November 3, 1906





RECORD AND   GUTOE





717







Dzvi-tED JO Hej^L Estate.BuiLDifJb 5\RG^<^■EeTuRE,^{ollSEUou)DE60E5^T^o^f.
Bt/sii^ESS Afi> Themes of CejJeraL IMteresi.

PRICE   PER   YEAR    IN    ADVANCE    EIGHT   DOLLARS

Published   eVery   Saturday

Communications should bo addressed to

C.   W.   SWEET

Downtown Oflice:   14-lG  Vesey   Street,   New York

Teleplione, Cortlandt 3157
Upto vn Oilice:   1 1-13 East 24lli Street
Tolophono, Mndlson Sijuaro 1090





"Entered at ihe Tost Offlce ai New York. N. Y„ as second-class mailer."





Voi. LXXVIIl.





NOVEMBER 3, IQOU.





No. 2010.





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   Meta!  Work...............xvii

Electrical Interests ..........viii   Quick Job Directory  ........xxvii

Fireproofing  ..................ii   Real  Estate   ...............xiii

Granite   ..................xxiv   Roofers & Rooflng Mater'Is. .xxvi

Heatiug....................xx  Stone   ......................xxiv

Iron and  Steel   ..............xviii   Wood Products   ............xxviii





THIS week's extreme dullness in ttie Stock Market afford¬
ed too good an opportunity to get tip an election scare
to be neglected by the bears. In their efforts the bears were
aided by the demand for bigher wages by nearly all classes
of railway employees. The officers of the New York Central
lines denied, however, that their employees were asking for
higher pay and shorter hours, though New York Central sold
on Wednesday at 126 ?4. making a new low record for the
year. Other roads said to be involved are the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western, the Central Railroad of New Jersey,
Reading, Pennsylvania and Erie. The failure to increase
the dividend on Steel Common was also a contributing cause
of weakness in the Stock Market, yet many think that the
Steel Corporation directors deserve credit for having moved
cautiously in the matter of tbe Common stock dividends.
This, with the great earnings as per the quarterly statement
issued this week, could easily have been done, but, on the
other hand, it is considered better to wait until the money
situation is more settled. It is undoubtedly true that the
New York election is being watched both here and
abroad, and the effect on financial sentiment is not to
be wondered at. There is, of course, always the fear of tight
money in November and December, and it will be strange
indeed if real estate and building tiperations will not be made
to realize the money situation before the end of the year.
Our securities are heavy abroad, based on apprehensions that
the Bank of England may again raise its discount rate.
Call money has again been performing its gyrations touching
the nine per cent. rate. What has been lacking in excitement
on the New York Stock Exchange has been made up hy the
curb market in mining activity, which has been unprece¬
dented, and there is every reason to believe will continue for
some time. Notwithstanding the prevailing great prosperity
in business generally throughout the country that the divi¬
dends being paid are very conservative, so that in spite of
the disquieting features referred, to, the prospect in the near
future cannot be looked upon as otherwise than favorable.





THE lease of the southwest corner of Madison Avenue
aud 31st Street, which was announced over a week
ago, has not received the attention which it deserves. It is
stated that the lessee will erect on the plot a ten-story busi¬
ness building, and if such is the case it will be the first im¬
portant business building to be situated on Madison Avenue
between 27th and 34st Street. But it will not be the last.
The Record and Guide has frequently pointed out that this
particular part of Madison Avenue was inevitably destined
to be improved with loft buildings. So far, no such im¬
provements have taken place. The new buildings erected
on Madison Avenue between 27th and 34th Streets during
the past few years have been, witb one exception, apartment
hotels, and that exception consists of a woman's athletic club.
Moreover, the improvements in the side streets adjoining
Madison Avenue have also been, for the most part, apart¬
ment hotels, although some few business buildings have been
erected near Fifth Avenue.    It is evident, however,  that this





