
means let us have high license, rigidly enforced. This is undoubt¬
edly the view entertained by the great majority of tax-payers.





Clearly we have entered upon an era of cheap food. The world
is full of wheat, notwithstanding the deficiency in this country.
Corn was never so plentiful. Our oat crop thia year was the
largest ever known. Then there has been no deficiency iu rye, bar¬
ley and the other cereal productions. Our growing winter wheat
crop is very promising. The superabundant^ rains in Califoinia
almost insures heavier crops next summer tlian were ever known on
the Pacific coast. Then animal food is certaiu to be very cheap,
not only on account of a greater supply of cattle and hogs, but
because of the facilities for transporting dressed meat from when*
it is killed to points of consumption. The meat consuming world
is now being supplied from South America and Australia, where
the number of available cattle is practically illimitable.   We have





exported recently about 15,000,000 more pounds of provisions than
wo did last year, yet the total of provisions now in Chicago
amounts to about 55,500,000 pounds, agaiust less than 14,000,000
pounds this time last year. Cheap as food, especially animal focd,
has been, and is, it i)romises to be still lower in price as time rolls by.





*' Whether they stop the coinage of silver or not, tbe Secretary of the
Treasury would do well to call ui the balance of the dog's-eared, disease-
infected bills; otherwise the Board of Health will be obliged to take the
matter in baud. Small bills are nuisances anyway."—Shoe and Leather
Reporter.

Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer makes substantially tho
same demand in his paper, the St(tr. If Congress could only be
induced to pass a law, withdrawing all national bank issues under
twenty-five dollars, and at the same time order the coinage of a
sufficiency of gold eagles, half-eagles and quarter-eagles, the
country would be in every way benefited. We would utilize at
once our idle stores of gold and silver bullion for coinage purposes.
This would help prevent the exportation of gold when exchange
threatened to be against us; for the yellow metal would be in
demand for currency uses, which is not now the case. We would
then have a retail currency of gold and silver similar to that of
commercial Europe, which includes all the foremost nations—
Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway. There are no small bills in any of these
countries. There need be no contraction, for the bills withdrawn
could be reissued in larger denominations. If this were done, it would
put an eiid to tho clamor about silver dollars. Of these we have
only four dollars per head, while France has fourteen per head.
But there is no difficulty in the latter country, because of the
absence of small bills and the plentifulness of minor gold coin.
All this is so sensible and bo obvious that it is surprising there is
not a universal demand for an exclusive gold and silver retail
currency.    Down with the disease-breeding small bills.





Real Estate Business for Eleven Months.

The plans for new buildings, for November, show a handsome
increase over the corresponding months in 1884 and 1883, as will be
seen by the figures given in the annexed tables. The ratio of
increase of buildings in New York is not as largo as in Brooklyn;
but, as will be seen, this side of the East River is doing very well
indeed. It is safe to say that by the close of this year there will be
about 3,400 new houses finished or under way within otu- city
limits, the cost of which will be nearly $46,000,000, when com¬
pleted. In Brooklyn tliere will be about 4,000 new structures,
which will cost about $20,000,000, making an expenditure in New
York and Brooklyn of new house construction of about $66,000,000
for the year 1885. Staten Island, Queens County and Westchester
County in this State, and Hudson and Essex Counties in New Jer¬
sey, if included, would aggregate nearly 13,000 new structures of
all kinds within the populous region which centres around New
York Harbor. The total cost would not, we judge, be far from
$80,000,000. Of course these larger figures are merely estimates ;
the $46,000,000 for New York City, and the $20,000,000 for Brook¬
lyn, are practically official.

As the other large cities of the Union have increased the number
of their houses to meet the growing population and trade, it follows
that the expenditure in real estate buildiug investments must, dur¬
ing the year 1885, havo aggregated a very large sum of money, as
much, perhaps, as was ever spent in railway construction in one
year. Unfortunately, neither the nation, State, or localities, keep
records of the new houses built, or their cost. Hence, the steady
change from floating to fixed capital involved in the continuous
construction of new edifices is not taken into account in ordinary
financial discussions.

The following is the table of new buildings for November, in this
city, as well as for the eleven months endiug the 30th of Novembtr
last:





Total No. of buildings projected.........

Estimatedcost.......................

No. south of Uth st.....................

Cost..................................

No. bet 14th and 59th sts...............

Cost.................................

No. bet 59th and 12oth sts, east of 5th av.

Cost.................................

No. bet 59th and 125th sts, west of 8tb av.

Cost..............................

No. bet 110th aud 125th sts, 5th and SI h avs

Cost..................................

No. north of 125th st..................

Cost................................

No. 23d and 34th Wards.................

Cost................................





Jan to Oct. iucl.,
November.......





No.

2.272

15t)





_1BR3.------------,

Cost.
$;:j).(;i)r.ltS

i,rro,33i





November,

1883.

156

$1,770,^30

14

$185,901)

31

8727,200

47

$169,500

9

$170,1)01)





2^
$IW..1:)0

:\2

$S1 .OSO





---------1884.





November,
1S84.
163
$2,119,fiK5

n

$237,7''0
21

$563,450
29

$337,2.'>0
3S

$;5],700





13

$t 18,885

51

$110,700





November,

1.S85.

233

$2,980,205

19

$20S,2f'O

38

$727,000

77

$1,132,850

37

$532,800

141.000
16

$141,280

89

$102,075





No.

2,470

163







No.

2,'<74

23 J





-1885.-





Cost.

$39,917,626

2,i)S!i,205





Total........... 2,428      $11,377,778       2,639        $10,089,073       3,107      $42,903,831

In the above table it will be noticed there has been a revival of
house building between Fourteenth and Fifty-ninth streets ; the
same remark is true respecting the region east of Fifth avenue,