May 13, 1905





RECORD AND   GUIDE





1055











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_                                       ESTABUSHED-^ i^U^CH ZP^ IfiSS.

Dev&TED to RP^L EsTWE . BinLOlKo I^RCKITECTORE .^{oIISDIOLD DEGORATlOlf.

Bi/sii/ess Aifo Themes Of GEito^l If/iEi^Esi.
PRICE   PER   YEAR    IN    ADVANCE    EIGHT   DOLLARS

Published   eVerp   Saturday

Communlcationa should bo nddreased to

C.   W.   SWEET,   14-16   Vesey  Street,   New  York

Tolophona, CorLliiudt 3157

"Entered at the i'ost Office at Neio York, N. Y.. as second-class matter."

Copyrieht by the KenI Estate Esoord nnd Builders' Guide Company.





rest of the year. Railways earnings are very large; build¬
ing of all kintis exceedingly active; and there is almost an as¬
surance of a record crop of -winter wheat. For the present con¬
servative purchases of stocks look sufficiently safe, even if they
do not promise to he extremely profitable.





Vol. LXXV.





MAT 13, 1905.





A Word About the Price.

The real estate transactions offered for record in
May have assumed an unprecedented volume. The
percentage of increase is not any gTeater than it has
been ref?ently, but inasmuch as this is the first part
of May—the most active period for recording in the
whole year^—the number of papers which the Record
and Guide is obliged to publish has assumed a pro¬
digious total—a total which completely alters the rela¬
tion that has hitherto existed between what the Record
and Guide offers its subscribers and what they
pay for the service. During the first week in May, 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 last
issue of the Manhattan edition of the Record and Guide
contained 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 otlier
publications that attempt to handle the same material.
One of tbe most important daily journals in the city
has abandoned entirely the publication of the records,
while none of them is able to publisii the conveyances
and mortgages in full. THE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
OF THE MANHATTAN EDITION OF THE RECORD
AND GUIDE IS NOW EIGHT DOLLARS A YEAR, and
at that price its subscribers are obtaining one of the
cheapest services in the world.





THE course of the stock market during the week has served
to make the speculative situation very clear. The most
important fact in relation to it has been its dullness. Fewer
transactions have been consummated on the average than dur¬
ing any week since the recent speculative movement began.
There has been an absence of any interest in stocks, except that
displayed by professionals; and the operations of the trading
contingent have been hesitating and half-hearted. They neither
sell nor buy stocks with any confidence, because the market has
had no pronounced momemtum either in one direction or the
other. They are awaiting a revival of speculative interest on
tbe part of outsiders; and it is probable that they will have
to wait sometime for such a revival. In the meantime, however,
It looks as if the course of prices would tend upwards rather
than down, A very dull market, which is not weak generally
prepares the way for strength, when activity is resumed; and
while there is not, under existing conditions, room for any con¬
siderable advance in prices, there is, on the basis of rea! values,
more room for an advance than for a general decline. The
business situation, no matter how it is tested, looks well. It
is true that the consumption ot pig iron, large as it is, has
not been sufficient to prevent an increase of stocks, and there
are some indications of a recession in prices. It does not
seem, however, as if there was much danger of a large shrinii-
age in the demand for iron and stee! products. CJonsumption
has not continued on the level established during March; but
it could hardly be expected that it would do so. There is
every prospect, however, that it will continue to be large enough
to  enable  the   producers  to    make    good    profits    during  the





SPECULATION in vacant lots and their improvement has
been held up by the uncertainty as to the mortgage
tax bill. We do not believe that many real estate operators ex¬
pect that mortgages will escape taxation; but as long as there
is any chance that the measure will not be signed, they naturally
do not care to enter into operations which will be affected by
the proposed tax. The consequence is. that the real estate mar¬
ket continues to be relatively dull. We say relatively dull, be¬
cause it is dull only compared to its activity of a few weeks
ago. Compared to any other period in the recent history of
New York reai estate, the demand, particularly for improved
property is large and wholesome. As the Record and Guide has
constantly predicted, the current year will riva! 1902 and 1901
ill the number of fire-proof buildings, which are in the course
of erection. What with the new buildings, which will replace
the oid Tower and Boreel Buiidings. and the several different
enterprises to be undertaken on Nassau St., West St., Maiden
Lane and elsewhere, there wiil be a great many million dollars
invested in new office buildings downtown. The new wholesale
district from 14th St, north will be similarly active; and the
Altman and Clafiin jobs wili keep the vicinity of 34th St. and
ath Ave. busy. Furthermore, we imagine that the sale of the
Park & Tilford Buiiding on the Piaxa to Messrs. Boehm & Coon,
wiil have a reactive infiuence on the neighborhood mentioned
above. We should not be at all surprised, for instance, to
find Parli & Tilford arranging for an establishment In a situa¬
tion not more than one block from the Waldorf-Astoria, There
will aiso be a large amount of high-class apartment-house
buiiding, which will be encouraged by the fact that rents in
these structures are still rising. The only class of fire-proof
buiiding, in which no revival has taken place is the apartment
liotel; and under existing conditions no revival is probable in
the near future. Speculative purchases in all the active neigh¬
borhoods still continue; and the demand for Fourth Ave, prop¬
erty near 32d St. is so insistent that it must be based on assured
information.





MR. BIRD S. COLER spoke very much to the point on
Thursday last when he pointed out that municipal owner¬
ship of public utilities is impracticable as long as New York is
hampered by its ten per cent debt limit Since the assessment
list was increased under the Low administration, the agitation to
modify the constitutional debt limit has subsided; but that is
only because public opinion and the city officials refuse to look
ahead for more than a few years. By careful economy in its
borrowing, and by encouraging private capital to build the new
subways, the city can postpone the question of modifying
the constitutional provision for a little while; but it cannot
be postponed for long. It stands in the way of any radical im¬
provement of the street plan of Manhattan; and this, in the
opinion of the Record and Guide is the most serious dis-service
which it performs. But it also stands in the way of any impor¬
tant enlargement of municipal functions, because the city can¬
not construct or operate pubiic utility plants without adding
largely to its debt. In fact, wherever the city is hampered by
its inability to carry out a vigorous and progressive municipal
policy on account of the debt restriction, it means that private
interests of one kind or another fatten on the city's helpless¬
ness. The situation seems to be discouraging, because it will
require an agitation of, at least, several years before the debt
limit can be modified, and at present there is no disposition on
the part either of the city officials or the newspapers to take the
matter up, and push it as it should be pushed.





IT is hard to understand the violent and unreasonable opposi¬
tion which is provoked by any serious proposal to alter the
existing plan of Central Park, The Record and Guide fully
agrees with the people who declare that nothing should be done
to diminish the park area of New York; but any one not
blinded by prejudice must admit that the refusal to approve
any encroachments on our parks is a very different thing from
the blind worship of our parks in their present condition. If the
public usefulness of a park can be increased by an alteration in
plan, it is mere superstition to oppose such alterations abso¬
lutely and without reserve. There seems to be a large element
of superstition in the opposition encountered by the project to
run a parkway along the Fifth avenue frontage of Central Park.
The strip which it is proposed to take for the purpose is at the
preseut time scarcely used by the public at all.    It is only occa-