whole section is becoming much more valuable for business
tban it is for hotel purposes. The new wholesale district be¬
tween 14th and 23d streets, and from Broadway to Sixth
Avenue, is now tolerably well occupied. The overflow from
this district must find the needed room north of 23d Street,
and loft buildings are already being erected between Broad¬
way arid Sixth Avenue. But the available area west of
Broadway is not large, and the streets ou the East Side will
necessarily he engulfed in this irresistible stream of business
expansion. Fifth Avenue is, for the most part, given over to
the retail trade, aud prices thereon are so high that very few
wholesale mei-chants could afford to pay the necessary rent¬
als. But Madison Avenue is admirably adapted to their pur¬
poses. It is a convenient neighborhood, situated near to the
most important retail shops in the city, and space can he
secured on this part of Madison Avenue at comparatively
reasonable prices. Neither is it to be supposed that the
property owners will offer any resistance to its improvement
with loft buildings- A large proportion of the old brown¬
stone buildings have of late years been occupied as boarding
houses, and there has been no attempt to erect modern resi¬
dences on Madison Avenue south of 34th Street, North of
34th Street the property owners ai^e determined that husiness
shall be kept out; but the building of tall business edifices
is precisely the best thing that could happen to the prop¬
erty owners on lower Madison Avenue.





TN SPITE of an increase of $13,000,000 in the municipal
-1- budget for the coming year, the tax rate will remain at
about the same percentage as that of the present and the
past two years; and this is a matter for congratulation.
There has been a disposition to criticise the administration
because it has, as it M'ere, claimed credit for keeping the tax
rate down, on the ground that the tax rate is a deceptive
indication of the actual size of the tax bills. It is true that
the tax rate is a deceptive indication of the size of the tax
bills, which depend, of course, on the scale of assessed valu¬
ations as well; but in the present instance the average assess¬
ment of rea! property in New York City has not been unduly
increased. On the contrary, it still remains at about sixty-
eight per cent, of the market value of the real estate. So
far during the current year the market value of the real
estate sold at the price of whicii was expressed in the deed
was $58,077,637, and the aggregate assessed valuations of
these same properties was $4 0,550,275, The consetiuence
is tbat if the tax rate remains the same the average property
owner will not have his taxes increased, except in so far as
such an increase may be justified by the iiicreased value of
his pi-operty. The financial administration of the city is
justified in congratulating the city that, in spite of its con¬
stantly expanding responsibilities, the tax rate remains the
same, and it should be the aim of the administration to keep
the increase of the budget down to the amount of money
which can be raised by the application of the e.-^isting rate to
the increase in the aggregate valuation of real and personal
property. That is a safe rule, no matter what criticism the
application of it may incur from those who fail to under¬
stand its validity.





THE PROJECT for an elevated road connecting the Wil¬
liamsburgh and the Brooklyn bridges has been iinaily
killed so many times by the Rapid Transit Commission that
we are inclined to be skeptical about the decisiveness of its
recent slaughter. But if a sulflcient number of the members
of the Rapid Transit Commission are unalterably opposed
to it, the least that body can do under the circumstances is
to take prompt action on the next most effective remedial
measures. The, decision not to authorize the elevated road
must mean that the additional means of communication be¬
tween Brooklyn and Manhattan is to be supplied by subways.
Consequently, the tunnel already laid out, practically parallel¬
ing tbe Brooklyn Bridge, should be authorized as soon as
possible, and it should be connected in some effectual manner
with the subway system of Brooklyn and that of Manhattan,
and with the termini of the WiUiamsburgh. the Manhattan
and the Blackwell's Island bridges. It is doubtless an un¬
fortunate thing that Brooklyn must wait for effective relief
until such a tunnel can be completed and properly connected,
but if tbe connections are adequately made Brooklyn will be
the gainer in the long run. The elevated connection was, we
believe, a means of temporary relief, justified by the acute
character of the existing congestion, but it would only have
been a "make-shift," which, compared to some more effective
means of connection, would soon have been a hindrance
rather  than  a  help  to  the  development  of  Brooklyn.     The