October 25, 1903.





RECORD AND   GUIDE.





601





^f^> H---





i)Ev'oTED TO R,Ei^LEsT^TE.BulLot^'G ^^RcKiTECTURE.HouseholdDEeoRfnotj.
Busit^Ess Alb Themes OF GEttefi&l I^TtRfST.









ESTABUSHED-S^ t\ARPK Sm^ 1868.





PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX  DOLLARS

Pal>lisf>ed every Saturday

Communlcationa should bo addressed to
C. W.  SWEET,   14-16 Vesey   Street,  New YorK

J. T. LINDSEY, Businrs.^f Manngf.-                             Telephone, Cortlandt 3157





"Enlered al the Pout Off^ at Neio York, A". Y.. as second-clasps matter."





Vol. LXX.





OCTOBER 25, 1902.





No. 1806.





THERE has hai'dly been a tirae when the New York and Eu-
i-opean mai-lvets moved so sympathetically as now. As
rates for money here decline exchange goes up and vice versa.
Money is in good demand abroad, and but for a similar deraand
here, which is making tirade money scarce and call money uncer¬
tain, with rates for both abnormal, we would surely be shipping
gold. So £ai', we have been able to avoid that, which is fortunate
because the effect of such a movement upon security values at
this time would be serious. It may be that we may not have to
send any this season at all, but that is something about which
the wisest decline to express an opinion. Everything that can
be done to ease the strain upon the market is heing done abroad
as well as here. The official announcement that the British Gov¬
ernment have postponed their Intended application to the mar¬
ket for a Transvaal loan must be attributed to a desire not to
intrench upon funds which are all needed to meet commercial
requirements. If this policy is followed by other governments,
as there is a possibility it may be, it will relieve the situation
materially. At the sarae time it, as the action of our own Treas¬
ury Department reflects on conditions at home, shows that the
situation in London, if not exactly unsatisfactory, is one that
requires tender handling. In all the circumstance it would be
useless to expect any other movement in stock prices than one of
recessions. This week, from the moment when the improved
hank stateraent of last Saturday appeared, there have been signs
of liquidation. The movements of the very best stocks have
formed one of these signs. A decline in high-priced seciu-ities is
a natural feature of a period of stringency in money, because
then it is that they are the issues that can be the readiest sold
and with the least sacrifice. London has beeu a persistent
seller. So long as the outlook for dear money continues, so long
will it be that stocks will not advance, but on the contrary, will
decline under liquidation forced, not by over-speculation, but by
tbe general needs of the business public. Yesterday there was a
change in the professional position in the expectation of the pub¬
lication of a very favorable bank statement to-day, and foreign
selling abated somewhat. This may foreshadow some recovery
iu prices, but the extreme care with which available funds
are guai'ded and the difficulty of making time loans, even at the
extreme legal rate, give the clue to the real condition of affairs.





IF the attitude which Edward M. Shepard and Bird S. Coler
have assumed on the trust problem be accepted by their
party generally, it will give the Republicans an enormous politi¬
cal and practical advantage in dealing with that problem. It was
the Democratic party, under the leadership of William J. Bryao,
that first brought those buge organizations of capital into na¬
tional politics, and attempted to use them for party purposes;
but although Mi-. Bryan nationalized the problem, he confined
himself to vague denunciations, and took not a step towards its
definite solution. Itwas President Roosevelt, who accepted on be¬
half of his party the challenge to deal with it seriously, and who
has insisted that corporations whose business extends throughout
the whole country shall be organized under national laws and
suiimitted to the supervision and regulation of national officials.
The stand which President Roosevelt has taken in the mat¬
ter is not only an excellent thing for the. country, in that it is
a courageous and intelligent attempt to deal with a real evil
and danger, but it is also an excellent piece of party politics.
It has both deprived the Democrats of the exclusive possession
of this most telling of all issues, and it baa forced them to
assume a definite attitude toward his plan of national regula¬
tion. They must either accept the general idea, and flght about
details, or they must fall back upon their old states-rights
position, and reject any proposition in tbe direction of national
control.   It is this second position which Mr. Shepard and Mr.





