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September 90.1890





Record and  Guide.





867







DEVbiti) TO I^L Estate . BuiLoiffc Aj«u(iTECTdi^ .HouscrfoiD Deoo^twI.
BUsirtess Alto Themes of Ge^eiv^ Ij<t£i\esi

PRICE, PER TEAR IN ADTINCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.
Telephone,           -          -          .          Cortlandt 1370.

Communications should be addressed to

C.W. SWEET, 191   Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XLVI.





SEPTEMBER 20, 1890.





No. 1,17.-)





rXlHE stock market during tlie past week has been very much





X





like the weather—stormy during the first part despite all that





the government oflScials could do to prevent it, followed by clearing
and general contentment. The disbursements of Secretary Windom
will probably make the money market easy for some months to
come—that is, for a length of time sufficient to permit the money
sent West to move the crops to return to the financial centres. By
that time, also, the effect of the silver bill will be more important;
and it is unlikely the Treasury will again be called upon for help.
In so far as tbe railway situation is concerned further instances
have come to light during the week of the marked tendency towards
consolidation among the Western roads. The acquisition of the
Milwaukee & Northern Road by St. Paul has been admitted by those
competent to speak with authority. Furtliermore, it is officially
announced that the Atchison Road had secured control of the
Colorado Midland, a line which connects the terminus of the Rock
Island with tlie Rio Grande Western at Grand Junction. As the
Rio Grande Western connects with the Southern Pacific, which
runs the only line entering San Franciseo and Ogden City, this will
give the Atchison an advantageous transcontinental route in opix>-
sition to the Vanderbilt-Union Pacific combination. The latter, it
is said, will be shut out from participation in the traffic coming
from San Francisco and points south. This news, together with
the traffic association recently formed uniting the Gould, Hunting¬
ton and Atchison interests, materially improves the railway situa¬
tion in the West. Indeed, it may do much to compensate the
roads for the crop shortage by the restoration of good rates.
Wall street seems to feel that the liquidation is over for
the present. There are certainly a good many stocks and
bonds on tbe market which are purchases at the ruling
figures. The rise may not be immediate, for there are many
uncertainties bearing on the situation just at present, but there can
be but little doubt that when money loosens up somewhat and
begins to turn towards investments, instead of active employ¬
ment in business, that the prices of good securities will undergo an
advance. A bull argument may be found in the fact that it is
quite probable that large quantities of English capital will seek
investment in this country during tlie next year. The Continent
a d South America have ceased to draw on her as they have been
doing in the past. England has been so unfortunate in her South
American investments that capital is not altogether likely to go out
there (in the immediate future) very extensively. " The history of
our South American loans," says the London Economist, " may be
.described as a succession of rampant speculation and collapse, fol¬
lowed in most cases by default.'' Among the different loans there
are twenty-seven instances of a fall in price taking place after the
issue of the loan, while there are but twelve instances of a rise.
Uruguay, Paraguay and the Argentine Republic securities have
nearly all suffered heavy depreciation, and Peruvian bonds have
usually been unreliable. In Chili and Brazil less loss has taken
place; but like the other South American countries they are
cursed by an irredeemable paper currency, which will certainly
tend to create distrust among investors. With these examples
to remember British investors may well begin again to send over
here large supplies of capital.





THE rainy weather this week by stopping building operations
in this vicinity as well as work at the yards at Verplanck has
kept the brick trouble in all its phases in statu qno, so that it stands
almost exactly as it did last Saturday. No settlement of the diffi¬
culty, one way or the other, is yet visible; ii.-^ither are there indica-
tionsof any value forecasting what result may, with some degree of
certainty, be looked for. The manufacturers profess to be quite
vsatisfied with the outlook, and even with the course of events so
far,, despite their disappointment that the dealers have not joiiied
hands with them, wbich assistance there is no disguising they con¬
fidently expected. Without the co-operation of this division of the
.grade:they calculated fetu or five weeks must necessarily elapse
9efore-tfae-stocks pn-faand were dQpIeted,-and. their actipn would





begin to tell upon building operations. So far very little
work has been suspended or seriously cramped for want of
brick as our review of operations on the west side of the city last
week showed. This week, if the manufacturers were right in
their anticipations, " trouble " should have commenced; but this the
rain delayed. ('onsidering the large amount of brick that must have
been set since the boycott commenced, it is fair to say that if the
coming week is fine and work continues, and there are no greater
signs of scareity of brick than at present, there is a " leak " some¬
where, and more brick is coming into the market from some
quarter or another than reports indicate, and the crisis necessary
to victory for the manufacturers must be " anticipated
indefinitely."





