August 3, 1889





Record  and  Guide.





1071







4 31 L^ 1 RKH





ESTABLISHED-V/MW\C H ?1 ti^ 1B58. ^
DeAjeO to f^L ESTWE , BuiLDIf/G Af^cKlTECTUI^E .KoUSEKOLD DEQOI^noi*.

BlTsiiJess AtJo Themes or GEfJEi^L l;^TEi\E5-i





PUIilE, PER YEAR IN ADVAIVCK, SIX DOLLARS.

Puhlislied every Saturday.
TELEPHONE,          .          .          .          JOHN  370.

£oiiimunlcatJons should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191   Broadway.

/. T. LINDSEY, Bumness Manager.





Vol. XLIV.





AUGUST 3, 18S9.





No. 1,116





The stock market has been dull and uninteresting throughout the
past week. Both bears and the bulls seem utterly to lack any ani¬
mation. As far as the actual course of prices goes, neither one side
nor the other has any right to feel discouraged; but, when we come
to consider the prospects for tlie future, conditions certainly favor
theconservative buyingof good stocks. For onething, stocksseem
cheap, as there ia every promise of better eai-nings than at present.
Mercantile trade in the West is picking up, and the reports of St.
Paid & Burlington show that railroad returns are increasing.
No boom, if we are to have one, can be looked for until after
the first ten days in September are over, by which time a
large or email corn crop will be assured. But, meanwhile.
Wall street will undoubtedly, discount the prospects. It
must nothe forgotten that according to the present outlook our
commercial relations with Eiu-ope will in the fail be very similar to
those which preceded the big boom of 1880. A short wlieat crop
abroad and a good one here, together with ample transportation
facilities, these conditions co-operating with a fair state of general
trade, are certainly iiromising enough. They mean also that we
shall be importing gold in the fall, rather than exporting it. Already
the cotton crop is beginning to move, so that there need be no fear
of tight money. Altogether the bulls ought uot to complain of future
probabilities.





The scarcity of water, particularly in the lo\Mer parts of the city,
is a subject of very general concern at the present moment when
during the daytime it scarcely rises above the basements. Among
the causes assigned for this scarcity is the familiar newspaper one
—that ■' factories and largeofflce buildings get the first supply, leav¬
ing only the surplus for private consumption," the said factories
being equipped with " suction pumps," au advantage not enjoyed
by other buildings. This can hardly be considered correct, for every
tenement, fiat or apartment house now being erected in this city is
furnished with a pumping engine of some description, consequently
the factories and large office buildiugs have not a monopoly in
the artificial supply of water. Perhaps it would be a better eluci¬
dation of the cause to attribute tlie lack of supply from street pres¬
sure to the number of new buildings which, while in process of
construction, are a drain ou the preseut resources of the city's water
supply, aud are still more so ^vlieu occupied. The greater the num¬
ber of new houses erected the greater the deficiency will necessarily
be until -we have the new aqueduct completed.





The statement that Austin Corbiu is about to establish a line of
" rapid transit" steamers between Montauk Point and Europe is again
going the rounds of the press. This is one of tbe stories like that
about the gi-eat sea-serpent which the "silly" season has brought
out with wearisome regularity duruig the last ten years. This BIou-
tauk scheme has a grand air ahout it, but it will not stand com¬
mercial analysis, and until Mr. Corbin's first steamer is running,
well-informed people are not likely to take any stock in it. In the
fh-st ]daco, fast steamers to suit the present requirements of ti-avel-
lers must be of large tonnage, as all the new boats on the Trans¬
atlantic lines show. The recent additii>ns to the Inman, the Nortb
German Lloyd, tbe Hamburs-Americau aud the White Star Hues
are ail of about ten thousand tons disiilacement. But boats of tbis
size, to be remunerative, must carry heavy ca.rgoes of fii-st-class
freight, for fhe time has not yet arrived when vessels can carry
only passengers, and perhaps mail, aud pay. Vesselscarryiug freight
must make for a large port possessing ample facilities for distribu¬
tion and storage ; and neither of these are to be obtained at Montauk.
All goods landed at Montauk would have to be sent at once to New
York, and unless IMi-. Corbin means to give shippers free transpor¬
tation over the Long Island Railroad they are not likely to pati-onize
liis steamers. Montauk may one day be a great sMpping port for
Europe, but it will not be until the passenger and freight services

are completely separate.

