Pebraary 8,1896





Record   and   Guide.





213









ESTABUSHEB^ ^^«VCU2W^ 1868,

Dev&ieD to I^L Estate . Buildi)/o AR.cKrTZ(nvjRE j{ousEilou> OEGOipBt
Basnfess Atfo Themes of GEifeivi l)^reBF»Ti
PRICE,  PER    YEAR   IN   ADVANCE,  SIX   DOLLARS.
Published every /Saturday.
TBLBPHONB,......OOBTLANDT 1870

Uommonlcatlons shotUd be addressed to

C, W, SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street
J, 1, LINDSET. Business Manager.

"Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, If. T., as second-class matter."





Vol. LVII.            FEBRUARY 8, 189(1





No. 1,4.56





The Record and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports
of all building operations, compiled to suit -yotiR business specifically,.for
14 cents a day. Tou are thus kept informed of the entire market for your
goods. No guess work. Every fad verified. Abundant capital and the
thirty years'experience of Thk Record and Guide gitaraiifee the com¬
pleteness and authenticity of this service. Sendito 14 and 16 Vesey street
for information.

WHATEVER may have beeu in the minds of the Adminis¬
tration when it was decided to offer the new loiin to
popular subscription, it must be admitted that the results give
their policy every appearance of success. It is not actually the
subscriptions of the humbler classes of the people, liowever,
that have brought about this result, but the bids came from so
many directions that they give an air of spontaneity and popu¬
larity to the whole business, and so long as appearances are kept
up it does not matter from the official point of view that the
ultimate destination of tbe bonds is pretty miicli as if they had
been sold en bloc to a syndicate, as they ought to have
been. The failure of the lowly citizen to come forward
with his savings bank deposit to buy bonds is, in the
peculiar circumstances of the times, a matter for congratulation,
because it would have been impossible for those people to get
the gold to pay for them except at tlie Treasury, or by going
into the market and putting tlie desired metal to a comparatively
high premium. As it is the bulk of the bonds will go to people
who can get gold witliout calling upon the Treasury for it, or
disturbing the market, and whose interests are best served by
the purpose of the issue being achieved and preventing what
would be prettj' nearly as bad, gold goiug to a high premium.
Another point that cannot fail to have a bearing on the commer¬
cial situation is the confidence shown by the most astute linaneiers
that the United States will iilways redeem its currency in gold.
Congress on its part ought to .see two very important and promi¬
nent points in connection with tliis loan; they are tin- avowed
preference shown for the gold standard, and that it is due to
themselves that the bonds of the United States sell below those
of nearly every other great Power ; and, in fact, that Americans
themselves give preference in their investments to the
issues of the large cities, whenever such are redeem¬
able in gold. Whether Congress sees these things
or not, the ettect of the issue cannot fail to benefit
the business situation ; the ettects may uot be perceptible at
once, but they are sure to come. In addition to this we are itp-
proaching the sciison of the year when .activity increases and
spreads, and when, as a consequence, even bad news, should
any come, would not hiive so much influence as in the winter
days, when men's energies are not so fully taxed as the.y soon
will be.





manufactures. The Mexican budget figures the expenditures at
$46,015,162 and the revenue at $46,101,162, leaving a small
sui'plus of $86,000. There is some talk of the gold mining
industry of the Rand having been permanently injured by the
recent troubles in the Transvaal, and of a large amount of capita
having been drawn from it to seek investment elsewhere. There
is no doubt that a good many people who had undeveloped
ventures on their hands when these troubles broke find them¬
selves in an embarrassing position, and that it will take some
time to get matters running smoothly again, but the owners of
paying properties .are not likely to let go their hold upon a dis¬
trict with such a splendid record for results, if the conditions foi
working can be maintained ou a reasonable basis.





