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January 14, 1905
RECORD AND GUIDE
57
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Dev&TED to Rf>,L£lsT«T.BiiiLDif/o A,RC>(rrE!m;RE.h(oiJSEU0LDDEOCH«iDK.
BushIess Alto Themes OF GE[fcR^! IfiTER^si.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
Pabfisfted eVers Saturday
Communications stioulil be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Sireet, New YorK
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager Toiophone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered al the PjsI Offi,?e al New York. N. Y-. as second-class matler."
Vol. LXXV. JANUARY 14, 1905. No. 1922.
THE clue to the current stock market seems to be that it
goes down because it has particular reason to go up.
Stocks do not tempt people at the present prices, and nothing is
likely to happen during the next iev: months to make them more
valuable. Increases in dividends are apparently over for the
present, and while some of them will be forthcoming in the
course of the year, they will not be made until the railroads
and industrial companies have gatliered some of the fruits of
renewed prosperity. For a time the stock market is likely to
he slow, with occasional spurts either up hill or down. There
can be no doubt, however, that a less of several points in the
\alu6 of securities would encourage renewed buying. The sit¬
uation is essentially sound and does not warrant much of a
movement either in one direction or the other.
THE real estate market is as interesting and as active as
ever. The week's business has been concentrated along
one or two lines, but it is good, wholesome business, which
helps to confirm the pleasant promise of 1905. The whole length
of that part of Sth avenue which i.= devoted to business is still
extraordinarily active. During 1905 four corners between 18th
and 15th streets, inclusive, will be in the course of improvement
with store and loft buildings. This part of the avenue is pass¬
ing so completly into the possession of the wholesale trade
that the piaco and the other stores still lingering on its blocks
will soon lind it necessary to move further north. But the retail
part of the avenue is even more active than the wholesale dis¬
trict. During the past week there has been one big purchase, at
a very high price, for improvement, and another for invest¬
ment. The number of corners on which new buildings will be
in the course of erection is uncertain as yet, but if the negotia¬
tions now under way develop, that number will he very large.
All the expensive property left in the hands of the realty com¬
panies is being either improved or sold, and these companies
will doubtless soon he in th'i market for more property of this
kind. Residences of all kinds continue to be in good demand,
considering the period of the year, and an unusually large num¬
ber of them will undoubtedly be built in 1905. On the block in
the eighties recently purchased by Mr. Dowling, alone, half as
many private residences will be built as there were started in
the whole of Manhattan in 1904. It is noticeable also that the
activity in tbe Bronx is being transferred to the line of Jerome
avenue and to the heights in the western part of that borough.
It is very desirable that property-owners in that part of the
l^orough should combine to maintain a high level of improve¬
ment.
T^TT E. BIRD S. COLER is doing the city a valuable service
^*^ in again calling attention co the necessity of making rad¬
ical alterations in the constitutional restriction on the city's
debt. It is not to be supposed the amendment which h© will have
introduced into the Legislature will immediately pass that body
and will be approved by a large popular majority, because very
few people understand what a straight-jacket that limit will
become within the next few years, and what an awkward and
clumsy restriction it is. The constitutional provision was pro¬
posed and passed at a time when public opinion was frightened
bj the rapid increase in the municipal debt, and when it had
no conception of the future expansion of the city and the fin¬
ancial necessities of such expansion. Hence it was blindly im¬
posed for the purpose of absolutely limiting municipal indebt¬
edness; and it did not discriminate between a debt representing
a productive improvement and a debt incurred for a non-pro¬
ductive purpose. The consequence is that, as Mr. Coler points
out, the more income-producing docks and subways the city
owns, the less money it can borrow. A similar provision in¬
corporated in the charter of a railroad company would bar that
company from making permanent improvements absolutely
essential to the expansion of its business and to its successful
competition,with its rivals; and this is precisely the effect it
will have upon New York City. Our city is peculiarly a city of
great and necessary corporate enterprises. The stupendous
process of reconstruction and expansion which is continually'
being carried on by individuals must e paralleled by equally
stupendous plans of public improvement. The delay of such
plans in the past has cost the city heavily, and in the future if
subways, new docks, an additional water supply, and necessary
street improvements are postponed because of this debt restric¬
tion, the loss will be still heavier. What is equally as bad
however, is the fact that if th3 city evades its responsibilities''
owing to Its lack of capita!, there is always a danger that pri¬
vate corporations will take advantage of its negligence or in¬
capacity. Thus the lack of the money necessary to construct
cv. entirely adequate new acqueduet and reservoir would be the
opportunity of the Ramapo Co., while private corporations will
undoubtedly take advantage of the necessary economy of the
city's credit in bidding on the new subways. Apart from the
debt limit, there is no reason why it should be any advantage
to New York to allow private corporations to use their own
credit m constructing subways; and it would be much better
from the public standpoint, for private corporations to make
their bids attractive by other inducements-such as unlimited
Lransfers, cheap fares, or short leases. As it stands, however
the hoard would necessarily be much infiuenced by an offer on
the part of the Interborough, or any other company, to finance
without the help of the city any extension to the subway system
In thts, and in many other ways, vital corporate activities of
New York wilt be paralyzed by the debt limit, and it will be un¬
able to provide sufhciently for its own growth until the terms
oi that limit are modified.
T_^ OW long will it be before it dawns upon the people of New
York that its police force wlH, under existing conditions,
itever be reformed? One well-intentioned Police Commissioner
succeeds another, but they all fail because they are unable to
exercise any effective authority ov'3r their subordinates. As long
^s under the law the courts reinstate members of the force, ex¬
cept when absolutely convicted of gross official negligence, so
long will the members of the force be an independent body,
which can stubbornly resist any attempt to reform abuses.
Ihere can be no discipline where tLere is no authority, and the
jiolice commissioner has no authority. He can give orders, but
he cannot compel them to be executed, because he has no power
of dismissal. Instead of being a semi-military organization,
Ftrictly subordinate to civil authority, the police force is prac¬
tically an independent body of men, who can defy the laws and
their superiors. This condition has come about gradually, and
the members of the force, although they take advantage of the
situation, are not wholly responsible for it; but, whatever the
CE.USO, it is obvious that discipline must be restored before any
abuses can be reformed. The Legislature should put it up to the
Folice Commissioner really to reform the force by bestowing
on him the power of dismissal, and this action should be taken
in spite of any and all opposition.
â– ^ HE increase in the provisional real estate assessments for
â– ^ 1905 over 1904 appears small, hut it is probably all that
is warranted by the course of real estate values in 1904. There
was a well-distributed enlargement in the value of five-story
flats and tenements, which dia not receive much notice from
the assessors; but, on the whole, they were right in restricting
the increase in assessments to about the value of the improve--
ments completed during the year. The list has been criti¬
cized because of the small increase in the Bronx, and in other
existing centres of speculative activity, but this activity is too
recent to receive notice from the assessors. It will be their duty
to revise the whole list of Bronx and Washington Heights
assessments during the fall of the current yeaj-, because by that
time values will have reached a definite level. But just at pres¬
ent the recent increases are too young and doubtful to alfect
\alues for tax purposes.
Washington Heights Announcement.
The Record and Guide is authorized to make an announcement,
which throws an interesting- light upon conditions on Washing¬
ton Heights. The lots on Broadway, owned by the syndicate of
which Mr. Chas. T. Barney is the leading- member, are with¬
drawn from the market at the prices which have hitherto pre¬
vailed. This announcement is, of course, equivalent to decl-ar-