April 2, 1904.





RECORD AND  GUIDE





725







.Biisofcas juId Themes of GEttn^ iKrugji
fRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. SIX DOLLARS

PubUsfiad eVerg Saturday

OommunicfttlonB should be addroflaed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. Ne'w YorS

'1 T. UHDSET,BuslnoBB Managir                          TelephoBS. OortlaadtSlBT





''Xrdered at tht Poat Office at Nea Twli. N. T., as aecond-daBt f.





Vol.  LXXIII.





APRIL 2, 1904.





No. 1881.





THE stock market is showing plain symptoms of a recovery
of tone. Speculative sentiment is more cheerful than It
has been since the beginning of the liquidation, and this senti¬
ment reflects a better satisfied frame of mind on the part of the
owners of securities. They are shaking off the apprehensions
created by the period of liquidation; they are beginning to see
plainly that 1904 will be a fair business year, and that while
railroad and industrial earnings will decrease somewhat, they
will not decrease so much as to imperil dividends in many cases.
But granted that existing rates of distribution will not be low¬
ered, stocks are still cheap in a great many cases, and as the
strain on the money market is relieved they can hardly fail to go
higher. It is improbable, however, tbat the strain on the money
market will be wholly relieved at any time in the immediate
future. The causes which have kept security holders apprehen¬
sive and investors timid—viz., the necessary capital flotations
of the big railroad corporations—are as present as ever, and will
forbid any very considerable advance in prices during the next
few months. It may be expected that values will have a strong
undertone and will on the whole Improve, but that any sharp
advances will bring out a good deal of stock. A more positively
bullish market than the one described above would not be de¬
sirable, because it would not be based on the underlying con¬
ditions.





IF the Republican party fails to carry the State next tall, be¬
cause of its unpopularity In this city, there can be no
doubt that the Legislature will have contributed materially to
this consummation. Early in the session, Governor Odell
showed that he was aware of the resentment which had been
aroused in New York during the last few years by the Repub¬
lican pfiicial programme, and he apparently proposed to make
a bid for favor by passing some home rule legislation. But
whether he has lost his former authority or whether he never
made the proposal seriously—frora whatever cause, New York
is at the end of the session calmly informed that it has been
granted as much control over Its own affairs as it deserves. In
the meanwhile the bills in which the city is particularly in¬
terested are either killed or are in an exceedingly dubious legis¬
lative position. The mortgage tax recording bill, which would
have saved the borrowers of money on real estate many mil¬
lions of dollars a year and increased the revenues of the State,
has been pronounced dead—partly because it will malce a dif¬
ference of a few thousand dollars a year to one or two rural
counties, and partly because the Republicans doubtless wish to
keep the whole matter of mortgage taxation open until they
are ready to deal with the new State revenues required for the
canal bonds. Consequently the mortgage loan business will
remain exposed for an additional indefinite period to the danger
and. in some cases, to the reality of double taxation. The other
bills, the passage of which is particularly desirable, viz.: those
introduced by the Rapid Transit Commission, still have a change
of enactment; but there is unfortunately no assurance that they
will be treated as they deserve. In the shuffle of the last few
days of a legislative session, bills pass or are rejected in the
most arbitrary manuer; and the Assembly Committee on Rules,
which controls the situation, is not a body which has the in¬
terest of New York very much at heart. However, these bills
still have a chance, and tbat is something.





THE real estate news of the week has been devoid of new
characteristics. There has been some extraordinary ac¬
tivity in certain restricted classes of property, shown both
by the papers recorded at the Register's ofiice and by the daily
reports of sales. It is difiicult to say when this activity—pro¬
duced as it is by the larger earning power of tenement and flat
property—will run its course. It will not be stopped by the
labor troubles. Indeed, should building be suspended again this
summer because of those troubles, it would increase rather than
diminish this speculation, because another idle summer would
intensify the existing scarcity of house-room. At the same time
the day must come when even the small margins of profit, which
are the object in most of this trading, will no longer exist and
the prices of tenement-house property in Harlem will reach a
more stable level, just as they have reached such a level on the
lower east side. However, that day is not yet, and if the strike
continues it may be postponed for a long time. On the other
hand, the continuation of the strike will soon paralyze the more
important activities of both the real estate and building mar¬
kets. Already it has produced an extremely bad impression and
caused the abandonment or postponement of many important
projects; but if it is settled before long and thoroughly well
settled, the evil may not be past curing. The strike is the only
thing that stands in the way of a building year that will be
above the average iu the amount of money spent. The high
prices of wages and materials would not stand in the way; and
the necessary loans can be negotiated, even though a somewhat
higher rate of interest would have to be paid. Capital is being
loaned on real estate very freely at the present time, the totals
being considerably larger than they were for the corresponding
period last year. Even in the department of office building, in
which there is less temptation than usual to increase the sup¬
ply, a considerable amount of work is promised, including the
Trinity Building, that of the International Banking Corporation,
the extension to the Commercial Cable Building, the new oflices
of the Produce Exchange Bank, the yearly enterprise Mr. W. K.
Astor's on east Wall street, and the proposed insurance build¬
ing on William street. This constitutes a very fair list, and
should, with the several "sky-scrapers" planned for the middle
section of the city, give sufficient employment to the constructors
of- this class of huildAng.





IT was to be expected that Commissioner Best of the Depart¬
ment of Bridges would reverse the plans of his predecessor
in respect to the structure of the new Manhattan Bridge; and
It was consequently also to be expected that he would either
have the architecture which accompanied these engineering
plans, altered; or else would dispense with architectural em¬
bellishment entirely. What was not Lo be expected, however,
considering the record in this respect of the Van. Wyck admin¬
istration, was that in employing another firm of architects he
would select one of the best in the city. Few of the actions of
the Van Wyck administration provoked more intense, if not
more widespread irritation, than its action in giving all of the
city work to one firm of architects; and this irritation would
have existed no matter how high the reputation of that flrm
might be. The present administration fortunately seems to
prefer the precedent set by its immediate predecessor of em¬
ploying a number of architects in good standing on the various
city jobs; and the flrm of architects selected to give a satis¬
factory appearance to the Manhattan Bridge, Messrs. Carrfere &
Hastings will meet with general approval. But, of course, it Is
one thing to approve the selection of iVIessrs. Carr6re & Hast¬
ings, and it is quite another to approve the rejection of Mr.
Hornbostel's designs. With the engineering plans with which
these designs were associated, we have nothing to do, but Mr.
Hornbostel had deserved better of the city than to be thrown
over with so little ceremony. His designs had been greeted with
very general commendation, and constituted a very original
and ingenious attempt to give an architectural consummation
and meaning to certain stubborn engineering forms. Of course
the abstract right of the new Commissioner to have the plans
of his predecessor altered cannot be denied; but there may be
two opinions about the wisdom of exercising that right, and in
any event full compensation for work already performed should
not be withheld from Mr. Hornbostel any more than it should
be withheld from Mr. Washington Hull. The city cannot ex¬
pect to have its work done by the good architects, provided
every new administration reverses the acts of its predecessors,
and then refuses to pay the men who have in good faith spent
money, time and talent in preparing  important architectural





rpHE deadlock between the Mason Buildera' Association and
■^ the Bricklayers' Union continues, notwithstanding the
apparently strenuous efforts which are being made to bring both
parties to terms. The bricklayers will not accept anything less
than a modified recognition of the Laborers' Union, and the
Mason Builders cannot grant that concession. The Mason
Builders have, of course, another card to play. They can, with
the support of the Emergency Committee of the Employers' As¬
sociation and the Material Dealers' Association, shut down work