Pcbniary 23, 1901.





RECORD AND   GUIDE.









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No.  1719.





Vol. LXVII.





FEBRUARY 23,1901.





T.HIS week Wall Street has been in a suspicious and fldgetty
state. With cruel indifference to its wishes, the movei-s
in the great steel comhination do not fimsh their work, or px-
plain why it is not finished and the Street has, therefore, been
tempted to believe that it never will he finished. The approach
of a three-day period, during which the Exchange will be closed,
induced some selling by holders who felt a cold strealt run up
tlieir backs when the idea occurred to them that the abandon¬
ment of the great consolidation might be announced in the in¬
terval and when there would be no market upon which to un¬
load. If it had been a railroad deal, the situation would not
have been so bad, because there would then have been the Euro¬
pean markets to resort to at least, but being an Industrial deal
involving only securities dealt in at home, the blankness nf re¬
course in case of a necessity to sell was complete and br-: iiying.
This accounts largely for the weakness apparent in tue market
throughout the week. In what temper the trading will be re¬
newed in on Monday depends a good deal upon what transpires
in the interval. There is absolutely no basis upon which the
public can form an opinion of the outcome of the negotiations
for consolidating the big steel plants, either one way or the
other. The fact that they are being prolonged and the actual
necessity for concerted harmonious action that was shown by
the condition of affairs before these negotiations were taken up,
favor a satisfactory result; the alternative, Mr. Carnegie again
facing the rest of the steel interests in a struggle for place and
prestige, is hardly probable. Anyway the matter is so great and
involves so many issues that it ought uot to be surprising if it
takes months instead of weeks to arrange, 'lhe talk of tighit
money, which has accompanied some of the selling this week,
arises from the natural expectation of a largely increased com¬
mercial demand with the opening of spring business. The ex¬
tent of this demand there is no means of knowing at the mo¬
ment, but unless ail signs fail, it will be very large.





SO genei-al is the approval of Mayor Van Wyck's veto of the
Police Bill that it shows the jealousy and dislike with
which the extension of the policy of State control of municipal
affairs is regarded from this community. This policy is directly
opposed to the demand emphatically expressed for home rule
and voiced by the Charter Revision Commission and cannot fail
to have a decided influence on the results of the coming election.





THE approval of the bill- to exempt real estate mortgages
from taxation that is only enforced in a comparatively few
instances, is even more general that was the disapproval of last
year's bill to tax them a half of one per cent,, which if passed
would have been universally enforced. This is saying a great
deal for the support behind the measure. The strong delega¬
tions from real estate and other representative organizations
that went to Albany on Thursday to urge the passage of the bill
ought to show the Legisiatiu'e how much this exemption is de¬
sired and consequently how just it would be. It has been sug¬
gested, and this seems to voice the only opposition, that exemp¬
tion ought to be accomplished by a disability to offset other per¬
sonal propenty. That is to say, for instance, that the owner of
both real and personal property should not be allowed to use
the indebtedness on his real, which would he exempted from
taxation in the hands of the holder, to obtain a reduction of the
tax on his personal property. If this suggestion has any value
it will doubtless have due weight with the Legislatuj-e, but as
regards the bill Itself, it embodies a demand that is based on
equity and whose strongest argument is the failure of the au¬
thorities to systematically follow up mortgages and collect the





tax on them, notwithstanding that their existence is a mattc;r of
public record. The direct loss of public income by the pjissago
of th^bill would be comparatively very small and would 'je more
than compensated hy the indirect gain through the p^c-ourage-
ment that would be given to realty investment, and eunsequently
to struetural development, by the increased confidruce in mort¬
gage securities.





Taxation  and   Retrenchment





I





T N his speech at tho dinner of the Real Estate Board of
-^ Brokers last Saturday evening. Mr. Wm. F. King compared
the municipal tre;;jury to a large and leaky tub, and insisted
that what New Yjrk wanted was not a new style of dipper, hut
some plugs wherewith effectually to stop the leaks. The es-
spn<" 'H: the situation, he asserted, was not how to get more
mn-..j, hut how to spend less. The ligures, with which he
sharpened the edge of his comparison were interesting, if not
riuvineing. He showed that the thirteen American cities, next
ill rating to New York, possess nearly double the population of
New York, have nearly three times the area, own more miles of
paved streets, and more miles of sewer per square mile, send
more children to school, and pay more money for educational
purposes in proportion to the population. Yet the municipal gov¬
ernment of 3,400,000 New Yorkers costs more than that of the
7,200,000 residents of the other cities, and, as he claimed, re¬
turned less. In the year 1S99 the average tax levy per capita of
these thirteen cities was ?14.35; that of New York, $25.86. It
cost ?S52.71 per mile to keep the paved streets of these thirteen
other cities in order. It cost $1,911.51 per mile for the eame
work in this city. In 1899 New York paid $471 per lineal mile
for the maintenance of its sewers, whereas the average paid by
the other cities was but $263. The average cost of police pro¬
tection per officer is $1,518 for this city, as against $1,165 for the
thirteen cities. The fire department cost $1,904 per fireman
in this city, and $1,332 for each fireman in the other cities.
These figures are startling and impressive, and the comparisons
are made on a basis that makes it difficult to plead extenuating
circumstances. The increased cost is apparently chiefly a mat¬
ter of extravagance, of an excessive number of employees, of
swollen salaries and reckless expenditure.

The most effectual method of stopping these leaks is, accord¬
ing to Mr. King, eflcient organization. If real estate interests
have been suffering severely from excessive taxation, they are
simply eating the sour fruits of their own negligence. Of course
no partial interest, such as real estate, can be held responsible
for the municipal misgovernment of a huge unwieldly city like
New York; but it can be held responsible for having failed to
combine,so as to protect its vital interests and to make its legiti¬
mate demands explicit, audible and convincing. It is not
enough, as Mr. King pointed out, to pass resolutions, to recom¬
mend legislation, or to make mild espostulatory and explana¬
tory trips to Albany. Their organization must take the
same vital interest in the affairs of the whole city as
the local associations do in the, needs of some par¬
ticular part of the city. It must have money to spend
and must command the advice of expert engineers and account¬
ants; it must be able to give all its recommendations the author¬
ity, not only of the most important propertied interest of New
York, but of thorough investigation and special knowledge. It
was because the property owners of New York and their agents
have.failed to give their interests and demands the needed
weight and authority that Mr. King read what he called his lec¬
ture to the Real Estate Board of Brokers. Of course, he was
speaking in the interests of the Merchants' Association, of which
he is the head, and he complained that his association had receiv¬
ed very little assistance in its work from real estate men. Some
sixteen firms were members, and paid their $25 each—a total of
$400; and real estate interests, the interests most vitally af¬
fected, had contributed only about $1,600 to the $40,000 needed
to make the report which conclusively exposed the Ramapo pro¬
ject. Since Mr. King's association is doing just the work which
is needed in scrutinizing municipal accounts, and since it pos¬
sesses the prestige of a successful fight, and the advantage of an
energetic head, it certainly deserves, in the absence of any trade
organization with money to spend, the support of real estate
owners and their agents.

We cannot, however, agree with Mr. King that the only as¬
pect of municipal finance which needs considering is retrench¬
ment. He says that it is not a matter of getting more money,
but of spending less. The alternatives do not exhaust the situ¬
ation. Municipal economy is not simly a matter of retrench¬
ment; it is a matter of spending the city's money to the hest
possible advantage—spending it wherever there is an opportun¬
ity of securing good returns.   On the side of taxation municipal