December 24, 1904





RECORD AND  GUIDE





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BUSUlESSAlbTHEHESOFGElJEP^I  !fJTEf^3T.

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J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager                        Telephono, Cortlandt 3157

"Entered al tlie Post Office atNeuo Yorlc. N. T..as second-class maUer."
Vol. LXXIV.                DECEMBER 24. 1904.                     No. 191S.

The Growth  of the  Record  and  Guide
And  Its  Necessities.

THE growth o£ the "Record and Guide" in the last
thirty-six years is the most significant and indisputable
evidence obtainable of the growth cl the real estate and building
interests in New yorlt City during a period that covers the
worlving-days of almost two generations. How many remain ol
those who read the first issues of this publication and for years
followed its early career? Their successors, and in many cases
the successors of these successors, constitute the public to which
this journal now spealis. New York City has grown within
that time from a town of quite modest dimensions and almost
parochial character to the position of one of the greatest and
certainly the most vital of the world's capitals. If New York
City has "cashed in," no small part of its great expectations of
the early "sixties," the "Record and Guide" has been in a
peculiarly special sense the Register of the transaction. Com¬
pare the weekly issues of this journal of to-day with those of
thirty, twenty or even ten years ago! The comparison is in¬
structive. The measure of the Oifference to be noted would no
doubt surprise even those of our readers who have been most
closely associated with the progress. Machinery that works
smoothly and accelerates its speed regularly and gradually con¬
ceals its own motion. The "Record and Guide" has so steadily
and persistently moved with the growth and development of the
interests it represents that the vast increase in the service it
renders its readers may easily be overlooked by the multitude
who are not curious regarding such affairs. In tbe matter of
mere bulk, this journal to-day is one of the largest in the world.
A few, a very few of our contemporaries print perhaps a greater
number of pages, but in those cases the excess consists almost
wholly of advertising matter. The "Record and Guide" fre¬
quently publishes five pages of text for each page of advertise¬
ments, and this, as far as we know, is a proportion quite without
parallel in journalism. The usual proportion of advertising to
reading matter is page for page. All other papers can control
this proportion. They can strictly limit the amount of text they
print. With the "Record and Guide, on the contrary, the pub¬
lisher has assumed a service toward his readers that is not per¬
formed until tbe last recorded legal account has heen tran¬
scribed, verified and printed. In this way the paper can be
regarded as strictly an integral part of the growth of the city.
A very few years ago the average issue of the "'Record and
Guide" contained fifty-six pages, to-day ninety-six pages are uot
infrequent, and occasionally even this ?mouut has been ex¬
ceeded. The temporary overloading of the Register's office, the
strain that has been put upon tbe highly organized title com¬
panies and others measures in a sense the task which the "Rec¬
ord and Guide" has discharged without an extra penny of
compensation from its subscribers. No one needs to be reminded
that the price of other commodities and services, especially
labor, and real estate itself have not been stationary, but have
increased greatly, so that apart from the larger bulk of tbe
journal it is fair to say that the intrinsic value of the "Record
and  Guide"  in recent years  has  been  augmented  at  tbe very





lowest computation, fourfold. The machinery for the produc¬
tion of the paper, its staff and the other elements of its organiza¬
tion have been enlarged more than fourfold to meet the
requirements.

There is every indication that all that has been done to deal
with the situation is inadequate to meet the necessities ot even
the near future. The Reai Estate and Euilding Trades of New
York City are apparently eo nearer to their limit of growth
than they were thirty-six years ago. The Bronx is just entering
upon its career, Brooklyn is absorbing its undeveloped acres
and the older sections of the city are only "mewing their
mighty youth." New Ycrk City has become a more active
building center than any other half dozen cities of the Union
combined. Millions upon millions are pouring into metropolitan
real estate as one of the gilt-edge securities of the wt-rld. If
the "Record and Guide" iu the future is to be of the same serv¬
ice to the Real Estate profession and the Builders that it has
been in the past, the greater demands of the years to come must
be anticipated and prepared for. The "Record and Guide" has
reached the limit of convenient size—yet it must be enlarged.
Its service must at the same time be prompt, and, as the saying
is, "up to tlie minute." for this journal is strictly an instrument
of trade. An announcement will be made In these pages next
week regarding the details of the plan adopted for a new
distribution of the contents cf the "Record and Guide."





X S the "Record and Guide" anticipated, the stock market
^*> has on tbe wbole sagged during the past week. The plain
fact i? that stocks are not very attractive at present prices, and
that some concessions are being made in order to tempt buyers
We do not imagine that these concessions will have to go very
far, because reports as to business of all kinds become better
and better. The complete rehabilitation of a great property
like the Reading Railroad testifies eloquently to the perma¬
nently high level which the busiuess of important roads is
achieving. Building is becoming more active than it was two
years ago throughout the country. The Geo. A. Fuller Company
reports, for instance, that it is bidding at the present time on
buildings the erection of which wiil require G7,000 tons of
structural steel and $20,000,000 of money. Such facts as these
explain the renewed prosperity of the steel trade. If this sort of
thing continues it will make for higher values in time; hut at
present a further bull speculation could only be unwholesome,
if successful. Assuming that the business expansion is genuine,
it can not for the present spare much money for a huge stock
speculation.





MR JOHN B. McDonald, since he has gone over from the
Interborough Company to the New York City Railway
Company, is reported as favoring important changes in tbe new
transit routes on which the second company wants to bid. He
considers the best route for his company to be a four-track belt
line, running dov.'u Third Avenue and the Bowery on the East
Side, and up Seventh or Eighth Avenue on the West Side. It
does not seem to the "Record and Guide" that it would be good
economy for the Rapid Transit Commission to accept a route
such as the one roughly described above. Mr. McDonald's insist¬
ence on a four-track subway is an excellent thing, particu¬
larly in view of the fact that his new associates have hitherto
been lukewarm upon this essential aspect of a new subway; but
Third Avenue is not the one to be used for the purpose. Mr.
McDonald's proposal is based frankly upon an abandonment of
Lexington Avenue to the Interborough Company to be used as a
feeder, and tbis is rigbt because the streets nearest Central
Park on the East Side need the Lexington Avenue subway,
which can be operated most elRciently by tbe Interborough
Company, But if Lexington Avenue is tunneled, and if the
carrying capacity of the Second and Third Avenue elevated
structures are increased, as they should he. it would be a dupli¬
cation of existing facilities to run a new subway on Third
Avenue. That it would be convenient for the Metropolitan in¬
terest to have a subway on Third Avenue we can well under¬
stand, because Third Avenue is the most central line of travel on
the East Side not already pre-empted; but in the interest of a
comprehensive and economical transit system, the four-track
East Side subway should be run on First Avenue. The new
transit system should not be constructed with a view to displac¬
ing the elevated roads, but with a view to supplementing them.
For tbe time heing the elevated roads should be made as useful