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Real Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol. XXIX
NEW TORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1882.
No. 732
Published Weekly by The
Real Estate Record Association
TERMS;
ONE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, ISr Broadway
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
Work on the great apartment house on
Eighth avenue is to be suspended, it is re¬
ported, on account of the extravagant de¬
mands of the bricklayers and other laborers
heretofore employed. Nor will the erection
of the proposed thirty-eight houses on
Seventy-third street be commenced this
spring by Mr. 'Clark if the workmen persist
in demanding increased wages. The Record
was the first to announce the stoppage of
work on the new opera house and the hotel
on the corner of Broadway and Thirty-ninth
street. It is to be regretted that anything
would put a stop to building operations in
this city. The growth of our population and
business j^demand increased accommoda¬
tions, and laborers hurt themselves in many
ways by asking too much. It advances their
own house rents, for less tenements are
erected, a fact the landlord takes advantage
of to advance the price of his apartments.
It is to be hoped that some satisfactory basis
will be arrived at between builders and those
they employ, so that the work of building
up the city can keep right on.
Mayor Low declines to appoint a Rapid
Transit Commission until the Legislature
has passed a law compensating owners of
property, who think they will be injured by
an elevated road. If Mayor Low can get any
such law passed, that will be the end of
rapid transit in Brooklyn. It is hard that
property owners should not receive compen¬
sation for actual damage, but it is still harder
that a needed improvement, of vital moment
to a great community, should be stopped be¬
cause of the damage done to a very small sec¬
tion of the city. The solution of the diffi¬
culty would be for the city of Brooklyn it¬
self to undertake the work, compensating
the pioperty holders foi damage done, or the
city at large, in view of the increased taxable
area made by the elevated road, might
shoulder the bills for damages.
The papers have been telling lately about
the immense benefactions of the Misses
Burr. It seems their father, Mr. Isaac
Burr, became the involuntary possessor of a
great deal of New York real estate. Persons
who owed him money.had nothing to give
him but realty; but the land thus forced
upon him laid the foundations of a noble
fortune, for it was well situated, and at this
late day enables his daughters to distribute
literally millions of dollars to noble and
worthy charities. There are just as many
chances to-day as there were in his time.
New York is growing with greater rapidity
than at any time in its history, and land on
this island will in time be more valuable
than anywhere else^on earth. Of course in
some localities the advance will be greater
than in others, but the law governing such
cases is well know to aU real estate dealers.
The rule is to purchase property just in ad¬
vance of improvement. Many a lender and
institution which was forced to buy in prop¬
erty between 1873 and 1879 will find them
selves ^enormously rich because of it before
the close of the century.
The Grand Jury have very properly re¬
fused to indict O. B. Potter. The clamor
against this gentleman by the press is dis¬
graceful. If he was to blame, then three-
fourths of the landlords in New York ought
to be in jail. He was not blameless, but he
has suffered sufficiently in purse and repu¬
tation for his shortcomings. To have tried
him would have been pure persecution.
CONDITION OF THE STREET.
The stock market is a puzzle to the oldest
operators. It continues strong in the Van¬
derbilt and Gould stocks, as well as in cer¬
tain specialties. But there is a suspicion
that the stiffening in prices is not due to
any general demand from the general pub¬
lic, but merely on account of the generous
purchases of Mr. Gould, Mr. Vanderbilt and
the great associated interests engaged in
railway promoting and building. The most
powerful influences in the country are in¬
terested in a steady, if not rising, market,
and hence the financial support which the
leaders of the street are getting in discom-
fitting the bears. Tlien there are co-opera¬
tive influences. Stocks have been low com¬
pared with the prices of last year ; the im¬
migration is enormous, far exceeding any
previous influx of foreigners, and money is
very easy both here and in Europe. It is not
unreasonable to suppose, too, that foreigners
are again buying our securities.
But then there is a reverse side to the
picture. The grain traffic from the interior
to the Atlantic is steadily decreasing in
amount. There is so little going abroad
that grain-carrying ships are willing to take
it for ballast. Navigation vt^ill soon open,
and it matters little what the rates for
freight are, many cars will remain idle on the
tracks for lack of custom. There is no
general cause at work which gives any addi¬
tional value to railway shares. Another
ominous sign is the steady contraction of
the National Bank currency, which has been
going on since January 1. This is due to
the constant calling in of the Government
bonds. The issues of silver certificates are
being withdrawn, and exchange is so high
that we will inevitably begin to export gold
coin in large quantities during the later
spring months. Should Europe again be in¬
duced to buy our stocks and bonds, it will
stop the drain of gold, but nothing else will,
as the balance of trade is heavily against us.
Still, the feeling for the present is bullish,
and every one believes we are bound to have
a large crop this year, which will make
matters all right. So long as this hopefu
feeling obtains, the stock market will be
sustained. Early in the season we ventured
to predict heavy fluctuations in the stock
market, and we are stiU of opinion that
speculators who sell when eveiybody is buy¬
ing and buy when everybody is selling, will
make the most money.
SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
That the country is gaining in population
veiry rapidly cannot be doubted. We have
passed through three years of exceptional
prosperity. In such times marriages multi¬
ply, and famUies become more prolific. It
is quite safe to assert that the ratio of in¬
crease from 1880 to 1890 will be far greater
than the ratio from 1870 to 1880 ; yet in that
period our population increased from 38,000,-
000 to over 50,000,000. Unless war, pesti¬
lence or famine interfere, 1890 ought to see
us with a population of from 65,000,000 to
66,000,000. To add to our numbers, an im¬
mense immigration has set in which shows
no signs of abatement. These great addi¬
tions to our population insure a demand for
real estate, especially in the large cities, for,
as is well known, it is during good times
that the cities grow ; it is only during hard
times that people are driven upon the soU
for a livelihood. According to the census
of 1880, the increased acreage of grain crops
in this country between 1873 and 1878
amounted to about 50,000,000. It was the
largest known to our history. In 1878,
nearly 12,000,000 acres of land were taken up
and put into grain crops. Of course, a great
production of grain followed, and simulta¬
neously came the repeated failures of the
crop in Europe. We consequently had an im-
precedented demand at high figures for our
enormous crops, and this was the basis for
the prosperous years we have just passed
through. But it is a fact, it would be well
to bear in mind, that upon the coming of
good times there was a marked falling off
in the new acres devoted fco farming. While
the average amount of new lands taken up be¬
tween 1878 and 1878 was over 8,000,000 acres
per annum, according to the official figures,
the new lands put under cultivation for
grain during 1879, 1880 and 1881 average
less than 2,500,000 acres per annum. While
undoubtedly new farm lands are opened in
Minnesota, Dakota and the extreme West
and the acreage there increased, it is noto¬
rious that there was less farming land put
under cultivation east of the Mississippi.
For this there was an obvious reason. The
cities began to grow with astonishing rapid¬
ity, and all kinds of manufacturing became
active. In other words, the large towns and
manufacturing districts not only absorbed
the entire increase of the population, but
actually drew upon),the [a^icultural labor of
the farming lands. If wheat and com is
hign, it is not only because of the drought
of last summer; another, and as important
reason is to be found in the vast consump¬
tion of our increased population, which,
k having better wages than during the hard