August 2, 1902.





RECORD AND   GUIDE.





15;









DBimD TO Y^l EstAH . BmLDIffc A^lCiflTECnURE .KoLSEriOU) DBJOifiioH.

Busitfess juiDThemes or GeifcR^. iKTtR^.

PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE  SIX DOLLARS

Published eVerg Saturdag

Commiiolcatlona sLoiild bo addreBBsd to
C. Vf. SWEET,  14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK





J, T. UNDHBT. Bualneaa Manftger





Telephone, Cortlandt 3157





"Ente^-e-'~l   he P' .    "liic   at Xi'W TorJ   X. T.. as second-, ta s matter:





Vol. LXX,





AUGUST 2, 1902.





No. 1794.





The Index to Volume LXIX of the Record aud (Snide, cover,
ing ihe period hetwecu January 1 and June -iO. 1902, is noiv ready
for delivery. PivVc, *1. This Index in (/s enlorged form is now
recofini:ed as indispensable lo erery one enga(jed or interested in
real estate and Iniilding operations. If corers all transactions-
deeds, nwrtiiages, leasts, avction sales, buildiiKj plans Jilcd, ele.
Orders for the Index should be sent ut once to the office of imhl/ra-
tion. 14 and 10  Vesey St.                                   __________________

THE disposition to give certain wildly snefulative interests a
clear stage for their operations in the Stock Market noted
last week, has this week become a desire to realize, which
explains the narrowing of the market and the decline in
quotations which have since been seen, When the people
who are responsible for this condition of affairs, become
chastened into sobriety, matters will improve and confidence
revive. The saving features of the situation are the prospective
corn crop and the restriction of railroad building as compared
with growth of population and corresponding growth of traffic.
All that corn has apparently now to fear is frost, and that is a
remote danger and one that does only partial damage in any
case. Corn never suffers from frost, for instance, to the extent
that it does from drought or hot winds. On the whole, a banner
crop may be looked for with almost perfect confidence. The
success of this crop will insure the country's good business for
another year at least. As to the railroads, those that are prop¬
erly managed couid stand a considerable loss of business before
the dividend obligations now assumed would be imperilled. An¬
other feature of importance is the ground lost by the anthracite
miners by their outbreak of this week. The breaking of the
strike would count for a good deal on the side of values. Europe
is working out the reaction following her boom, and the mar¬
kets are extremely dull on that account. One of the latest signs
of poor business is the dissolution of the German cement trust,
which in a smaller way imitated the policy of the Amalgamated
Copper Co. here, that of keeping up prices for the benefit of
rivals that spray up on all sides, even though demand was de¬
clining. The great electrical manufacturing companies are mak¬
ing poorer and poorer reports as time goes on, and their stocks
decline aci ordingiy. The reports of administrative officers of
great European financial and industrial corporations are sin¬
gularly free from prophesies or speculations on the outlook for
the future, from which we may safely infer that liquidation is
not completed nor the time of revival in sight.





THE Board of Aldermen have secured representation in a
conference to arrange a new contract with the Pennsyl¬
vania R. R. Co. In view of the veto the aldermen have on the
more important acts of the Board of Estimate it would be as
well, if an understanding is arrived at with them before final
action is taken on matters requiring their approval. This would
save time and avoid confiicts unseemly in appearance which arise
from a rather mixed legal situation, in which an attempt to pre¬
serve the dignity of the Board of Aldermen is made, while the
Board of Estimate are the actual determining body in matters of
municipal improvements, income and expenditure. The alder¬
men should bear in mind, that the railroad company's request
for a franchise stands on different ground to that that would be
ordinarily occupied hy applications for the privilege of operating
a railroad on or under a public thoroughfare. The company pro¬
poses to spend a very large amount of money to join together
properties they hold in fee, by links, which the Board say the
city ought to have the right of breaking at intervals, providing
the terms demanded for their continuance are not acceded. If
the city is protected by a reasonable rental and provision for re-
appraisement from time to time, the public are not only quite
willing that the franchise should be granted under the terms sub¬
mitted to the Board, but are impatient because of the obstacle





the Board have thrown in the way of the prompt commencement
one of the most stimulating improvements that the city has
ever had a chance to obtain. It is not merely that tbe esablish-
men of the Pennsylvania terminus in Manhattan has and will
still further improve real estate values in a large section of the
borough, but the concentration of its lines at this point breaks a
monopoly of the metropolitan carrying business that has too
long existed, and the result cannot fail to be of inestimable value
to the business of the city.





