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September 20, 1902.
RECORD AND GUIDE.
393
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DnoTBD 10 f^LEstate.BuiLDif/G A;Rct(rTE<rumE,h{ousE«OLDD£QaiijlK»(,
Busii/ess Alb Themes OF GEifeR^l iHttRpsT.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS
Pubtished eVery Saturday
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET. 14.16 Vesey Street, New YorR
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at the Tost Office at New York. N. Y., as second-class matter.'
Vol. LXX.
SEPTEMBER 20, 1902.
No. 1801.
THOUGH rates are much easier and the bank return is
expected to make to-day a better showing than it has done
for some weeks, money will continue to he the most important
factor in stock market operations for some time to come. Not
only has a great deal of money gone away from this center, but
it will he a considerable time yet before it begins to return, and
this will bring us very near to the close of the year, when, with
general business extended as it now is, the demand for funds
with which to make the close of the year settlements is likely to
be very keen. There, will then be asimilar movement on the other
side of the Atlantic, and the chances of obtaining assistance
thence, should any be needed, will he very much reduced. It
follows then that the end of the year ought not to find us en¬
gaged in large speculative operations in stocks. These facts
need not, however, prevent a healthy market wih advancing
prices whei'e the circumstances warrant. The past month has
shown that good goods can hold their own in spite of adverse
market conditions, and that reversely the bad ones suffer on
any weakening in the links of the chain by which they are sus¬
pended. Why a booming market is to be deprecated is that it
brings to the front securities of concerns which have more
money back of them for speculation than they have in their own
tills for the purpose of carrying on their legitimate business.
Prices of such securities when so inflated are the greatest
menace to the market as a whole wheu the moment of trial
comes, and if they can be'kept in the background for the next
three of four months so much the better for the market as a
whole. That there has been and continues to be a demand for
the good paying issues is not sui-prising, seeing how earnings
and profits are being maintained. The showings made by the
railroads in their annual reports, which are now appearing, are
nothing short of marvelous. Those industrial managers who
indulge their stockholders with reports make equally glowing
statements of their business and its i-esu!ts. Added to this there
comes from all quarters expressions of satisfaction with the
business doing and the outlook.
ON European bourses business is dull with prices fairly
steady. There has been some improvement in coal and
iron shares, particularly at Berlin, but it has been more based
upon the demand from the United States for steel and iron goods
than anything else. According to a London authority, every
liner from the Clyde and Mersey is taking as much pig-iron to
the United States as she can carry and special charters are being
made in other ports for the same purpose. The Australian situ¬
ation is creating considerable anxiety. The country is suffer¬
ing the effect of droughts in two or three succeeding years, a
falling off in mining productivity and heavy government bor¬
rowings. The rush of miners from Australia to South Africa
is due as much to the fact that they cannot find employment
at home as to the prospects in tbe new country. Australia has
been unfortunate in recent times in leading the other nations
into financial troubles, but there is no reason to suppose that
any that may be impending for it, will not be confined to its
own borders. But the losses the country has undergone in the
past four or five years must end in financial readjustments. The
last disaster was brought about by an extended land specula¬
tion involving the principle banks. There is no such ominous
feature of the situation now, the infliction being two parts provi¬
dential and one part governmental, but it has to be met all the
same. It is a question of facing increased obligations with a
lessening of production from natural resources. Germany is suf¬
fering fi-om a meat famine and an agitation is being aroused
that may sweep away the Agrarian laws to which it is due, so
that the country may be in the position of begging for the Amer¬
ican supplies rejected a short time back. The financial mar¬
kets are on the qui vive for the governmental proposals for deal¬
ing with budget deficiencies which may be expected from three
great countries and some small ones, France leading. This ex¬
pectation is responsible for the strengthenings of the gold re¬
serves of the state banks and correlatively for the firmness in
money also.
Delancey Street Bridge Approach.
