July 1771897-





Record and Guĩde





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'•Entered af Ihe rost-Offĩci; ut Å'ew yorlc. N. Y., «s second-ckiss inaller."

NO. 1,531





VoL. LX.





JULY   17, 1897.





HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF REAL   ESTATE.

Every Broker or Owner can have his own Bureau of Informa-
tion for a sUglit expense. Witía it he can follow readily all trans-
actions affecting any particuiar piece of real estate in Ne^w Tork
City—a matter of the utmost importance in buying or selUng
realty, appraisements, etc. The Index to The Recorû and Guide
now covers all transactions—Conveyances, Leases. Mortgages,
Auctĩon Sales, Building Improvements, etc. Under each entry all
references to all transactions are concisely grouped. The Index
to Vol. LIX. is now ready, and can he ohtained at The Record and
Guide ofĩiee, 14 and 16 Vesey street.    Price, One DoIIar.





AFTEK pouaei-iDg tbe matter, the public have come to the
couclusiou that the advance seen in tlie Stock Market has
uot discounted all the prospective good iu the situation, aud that
consequently stocks stilL deserve to be bouglit. Heuce the
strength of the market. There has bceu a good deal of prottt-
taking by prudeut old-timers, but there are occasious, aud this
may be oue oí' them, when the old-timer gets left, because of
bis cautiou. Curreut uews is not especialĩy good, in fact some
of it ijuite bad, aud the previous ieaders iu the movemeut, wbile
fairly active, ûo not advauce furtber. Kow the rise is io mauy
thiugs that have lagged, but which have prospects that reuder
them desirable. How far this movemeut will go is hard to say,
as it is also hard to ûeíiue, in view of the loug depression we
have seeu and the cheerful temper that uow animates tbe eom-
munity, the poiut at which commou seuse would eall a balt.
The market bas beeu advanciug for nearly three mouths, an
uuprecedeotedly loug time for a movemeut ou either side, aud
to-day there is no more sigu of weakuess appareut thau tbere
was auy momeut iu that period. A uatural couclusion from all
the facts would be that a reactiun was ealled for aud due, but
tbere is nothiug to iudicate that oue is comiug immediatcly, not-
withstaudiug tlvat there are a guod mauy securities selliug for
more thau they have doue at auy other time iu reeeut years,
and for more tbau they sbouid do if the consideratiou was oue
simply of bow best to iuvest tbe particular sum of money re-
quired for their purcbaíie. Wheu the publie taiíes the bit there
is no holding it back, especially wbeu mouey awaiting profita-
ble employmeut is as pleutiful as tbe subscription to tbe Met-
ropolitau Ti-aetiou Company's bouds tbis week sbows it to be,
wbere tbe perceotage of bouds to subscríptious is represeuted
by the modest tígure 4. That tbere were large stores of idle
money we havc kuown all along, but tbat there was such a
cbeerfnl williugness to place it iu securities bas uot beeu
brought out wĩtb so mucb force before. The eonjuuctiou of
these two important facts will uot fail ío impress themselves
on tbe miuds of the euterprisiug, or upon the mauagers of the
great railroad systems that may ueed uew capital for their de-
velopmeut. All of wbich means new business and increased
íinancial aud commereial activity in due course.





TESTED by Ibe coliection of impcrial revenue, the condition
of business Jn Britain must be very good indeed. The
flrst quarter's revenue returus show an excess of over .'p5,0ÛO,-
000 al)ove tbe estimates for that period. Tbis canuot be affirmed
aa iudicative of wbat tbe other tbree qtiarters will show, but
takeu of itself it is highĩy s.atist"actory. Capitalapplieatious for
the first half of the year, wbile not as great as in the like period
last year, are very large and well distribnted, a further evídence
of tbe geueral activity aud prosperity of tbe people. A tbird
argument in support of tbe same conclusion is the fact tbat at
tbe elose of tbe half year money bardened seusibly, in a way
that it has not done for a long time past, Tlie movcmcnt ■^'as
but momentary; still ît is a straw showing tbe direction of tĩie
wĩnd.   It proves that there is a growing denmnd aud use for





