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April 4, 1903.
RECORD AND GUIDE
641
SeX -^ ESTABUSHED^fjiRCH?l^'^18S8.
fiifsnkss AibTHEUES OF GeHeh^. iHt^^sTi
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
published every Saturday
Communications aboulii be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK
I, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager Teleplione, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at the Fost Office at New York, N. T.. as second-ciass matter."
Vol, LXXI.
APRIL 4, 1903.
No, 1S29
IT is evident that the liquidating movement whioh has heen
recently causing a decline of prices on the Stock Market has
not yet run its course. Certain interests are under the necessity
of selling securities in order to lighten a burden, which, under
money market conditions, is proving too heavy to carry, and this
cause of weakness still in ,some measure exists, Mr, Morgan's
interview on Tuesday was given out manifestly for the purjftse
of, if possible, checking the liquidation; and it was followed hy
a day of higher prices; hut the effect was not permanent. The
truth that the current business prosperity is suffering under so
many burdens that it may in the end be tired out hy the weight
of its own load. Large earnings are not of much benefit to the
security owners of railroads, when the profits are eaten up by
higher wages, higher cost of materials, and the difficulty of rais¬
ing money for improvements only at high rates of interest. So
it is with other branches of business. The. scarcity of loanable
capital hampers mercantile houses, manufacturers, and builders
as much as it does the railroads, and, as long as it lasts, will
undoubtedly prove to be a check upon business. The general
situation is sound enough, and the mass of "undigested securi¬
ties" has good value behind them; but it is only too apparent
that the process of digestion will take a long time, and that
many more months of the existing high rates for money would
in the end undermine, that confldence in the immediate business
future, upon which the whole fabric of business prosperity
rests.
*T*HE ways of Governor Odell and the New York Legislature
â– ^ in the matter of taxation are past finding out. The Gov¬
ernor in his message of this year recommended that the State
tap three new sources of taxation: (1) a tax in real estate con¬
veyances; (2) a tax an the gross receipts of franchise corpora¬
tions, and (3) a tax on mortgages. One after another these leg-
isi&tive plans were dropped. The first to be abandoned was the
tax on corporation receipts, the second the tax on real estate
transfers, and now the tax on mortgages has also been thrown,
overboard. But in order to give another exhibition of vacilla¬
tion, a higher tax on rea! estate transfers is to be substituted
for the mortgage tax. Surely it would be difflcult to give a more
distressing exhibition of legislative incompetency. The New
Tork real estate interests do not know where they stand, or at
â– what point tbey will he attacked next. As soon as they rally to
defend themselves from danger at one point, that particular
threat is abandoned, and they find themselves exposed at an¬
other point. There would have been some sense in substituting
a recording tax on mortgages, in lieu of all other mortgage tax¬
ation, because, even though the revenue were unnecessary, the
â– whole business of borrowing and lending money on real estate
would be benefited hy the relief afforded to mortgages through
their exemption from the genera! property tax; but apparently
that was too sensible and popular a course to pursue. Whatever
is done, it must be something that will injure, aud not benefit
real estate. So the tax on conveyances is revived instead of the
tax on recording mortgages. Moreover, the proposed rate of tax¬
ation is raised, with the effect of making it burdensome and op¬
pressive, for it will mean a charge of ?250 to be paid hy some¬
body when a parcel worth $100,000 is transferred. Such a tax
will undoubtedly produce several million dollars of unnecessary
revenue at a smaller cost to the real estate interests and the.
Republican state administration than the mortgage tax would
have done; hut the superfluity and wantonness of the attack on
the real estate business is enough to make a New York prop¬
erty-owner lose what patience he may have left. Of course it is
the real estate operators and speculators who will be hardest
hit, but why should they be singled out for such particular and
persistent attack?
