April 6, 1907-





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





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C. W.   SWEET

Downtown Olfice:   14-16  Vesey Street, New York

Telephona, Cortlaudt 3157

Uptown Office:  1 1-13 East 24th Street, New York

Tolephono, 4430 Madison Square







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Copyrighted,  1907,




by




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Vol.




LXXIX.




APRIL




6,




1907.














No.




203S





INDEX TO  DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.

Page      ,                                           Pj.E«

Cement   ....................xvii Lumber.....................ix

Consulting Engineers   .........vii  Maciiinery   .................viii

Clay   Products   ................xvi Metal   Work   ...................xy

Contractors and Builders   ......iv Quick  Joh   Directory.........xxiii

Electrical Interests   ............ix Real  Estate   ...................xt

Fireproofing   ...................ii Roofers & Rooflng Materials.xxii

Granite   ...................xviil Stone   ....................xviii

Iron   and   Steel   ................x Wood Products...............xx





WALL STREET is feelmg more hopeful this week. The
perennial money question is temporarily settled in
any case until the early summer. The rate went below 17o
on call and time money was also lower. Stocks are
stronger, largely owing to the announcement hy the Secre¬
tary of the Treasury that he will refund $50,000,000 of 4%
bonds due in July and pay cash for the others. Naturally
the railroad situation in connection with what may be called
Washington politics is still a disturbing factor, and there
is also anxiety as to the outcome of the controversy be¬
tween the President and Mr. Harriman. It is thougiit, how¬
ever, that while the echoes of trouble may be heard for
some time, they wil grow fainter and fainter and will soon
be forgotten. In other words, it is said that the recrimi¬
nations exchanged in the dispute will have no effect on leg¬
islation regarding either trusts or railroads. On the other
hand there are several favorable features in connection with
the market. Among them may be mentioned the action
of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co, in declar¬
ing a semi-annual dividend of 3% per annum. In 1906,
this road earned more than 12% on the common stock, and
it is likely to be greater this >ear. Another event that is
construed as favorable to Wall Street Eecurities is the de¬
feat of Mayor Dunne in Chicago ou the municipal ownership
issue and the election of the Republican candidate. The
effect of this victory was immediately felt on the stock mar¬
ket, especially in public utilities securities, Chicago, the
second city in the Union, thus shows that it is not yet pre¬
pared to adopt the altruistic doctrine of municipal owner¬
ship. As a set-off to this, European stock exchanges were
generally weals:, although the present ease of money, owing
to Secretary Cortelyou's action, will undoubtedly stop gold
imports from the other side and will thus afford relief to
foreign markets. Money conditions, in short, have brought
about a feeling of security which Wall Street has not "known
since the disastrous break in the middle of last month.





THE report of the Mayor's advisory commission, pointing
out the necessity for severe economy in planning new-
municipal improvements merely calls attention in a more em¬
phatic way to a condition which has long been apparent. The
debt margin is so narrow that it will be impossible for the
city to finance all the improvements which are now upon the
boards. During the next five years its capital expenditures
must be restricted to less than $50,000,000 a year. This
appears to be a large sum, but it is not large enough for all
the new subways, bridges, tunnels, docks and school-houses
which have beeu planned ;and inasmuch as the prosperity
and growth of the city depend upon a liberal policy of
municipal improvement the commission recommends an
amendment to the State constitution providing that the
money spent upon remunerative improvements such as sub¬
ways and docks shall not hereafter be estimated in the total
of the municipal debt, to which the ten per cent, limit ap¬
plies. Thus the financial advisers of the city have reached
a c-pnclusioii whjch the Record and Guide predicted as inev¬





itable many years ago. When the real estate assessments
were raised during ex-Mayor Low's administration for the
purpose of adding to the borrowing capacity of the city, we
insisted that the measure was only a temporary expedient
and that the necessity of dealing in a more radical way with
the problem was merely postponed thereby. If a success¬
ful attempt had been made to amend the State constitution
at that time the city would not be in financial straits at the
present time, and indispensable public improvements would
not have to be indefinitely delayed. As it is, at least three
years and iirobably as much more time must elapse before
the too long and precarious process of amending the consti¬
tution can be brought to a close. In the meantime all but
the most necessary municipal improvements must be held
up, and the Board of Estimate is confronted by the impor¬
tant practical question of selecting among these improve¬
ments the ones which can best be delayed. It looks, for in¬
stance, as if the mucli needed county court-house would have
to be among the plans which would have to be placed upon
the shelf. But if such should be the case, something should
certainly be done to make the existing court-house more con¬
venient and healthy for its distinguished occupants. What¬
ever improvements, however, are advanced or postponedj the
property-owners of Manhattan and the Bronx should insist
that the proposed new subways should not be neglected. Just
what money will be necessary for this purpose cannot be
ascertained until after April 25th, when the nature of the
bids wiil be known; but in any event the Lexington and
Seventh Avenue routes must be constructed. Any delay in
providing for new and better means of communication would
strike a vital blow at the prosperity of the city during the
next five years.





MR. EDWARD HARRIMAN has been much in evidence
during the past week, aud among other conspicuous
actions has bought from Mr. F. G. Bourne part of the old
Langham Hotel property at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-second
Street. The purchase is interesting, because of the indica¬
tion it affords of the future of that part of Fifth Avenue.
It is stated that Mr. Bourne decided against building, be¬
cause he feared tbat Fifth Avenue as far north as Fifty-
ninth Street was destined to be wholly a business thorough¬
fare. Apparently Mr. Harriman does not share this opin¬
ion, and the Record and Guide imagines that Mr. Harriman
is nearer right than is Mr. Bourne. Of course no one can
tell what will bapfen in New York real estate at the end
of thirty years; but certainly for a long time to come the
development of Fifth Avenue for business purposes is not
likely to extend north of Fiftieth Street. It will be stopped
by the influence of the Vanderbilts and of the several rich
men who have of late years bought and built in that neigh¬
borhood. At the present time the property is really more
valuable for residential than for business purposes, and this
fact will have a decisive influence upon the immediate fu¬
ture of the avenue. ,0n no other avenue in Manhattan are
there any important shops situated north of Forty-second
street, and it is not to be expected that the transformation
of Fifth Avenue in this respect will%)ush far ahead of the
other important avenues to the east and the west. On the
contrary it is prob.-'.ble that Broadway aud Seventh Avenue
between Long Acre Square and the park will precede Fifth
Avenue in its occupation by shops which can afford to pay
big rentals. In the long run doubtless there will be fewer
private residences in New York south of Fifty-ninth Street,
but this result will take a great many years to accomplish.
There can be no doubt that Fifty-ninth Street is destined to
become one of the most important cross-town thoroughfares
in the city, and that it will have to be widened for that pur¬
pose. Neither will this result be postponed more than ten
or fifteen years. Fiut Fifty-ninth Street itself will develop
faster than the inti.;rmediate blocks south thereof, and it is
entirely possible that Fifth Avenue from Fiftieth Street
north will be more valuable as a site for residences than
for stores  during  a  practically  indefinite  period.





WILL the new authority soon to be lodged in the Police
Commissioner be sufficient to accomplish the reform
o[ the Police Department? The Record and Guide fully
hopes that such will be the case, and it congratulates the
Mayor and his commissioner on the hard and successful
flght they have undertaken on behalf of an honest and effi¬
cient conduct of the department. But we very much doubt
whether even with Iiis new powers Mr. Bingham will be
able to exercise effective control over his subordinates. It
must be remembered that the existing system is of many
years standing, that jt is enormously profitable to its bene-