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May 6, 1905
RECORD AND GUTDE
985
Dp6te» p f^EA.L Estate . BuILol^'G Aftcifitecture .Household DiflonjTiorf.
Bi/sii/ess Afio Themes of CEflEi^L IKtei^esi .,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
published every Saturday
Communications should be nddroBsod to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York
Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at the Post Office al New York
2Y. Y., as
second-cZass matler."
Copyriekt by tbe Reai Est.ite Record a
id Builders
Gr
ids Company.
Vol. LXXV. MAT 6, 1905.
No. 1938.
Th6 real estate transactions offered for record during
the past week have again assumed an unprecedented
volume. The percentage of increase is not any greater
than It has heen recently, but inasmuch aa this is the
flrat week in May—the most active week for recording
fn the whole year—the numher of payers, which the
Record and Guide is obliged to publish has assumed a
prodigious total—a total which completely alters the re¬
lation that has hitherto existed between what the Record
and Guide offers its subscribers and what they
pay for the service. During the flrst week in IMay, 1904,
for instance, the Record and Guide published an issue
containing 88 pages—and this issue compared to an
average of about 72 during previous years. The current
issue of the Manhattan edition of the Record and Guide
contains 96 pages, and if to this we add the pages of
legal records published in the Brooklyn edition (thus
making the terms of the comparison the same in both
years), we obtain a total of 136 pages. It is perfectly
obvious that under such circumstances the Record and
Guide cannot continue to publish the accustomed
amount of printed matter at the same price as hereto¬
fore; and in altering the relation between the price and
the matter we are only following the example of other
publications that attempt to handle the same material.
One of the most important daily journals in the city
has abandoned entirely the publication of tbe records,
while none of them is able to publish the conveyances
and mortgages in full. The subscription price of the
Manhattan edition of the Record and Guide is now $8
a year, and at that price its subscribers are obtain¬
ing one of the cheapest services in the world.
THE prices of securities have for the most part sagged dur¬
ing the past week; but it cannot be said that the position
of the bearish speculators has been thereby very much im¬
proved. On the contrary it can be fairly inferred from the events
of the week that there is very little money to be made at pres¬
ent prides by selling stocks. The liquidation is over, and dull¬
ness has temporarily supervened; but bearish raids always meet
with substantial resistance below a certain point. It is evident
that in case they carried too far, the covering of the short con¬
tracts which would follow might carry stocks up to pretty near
their former level. The news of the weeli; all tended in the di¬
rection of higher prices. Railway earnings were uniformly and
in some cases surprisingly good. The crop prospects have on the
whole improved in spite of the fact that cold weather delays
planting. There are signs that the pace is moderating in the
iron and steel trades; but there is good business in sight for
months to come. It is distinctly a good thing that a boom has
been avoided, for there is at least a chance now that a fair and
profitable volume of business will continue to be offered for an
Indefinite period.
THE real estate market remains in a partly suspended con¬
dition awaiting action on the mortgage tax hill. The effect
of the suspense has been shown not only in the lack of sales of
vacant land, but also in the diminution of the plans filed for new
tenements and apartment-houses. It is not to be supposed that
this decrease will be permanent. As soon as the mortgage tax
bill is either signed or vetoed, the building market will soon re¬
adjust itself to the possibly changed conditions. But until the
BUBpense is over, the existing hesitations will continue. Because
of the hesitation on the part of speculators new real estate trans¬
actions are not very considerable in volume, but the tone is very
strong. Buying continues in speculative districts, and the amount
of new construction of a high class, which is foreshadowed be¬
comes larger'and larger. The Record and Guide predicted over a
mouth ago that builders requiring structural steel who did not
cover their requirements early, would probably suffer from
delayed deliveries, and according to the "Iron Age" such a con¬
tingency is now more than probable. April was one of the best
months which the American Bridge Co. has ever had. and May
promises to be better still. In any event there will be plenty of
building; and not even the most determined effort of the Leg¬
islature to discourage it will make more than a few weeks
delay. "We believe that on the whole this delay will be rather
useful than the reverse; because it will force certain weak op¬
erators to quit. It will make no change at all in the under¬
lying situations. Even vacant property is readily sold when
offered under fair conditions. In spite of the diminution in cur¬
rent trading there is no reason to anticipate any noticeable re¬
action.
The Board of Aldermen vs. the Board of
Estimate.
â– jVyr AYOR McCLELLAN in the message which accompanied
â– *-'-*â– his veto on the Elsberg franchise bill skillfully endeavored
to conceal the weakness of his position by appealing to the pub¬
lic dislike of corporate interference with legislation. Whether
or not the Pennsylvania Railroad was instrumental in pushing
the bil! depriving the Board of Aldermen of its existing control
over franchises \% irrelevant to the main question. The
main question concerns the expediency of lodging ia
the Board of Aldermen the authority over franchises
which it now possesses; and if public opinion did not
believe that the Aldermen had exercised that power in
a dangerous and dilatory manner, the Pennsylvania Railroad
would have been powerless to have deprived them of their au¬
thority. The Mayor was simply making out the best case that he
could, and a very poor case it was. His attempt to show tbat the
Board of Aldermen is as representative and as safe a body as
the Board of Estimate is falsified by the whole history of muni¬
cipal government in this city. The Board of Aldermen has not
for many years represented anything but local and corrupt inter¬
ests, while the Board of Estimate has been the one conspicu¬
ously successful and trustworthy agency of local government,
which has resulted from New York's endless process of charter-
tinkering.
The Mayor's plea that, if tbe people are dissatisfied with the Board
of Aldermen, they should elect a better class of men to the
Board, ignores the facts and complications of our municipal
government. It would be justifled, in case the Board of Alder¬
men were at the present time an effective and responsible local
government agency; but, as we all know, it is nothing of the
sort. The functions which it originally possessed have gradually
been taken over by the Mayor and the Board of Estimate; and
at the present time it occupies the anomalous position of pos¬
sessing power without responsibility. It occupies, that is, the
peculiarly advantageous position of heing able to hold up im¬
provements, while at the same time it cannot either originate im¬
provements or authorize them without the assistance of theBoard
of Estimate. It has not enough power to make its possession
absolutely necessary for good government, while it has more
than enough to prevent the smooth working of the administra¬
tion machine. The revisers of the charter should have made
the Board of Aldermen either more or less powerful. We can
understand a charter in which the Board of Aldermen was
really responsible for the government of the city, and we can
understand a charter in which the Aldermen were practically
abolished; but a charter in which the Board of Aldermen has
large opportunities for evil and but meagre opportunities for
good is the kind of charter which lacks both logic and efficiency.
In continental and English cities government by common
councils have proved to be houest and competent. Under this ar¬
rangement the common council is the whole thing. It des¬
ignates the mayor and other executive officials, and determines
all the important questions of. city policy. Its efficient agencies
are various sub-committees, who deal with finance, transit and
other questions, and whose recommendations are generally
adopted by the whole couucil. Its functions are precisely those
of the Board of Directors of a large private corporation. The
only difference is that the members are elected from localities
instead of by a general vote. The common councils of the cities
in this country started with similar functions, except that, the
mayors of American cities have always been independent of the