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February 2, I907
BECORD AND GUIDE
265
ESTABLISHED ^ M,RR.C H 21^ 186 8.
DEV&TEDpRE^LEsTWE.guiLDlKo %cKlTE(rTURE,HobSniOLDDEGCff^71C:I.
Busif/EssAtJoThemes OF GEtJERhl Ii^terest.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLAR.S
Published eVery Saturdai)
Communications should be address od lo
C. W. SW/EET
Downtown Office: 14-16 Vesey Street, New York
Telopboiie, Cortlandt 3157
Uptown Of flee: 11-13 East 24th Street, New York
Telephone, 4430 Madison Sijuaro
'â– Eidere.d at the Post Office at Neiu Tork. X. Y., as second-class mailer."
Vol. LXXIX.
FEBRUARY 2, 1907.
No. 2029,
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS,
Advertising Section.
Page Page
Cement .....................xvll Lumber ......................x.xii
Consulting Engineers .........viil Machinery .....................ix
Clay Products ..................j Metal Work ..................xvl
Contractors and Builders......iv Quick Job Directory........xxlil
Electrical Interests ...........vl Real Estate ..................xi
FireprooQng ..................ti Roofers & Roofing Materials.. .xx
Granite ....................xviil Stone.....................xvili
Iron and Steel..................xv Wood Products ...............xxii
TO say that Wall Street has been in a state of gloom this
week fails to describe the despair and blackness of
that precinct. People have looked at each other aghast as
prices crunihled away undeterred by bnllish facts mountains
high. Of course there will be a violent upturn some day.
Holders of securities wil! not indefinitely continue to allow
a state of mind to take the place of their reasoning powers
tor they must know that all securities are selling very much
below their value. Mr. Jacob H. Schift, of Kuhn, Loeb &
Co., New York, lias been talking about these anomalous con¬
ditions in Wall Street to the Paris correspondent of a New
York paper. The banker thinks that our prosperity is too
great and that we are suffering from an excess of prosperity,
which is. simply overwhelming us. He says "our industries
cannot flnd labor with which to master the orders pouring
in upon tliem; our railroads are in need of equipment and
additional facilities Lo handle the immense business of the
country and the banks can only furnish part of the working
capital with which to do the unprecedented commerce which
has developed." He further points out that the great cor¬
porations find themselves in need of large amounts of capi¬
tal to provide the facilities which the business of the conn-
try demands, consequently a scramble for corporate funds
has arisen, which to some extent is frightening money lend¬
ers probably to a greater degree in Europe than at home.
Mr. Schiff summarizes the situation by asserting that it is
neither unhealthy nor serious and that public opinion, the
great corrector in the United States of all evil, has already
asserted itself and is having its proper effect upon all cor¬
porate management. Yet the result of the fear referred to
may tend, after a while, to diminish the demand for material
and labor aud a falling off in business will follow. When
this occurs, even to a moderate extent, money is certain
to become superabundant and investors will again compete
one with another for the replacement of their funds. It
will not be amiss for operators to take the remarkable ut¬
terances of Mr. Schiff to heart. All revulsion in trade and
real estate naturally hegins at the apex of conditions. We
already see that improved real estate values represented by
certificates of stock dealt in on the New York Stock Ex¬
change have been almost cut in two in market value by
plethoric prosperity and might not the same thing happen
to values dealt in outside of the Exchange.