TT7"E publish this week in another column the result of a num-
» * ber of inquiries made in the offices of our leading architects.
It shows that while what has'already l)een demonstrated, that the
brick trouble has caused very little suspension of building under
way, it has delayed materially the commencement of much work
under contemplation. This is natural. Few builders and investors
care to begin operations with the uncertainty of obtaining material
so great as at present, for even in stone front buildings and in
buildings where terra cotta, fireproof material, iron beams and iron
supports are used, a large amount of brick enters into the
side walls, foundations|and so forth. Indeed, the interest of builders,
architects and owners should be very strongly enlisted on the side
of the brick manufacturers. Unless the latter win in their fight it
is not likely that we shall have very lively times next season, for if
the labor unions carry their point there will be uncertainty next
year as to whether the trouble between the men and their employers
will not be renewed, either on the old score by the manufacturers
themselves, or by their employes demanding further concessions
as to the hours of labor, wages or some other such matter. If the
manufacturers win, there will be greater certainty of quiet times,
and this certainty undoubtedly will be favorable to the beginning
of new operations, if, indeed, it does not positively stimulate them.

--------•--------

A NEW project was launched in the Board of Estimate and
-^^ Apportionment last week, which we shall doubtless hear
a good deal of in the future. Commissioner Coleman submitted a
resolution requesting Mayor Grant to appoint a commission of citi¬
zens to consider the advisability of building an exterior driveway
along the Hudson River, from 72d street to 96th. The plan is very
elaborate and will need a large sum of money to execute. It con¬
templates the building of a bulkhead some 10 feet above tide-water
and the construction of a traffic road or avenue for "commercial
and general business purposes." The width of this avenue is not
given, but " adjoining" it, on either one side or the other, there is
to be built an " elevated place or terrace," 80 feet wide and 30 feet
above tide-water, which shall form a road for unrestricted driving,
as regards speed. In addition to this, but in what way related to it
does not appear, an equestrian roadway is to be built, with adjoining
walks for j>eople on foot. The reasons urged for this improvement
are, it is *' calculated to meet long pressing and meritorious demands,"
that it will relieve the pressure on the riding and driving roads in
the Central Park, that it will secure to the city fifty acres of valu¬
able land, protect tbe water front, against " injurious and depre¬
ciating uses," and help to make the west side a more desirable and
attractive place of residence. It certainly is desirable that this
bit of water front should be protected, but whether it is worth
while to protect at such an enormous expenditure as this plan
would necessitate is quite another matter. No harm can be done,
however, by passing the resolution as it stands. The commission
of citizens will not cost anything; and their consideration of it may
bring forth more convincing arguments than those contained in the
resolution. If by any possibility, however, anything should come
of the plan, surely it would be a fitting consummation to the per¬
sistent help that the city has given to the west side to make it an
attractive residential section. A district that has the advantages
of Central Park, Riverside Park, the Boulevard, Morningside Park,
and the driveway above outlined, would be about as well
" improved " an area as anyplace could well be, owned by as many
people as is the west side. Property-owners eastof the park might
well ask where they come in.





THAT the census of 1890 is deficient and misleading, not only as
regards the enumeration in this city but more or less through¬
out the whole country, there seems to be no manner of doubt.
Every test that can Ije made goes to show that by no means an
unimportant proportion of the inhabitants of the country have not
been counted. In the first place, taking the population at 64,000,000,
from which the returns of Superintendent Porter will not vary very
largely, the percentage of increase throughout the decade is only
about 273^, whereas the percentage of increase between 1870 and
1880 was about 30, and before the war it ran up as high as 35 and
over. Admitting that the percentage has a tendency to decrease,
the falling off between 1880 a»d 1890 is so large proportionately that