---------■----------

The talk about  this new  steamship line may be not entirely
unconnected with what is being said Just now regarding "sub¬





sidies ;" for a " real live American'line" of the kind spoken of could
no more be run without n. subsidy than witbout conl. Until we can
build ships and run them better and cheaper lb;in we can under
present conditious, the "fiag" and the "appropriation" must go
together. J^o vessel cau afEord to carry the Stars and Stripes abouti
the world as a regular pai't of her cargo without receiving an enor¬
mous freight rate for doing so. No one but tho government can
afl"ord to pay this freight, and unless it comes from tbo national
pocket it is not likely to come at all. To some people the word
"subsidies'' has a nasty sound, savoring of the old-time methods of
kings who made their own political economy, and, with a large
generosity with other people's interests, " promoted" this industry
and " fostered" that, by royal grants and subsidies and permission
to tax the people in other industries that were not fortunate to get
close enough to the imjierial eai-. Still, even those who think this
way will acknowledge tbat it would be quite as well for tbe coun- 'j
try if our surplus were spent in the promotion of shipbuilding
instead of in the promotion of a vast sj'stem of national mendi¬
cancy under the direction of Maater-of-Alms Tanner,





Other nations have adopted the plan of trying to produce a
mercantile marine from "subsidies" with different degrees of suc¬
cess. Great Britain gets along without subsidies. Tbe contrary is
often stated; but it is not correct. She pays §4,000,000 a year or a
trifle more for carrying mails, but if this is a "subsidy" then it
may be said that our government subsidizes foreign ships, for every
year the Post-ofiice pays to alien companies nearly §400,000 for
services rendered. The only payment that the British government
makes that might be regarded as a " subsidy " is the sum it gives to
shipowners who consent to build theu- ships in a certain way so
that they nnay he available in case of wai-, and who agree before¬
hand to surrender the sbiji fo the government if called upon in the
event of hostilities. But this is only a quid i^ro quo, a,nd is not
what we moan by subsidies. Fi-ance and Italy both pay bounties
on shipbuilding, hut this does uot amount to a great deal, being in
the case of France less thau SCO,000 a year since 1881, when the law
first passed. In 1887 Italy paid bounties on new construction which
amounted to about 1^23,000, aud on repairs iS;36,00O. Iu addition to
this both France and Italy pay a certain sum for every thousand
miles of long sea voyage made. If we adopted the French scale
of subsidies, and it produced for us a vessel like the City of Paris,
we should give lier owners for every trip across the ocean about
$14,000, that is $7,000 each way. According to the Itahan scale the
sum would be about $4,000 each way. The German government
pays $10,000 to the North Germau Lloyd's for maintaining a regular
service with the Orient, and to the American line belonging to tbe
same company a minimum revenue of $76,000 for carrying the
mails is guaranteed. Au stria-Hungaiy pays uo subsidies, but
admits, duty free, materials to be used in the constniction of sliips.
The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Denmark pay a few thou¬
sand dollars a year to shipowners for subsidies. Subsidies, no
doubt, will give us ships, for if we are willing to pay we can get
anything; but if we are to have avast fleet of vessels on every
sea it must be established by something more potent than sub¬
sidies. "Byrsa's thousand masts," tbe Phcenecian ships, the argosies
of Venice and Spain, and the fleets of the Netherlands, England
and our own country before the war were not built-upon subsidies.





One of the first things a New Yorker notices when he is on a
visit to London is the comparatively moderate height of the houses
in that city compared with the New York standard. It is seldom
a structure, particularly a dwelling, of more thau five or six stories
is seen. Yet, nevei-theless, it has been found desirable to make
some attempt to regulate their height according to the width of the
streets upon which they are to be located. A measure to effect
this purpose has been inti-oduced into Parliament by Mr. Wbitmore,
M. P.; one which in some way is similar to our New York law,
but which differs as regards its scope and efficacy. Both the pro-
posetl law in London and the statute here draw a distinction
between streets of less and more than 00 feet in width, but here
the resemblance ceases. The former includes all buildings within
its scope, and permits none, except churches and chapels, to be
erected more than 60 feet ^ high on a street less than 60 feet wide,
whereas the latter includes ouly dwellings, permits a 70-foot
structure on a fiO-foot thoroughfare, and bars any dwelling from
being more than 80 feet high. In Mr. Whitmore's measm-e, if the
street or place is wider than 60 feet, the building may be made as
liigh as the street is wide. A further provision, however, throws
light ou the intentions of the introducer of this bOl. In any partic¬
ular case, tbis limited height may be exceeded, provided the con¬
sent of the County Council can be obtained. It becomes apparent
that the main object of the bill is to give tlie County Council the
same powers to regulate tbe excessive height of buildings in exist¬
ing streets of London aa it has to regulate those on new streets.





The water  supply of  Philadelphia,  dej'ived  as it is from the
SchuylbiU River, which drains a region inhabited by 350,000, bas