Coler have assumed; but it remains to be seen whether the Dem¬
ocratic leaders at Washington will be content to acquiesce in
what is and must be a defensive attitude. It is obvious that the
State legislatures are incompetent and powerless to deal with a
problem transcending State limits and authority; and no one,
who did not preserve a misplaced reverence for old Democratic
doctrines could seriously propose to fight tbe trusts with such
weapons. It would be like fighting a modern magazine gun
with muzzle-loaders. The trusts must be regulated by national
machinery, or they will not be regulated at all.





Real Property Owners and the M^yor.

Ir is doubtful whether the bearing, given last IMonday by Mayor
Low to real property owners who are opposed to his tax valu¬
ation policy, served any more useful purpose than to emphasize
the position taken by each. The Mayor holds, and in this is
supported by the heads of the Financial and Tax Departments,
that a full valuation, defined as "what a willing buyer would
give and a willing seller would take," is required by tbe law;
that it will more than any other valuation serve to remove the
inequalities that are known to exist among individual assess¬
ments, and that it will give the city the increased borrowing
power that is necessary, not only to initiate new public im¬
provements, but also to carry to completion without vexatious
delays those already begun. The primary moving cause for the
adoption of this policy was undoubtedly the heavy and insist¬
ent demand upon the administration for works of public util¬
ity for which there were no available means. Various expe¬
dients have been suggested to meet this difficulty, but those
who have studied tbe question most will be the readiest to admit,
though they may deny the urgency of the matter, that the
Mayor has taken the course that will produce the earliest prac¬
tical results.

The opposing property owners, whose numbers are vei'y con¬
siderable, as the size of Monday's deputation showed, question
the desirability of urging forward public improvements at a
greater rate than would he allowed by an increase of tax valu¬
ations such as the previous system of valuing for tax purposes
produced; and oppose any change in the system of assessment
of real estate for taxation, excepting where gross irregularities
and ineqtialities in valuations exist. They claim that a long and
well-recognized custom has prescribed that real estate in this
city shall be assessed at not more than about sixty-five per cent,
of its value; that the statutes regulating the duties of assessors
were passed with full knowledge and in contemplation of that
custom, and that the margin between that valuation and real
valuation is to prevent injustice and over-valuation and is no
more than is required for safety and justice. The increase of the
debt limit by so large an amount as is indicated by tbe difference
between the present and proposed ratios of valuations, they re¬
gard with the utmost suspicion, believing that it will eventually
lead to extravagance. Tbe Mayor maintaining his position that
the full valuation was not only the only proper valuation, but
one absolutely necessary to tbe city's progress and development,
reminded tbe deputation that the remedy for extravagance was in
the hands of the citizens. There, it may be said, the matter be¬
tween the Mayor and those property owners who do not agree
with him stands. The assessments are being made under the in¬
structions given by the Tax Department to the Deputy Assessors
and the matter must now rest until the results of their work are
made public in January.

In one important particular, however, it may be said that there
is a better understanding between the administration and the
smaller property owner, as a result of the hearing. The talk
in the corridors of the City Hall on that occasion, as well as
the addresses to tbe Mayor, revealed the fact that the protesting
movement obtained much of its strength from the idea that the
change in the ratio of valuation would fall with especial severity
upon the owner of tbe small property, whose value by reason ■
of the greater activity of its class could be tbe most easily ascer¬
tained. If tbe plan works out as its friends say it will, not this,
but the contrary will be the case. As one speaker, who ap¬
peared in the character of friend to the administration idea
pointed out, hitherto tenement houses and small dwellings were
proportionately more highly assessed than magnificent dwell¬
ings, large business properties and vacant lands. President Wells
in his charge to the Deputies when about to enter upon their
duties last September said: "The Deputies are required by law
to assess at its full value not some, but all of the property in
their respective districts. Tbe law does not divide real estate
into classes for the purposes of tax assessment, and tbey are not
authorized to make any discriminations in regard to any class
of property.    Business property and residences, acreage plots