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August 25, 1906.
RECORD A^D GUIDE
329
ESTABUSHED-S5;; tfJ^RpHSIii.
M868.
Dev&teD id Re^L Estate , BuiLdi;/g AplcH'itectur.e .KouseHoid DEGOi^Tiotl,
Business AifoTiiEMES op Ge^eraI lf/TEi\Esi,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
published eVery Saturday
Communications should bo addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Downtown Olfice: 14-16 Vesey Street. New York
Telephouo, Cortl.indt 3157
Uptown Office: 11-13 East 24uh Street
Tolophono, Madison Square 1696
''Entered at the Tost Office at New York, N. Y.. as second-class matter."
Vol, LXXVIIL
AUGUST 25, 190G.
No, 200G
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS,
Advertising Section,
Page, Page.
Cement .....................xxiii Law.......................xi
Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber ...................xxviii
Clay Products...............xxii Machinery ....................iv
Contractors and Builders.......v Metal Work ................xvil
Electrical Interests...........viil Quick Job Directory.'........xxvii
Fireproofing ..................ii Real Estate .................xiii
Granite .....................xxiv Roofers & Roofing Mater'Is. .xxvi
Heating .......................xx Stone .......................xxiv
Iron and Steel..............xviii Wood Products ............xxviii
The Inde.\- lo Volume LXXVII of the Record and Guide, cover¬
ing the period between January i and June 30, 1906, will be ready
for delivery on Tuesday, August 28. Price $1. This Index in
its enlarged form is now recognised as indispensable to every one
engaged or interested in real estate and building operations. It
covers all transactions—deeds, mortgages, leases, auction sales,
building plans filed, elc. Orders for the Inde.v should be sent at
once to the office of publication, 14 and 16 k'cscy St.
WALL STREET has sailed out from the shallows into deep
water. This makes navigation safer in one regard,
but more perilous in another. The conserving influence of a
large short interest is gone. The bears have been terribly
whipped, and without the sustaining influence of their re¬
purchases the market from this high level might easily have
to sustain a bad .brealt should something decidedly adverse be
encountered. But with the exception of possible money difficulty
there is nothing disquieting in sight, A shrewd o1)server whose
business calls him every sixty days to Chicago, and thence
through the Indian Territory and Nevada, says that each
journey reveals such surprising additions to the prosperity and
optimism that what he considered a year ago as a dangerous
boom has long since been distanced by the bull facts until
now his feeling is one of surprise at the moderation of people
rather than their enthusiasm. This criticism might well be
extended to Wall Street measured by the unprecedented facts.
Surely it cannot be charged that there is an unreasoning specu¬
lation current on the New York Stoclc Exchange. The temper
of the Street indeed is to err on the side of safety. It is ever
on the alert for danger signals, and they are welcomed in
advance of their appearance. Any sort of phantom is readily
accepted in lieu thereof with the resultant illogical and often
unreasoning action. Consequently commission houses are not
borrowing half the -money they were in 1901 and 1902, and
their customers run like deer at the slightest sound of the
financial tom-tom. The rapidly growing increase in the
intrinsic value of railroad shares so constantly pointed
out and enlarged upon in these columns, is being more
intelligently discussed in connection with larger dividends
being declared. It was an epoch-making day in American
finance when the dividends by the Union Pacific and Southern
Pacific companies were declared. And yet the ascertainable
facts on analysis of their earnings and conditions could readily
have been learned six months ago. The announcement seemed
to surprise the average trader who is now, however, adopting
these patent facts as the basis for his operations at the
present high range of prices, when but a few weeks ago he
was selling the same stoelts short. A financial writer says:
"Anybody who knows anything at all about the Union Pacific
Company and the Southern Pacific Company knows that the
dividends just declared are ultra-conservative. By haggling
over the question of speculative etiquette the Street is losing
sight of the real backbone of the present advance, which is the
tremendous crops." This is true, for the value of these stu-
penduous yields cannot be less than $8,000,000,000. Consequently,
corporation valuations of both railroads and industrials must
necessarily benefit. This money question, however, is ever to
the fore and could there be any assurance that there would
be no normal rates between now and the end of the year,
stocks would undoubtedly make new high records. With even
six per cent, money it has been demonstrated that a great
and broad bull movement is not easy to inaugurate. Uncer¬
tainty about money is calculated to discourage speculation and
to che'ck the enthusiasm of the public in spite of the unpar¬
alleled underlying conditions and plethoric prosperity.
