Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
Jiuie 29, 1907
RECORD AND GUIDE
K7II-'
f- - ,-
1239
ESTABUSHEIJ^W
Bi;sn/Ess ai^Themes bf Ce^eiV^ Itfls^T^
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Published eVery Saturday
Oommunicatlons Bhould be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Madison Square: 11-15 East S4th Street
Telephone, 4480 Madleon Square
"Entered at the Poat Office at New Yor'k, N. T., as second-class matter."
Copyrighted, 1907. hy The Record & Guide Co.
Vol. LXXIX.
JUNE 29, 1907.
No. 2050.
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Avertising Section.
Page. Pago.
Cement.................., ..xiv Lumber .......................xx
Consulting Engineers ..........v Machinery ...................vi
Clay Products ...............xviii Metal Work ..................xv
Contractors and Builders.......iii Quick Job Directory ..........xx
Electrical Interests ............vi Real Estate ...................ix
Fireproofing ..................il Roofers & Rooflng Materials..xix
Granite ....................xvi Stone .......................xvl
Iron and Steel ..............viii Wood Products...............xx
A BROADER, stronger and a somewhat more active
stock market this week has had a decidedly encour¬
aging effect on Wall Street sentiment. While undoubtedly
there was mucli professional operation it was not wholly
of that character, though there is no evidence that the elu¬
sive factor called the public is in the market. All kinds o£
reasons were given for the improvement. It was said that
the well-known Boston oiierator had begun a bull campaign
and that a pool had been formed in Uuited States Steel. But
iu the light of events an advance in prices is strictly logical.
Even when there were advances in the morning session suc¬
ceeded by declines in the afternoon there was decidedly a
better tone at the close. The principal features were Union
Pacific, Amalgamated and Reading. Europe, too, seems to
be iu the market for our stocks again. Foreigners are
surprised at the equanimity with which the American mar¬
kets have viewed the loss of about $25,000,000 gold in the
course of four weeks and the unconcern with which the
prospect of further losses next month is regarded in WaU
Street, As the Record aud Guide pointed out in this col¬
umn last week, the serenity of the market, if it happens
to be quiet at the time, is no longer disturbed by the ship¬
ment of a few or even many millions of the yellow metal
from these shores to Europe. The outlook financially
abroad is much brighter than it was at the beginning of
June, Paris, Berlin and London being much more cheerful,
partially the reflection of favorable condition on this
side. Certainly the splendid earnings report of Atchison,
which showed an increase of more than $1,350,000 in gross
and of more than $330,000 in net, and the belief that this
year's crops wil! at least be average, may have something
to do with the more confident tone both at home and
abroad. The report that Mr. E. H. Harriman was shortly
to resign all his oflices in the Union Pacific Railroad Com¬
pany and to go abroad for his healtli is said to have caused
considerable buying by some operators who recently have
been entirely out of ihe market. Call money rates continued
to stiffen, touching six per cent, on Thursday. Time funds
are also higher. These higher rates, while not encourag¬
ing to real estate and building interests, are neither un¬
usual nor unexpected at this time of year in view of the
enormous July disbursements that Avill be made hy indus¬
trial, railroad and other companies, which makes a demand
for money and causes holders to ask higher rates.
that the city has paid too much for the property, but that in all
such cases, the tax assessor is confronted by an almost impos¬
sible problem. The Staats-Zeitung property was assessed at
$1,000,000 and briugs $1,650,000. If the Tax Department had as¬
sessed the property at $1,500,000 last year, its owners would have
been furiously indignant, and would doubtless have carried the
â– case to the courts, and they would have done this in spite of the
fact that they valued the property in their own minds at over
$1,500,000. Everybody must admit that in the present instance
the Tax Department is not to blame, in case the property is
under-assessed. It is almost impossible to determine the value
of such a special piece of property; and if expert appraisers
had been called in their appraisals might well have ranged be¬
tween $1,300,000 and $1,800,000. Moreover all rea! estate in ad¬
vancing speculative neighborhoods is in very much the same
condition, and the margin to be allowed for possible error should
be equally as great. It is just because their task is so diflicult
that the deputy assessors should have access to every available
means of information bearing upon real estate values. They
should know the price at which every parcel of property in their
district has been sold, and private purchasers should be com¬
pelled to furnish this information under oath. In any one in¬
stance the price at which a parcel sells does not determine
the value, but taking a number of such instances together, these
prices are the most useful information the tax assessor can
possess.