funds that, if eontinued, as is reasouably eertain, will put up
rates, for a loug tlme past aitogether too low. On the Conti-
neut, too, mouey has a tendency to advance. There was a re-
eeut rĩse in tbe outside discouut rate at BerJin, witb tbe mar-
kets iu other eapitals moviug sympathetically. Tbere is some
talk of reactionary dcclincs in the security markets, and tbis ia
uot iueompatible witli the state of affairs previously describeã;
decidedly the contrary, because cheap money is absolutely nec-
essary to a rise aud maiutenance of tbe value of securities. Tbe
commereial aud iudustrial demaud for money is often supplied
ajt tbe expense of the exchanges. The supply of available funds
is, however, too large to make ány serious disturbauce possible
at this time. The point to be made is tbat there is a cbange in
the monetary situation coming, though its completion may be a
good way o!ĩ yet. lu spite of mucb tergiversation ou the part of
tbe Turk, to the miud that can take iu the details of the situa-
tion, the peace uegotiatious are progressing fairly well. It now
seems as if a satisfactory result will surely be obtaiued with-
out ueed of a renewal of bostilities, though possibly an ai-med
demonstration may be finally necessary to clinch the arguments
of the ambassadors.





IHE   PERSONAL   PROPERTY   TAX.

THlí assessmcut roll tor the current year lists tbe property
in tbe eity subject to taxatiou at $2,168,635,856, on which
amount the tax rate ■will be $2.05 per $100. Of this totai $1,787,-
180,701 represents real estate, while $381,449,065 stands for per-
soual property, whereof $18(j,27y,24S belongs to banks and other
corporatiuus, and $1115,169,822 to iudividuals and estates. In
other words more thau uine-tentbs of tbe tax falls on real es-
tate and ou personalty in tbe bands of incoi-porated institutions,
and less than one-teutb ou tbe personalty of prlvate individuals
aud estaíes. Tbe proportion between the assessed valuation of
real an'd personal property, despite recent tiukering with tbe tax
law, remaius practieally the same as that which has prevailed
for years, aud furnishes a fresh illustration of the administra-
tive impossibility of properiy enCorcing the persuual property
tax,

The bcst authorities are agreed that personal property equals
realty in value. The eleventb census, indeed, retumed the true
value of the total weaíth of the State as $8,500,000,000, of
which $5,800,000,000 was real estate, but ĩt is ridiculous to sup-
yose that a bureau at Washington sbould be able to diseover
the eutire body of persoualty when assessment boards composed
of local experts bave repeatedly confessed tbeir iuability to do
so. i'ersoual property, so far as it is intangibĩe, escapes
■the detection of tbe tas gatherer. Furtbermore, ecouomic ne-
cessity has eompelJed the legal esemption of whole elasses of
persoualty, as impoi'ted merchaudise in original packages,
Uuited States bonds, uotes, checks, and certificates, property in
transitu, goods producGd in a.nothGr State seut on commission,
deposits in sayings banks, etc., aud these exemptions facilitate
frauduleut evasion on tbe part o£ property legally taxable. As.
early as 1S32 fbe New York City ComptroIIer complained tbat
"a portion of our busiucss population escapes enrolment on our
tax lists." Tbe State ComptroIIer made a similar complaint in
bis report for ISIS), aud since theu numerous financial officers,
State and municipal, bave called atteution to tbe impossibility
of reacbing more than a mere fraction of the taxable personalty.
Tbe receut statement of President Barker of the Board of Tases
aud Assessments, tbat the city will lose heavily this year
through tbe practiee whicb ricb men make of assuming a legal
resideuce otitside tbe municipality is fresb in the memory of
newspaper readers. Four special State tax commissions
have denounced the persoual property tax as they found it,
namely, the commissious of 1801, 1871, 1S81 and 1S93- Never-
tbeless, this íiseal anomaĩy remains, uot ouly in New York, but
iu the otber Amcricau eommouwealths, althougb it bas long
siuce been abolished in Great Britaiu, France, Belgium, Prus-
sia, HoĩJaud and otber commercial States.

Tbere is evidence, bowever, that the personal property tax is
doomed in America aîso, for the prevailing expert opinion favors
its abolitiou, either altogether or in so far as it reĩates to pri-
vate persons aud estates, apart from the eorporations. Tbe im-
mediate eCEect of tbe adpotion of tbe latter course in New York
would be to increase íhe íax ou realty about ten per cent,, but
tbe uUimate effect would be the same as now. The principal
iuvolved în thecbange is tĩius stated in the famous report of
tho State tax eommission of 1S71: "With the exeeption of direet
taxes ou income, and upon those articles, like spirits and to-
bacco, wbicb are cousumed solely for persoual gratifieation,
taxation distributes itself with a wondorful degree of uniformity.
If placed upon laud, it will constitute an elemeut of the cost of
that which tbe ĩand produces; if upon manufaeturing industry,
tbeu Of tbG cost of the products of such indnstry; upon ship-