THERE was published in the City Record during the past
week the schedule of the assessed valuation of real estate
on which taxes will be collected next fall. This is the list
which was open for inspection early in January, and is now
after an interval of more than seven months being given to
the public in an available shape. Its publication is a very
excellent thing; but surely the law ought to be changed so
as to provide for the general distribution of the schedules at
an earlier date. The delay of seven months, which now takes
place before the appearance of this information in the City
Record, is wholly unnecessary. By the employment of a little
additional clerical assistance, a complete schedule could be given
to property owners in an available form at least as early as
the middle of April, and the saving of this time would be
worth far more than it would cost. In a matter of this kind
promptness of publication is quite as essential as accuracy rSid.
completeness of publication. The longer the schedules are in
the hands of the public before the assessments are finally con¬
firmed, the more likely will be the exposure of any unfair
discriminations. One of the most valuable checks upon the
existence of such discriminations is the publication in the
Record and Guide of the assessed valuation of every parcel of
Manhattan real estate which is conveyed; but the Record and
Guide is very much handicapped in this work by the fact that
the schedules are not published in the City Record until seven
months after the books are thrown open. Inasmuch as we
are necessarily dependent upon the numbers of the City Record
in which it is furnished, this delay means that during seven
months of the year the assessed valuations which we publish
are those of the year preceding, and the value of the work which
has been undertaken at a considerable expense is correspond¬
ingly diminished. The existing law ought to be modified at
the coming session of the Legislature, providing for the publi¬
cation of the list in the City Record at least as early as
May 1st.
A CORRESPONDENT writes to the Record and Guide, and
challenges the assertion made in the last number that
the unrestricted building of skyscrapers is an economic
advantage to the owners of extremely well-situated property.
He admits that they believe it to be an advantage, and that
they would fight strenuously against any curtailment of their
existing liberties, but he believes them to be mistaken. He argues
that if, for instance, the amount of business now transacted in
the financial district were spread over a much larger area,
the rents of offices in extremely well situated locations, such
as those within a few hundred feet of the Stock Exchange,
would be larger than they are at present. Good offices in the
most convenient locations would be increasingly difficult to
obtain, and would command proportionately higher prices. The
effect of the building of skyscrapers is really to alleviate
rather than to intensify tiie effects of the partial monopoly,
which the owners of extremely well situated parcels of real
estate possess. These parcels of real estate are in that way put
to their maximum economic use, and both its owners and the
public thereby receive the greatest possible advantage. The
chief difference is that under the existing conditions the owner
has to invest many millions of additional capital in order to
secure the best available returns, where as under a system of
legal restrictions on the height of buildings, he would obtain
as large a net return with the investment of only a small amount
of additional capital. This argument undoubtedly has a good
deal of force. The first effect of any legal restriction on the
height of buildings would probably be to depress somewhat the
existing level of prices for gilt-edged real estate, because these
pi'ices are based on the opportunity now afforded for the erec¬
tion of skyscrapers; but in the long run the effect of any
restriction would be to malie the most advantageously situated
property still more valuable, while at the same time increasing
the value of real estate which is less conveniently located. In
London, for instance, where the legal existence of "ancient
lights," as well as local regulations, forbid the erection of sky¬
scrapers, the value of real estate in the financial district is
if anything greater than it is in New York. If buildings more