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February lo, 1906
RECORD AND GUIDE
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229
ESTABUSHED-^ iWpH Slti^ 1868,
Dev&teD p Rfn,L Estate .BuiLDii/c ^^rcKitectui^e .^ousnlou) DEQaf?Aiio.-l.
BiIsiWeSS AlbTHEL*.ZS OfGEf^R^l iKlEt^ESl.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Published every Salurdaif
Communications should bo adcirossed to
C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New York
Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Eidered at the Post Cffice al New York. N. Y.. as second-class mailer."
Vol. LXXVII.
FEBRUARY 10. lOOG.
No. 1978
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.
Page. Page.
Cement......................xxiii Law.........................xi
Clay Products.................xxii Lumber ...................xxviii
Consulting Engineers.........vii Machinery .....................Iv
Contractors and Builders......vi Metal Work ..................xix
Electrical Intereata...........viii Quick Job Directory.........xxvii
Fireproofing ..................iii Real Estate ..................xiii
Granite .....................xxiv Roofers & RooQng Materials... .x
Heating .......................xx Stone ......................xxiv
Iron and steel...............xviii Wood Products...............xxix
MUNICIPAL ownership is apparently making more prog¬
ress on water than on iand. Tiie city has already ac¬
quired and is operating the Staten Island Ferry. It owns the
Whitehall Street Terminal, and now the Sinlcing Fund Commis¬
sion has agreed to acquire under condemnation proceedings
the South Brooklyn Terminal. The city is to build new boats,
and the new municipal ferry will be put in operation as quickly
as possible. This extension of municipal ownership should re¬
ceive the approval of everyone, even of those who are most
strongly opposed to the paternal administration of tlie city's
affairs. For many years there has been a great deal of talk
about the advantages and disadvantages to be derived from the
city's participation in what hitherto have been the functions of
private enterprise. Any amonnt of talk, however, no matter
how logical it may be, lacks much of the cogency of actual dem¬
onstration. No doubt there is a deal to be said on both sides
as to the efficiency of municipal ownership in this community,
for it does not follow necessarily that because municipal owner¬
ship is a proved success in Glasgow, or Oshkosh, or Kalamazoo,
it will prove equally desirable here in Manhattan. There is only
one way in which the problem can be really settled, and that is
to try it. If the city can run two or three of our ferries to the
real advantage aud profit of the community, there would be a
presumption in favor of the principle warranting its rapid exten¬
sion into other spheres of action. It is, indeed, just as well that
smaller matters shall be experimented with flrst. Even failure
(should failure be the result) will be worth the cost of the
demonstration. There is no blinking the fact that a very large
number of our citizens, perhaps even the majority, are in favor
of municipal ownership. This favor, no doubt, is based upon
certain yet untested assumptions. Many persons, indeed, favor
the new principle merely as a reaction against the very great
abuses of private ownership. But we are all apparently settling
down to the opinion that monopolies are inevitable, and the
question is in the air—If monopolies are inevitable, sliould
not the management of them be lodged in the hands of the city
itself? But it is natural for those who are attracted by munic¬
ipal ownership to overlook in the present theoretical stage of
their opinions the unknown defects of municipal ownership,
which can only be discovered by the actual operation of the
principle. In other words, the education of experience is needed
all around. The only way to experiment is to experiment. The
ferries offer an admirable field for demonstration. From suc¬
cess or failure we shall learn much.
APROPOS of this subject, we trust that the larger matter of
the City Light Plant will not be allowed to lag. We do
not believe that the Mayor will consent to any unnecessary
postponement of the enterprise. The city has already acquired
. for its light plants a large amount of real estate admirably
â– situated and at a reasonable cost, and the mere purchase of this
property with the clear intent of proceeding with construction
has already secured for the city a considerable reduction in the
bids of the electric lighting companies. Some people perhaps
think the city should be satisfied with this achievement. It is
satisfactory so far as it goes, but who can say it goes far
enough? Does it put the city permanently in the position it
ought to occupy in making its contracts. It is not to be ex¬
pected that the lighting companies have foregone to the fullest
extent all their monopolistic advantages. They have yielded
anything so grudgingly that it is almost incredible they have at
last yielded all. This, however, is a temporary aspect of the
matter. The reach of municipal ownership goes very much
further than "clubbing" successfully recalcitrant corporations.