WE are sure that Mayor Low, before affixing his signature,
will give due consideration to the ordinance recently
passed by the Board of Aldermen, regarding the projection of
ornamental features on buildings. Some measure of the kind
may be desirable in the interest of artistic freedom, but it is
asserted that this particular ordinance was inspired by private
interests to absolve a specific building from liabilities incurred
by infraction of the existing law. If this allegation be triie, the
ordinance should be signed with some hesitation. Moreover,
it needs to receive more careful consideration from architects,
buildei-s and real estate owners than has yet been given to it,
for apparently there are certain conditions under which adjacent
property owners might be injured by the projections contem¬
plated. Clearly a projection of four feet, be it a colonnade, por¬
tico or cornice, might be a very serious damage to contiguous
buildings. It will be recalled that in the case of bay windows,
it is necessary to obtain the consent of property owners for
fifty feet on both sides of the contemplated projection before it
may be legally constructed. A safeguard of this character might
perhaps be inserted in the ordinance with advantage. Besides
the calculations necessitated by this new measure will be a seri¬
ous obstacle to the legal completion of buildings.
TT cannot be too strongly and repeatedly insisted that the
â– ^ Rapid Transit Commission will make a serious mistake in
case it accepts Mr, Parsons' route for the lower West Side ex¬
tension. The Record and Guide pointed out the inadequacy of
that route, as soon as Mr. Parsons' plans were announced; and
both the Evening Post and the Times have taken the same
grcund. What is the use of having an express service as far
sotith as 42d street along the West Side, and from there on, only
a local service? Probably it is proposed to run the West Side
expresses through 42d street and down 4th avenue, but the dis¬
advantages of such an arrangement are overwhelming. The 4th
avenue express tracks will have to handle tbe East Side express
traflic, which will include a large part of the heavy travel de¬
rived from the Bronx, and all the passengers which the Port¬
chester road and the Vanderbilt lines can gather together; and
all this trafflc would be a sufficient strain upon its tracks. More¬
over, the necessity of turning in through 42d street would cause,
the West Side expresses to lose several minutes. No! the need
of four continuous tracks on the West Side is perfectly obvious,
aud it is inconceivable that Mr, Parsons should have overlooked
it for the two-track Broadway tunnel. The notion of using
Broadway as far as possible always seems to possess a peculiar
fascination for the projectors of rapid transit routes; but, while
a subway that used as much of Broadway, and remained as near
to Broadway as it could, has manifest advantages, these advan¬
tages are outweighed hy the larger capacity and the incidental
conveniences of the proposed Tth aveuue and West Broadway
tunnel.
TOURING the past week the officials of the Interborough
â– ^~^ Rapid Transit Company have taken the actual manage-
men of the Manhattan Railway system; aud they made their
assumption of their charge noteworthy by immediately raising
the wages of the hard-worked employees of that company. It
i.? to be hoped that they wil! also bear in mind the desirability
of winning at the outset the good opinion of their patrons. The
former management of the Manhattan Company alienated pub¬
lic sympathy by always refusing to improve its service until it
was forced to, either by competition or by public opinion, and
then by doing as little as possible. This did not make so much
difference to the company, because, owing to the fact that it was
sure of its position and was not bidding for new privileges, it
could in a sense afford to disregard the feelings of its patrons.
Cut the Interborough Company is, in this respect, in a totally
different situation. It controls the first Manhattan and Brook¬
lyn subways; and it will be very much to its interest to control
alsf, the proposed suhway extensions. It seeks and needs, that
is, a rapid transit monopoly in three most important boroughs
of Greater New York, and whether it will be able to get and
keer. this monopoly will depend upon the disposition it shows to
give its patrons the very best accommodations that it can offer.
The city of New York cannot afford to let such a monopoly re¬
main with a company that did not appreciate to the full how
vitally the prosperity and growth of the city was dependent upon
an adequate train service and station accommodations. On the
other hand such a monopoly might be the very best way of
handling the vast rapid transit ti'affic, provided the management
of the monopoly acted from the point of view that its natural
business purpose of earning as large a percentage as possible
upon its capitalization was qualified by its position as a great
public servant As an earnest desire of its intention to im-