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Vol. LXXIII.





JANUARY 16, 1904.





No. 1869.





THE course of prices on the stock market since the begin¬
ning of the year shows plainly enough that the market
is still absolutely dominated by professional interests. The
investor is as completely absent as he was late in 1903, and
the market retains its lukewarm and hesitating character. The
uncertainty produced by the threatened war in the Far East
has. of course, had something to do in keeping prices down,
because such a war. whatever its other effects, would certainly
affect the money market adversely, but war or no war, prices
show as little impulse toward a higher, as they do toward a
lower, level. The trouble is not merely that investors are still
uncertain as to how far the business reaction will go, and as
to how far the political agitation of thi presidential year will
prevent a revival of business, but that apparently general
money market conditions will not favor any noticeable specu¬
lation toward higher prices. Money is easy just now, but there
still remain great masses of unsold securities in the hands of
syndicates which will come out fast enough as soon as there
i? any demand for them, while at tbe same time a number of
different railroad companies stand ready to sell securities as
fast as the cash wherewith to buy them is available. In short,
the conditions which produced the heavy declines of 1903. while
they have exhausted their liquidating effect, still stand in the
way of any miscellaneous and extensive buying. The smaller
need must give way to the gi'cater needs of the people who are
carrying, and need to find a market for interest-bearing bonds
and stocks. Business conditions, however, are as good as can
be expected. The iron and steel trades show unmistakable signs
of revival, particularly those 'branches of it, such as wire nails
and structural shapes, which are particularly influenced by the
building trades. General business is, also, fair, and no reason
exists for apprehension. If stocks do not go up. there is no
reason to suppose that they will not go down; and while this
view of the matter is not encouraging to brokers aud specula¬
tors, it has its compensation for investors.





WHILE the existing real estate activity still continues
to increase, its character remains substantially the
same. Almost 150 transactions have been reported during the
week, which is an extraordinary total for this time of the year,
and which shows an increase of about fifty per cent, over the
con-esponding period of last year. This activity is largely
speculative, and continues even more than ever to concern it¬
self with Harlem property. About half the transactions took
place in Harlem flats, while the number of private dwellings
sold decreased from 30 to 14. The old buildings disposed of
were also smaller in number, but on ths other hand the vacant
lots, which figure in the sales are much more numerous. It
has been in vacant lots in the vicinity of One Hundred and
Fortieth street and Lenox avenue that the really remarkable
activity has taken place, although that activity is not so re¬
markable as it seems, because certain interested speculators
have in several cases made their news go as far as possible by
reporting the same sale several different times under different
forms. However, even with these deductions, it is a very lively
speculation, which will undoubtedly result in the rapid im¬
provement of the neighborhood. It is apparent that practically
all the vacant land in Harlem will be built over during the
coming spring; and that the large area to the north and north¬
east of Centra! Park will be the scene of the largest building
operatious on Manhattan Island. The property most in de¬
mand, however, is property adopted to improvement with
tenements as distinguished from apartment houses. Very little
activity has developed as yet iu the more expensive grade of
lots, partly, at least, because such lots cannot be advantageous¬
ly improved with six-story buildings. The selling of this class
of property will increase very much just as soon as the tene¬





ment house law is modified so as to permit the erection of
seven-story semi-flreproof buildings. The existing movement,
however, gives some indication as to the way vacant lots on
Washington Heights will be sold just as soon as the builders
are ready to buy in that neighborhood and the syndicate is
ready to sell.





X PART from the question of mortgage taxation, the most
■^"^ important bill affecting New York City upon which the
I-egislature will be called upon to act is that providing for an
extension of the rapid transit system; and it is essential that
this extremely critical matter should not be postponed for an¬
other session. Everybody whose opinion counts is agreed that
certain extensions are necessary, and that authority should be
granted to issue bonds for the purpose; the disagreement which
wrecked the legislation of last year was concerned with the
terms under which the new contracts for construction and
operation should be made. One body of opinion wished the
new routes to be laid out independent of the existing subway;
another body of opinion, represented byex-MayorLow.heldthat
the attempt should be made to get good terms from the Inter¬
borough Company, and so to give the city a unified transit sys¬
tem. These differences of opinion still exist; and the Citizens'
Union has had the Elsberg bill of last year introduced again at
the present session. The best solution of the matter would, we
believe, to leave it to the Rapid Transit Commission. The Com¬
mission should be granted the power to negotiate for the best
possible terms with the Interborough Company, but it should
also have the power, in case this company took too cheap a view
of the value of the concession, to have independent routes built
and operated by other contractors in small sections for short
terms. It should even have the power to be used only as a
last resource, itself to build and operate new subways. But the
Interborough Company certainly should not be left out of the
negotiatious. for further concessions ought to be more valuable
to that corporation than to any possible competitor, and con¬
sequently more valuable to the city when constructed and oper¬
ated by that corporation.





■T* HE proposal to cover the whole of the block between the
■^ Hall of Records and Broadway with a new Court House
is somewhat startling, because it plainly indicates that the ex¬
pense of the proposed new buildings for county and municipal
use, will be gi-eater than has been hitherto supposed. When
the scheme of condemning the Broadway-Chambers street site
was suggested, it was supposed that the area between Broad¬
way and the Hall of Records would be sufficient to accommo¬
date both a new Court House and a new municipal office build¬
ing. It now appears that this block is not really big enough
even for the Court House, and that a new municipal otHce build¬
ing would have to be situated in some entirely different loca¬
tion—a circumstance that would make the interest on the
bonds required for the new buildings far exceed the saving in
the money now paid out in rentals. The site of the proposed
new Court House alone would cost not less than $6,000,000 (it
is'assessed for a little less than $5,000,000); and the building
at the price per cubic foot of the Hall of Records would call
for the expenditure of fully $'lO,000,000. We do not quote these
figures for the purpose of discouraging the building of a new
Court House on the Chambers street site, but simply for the
enabling property-owners to understand the amount of expense
which it is proposed to incur. Large as this expense will be, it
is not too large for the purpose. An addition to the old Court
House would only diminish the free area of City Hall Park,
without providing satisfactory accommodations for the courts,
and the Chambers street site, expensive as It is, is assuredly
more valuable to the city than it can be to its present owners.
Tbe sooner it is acquired the better.





THE increase in the total assessed value of real estate dur¬
ing the year, amounting to more than ?280.000,000. when
compared to the average of the past ten years, appears to be
very large; but in point of fact, it is not so large as it looks.
In estimating the meaning of the increase, it must be remem¬
bered that an expansion of the aggregate assessment amount¬
ing to $100,000,000 under the old method of assessing at two-
thirds of the full value, would be equivalent to an increase of
about $140,000,000 under the present method of assessing af
or near the full value of the property. Consequently, the aug¬
mentation of 1280,000,000 shown by the lists of the present year
would be equivalent to an increase of about $200,000,000 under
the old system. Even such an increase is larger than the aver¬
age, but not too large, considering the special circumstances of
the year.    In the first place, many new and costly buildings