March 5, 1910





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





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

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"Entered at the Post Office at New York, X.   Y..   as s rr,>i:!-rlass  matter."
Copyrigbted.   1910,   by   The   Record   Sc   Guide   Co.





Vol.  LXXXV.





MARCH 5, 1910.





THE real estate and building statistics for the first two
month.s of the year do not give any evidence of a
prohable increase in activity. In Manhattan and the Bronx
the nnniher of conveyances recorded Is almost precisely the
same for 1910 as they were for 1909. In Brooklyn a small
decrease is to be noted. On the other hand, the Manhattan
figures indicate that, although there has been no actual
increased general activity, there has been an increase in the
general investment demand. Up to February 25, 1910, 117
conveyances carried with them an expressed consideration
of about $6,800,000; whereas during the corresponding
period of 1909, 110 transfers carried a total consideration
of only ?5,2 50,000. The aggregate assessed valuation of
1,533 transfers, recorded during the current year for nom¬
inal considerations, amounted to over $108,000,000; whereas
the corresponding figures for 1909 were 1,519 transfers ag¬
gregating $84,600,000. It will be reraariied, consequently,
that the average assessed valuation of each parcel of Man¬
hattan real estate transferred during the first two months
of 1909 was only $55,000, against $70,000 for the corre¬
sponding period in 1910. Such a considerable variation can
be accounted for only by the fact that during the current
year a larger proportion of real estate, improved with mod¬
ern buildings, is being transferred; and this change must be
taking place in obedience to a livelier investment tiemanti.
Tbe huilding figures make a poorer showing than do those
for real estate. A substantial diminution of building ac¬
tivity is indicated for all the boroughs of the city, and it
appears to reach about the same proportions in Brooklyn
and Queens as it does in Manhattan and the Bronx. This
diminution in building activity was only ■^vhat a conservative
observer of existing conditions would have anticipated. The
enormous amount of money invested in new construction
ia 1909 was dependent upon certain exceptional conditions.
The two preceding years had been extremely dull, and there
was a real need for increased accommodations for both do¬
mestic and business purposes. The huge building move¬
ment of 1909 did much to satisfy this need; but if it had
been continued, over-production would have been inevitable.
The diminution in the rate of building is, consequently,
normal and wholesome; and it will not attain any excessive
proportions, A large amount of improvement continues to
be carried on all over the city, and particularly on Wash¬
ington Heights and in the new wholesale district; and the
year 1910, 'while not one of any exceptional constructional
activity, will, nevertheless, make before it is concluded a
very respectable showing.





be so threatening; but the indication is that the higher cost
of food products has come to stay. It is due, fundamen¬
tally, to the increasing scarcity of virgin soil and to the fact
that increasing products can be wrested from the soil only
at an increasing expense. If this is true, it means that the
comparatively cheap food, which has hitherto constituted
the compensation to the American wage-earner for a huge
cost of living in other respects, has become a thing of the
past, and that hereafter he will have to pay as much, if not
more, for his food supplies as do the wage-earners of Eu¬
rope. Only gradually will he realize that he is confronted
by a permanently higher cost of living, and a permanently
smaller surplus either for saving or for expenditure ou
additional comforts. But iu proportion as he does realize
it, he will make up his mind to Sght for an increase in wages
proportioned to his increase in necessary expenditure. How
far he will succeed in getting what he demands, only the
future can tell; but industrial corporations will have good
reasons for refusing higher wages unless accompanied by
some increase in the efficiency of labor. Their raw materials
are also much more expensive than they were; and for
the time being increases in wages ■would only mean au
added burden to the consumer. A fight, consequently, can
scarcely be avoided; and the country will be fortunate in
case this flght does not raise dangerous political issues. The
labor unions are on the verge of entering into politics; and
if they do, the existing balance of the American political
system is likely to be disturbed.





No. 2190





THE role of a prophet of evil is not one which any news¬
paper likes to play, but the Record and Guide cannot
help suspecting that the recent labor troubles now prevailing
in Philadelphia are only the forerunners of still worse future
developments of the same kind. Siuce the great coal strike
of 1901, the country bas been comparatively free from really
costly industrial warfare; but oonditious are becoming sucli
that a larger supply of such warfare can scarcely be avoided
hereafter. The plain fact is that the increase in the cost
of living is EXCEEDIXG ANY INCREASE IN WAGES that
can be afforded by the industries of the country, and that,
consequently, the standard of living of the wage-earning
class is bound to suffer. If the increase in the cost of living
were due to temporary causes, whicli would disappear dur¬
ing a period of business depression, the outlook would not





THE announcement that the forthcoming municipal loan
will probably carry interest at iy^ per cent provides
matter for serious consideration. Such a rate of interest
might well have been anticipated, because the last loan
issued at 4 per cent, was sold at only a shade over par, and
in the meantime investment conditions have not substan¬
tially improved. Necessary as a higher rate of interest may
be, it is certainly most unfortunate that the largest city in
the United States is obliged to pay over 4 per cent for the
money it borrows; and this fact again raises tbe question
as to the extent of the future demands wbich the city will
be obliged to make upon the money market. The Record
and Guide has never believed that the high rate of interest
at which New York floats its loans was due to any doubt
on the part of investors as to the value of the security
offered. New York is obliged to pay more for its loans than
certain other American cities, chiefly because it has been
borrowing more money than the investors in this class of
security had to lend; and if this is the true explanation, the
only method whereby the credit of the city can be restored
to its condition of ten or fifteen years ago is that of encour¬
aging its borrowing for a sufiiciently long period. But ac¬
cording to the existing outlook, the city will be borrowing
even more money in the future than it has iu the past. It
is true that the East River bridges are now practically
completed, and that no more money will hereafter be re¬
quired for this purpose. On the other hand, the number of
costly improvements which the growth of the city necessi¬
tates tends rather to increase than diminish. Besides the
regular expenditures for new school houses and the like,
the city or the country will bave to carry the burden of
constructing the new Municipal Building, the new Court¬
house, the Catskill Aqueduct and the improvement of Ja¬
maica Bay. Furthermore, the administration has definitely
announced its intention ot paying for the new subways out
of the proceeds of municipal loans. There can be no doubt
that the increasing congestion of street traffic will necessi¬
tate, sometime within the next flve years, expensive improve¬
ments in the street system of Manhattan. The fact that the
cost of subways and water ■works can be excluded from the
computation of the debt limit will enable the Board of Esti¬
mate to borrow money for all these purposes without legal
hindrance; but its freedom in this respect should be used
with every possible caution. The Board of Estimate should
look carefully into the question as to how many millions of
city stock can be absorbed annually by investors without
further deterioration of the municipal credit; and in some
way or another the issue of municipal securities should he
confined to that amount.





WHILE the chief cause of the high rate of interest which
the city is obliged to pay for its loans is undoubt¬
edly the excessive demands made upon the money market- a
minor part of the responsibility  for the deterioration in the