•T3ECENT adverse political influences are displaying their
-»-li effects on European business. For instance, the new loans
offered in London during January were the .smallest of auy for
that month in tive consecutive years, and the German textile
trade reports business with England paralyzed. There are, how¬
ever, m.any projects on foot which only require a change in public
feeling to bring them onto the carpet and give a better tone to
business. Au important report has been presented by the dele¬
gation, consisting of representatives of both employers and
employees, which was sent by the British Iron Trade .\ssociation
to inquire into the conditions of the manufacture of iron and
steel on the Continent, in view of the force and success of foreign
competition with Great Britain iu that line. The ultimate find¬
ing of the delegation was that, if Euglish manufacturers enjoyed
the same railway rates and royalties as those on the Continent,
foreign competition could be defied in neutral markets. Russia's
determination to push the Siberia;! railroad to completion is
shown by an extraordinary provision iu the budget for the cur¬
rent year of $65,000,000 for that work. The foreign trade of
France last year declined in imports $30,000,000 and increased
ia escorts $60,000,000, $46,000,000 of the latter being in





CONSOLIDATION promises to throw the entire business of
government in this section into a state of complete chaos.
The project hitherto has been almost eutirely in the hands of
cranks aud enthusiasts and politicians, and, of course, the
scheme they have concocted is merely a crude jumble of
" notions " formulated for legislative actiou. We seldom get
anything better. It is made by precisely the same process as
we adopt in the creation of a great part of our laws. .Schemers
or cranks get to work with a free hand while the mass of
citizens, whose daily interests are .seriously effected by botched
legislation and laws mainly for " politics," remain quiescent
either until the very last hour for actiou, as in this matter of
consolidation, or until they actually feel the sh.aip consequences
of their indifference. Our people seem to think that there is
some Providence existing to specially protect tlieui from the
legitimate penalties of their short comings. At the hearing
before Lexow last .Saturday, the jn'otesting citizens frankly
admitted that they had allowed years to go by without raising
their voice about consolidation, and the strange thing is that,
after such ii confession, they, or any one else, should be siu'prised
that politicians give practically no consideration to luiblic opin
ion. The leal estate interests in this city ought not to say a word if
a cnide scheme of consolidation does go through which saddles
them, by iind by, with hetivy burdens. They hiive been grossly
indifferent to their own concerns, and with supreme indifference
have left the management of what is peculiiirly their affiiir to
any oue who should find interest enough to meddle with it.
Haven't we heard that coii.solidation is a good thing because
hackmen think it will give them more lares; because it will
build u)) the Staten Islaud water front; because it will make
the outskirts of Brooklvn available as a site for residences for
people who won't live "outside of New York." Yes, we have
heard from all these important interests, which made so deep
an impression upon the great mind of Lexow, but we have not
heiird from the real estate interests of New York City, unless
the skirmish which occurred last Saturday is to be regarded
as an encounter in force.

CHICAGO did not build its big buildings on sand, but, what
was worse, on an earthy mush, and the result is settling, of
proportions sufficient to aw.aken a good deal of alarm. It has
been the practice of all the heavy buildiugs iu Chicago to crack
in consequence of the subsidence of the foundations. There
have for niiiny years been openings iu the walls of the Govern¬
ment building and in the County building there, which ought to
have been a warning to the architects of the recent big build¬
ings, but which do not appear to have impressed them suf¬
ficiently. The most prominent victim of this imprudence is the
Board of Trade building. Expert examinations of this structure
have been made at short intervals during the past six years,
which shows that the average settlement is three-sixteenths of
an inch a mouth. The maximum total settlement during this
time was 16 inches and the minimum 8I3 inches. 'I'he inequali¬
ties of the settlement have caused serious breaks in the walls
and made necessary extensive repairs. An expert engineer has
declared that the high buildings of Chicago overload the soft
clay on which they rest, aud if the foundations of some of them
are not strengthened they will be total wrecks in a few years,
like the Government building. The importance of these facts
for New York is not that mistakes have been made in Chicago,
but in calling attention to the necessity for very careful examina¬
tion under official supervision of foundations for high buildings
Fortunately the nature of the sub-soil in New York is more
capable of bearing the great loads which these buildings repre¬
sent thau that of auy of the other large cities. Still, it displays
weaknesses in spots that require special treatment, and, as dam¬
age in any particular direction would cause general uneasiness,
it would be well th.at the public should have assuranc tha^
every precaution is being taken to insure safety. It is not to be
supposed for a moment that; an architect will endanger his
reputation by placing his building upon any but what he believes
a sure foundation, but mist.akes will occur. The structural per¬
fection of one large apartment hotel has been impugned this
week before the Commission of Accounts by an architect who
should know what he is talking about, and this, most probably,