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June 3, 1905
RECORD AND GTHDE
1217
Dented P RfArES7AJE'.BuiLD!f/G %cKlTEeTJI\E,HoUSEriOU)DESafiA'nMl,i
Bi/sr/ess Affo Themes of GEjlERftl IjiiEftes-i.,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Published eVery â– Saturdatf
Communications should ne addroaeed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New York
Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
usually large share ot the great tide of Jioreigu immigration has
remained m New iork, auti has created that imperative need of
U-nement house aecommoaatiou, which is rapimy iranstorming
Manhattan into a city of tenements. Owing to all these condi¬
tions, iL would not tie at aii surprising in ease the increase of
papulation since 1900 proves to be as much as bOO.OoO. and in
L-p..si liy the end ol the present decade the greater iNew Vorli
couid boast of 4,700,000 inhabitants. As long as this rate of in¬
crease continues it v/ill strain the building machinery, even of
New Yorli Lo construct living accommodations for aii these peo¬
ple. It means that every three years a city as large as Cleve¬
land must be built, and at the same time a city as large as
Rochester must be torn down and thrown iato the scrap heap.
"Entered at the Post Offit
ce a( If^ew
York, if. r"-, as
second-class mailer."
Copyrieht by tha Re,-i
I Eslate Record and Builderi
i' Gnide Company.
Vol. LXXV.
JUNE
3, 1905.
No. 1942.
Cement ..............
Clay Products ..........
Contractors and Builders, ,
Firepioohng ...........,
Gra nil
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
(.Advertising Section.)
Page
Machinery ............. ii
Metal Work ............ xvii
Real Estate ............ xll
;ind Sleel.
Wood Produl
AS the weeks pass by it becomes increasingly evident thai
the recent reaction in the Stock Market is not the fore¬
runner of .a change for the worse in the general business situa¬
tion. It was occasioned b-y the extent to which speculators had
advanced prices, with the result that there was little or no
generai demand at the prevailing level, A decline was necessary
iu order to renew any general public interest in the Stock Mar¬
ket. Alter the flrst break occurred, a recovery was delayed,
because of the lear of a reaction in business that was suddenly
occasioned by the lessened demand for pig iron and certain
forms of finished steel. But this fear has been pretty well dis-
ipated by subsequent events. The iron and steel manufactur¬
ing business will not continue to be as prosperous in the near
future as it has been in the near past; but there is every rea¬
son to believe that a fair volume of business will continue to
be transacted throughout Lhe curreut year. There is no danger
of a marked reaction, because there has been no boom,and no
inflation of prices, as there was early in 1903. Moreover, the
railroad and building industries will continue to need a re¬
spectable volume of flnished products. Consequently, inasmuch
as the iron and steel trades were the only ones which showed
any weakness, and as there is uo cause for anticipating any
serious depression in that quarter, it is a lair assumption that
general business in 1905 wil afford no pretext for lower stock
values. Whether the situation will aitord any pretext for higher
values remains to be seen; but it looks at worst like a steady
slock market for the next month or two. Good crops, plus
higher rates of dividend distribution might occasion and justify
a bull campaign somewhat later; and even a comparative crop
failure could, considering the volume of general business,
seriously injure the values of good railroad securities.
IT is being confidently predicted that the State census taken
during the present year will show a population in the Greater
New York of not less than 4,000,000 people; aud there is every
reason to believe that such will be the case. Even during the
last decade the annual increase was not far from 100,000 in¬
habitants; and since 1900, it is demonstrable that the yearly
addition has been still larger, Tbese flve years have witnessed
an unusual expansion in the amount of business transacted in
this city. It has reaped the advantage accruing from the fact
that New York is the commercial and flnancial metropolis of a
country whose business interests are constantly undergoing a
process of centralization and consolidation. Almost every large
bus-ness enterprise started in any part of the country, sooner or
later, pays its larger or its smaller tribute to New York; and this
circumstance is chiefly responsible for the ever growing mass of
"sky-scrapers" which cut the sky-line south of Cortlandt St.
