June 12, 1897.
Record and Guide
1005
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Vol. LIX.
JUNE 12, 1897.
No. 1,526
NEW BUILDING LAWS,
The Record and Guide will publish a new
edition of the New York Building Laws and
ordinances as soon as official copies of several
recent laws can be obtained from the Secretary
of State's office. Those who are familiar with the
manner in which our previous editions of the
building laws have been compiled know what to
expect—a handy volume, with headings and mar¬
ginal notes, full indexes and colored engravings.
This is a complete and standard work, edited by
William J. Fr>'er, and is invaluable to architects,
builders and others interested in building oper¬
ations. The new edition will bring the building
laws up to date, together with the Greater New
York Charter provisions, which latter take effect
next January. Orders for the new publication
may now be sent in to the Record and Guide,
Nos. 14 and i6 Vesey Street, New York, and
deliveries will be made at the earliest day practi¬
cable.
EVIDENTLY the public is becoming impresseil. with the
fact that we are progressing towards better times and
things, aud have found courage to buy securities whose fu¬
ture depends upon our commercial fortunes. A week or two
ago the commission houses were empty and their forces idle;
to-day they are more active than they have been at any time
since the election rise of last fall. The question now arises.
What is Wall Street doing? Is it discounting the close of the
tarifC discussion, and the reasonable probability of currency
legislation within tbe nest year; aud also the outlook for the
passage of a pooling bill, or a measure that will enable the rail¬
roads to make combinations on rates less disastrous to their
business than the system that has prevailed for a long time?
If this is beiug done, and there is no doubt that the rise is based
upon some such reasoning, then prices have not seen their high¬
est on this move. '1 lie best information points to an early pass¬
age of the Tiir-iV l).ll, practically in tbe form in which it will
leave the Senate; there is no doubt corporations ai'e in better
standing with the public than they were only a year ago, and
there is also no doubt that under the influence of prosperous
times, currency dementia, which has been so prevalent and so
mischievous, will disappear. Kvery cent's rise in the price of
grain, or of iron, or of other staples, will draw people away
from errors that were due to a poor state of mind, sympathiz¬
ing with an impoverished pocket. Foreigners are also begin¬
ning to wake up to a truer perception of the real ruling senti¬
ment of this country, and what is now probably only specula¬
tive buying will soon become investment buying. Such a move¬
ment would terminate gold exports very speedily and put the
finishing touch to the creation of excellent prospects.
WITH peace assured and the programme of the Powers for
giving autonomy to Crete to be carried out after the
delay the war occasioned, it is proper to conaider what will be
their effects in the financial world. It will assuredly occur that
Turkey, and probably Crete as well, will come into the market
as borrowers in order to meet the conditions of their new cir¬
cumstances. The negotiations for peace, Involving, as they will
the payment of an indemnity to Turkey, must alao embrace a
consideration and readjustment of Greece's foreign indebted¬
ness, aud, while the country Is penniless and utterly without
credit, it is not unlikely that an appeal to the market will be
made In order to find means for the reorganization of its fi¬
nances, the new loan, if one Is floated, taking the place of old
ones cancelled. The idea of an international commission to see
that whatever pecuniary obligations are placed on Greece are
punctually performed, or, in other words, the creation of a re¬
ceivership by the Court of the Powers, is spreading and Is being
advocated by leading economists of Europe—M. Leroy Beaulieu
for instance, who, in doing so, stigmatizes Greece's bankruptcy
as the most cynical and shameful of the nineteenth century.
We expect, too, to see Turkey the scene of some important de¬
velopments. Her navy will doubtless be reorganized as her
army has been and interior provinces will it is equally prob¬
able be opened up by railroads. The Powers would doubtlesp
be glad to see Armenia brought by this agency nearer the seat
of government and the government thereby held to stricter ac¬
countability for the lives and property of its Christian subjects.
Moreover, a Southern trans-Asian railway, which has been long
debated, must be taken up soon«: or later; the times afford a
good opportunity for a favorable beginning. It is out of con-
tingancies, such as those created by recent events in Southeast¬
ern Europe, that progress finds its means of growth, so that it
would be extraordinary, if these should not be followed by de¬
velopments not now capable of being precisely defined, but
which will surely come to pass and add to the world's enlight¬
enment and prosperity. Running away from the scene of one
political difficulty to another of equal bearing on the financial
situation, we find the London "Economist" of May 29 predicting
a financial crash in Johannesburg within thirty days from May
3, that bsing the date of the letter in which this prophecy is
made. As the cable has announced no such catastrophe, it must
be concluded that the correspondent was misinformed as to
time at any rate. The returns of the gold output of the Rand
do not support predictions of disaster, as they continue, month
after month, to make better records.
y^TOW that the Republicans have secured control of tariff
â– ^^ legislation by means of secession from the Democratic
ranks, it is to be hoped that they will hurry along and enact
their measure. Longer time is hardly necessary for a real
consideration of the bill, as there has been from the first very
little disposition to bestow upon the new schedules any delib¬
eration other than that inspired by political and commercial
greed. Both parties, apparently, have thrown away all that
was ever earnest in their belief iu one side or the other of pro-
teetiou. Tariff making is not any longer a clash of principles,
but a distribution of spoils and an opportunity for dickering.
Nevertheless, as we are destined to have a new tariff, it is best
that we get it quickly. The first effect is likely to be a stimu¬
lation of business, and it is not at all unlikely that the new rates
will go into effect coincident with a quick pulse of trade, which
will be further excited by the strengthening of the homa mar¬
liet which usually accompanies the first establishment of higher
duties. The business of this country to-day Is In a mueh
stronger and more wholesome state than most people imagine.
It has had a long rest from speculative excitement and a very
small dose of stimulant will be sufficient to set trade moving
briskly again. The tariff may be this dose.
IN DULL TIMES a great deal of money comes from the
country to the New York banks for the sake of the inter¬
est paid ou deposits by the banks here, as well as for its safe
custody. Of this fact the public is often reminded. Another
fact, that country money is seeking the security and the re¬
muneration offered by New York City realty, is not so well
known. But it is true, nevertheless. Brokers inform us that
large amounts of what may be called "foreign" money are of¬
fered ou mortgage in this market. The information given was
soraewhat indefinite and to test its accuracy we investigated
our record of mortgages filed for two years past. Restricting
our inquiry to large loans we found that in the year ending with
last month, th.it is, from .Tune 1, 1896, to May 31, 1897, $3,252,-
500 was loaned on mortgage by out-of-town parties in sums of
.$50,000 and upwards out of a total of .?206,205,717; while for a
corresponding period immediately preceding, similar loans only
amounted to $1,852,000, out of a total of $221,165,497, In mak¬
ing up these flgures moneys loaned by well-known New York
City business men hnving residences in nearby States were ex¬
cluded from the out-of-town flgures, as were also mortgages
filed by corporations, to secure bonds not wholly predicated on
realty from the general totals. Tn this way our figures repre¬
sent out-of-town money and real estate loans only, Tbe larger
amount of out-of-town loans In the year of the smaller general