THE price which the city has agreed to pay for the building
of the Staats-Zeitung and its site affords another illus¬
tration of the difficulty of appraising special parcels of New
York real estate. Probably this is the highest price per square
foot whieh has ever been paid in New York City for a plot of
this size. The lots on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, and
on Herald Square, which brought over $300 a square foot, con¬
tained less than 1,000 square feet. Nevertheless it cannot be said
that the city is paying more than the property Is worth. Mr.
Ridder could probably have obtained as much from a private
purchaser, provided he could afford to wait for the man or the
company who needed the plot to come along. The point is, not
Governor Hughes and His Work.
THE Legislature, which lias just adjourned, accomplished
raore useful work and did less harm than any similar body
tbat has sat at Albany in a great many years, aud this result
was due almost exclusively to the personal influence of one man,
Governor Hughes. Almost everything wbich the Legislature ac¬
complished of public beneflt was not merely instigated by the
Governor, but was forced on the legislative body by the public
opinion which Mr. Hughes rallied to his support. The most im-
IX)rtant measures which were passed without the Governor's in¬
stigation, such as the teachers' salary bill, and the two-cent
fare bill, were of no public benefit, and were very properly
vetoed by Governor Hughes. The latter did not secure from the
Legislature the whole of the program laid down in his first
annual message; but his most important recommendations were
enacted into laws. The net result of the session has undoubtedly
been a gi-eat personal triumph for the Governor. His will and
his conception of public policy have prevailed, and it has pre¬
vailed in spite of the active opposition of the regular Republican
political machine. A better illustration could not be desired of
the way, which under our American political organization, the
necessary reforms will have to be accomplished. Reforms will
rarely originate in American legislative bodies and w,ill not
willingly be accepted by them. Congressmen and Assemblymen
always represent small districts, and a body of these district,
delegates represent not the whole state or the whole nation, but
merely a collection of districts,
The official who is elected by the whole body of voters is tha
man who represents the interests of tbe state or the nation as a
whole. This is the condition of things at Washington, and in all
the States that have been sufficiently aroused to elect an exec¬
utive pledged to a reforming platform. Our Legislatures do
not represent the people as a whole. In all matters pertain¬
ing to the general popular interest they are the creatures of
the political machine which made and can unmake them.
Governor Hughes' success in forcing his program through the
Legislature carries with it a corresponding responsibility. If pos¬
sible the Governor should remain at his post until bis reform
measures have been fairly tested and their good or bad effects
have been fully revealed. The Governor is not merely respon¬
sible for the Public Utility bills, but under the terms of this
legislation he is also responsible for the successful operation of
the new laws. The commissioners are to be appointed by him,
and are removable by him, and he should remain in office a long
enough time to make sure that the commissioners are carrying
out the law in a just and efficient manner. One term is not suf¬
flcient for this purpose. He should remain in office for at least
one additional term, and he himself should refuse to allow his
name to be used in any other connection. If he should actively
seek, for instance, a presidential nomination, he would in effect
be betraying the confldence which the people of New York state
have reposed in him. Under his advice they have insisted on the
passage of the most thorough-going and drastic body of legisla¬
tion regulating franchise corporations, which has yet been en¬
acted by any state. The wisdom of this legislation is at least
an Qpen question. The Record aud Guide does not wholly like it,
because it divides resiwDnsibility between the public commissions