Real Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol. XXVI.
NEW YOEE, SATUEDAY, DECEMBERS, 1880.
No. 664
Published Weekly by
€bt %ml ^uhh %ttaxii %nBatmixm.
TERMS.
OWE YEAR, in advance....810.00.
Oommunications should be addressed to
C. W^. SW^EET,
No. 137 Broadway
WHAT WILL THE CONSERVATIVE
RICH DO?
There can be no reasonable doubt but that
the whole world has entered upon an era of
cheap money. On all the bourses of Europe
it is expected that all government debts will
be refunded at lower rates of interest. In
this country we have seen money ruling at
two or three per cent, during a period of
great business activity, at the very busiest
season of the year. Tliere is here and, ap¬
parently, aU over the world, a plethora of
new money ; that is, capital seeking profit¬
able investment and eager to take less than
the old per centage.
The cheap money is due to a variety of
causes. The general use of the telegraph is
one. Before steam, money had to be trans¬
ferred in bulk from point tj point; and dur¬
ing the time of carriage was lost to the com¬
merce of the world. Steam added to the
abundance of available money by increasing
its portability; that is to say, it could be
used ten times, where formerly it could be
employed only once. Then came the tele¬
graph, which has made the money of one
part of the globe immediately available in
every other part. Then all the improve¬
ments in the iristrucaents by which com¬
merce is transacted, have helped to add to
the volume of available money. The bill of
exchange, the draft, the check, the dealing
on margins, all tend not only to increase the
volume, but to economize the use of money.
The resumption of specie payments in this
country has added to all the paper previously
afloat some $612,000,000 of bullion coined,
or available for coinage.
And what has been the result ?
An advancement of values, of which we
have only seen the beginning. All the ac¬
tive stocks doubling up in price, and soon
merchandise will feel the inflation, tb be fol¬
lowed by an immense rise in realty. A weU-
known Wall street banker intimates that
the next five years wiU see an addition to
the price of well-located farm lands in this
country of fully thirty per cent. This rise
in values will give an enormous impetus to
trade of all kinds, and insure us good times
for several years to come.
But is there no other side to be considered
—win everyone profit by the advance in
prices and in cheap money?
Clearly not.
A very worthy class will be seriously in¬
commoded, if not injured, by the enhance¬
ment of values and the difficulty of finding
profltable employment for money. We al¬
lude to people of fired incomes, including
government officials, army and navy officers,
widows, orphans and conservative investors
in government and gilt edged securities.
Nominally, some of these classes will be
better off. What they have in property will
be represented by larger numerals. But
their expenses will be greater, due to the
rising prices. Their incomes will be less,
because of the lowering of th© rate of in¬
terest.
All this will result in adding to the pro¬
ductive forces of the country, for it will
cause the retention in business and the re¬
entry into business of heads of families who
will not, without a struggle, see their stand¬
ard of comfort lowered. Many young men,
who supposed they had securities which
would ensure them an income from $5,000 to
$50,000 per annum, will be prevented from
living an idle life by the reduction in their
income, occurring simultaneously with the
rise in prices. Periods ol! inflation are use¬
ful, because they set the whole social hive
at work. Periods of contraction are unfor¬
tunate, in so far as they add to the value of
money, which, in effect, make the rich
richer and the poor poorer.
A GRAND OPERA HOUSE IN RESER¬
VOIR SQUARE.
While the directors of the Academy of
Music are endeavoring to secure the Madison
Square Garden plot by lease or otherwise
and while an effort is being made to induce
the directors of the new opera house to
abandon the idea of building on Vanderbilt
avenue, the city of New York might for
once go out of its way and do something for
art. Reservoir square is nothing but a play¬
ground for noisy schoolboys to-day, and a
virtual nuisance to thos(} compelled to cross
it occasionally. Let the city donate this
ground, which can be done through act of
Legislature, for the purpose of erecting a
grand opera house. See what Paris has done
in this respect, and all France to-day is
proud of the noble structure, devoted to
music that ornaments its capital. We must
once begin to do something for the pro¬
motion of art in New York, and we might as
well begin now. The corporation, by its
liberality, has filled our up-town streets and
avenues with hospitals for the lame, sick
and halt. It is time that those who possess
"sound minds in sound bodies" should re¬
ceive some favor at the hands of New York
City'^s government. The area here pointed
out is the most central for the purposes in¬
dicated. The square has a frontage of four
hundred and sixty feet on Sixth avenue, and a
depth of five hundred feet. Strictly speakings
all that is required for a grand opera house is
only 200x250, and abuilding of this size would
not interfere with the idea of turning the re¬
mainder of the square into a plaza. Adjoin¬
ing property owners would gMdly favor any
movement of this sort, and Forty-second
street especially, already containing promi¬
nent hotels and clubhouses, would then, in¬
deed, become the great connecting link be¬
tween the residences of the wealthy and the
centre of the city's places of amusement. Is
there any alderman disposed to submit a
proposition of this sort? If so, it can be
acted upon at the legislative session next
month, and those now anxiously discussing
the propriety of building two rival opera
houses may find it to their interests to '' pool
their issues" and expend their spare funds
upon the building proper that ought to be,
indeed, a credit and ornament to our city.
THE FRESH BLOOD IN THE REAL
ESTATE MARKET.
It is not often that the queer legislation of
one State of our Union favors indirectly
particular interests in another State. And
yet such is, indeed, the spectacle presented to
us in this city to-day, by the advent of lead¬
ing capitalists from the Pacific. We have
heretofore shown how the attractions of our
metropolis, its parks, drives, opera houses,
club houses and general vivacity, were
drawing moneyed men from other states to
our city. We find, however, that in addition
to our own local attractions, other causes,
notably the new tax laws of California, have
been depriving that flourishing State on the
Paciflc, of the power, strength and influence
naturally following the accumulation of
wealth. Under the State laws for instance,
recently enacted in California, under the new,
extraordinary constitution, several wealthy
men after having paid a general tax, which
was already flfty per cent, higher than those
in the city of New York, had to submit to a
special tali, and therefore found it necessary
to place their personal as well as their real
property in some other states.
Already Mr. D. O. Mills is a resident of the
Fifth avenue, and claims by right New York
aa his residence. Mr. Crocker, the second
largest tax payer in San Francisco, having
paid tax on over nineteen millions of dollars
there, now also claims his domicile in
New York. He considers the tax imposed
upon him in California as unwarranted and
regards the laws in said State as they now
exist, unprecedented and unreasonable. The
special tax levied on him last year was over