At the same time the local industries have been undergoing
rapid expansion. The clothing manufacturers have largely in¬
creased their output; and that great body of business known in
general as the wholesale trade has symbolized its growth by
occupying with great rapidity a new district north of 14Ui St.
At the same tirae the great public works undertaken by the
city, and by the railroad companies has considerably augmented
the demand for unskilled labor. Indeed the demand for all
kinds of labor has been so insistent and so elastic that an un-
TiiE report of the united biates ttealty and Improvement
Company, issued during the past week, shows what ex¬
cellent results have loilowed Irom me new poucy adopted by
that corporation. Alter paying all e.-^penses, intertst ou bonus,
taxes aad the like, the company has a surplus, applicable to
diviuenUs on Lhe stock, amounting to about $l,ll>0.00o, aud there
is ei'ery prospect that during the coming year the surplus will
be still larger, because the properties of the company will have
been still further developed. This excellent result has been
reached by Lhe change in the policy of the company, a change
which Look the company out 01 speculative real estate trausac-
tious and connned its business tor the time being to Lhe im-
piovement ot valuable property already acquired, AL the end of
another year the company will have still further increased the
earning power of its present holdings, and will be in a position
to purchase additional property for development. The securities
of Lhe company should by that tipae be selling at a price which
would enable it to obtain fresh supplies of capital at com¬
paratively low rates of interest; and iu this way it can provide
economically for the expansion of its operations. The company
is becoming what it should be, a real estate investment corpora¬
tion; and it is admirably equipped for this purpose.
WHEN it was flrst proposed to add three or four tracks to
the East Side elevated roads, the Record and Guide was
inclined to favor the pi-oposal, because the improvement of the
tievated structure seemed to be the quickest aud cheapest method
of giving the East Side of Manhatlan and Lhe Broux Lhe addi¬
tional transit facilities, W'hich the population of that territory
needed so very badly. But since Lhe proposal was flrst made,
the siluation has entirely changed. At that time it looked as if
the most we could expect in the way of new Subways was upper
East Side and lower West Side extensions. Nov/, however, Lhe
prospects are that New York can count upon at least three new
four-track tunnels running from the Battery up to the Bronx;
and this outlook is so very advantageous, that to do anything
Lo damage it would be very had business. The addition of third
tracks to the Third and Second ave. structures would manifestly
impair the city's chances of obtaining bidders for the Subways
mentioned above, because the new tracks would diminish the
traffic, ou which the new tunnels would depend for subsistence.
IL is better to wait for the infinitely better means of transporta¬
tion which these tunnels would afford than to endanger the
chance of obtaining genuine rapid transit by constructing a
mere temporary makeshift- The third elevated tracks would
be only makeshifts. They would not provide the kind of ex¬
press service which the growth of the city really demands.
Public; opinion of New York will demand that the Rapid
Transit Commission achieves at least t-wo results in malt¬
ing terms with the bidders for the new rapid transit routes.
It will not be satisfied unless arrangements can be made for
at least three longitudinal and three lateral tunnels and it will
expect that the city share more largely in the proflts obtained
by operating these tunnels than it does in those of Llie existing
Subway. It will expect leas^ for shorter lerms of years, and a
division cf profits after Lhe net receipts reach a certain amount.
The income of the present Subway shows that Mr. Belmont
made an extremely good bargain when he assumed a lease for
seventy-five years at a rental of 4J/. per cent, on Lhe cost of con¬
struction. It looks as if Lhe stock of the Interborough Com¬
pany would pay eight per cent, almost from Lhe sLart. It is true
that part of the income out of which tbis eight per eent. will be
paid is derived from the advantageous lease of the elevated
roads; but it is also true that the Subway has not as yeL begun
to demonsLrate its full earning power. In a few years several
hundred thousand people will be living on l/vasningLon Heights,
on the Dyckman tract, and in the Bronx, who will have selecLed
these locations because of the Subway, and who w-ill depend al¬
most exclusively upon the Subway for their transit service. A
large proportion of the existing traffic is competitive; hut the