December 31, 1904





RECORD AND  GUIDE





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eV                             ESTAEUSHED'^NWCHSli-^ISBa.

CtVcrIEDIORfJ^LE;sT«T.SlllLDI^'C ApcKlTECnVRE ,h(cfusnioiB DEGffl^noil.
Business aiJdThemes Of GeKer^ IfJiti^sT.

PRICE  PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS

Published eVerg iXaturdojr





paper or edition, and were all the matter that pertains to Brook¬
lyn be printed in another paper 01 edition, and then the two
be charged for separately and at a fair price.

Our readers must have noticed the improvements that have
recently been made in our paper, and these improvements are
only the initial steps of a well-deflced progressive policy. Next
week and thereafter, the Record and Guide will be issued as
two I





Communications stould be addreBsed, fo
C.   W.   SWEET.   14-16 Vesey Street, New Yorh

t. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager                        Telephono, Cortlandt 3157

•■Entered at the Post Office at New Tork. N. Y..as second-class matter."





Vol. LXXIV.





DECEMBER 31, 1904.





The Growth of The Record and Guide and
the Resulting Changes.

T T 7 E spoke last week in these columns of the growth of the
Record and Guide and the necessity which that
growth has thrust upon the management of the paper to pro¬
vide some plan whereby the vastly larger mass of legal records
can be handled mechanically and otherwise with the least in¬
crease ot financial pressure upon our readers. It must he per¬
fectly clear to every one of our subscribers that it is commer¬
cially out of the question for the Record and Guide to go on
augmenting in bulk year by year, accompanied by tlie printing
of thousands of additional legal papers annually, without in¬
creasing in some manner or form the cost of its service to its
readers. A real estate agent, who should undertake to manage
a certain estate for a fixed sum of money, could not permit
the owner to go on indefinitely enlarging that estate, thereby
increasing the agent's labors and expenses, without demanding
increased compensation. A builder, who should contract to
erect a ten-story building for a fixed amount, could not permit
the owner to add story upon story without demanding an in¬
creased cost. The Record and Guide, however, has been in the
position of this hypothetical real estate agent and builder for
many years past. It has steadily increased tbe size of its issues
while rigorously maintaining the quality of its service. It has,
without any stint of money, enlarged its mechanical establish¬
ment so as to deliver copies to its readers as early as possible
on Saturday mornings, and in this effort it has increased its
force and its expenses very nearly four-fold, until to-day the
Record and Guide is the most costly trade-paper of any kind
whatsoever, and prints nearly five pages of reading matter for
each page of advertising.

As we pointed out last week, this is the result of special con¬
ditions peculiar to the real estate field. The Record and Guide
is loyally supported by the interests it serves. It possesses one
of the largest circulations of any trade-paper extant, and a cir¬
culation that, locally considered, is in its concentration and
completeness, tiuite unique. "Printers' Ink" accords to the Rec¬
ord and Guide the "double hull's-eye rating" for "extraordinary
excellence of circulation." The Record and Guide undoubtedly
occupies its field, but attached to this field are peculiar circum¬
stances—circumstances that compel the continued printing of
more and more read ing-matter without any possibility of re¬
striction or curtailment, unless, of cpurse, the value of the
paper's service were at the same time to be impaired. The
latter is out of the question. It only remains that the situation
should he fairly met by all concerned—by the Record and Guide
itself on its part, by its subscribers on their part. No one can
sell an article below cost or at an unfair commercial price with¬
out disadvantage all around. After carefully considering the
situation, it has seemed to the management of the Record and
Guide that the most desirable way out of the existing difficulty
is to separate the matter that now appears in the paper into
two parts. Nothing, it would seem, can be lost were all the
matter that pertains to Manhattan and the Bronx printed in one





1.  The Rpcord and Guide—Manhattan and the Bronx edition;

2.  The Record and Guide—Brooklyn edition.

The former will be supplied to readers and subscribers, as at
present, for ?fi,00 a year, or 15 cents per copy. The latter will
be sold for $3.50 a year, or 10 cents per copy. Those who desire
bcth papers will be supplied for $8.00 a year.

Working on the supposition that all subscribers who receive
the Record and Guide to-day at an address in Manhattan or the
Bronx, are interested solely in information pertaining to those
two boroughs, the Manhattan and the Bronx edition alone will
hereafter be sent to those who dwell in Manhattan and the
Bronx; and on a like supposition, the Brooklyn edition alone
will be sent to those who dwell in the big borough beyond the
Bast River. Any subscriber, however, whose paid subscription
is still current, may hy dropping us a postal card stating his
desire, obtain both editions without any extra charge whatso¬
ever during the life of his existing subscription. Of course, at
the end of the subscription, it will be open to him to elect whicli
edition he needs, paying tor one or the other, or both as the
circumstances may be.

In conclusion, the Record and Guide would like to assure its
old friends that this new step has been taken only after the
greatest patience and with the utmost care for every interest
concerned. It is most emphatically not a one-sided move.
Moreover, it is not a solitary move, but one that has been
fully prepared for by the management, and by the careful adop¬
tion of a wider policy that will surely give our readers, when
jt is completely worked out, a very much superior service hoth
in Manhattan and the Bronx, and in Brooklyn.





THE stock market has been showing marked strength as
a result of what appears to be a very excellent class of
buying; and in spite of the fact that prices are undoubtedly
very high—practically as high as those of the spring of 1902—
the reasons for this marked strength are not far to seek. The
impression is spreading that stocks are becoming intrinsically
more valuable than they were two years ago. The hest indus¬
trial stocks are more valuable, because the big industrial corpo¬
rations have pulled through a period of very bad business, and
becatise they will be in a position now to use their surplus earn¬
ings—after paying their preferred stock dividends—in strength¬
ening their supplies of working capital. In this way they very
much increase the chance of maintaining the dividends on the
preferred, while at the same time they are adopting the only
policy which can in the long run give substantial value to the
common stock, Tiie good railroad stocks are also believed to be
more valuable, because they are showing an increased earning
power. Tliere is talk of increased dividends on a number of
important stocks, and the resumption of dividends on others,
and this talk is in some measure justified by actual events.
In fact the railroad companies, such as the Pennsylvania and
the New York Central, which are large holders of the stocks
of other companies, are likely to he very much benefited by the
prospective increased rates of dividend distribution. All this
makes for investment buyiny and suggests that a permanently
higher level of values may be effected by the events of the next
year.





THE only comment there is to make upon the real estate
marliot of the past week is that it has been possessed by
a seasonable dullness. Whatever movement has been shown
has been in the same direction as tbat which has been con¬
spicuous during the past month. Property in and near the
financial center is in demand for the construction of ofiice build¬
ings and 5lh Ave. property or lots in that vicinity are also in
demand both for new residences and for the retail trade. The
lot speculation is becoming smaller and smaller, and the most
recent purchasers are doubtless beginning to consider seriously