WITH all the dulness that has marked the week in real
estate, we find brokers busy with negotiations and
contending with a market in which buyers are plentiful, but
bargains few. Sales have been fewer in number than usual,
and none of first importance. Perhaps the transaction of
most significance was the sale at the Vesey st auction room
of the northwest corner of Gth av and 27th st at a figure
so large as to indicate a remarkable recent enhancement of
values in that part of tbe avenue lying between 23d and
34th sts. Reasons will array themselves together in any¬
one's judgment to vindicate this new quotation, and to
force the prediction that this sale may be the beginning of
a movement of extreme importance within that area. It
would be strange indeed if the tunnel line to the Jersey
shore now under construction through this thoroughfare to
a terminal at 33d st should leave the several blocks inter¬
vening between the two great retail shopping centers of
the city in their present mediocre estate. Rather is it now
to he expected that the Gth av shopping district will be
eventually' extended to that other center of trade which,
beginning at Broadway, is extending through 3 4th st to Sth
av aud theuce northward. As matters are at present brokers
and builders might with advantage to themselves once more
make a comprehensive study of Manhattan conditions. There
are various districts, some, quite new, which have claims
to consideration. For instance, the Lower West Side, and
now the Middle West Side, as'well as the Sth av section.
Which of all the husiness sections that might be named in
this catalogue offer the best opportunities, and what are
those opportunities? What forms are the demands of Prog¬
ress likely to assume, and to what extent is the future of
this or that quarter of the borough involved in the tangled
problem of traction? So far as the lower half of Manhat¬
tan is interested, it is time to banish fears of any further
reaction from present conditious, though for other boroughs
there may have existed "abnormal" conditions. To-day as
yesterday and the times before a long series of facts and
circumstances guarantee the permanence of Manhattan
values. But speaking for the city as a whole, the public at
the present time may be considered as out of the market.
There are plenty desirous of buying, but their conditions and
limitations cannot be met. Brokers' books are filled with
the names of inquirers, but are bare of real bargains. Mort¬
gage money is still au obstacle, but as such seems to be
gradually dissolving. Signs are multiplying that New Jersey
real estate will be the subject of much attention from Man¬
hattan speculators very soon, and a number of downtown
brokers have recently bought in there.
THERE should most assuredly be passed at the current
session of the Legislature a bJU permitting the own¬
ers of mortgages recorded prior to July 1st, 1906, to take
advantage of the mortgage recording tax. At the present
time this cannot be done except by means of a wholly new
mortgage with all its attendant expenses; and the effect of
this limitation is to discriminate in favor of some mort¬
gagors and mortgagees aud against others. In certain
cases, that is, the attendant expenses would, owing to favor¬
able conditions, he small, and benefit can be taken of the
exemption from the property tax which follows upon the
payment of the recording tax. In other cases, owing to
accidental conditions, they would be large and the liability
continued. There is no reason for such a discrimination.
The passage of the recording tax bill was an admission that
the property tax as applied to mortgages was an unjust tax;
and the injustice should not be allowed to press any more
heavily upon ttie owners of existing mortgages than it does
upon future lenders of money on real estate. Any loss in
revenue, which the towns and cities might suffer therefrom,
would be more than made up by the increased returns from
the recording tax. That tax is accomplishing all the results
claimed for it by its advocates. It has proved to be an ef¬
fective producer of revenue, and while, owing to an extreme
scarcity of loanable capital there has been no reduction of
interest charges as yet; such a reduction is bound eventually
to come. The last vestige of the old unjust property tax on
mortgages should be swept away; and all holders of this
class of security placed on the same footing before the tax
laws of the State.
J T is evident that Fifth Avenue, south of Eourteenth
J. Street, and the adjacent side streets, will bear watching
in the near future. Hitherto that part of Fifth Avenue has
escaped for the most part the business invasion which has
transformed the avenue between Fourteenth and Forty*
eighth Streets. It has retained ou the whole its quiet,
pleasant residential character, and the only improvements
in the vicinity have been apartment houses and hotels. But
recently there have been purchases both on the avenue and
â– in the side streets, which apparently have been determined
by a purpose to erect husiness buildiugs; and it remains
to be seen whether this neighborhood can maintain its exis¬
ting i-esidential character. The Record and Guide sincerely
hopes that its existing character can be maintained, because
the few blocks to the north of Washington Square retain
more of the flavor of old New York than any other part of
Manhattan. Such neighborhoods add immensely to the gen-