The Real Estate Situation.

■Hf^HE consolidation of the real estatecompaniesnowabout to be
■^ effected is still provoking a great deal of interested discus-
sion among real estate brokers and operators. On the one hand the
opinion is expressed that the new corporation is the perfectly
legitimate outcome of certain large and permanent aspects of the
real estate situation. On tbe other hand less favorable critics
declare that it is the culmination of a long series of attempts to
increase the value of certain high-priced property by issuing and
selling sheaves of securities against them. Both of these opin¬
ions have, as we pointed out last week, some truth in them. The
new company will be the outcome of a systematic effort ot the
part of real estate speculators to exploit high-prxed real estate
in New York City. They have not been content, merely to buy
property that looked cheap, and then to wait until they could get
an increased price. They have adopted the much more vigorous
method of acquiring certain selected and desirable plots even at
a high price, and then erecting on them the kind and size of a
building best adapted to the location—the whole enterprise be¬
ing based upon the assumption that this class of property could
hy skillful exploitation and management be made intrinsically
much more valuable. The only doubtful part of the business is
the extensive capitalizing in advance of these anticipated profits;
and a large part of the securities of the new consolidated com¬
pany will represent such paper values. But the important poin'
is that a large corporation with abundant resources in cash and
credit will be in a much better position to maintain these values
than a number of smaller companies. Indeed, it is probably
being organized for just this purpose; and for that reason it is
likely in the long run to become exclusively an investment com¬
pany. The constituent corporations carry on at the present time
a business that is more speculative and constructional than it is
investment: but the consolidated corporation will he too un¬
wieldly to take over these various operations. If it is to suc¬
ceed as a holding, and perhaps, as a lending company, it must
be managed with the utmost conservatism. Otherwise it can¬
not expect to sell its securities to the public in any large quan¬
tities. A real estate investment company, particularly one which
capitalizes prospective profits, cannot expect to pay very large
dividends. It must be content to give to its security holders, the
permanent assurance of a small but sufficient rate of interest.
The new corporation can doubtless put the shrewd speculative
talent, now associated with the smaller companies to good use
but it would be an unwise step to mix up this speculation with
the  investment purchase of  high-priced  property.

Broadway continues to be that part of the West Side, in
which there is most activity. During the past week a cor¬
ner of 68th street was acquired by a new speculative company,
while plans were filed for an apartment hotel on a corner of 98th
street. And this activity continues in spite of the fact that the
Subway excavations are still having a bad effect upon renting
along the whole line of the avenue on the West Side. The truth
is that only recently has that part of Broadway coine into its
rights. During the whole of the early development of the West
Side, Broadway was neglected, partly because property for im¬
provement could be bought cheaper on other avenues, and partly
because the elevated road on Columbus avenue tended to con¬
centrate business along that line. It was not until values all
over the West Side were very considerably increased, and un¬
til larger apartment houses came to be biiiit on larger plots that
the turn of Broadway arrived. Ever since 1899 its improvement
has been rapid and continuous, until now it seems destined to
become relatively as important on the West Side as it is further
south. Doubtless the Subway has had a good deal to do with
this; but still more important is the fact that the West Side has
reached in its development a stage which demands a spacious
and handsome business thoroughfare. Broadway was the only
avenue, which could assume that position, both because of its
width, and because its combination of going uptown, while
also going across the city makes it peculiarly convenient. The
consequence is that the cream of the West Side retail and gen¬
eral business will hereafter go to Broadway, while at the same
time it will remain, as it has not remained downtown, a thor¬
oughfare on which people will live. It is the only avenue on the
West  Side,  that is  proving very  popular with  the  builders of