If municipal ownership is merely a protective or punitive
measure, it is far from being all that its advocates claim. At
any rate, the city has already gone too far with its light plant
project to recede. Public opinion, we judge, is very strongly
against any retrocession.
THE interest rate upon corporate stock of the city of New
York should certainly not be increased from Zy^ to 4 per
cent, until such an increase has been proved to be absolutely
necessary. The Finance Department, under its former head,
was entirely justified in using every expedient to avoid the issue
of 4 per cent, bonds, and inasmuch as conditions at the present
time are more favorable than they were a few months ago, it
should be possible to avoid raising the rate of interest for the
present. Whether such an increase will eventually be neces¬
sary, we cannot pretend to say. Very possibly it will. The
prices which the city stock brings has steadily declined since
1900, because the city has been selling its obligations in quan¬
tities which were larger than the normal demaud for such secu¬
rities. The decline has been constant, and has not been essen¬
tially affected by the fluctuations of the money market. More¬
over, similar conditions will prevail hereafter. For an indefi¬
nite period the city of New Tork will have to sell many millions
of dollars' worth of stock each year. Nevertheless, the bonds
of the largest and wealthiest city in the country are such
an excellent investment wlieu they yield SVe per cent, interest
that it is inconceivable that they will go much lower, and at
any moment something may happen to check the decline, at
least for a while. The change to a 4 per cent, security should
not be made until all resources for avoiding it have been ex¬
hausted.
THE announcement has been made recently that a fifteen-
story business building would be built on a lot which has
been leased by Mr. Henry Corn on Fifth avenue immediately
opposite the Waldorf-Astoria. The news Is worthy of note be¬
cause this will be the first commercial building to be carried
up fifteen stories on any site within the limits of the retail
part of Fifth avenue. In the part of Fifth avenue devoted to
the wholesale trade, south of 23d street, almost all the loft build¬
ings now being constructed are fifteen stories high, but hitherto
such tall buildings have not been considered desirable in the
retail district, in spite of the much higher valuation which is
placed on land in the shopping section. Indeed, it is only dur¬
ing the past few years that commercial buildings as high as
eleven or twelve stories have been constructed on this part of
the avenue, the reason being that owners were doubtful as to
their ability to rent space on the upper floors. Space on the
upper fioors of a five-story buikling were, indeed, easily rentable,
because the tenants could display signs which were conspicu¬
ously visible to passers-by; but office space in a skyscraper had
no such advantage. Nevertheless, the Fifth avenue corners fin¬
ally became so very valuable that taller buildings were tried,
and these buildings have been conspicuously successful. They
are, moreover, occupied as offices and stores rather than as lofts,
and their tenants doubtless feel that a location in an ofiice
building on the avenue is as advantageous as one upon a
side street off the avenue. The consequence is that, little by
little. Fifth aveitue, like Broadway, will be lined with tall
buildings. At present such buildings are the exception rather
than tbe rule, and the majority of tbem are hotels and restau¬
rants rather than business buildings; but an avenue on which
it is profitable to erect fifteen-story skyscrapers is doomed. The
success of one of these buildings immediately starts otlier
owners into figuring out the profit which they might make by a
similar operation, and hereafter several buildings of this kind
will during each year be constructed on Fifth avenue between
27th and 48th streets.
THE attention of our readers Is directed to the city adver¬
tisements which will appear hereafter regularly in the
Record and Guide. These announcements have an especial
value for real estate owners mi contractors, and should be read
carefully and regularly.