May 2, 1908





RECORD  AND  GUIDK





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ESTABUSHED^ iJi^RpH 21*^* 1868.
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By THE RECOKD AND GUIDE CO.

President,  CLINTON  W.   SWEET                            Treasurer,  F.  W, DODGE

Vice-Pres.  & Genl,  Mgr,, H. W. DESMOND           Secretary, P. T. MILLER

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Copyrighted.




IGOS,




by




Tbe




Reeord




Sc




Guide




Co.















Vol,




LXXXL














MAY 2,




190S,



















No.




2094.











THERE is one rule which always seems to apply to
really important movements in the stock market.
They usually take place when the majority of professional
-speculators least expect them. This is conspicuously the
case with the recent advance in prices. It was not pre¬
dicted in the newspapers; and its possible occurrence was
not suggested in the brokers' letters to their customers.
Its arrival found the professional brethren with very few
stocks on hand, and in the beginning, consequently, they
fought the movement. But they were soon obliged to yield;
and their lively efforts to get on board had much to do
wi-th the rapidity of the advance. Undoubtedly the move¬
ment was engineered by a strong party of speculators, who
had been waiting their oppportunity for some time; but
this party was as limited in numbers as it was shrewd in
judgment and powerful in resources. It remains none the
less true that the speculative public were, in general, taken
by surprise; and such, as we have said, usually seems to
be the case. The speculative public acts under the influence
of general business conditions. It feels bullish when busi¬
ness is active, and bearish when business is dull. But the
course of prices in the stock market leads rather than fol¬
lows the waves of industrial activity and depression. Over
a year ago the stock market was first to feel the effects of
an excessive business activity and an overstrained credit
system, and stocks fell sharply in price, even though, osten¬
sibly prosperity still prevailed. They fell, of course, pre¬
cisely at the time when the majority of speculators were
loaded up with stocks; and they fell largely because of
that fact. Recently they have been rising for the opposite
reason. Bad as business is, the effects have been fully dis¬
counted in the prices of securities. Their owners had no
further reasons to sell them; and anybody who had money
to invest had many good reasons for buying them. Money
could be invested more advantageously in good securities
than it could be in business. Consequently the time came
when prices began to advance on a comparatively small
amount of buying; and as they advanced the rise was not
checked by any large amount of profit-taking. The advance
cannot go beyond a certain point without more signs of a
business revival; but, on tbe whole, it is just as plain an
indication that the business revival is coming as the break
in stocks over a year ago was a prophecy of business re¬
cession.





A PUBLIC HEARING is scheduled on Wednesday next,
May 6, at 2 P, M., in the Aldermanic Chamber, which
is of vital importance to thousands of people interested in
real estate and building. On that date the sub-committee
of the Building Code Revision Commission, having in charge
tbe matter of the discretionary power of the Superintendent
of Buildings in each borough, invites every one to come
and air their views. Few people realize the importance of
this provision, for as long as the charter remains as it is
the regulations governing this discretion can make or mar
New York's new building code. Even if the technical fea¬
tures of the new code are all that could be desired, without
changes in the manner of using discretionary power, the
way is left open for easy evasion, and the abuses of the
past are likely to be continued in the future. The dis¬
cretionary power is conferred by the charter, in Section
410, and gives the Superintendent of Buildings, with the ap¬
proval of the President of the Borough, authority to modify
any existing law or ordinance relating to the construction,





alteration or removal of buildings "where there are prac¬
tical difficulties in carrying out the strict letter of the law,
so that the spirit of the law shall be observed, and public
safety secured and strict justice done." We do not under¬
stand that architects and builders, aa represented by their
chapters and associations, object to the discretionary power,
but they consider that the method provided for using it is
clumsy. The decisions given by the Superintendents are
supposed to be matters of .public record, but it is not al¬
ways possible for an applicant to find them. Therefore,
at the coming hearing, it will be strongly urged that all
the decisions of the superintendents having the effect of
modifying the code should be published in the City Record
within a week after, and may be cited as precedents in
future cases. This was recommended in Section 2 of the
code reported by last year's commission, and the architec¬
tural profession desires to see this section retained. It
would insure to every citizen the fullest amount of in¬
formation as to previous rulings and interpretations, and
secure equal justice for all.





THE announcement that a new theatre is to be built in
Thirty-ninth street, just west of Sixth avenue, comes as
something of a surprise. Por over ten years all the new
theatres have been situated in Forty-second street or north
thereof; and it has been generally considered that the dis¬
trict south of Forty-second street was no longer available for
an enterprise of this kind. Even before the Subway was
opened for trafRc the streets south of Forty-second street had
been abandoned as sites for theatres; and the Subway, whieh
carries so many of the passengers to and from the places of
amusement, has inevitably worked in favor of Times Square
and the streets north of it. Tbe fact that the route of the
Subway turned at Forty-second street made the streets
to the south of Forty-second street less accessible than the
streets immediately to the north, Jtist why the prevailing
tendency in the favor of Times Square as the centre of the
theatre district has been ignored in the present instance, we
do not know; but certainly some very good reasons can be
urged in favor of a revival of the district south of Forty-
second street as a possible location for new theatres. There
can be no doubt that the completion of the terminal improve¬
ments south of Thirty-fourth street will be of the greatest
benefit to all places of amusement in their immediate vicinity.
The trolley, the Pennsylvania and the Long Island tunnels
will enable thousands of people, who now find It very difflcult
to reach theatres in Manhattan to attend afternoon or evening
performances in that borough. There should consequently
be a large increase of business from these sources as soon as
tbe new tunnels are in full operation; but this business will
naturally attach itself to the neighborhood of the tunnel ter¬
minals. People who come in from New Jersey or Long
Island to the theatre will still be separated from their homes
by tolerably long journeys, and they will wish to avoid much
of an additional journey in Manhattan. It may be expected
consequently that the northward drift of the amusement cen¬
tre will during the next few years be checked, and that new
theatres, restaurants and hotels will be started south of
Forty-second street.





THE completion of the new tunnels will in this respect
introduce a wholly novel condition in the development
of Manhattan real estate. Hitherto the drift of business has
been steadily northward along the central ridge of the island;
and this drift was, of course, due to the fact that the bulk
of the popiilation was aiso finding their habitations ever far¬
ther north. It was the one direction in which the geographi¬
cal condition of Manhattan permitted free expansion. The
most important lines of transit ran north and south and the
lack of diagonal thoroughfares impeded the business growth
of those streets to the east and w'est which were off the
main stream of trafQc. The consequence was that the ever-
expanding wholesale trade was constantly pushing the big
retail stores and the theatres farther north. After the war.
Union Square became the center of the amusement and the
shopping district. By 1880 Madison Square had taken its
place, and during the last twenty-five years, theatres, res¬
taurants and stores have pushed up well above Forty-second
street. If transit conditions had remained the same there
seems to be no reason why this process should not have been
indefinitely continued, with the result eventually of making
Columbus Circle the location of Manhattan's most important
places of amusement; but hereafter transit conditions will
no longer be the same. While the bulk of tbe traffic will
still travel in a northerly or southerly direction, a stream of
traffic scarcely less considerable in volume will set in to the