/^ N Friday next, it is understood, the Board of Estimate
^^ will take a vote upon a proposition to widen Delancey
street, from Clinton street to the Bowery, by taking a strip 150
feet wide upon the south side of the street; and will also receive
maps and estimates of cost relating to an extension of Delancey
street west of the Bowery, either 75, 80 or 100 feet wide. These
improvements, though technically street openings, are to form
part of the approach to the Williamsburg Bridge, now in process
of completion. There is no need to point out the importance
of the matter under consideration, because it is pecuniarily the
equal of the Elm street widening, and practically its superior
by a large degree. It follows that in whatever decision they
make, the Board should be guided by wisdom and judgment, and
above all things should not set sentiment above economy and
usefulness.
There are two points upon which there will be no dispute:
That the lines of the proposed new street or streets should, for
the benefit of the neighborhood, be fixed without delay; and that
the extension along Delancey to the Bowery is the proper di¬
rection to take. There is ground for a fair difference of opinion
as to whether, west of the Bowery, the approach should be via
Spring street to Marion and Elm, or through the block to
Broome and Marion or Elm. But there is, so far as we can see,
no reason, other than oificlal ambition or sentiment, for making
Delancey street 200 feet wide from Clinton to the Bowery. This
suggestion coming late in the day, for the discussion never
previously contemplated a street wider than 125 or 137 feet, is
supported by tbe argument that part of the space may be
"parked" to afford places for recreation in a densely crowded
section of the city. The fact that the section in question would
be cut in two, with communications over 200-foot crossings,
through which numei-ous electrically propelled cars will run,
ought to put the idea of parks out of the question. The bridge
approach proper, from Clinton street eastward, is 115 feet wide
and has a space on each side, on the north of about 50 feet, and
on the south o£ 35 feet. It is in this space on the south of the
bridge that it is proposed to create a push-cart market, between
Clinton and Ridge streets. It will be noted that the entii'e width
of bridge approach and side spaces is just 200 feet, and it may
have occuri-ed to the author of the 200-foot extension to the
Bowery that it would be a good thing to keep the width uniform
all the way to the Bowery. But there are requirements for the
extra space before the bridge comes to grade at Clinton street,
which are not factors in determining the width of the approach
west of that point. All that is needed there is a street requi-
siteiyadequate to carry the traffic from the bridge and keepcom-
munication open alongside of its approach east of Clinton
street. There is absolutely no contention that Delancey street
widened by 75 or 80 feet from Clinton street to the Bowery
would not be equal to this—^beyond this the question is one
of sentiment entirely.
When we approach the matter of cost, that is naturally all
against the wide, "parked" street and in favor of the purely
practical, or as Mayor Low terms it, commercial, one. The dif¬
ference in the estimates for the first is so much greater than
those for the second that it ought to be a determining consider¬
ation in the City's present difficulty of providing for needed im¬
provements. It may be safely stated that a perfectly adequate
thoroughfare could be made from Clinton street to the Bowery,
and west of the latter thoroughfare to Elm street by either of
the routes suggested for less than the 200-foot street stopping on
the east side of the Bowery would cost. Nelson P. Lewis, the
engineer to the Board of Estimate, at the request of the Board,
prepared a statement of the property required to be taken to
Table 2.
Assessed Est. actual
value. value.
For pla7.a. 2 blocks. Clinton lo Norfolk.......... f\V--'^'il H'^l^T?^
To Widen Delancey st 75 n.-Norlolk to Bowery. l.llj.iKH) J,J.U,0OQ
Total torpla.a, and 127,-tl. street............ $2,|HIS.W0 ffl-^.^f*
To widen Delancey st i:>0-rt.-Clinton to Bowery* i:,2.S:i,0(iO â– *.....''."W
Difference in favor of flrst............... flS.'J.OOO $370,000
To widen Spring st KiO ft.—Bowery to Marlon st. fSllO.fxiO $l,7S1.mfl
New lIMI-ft street—Bowery to Marlon........... 704.*XK) ],40.SO'10
New lUO-ft. street—Bowery lo Elm ............ IlLViiS J'oliVoTS
Same lucludiug triangle, Broome, Marlon & Elm O.J.:,400 l.SW.SOO
•This makes a 200-ft. street.