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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 25, no. 622: February 14, 1880

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. YoL. XXV. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, FEBEXJAEY 14, 1880. No. 622 Published Weekly by TERMS. ONE YEAR, in advance.. ..$10.00. Communications should be addressed to C. 'W. SAVEET. Nos. 135 AND 137 Broadway THE ELEVATED ROADS. The Eecokd has always appreciated the great work the elevated roada are doing, and will do, for New York City. We think they are worth not four times, but twenty times their cost to the owners of real estate and the people of this metropi polls. We wish to put it plainly on record that we are not only friendly to the present elevated roads but to all proposed ones, hence when the first Kapid Transit Commissioners laid down a route for a new one, we immediately favored the scheme, and had it not been for the outcry of the daily press of the city, it is probable that be¬ fore the close of 1880 we should have had another load added to those already in active operation. The present elevated roads just now are laboring under difficulties, for many of which they have only themselves to thank. The legislative commission, recently in session, brought out some ugly facts, such as charges having been made under heads of sundries, office rent, legal expenses and such like, many of which seem imaginary. It is this phase of corporate management which is bringing the whole system into discredit all over the coun¬ try, and it is this which needs probing. The public, however, in attempting to have these wrongs righted should be careful how it lends itself to the use of the lobby, which cares for nothing except its share of the spoils. And here is just where the attempt now being made in the Legislature to interfere with the rates of fare is likely in the end to be of more benfit to the lobby than to the public, plainly ibi the reason that it is questionable to-day whether a five cent fare is really demanded at all hours. Unquestionably, we would all ride as cheaply as possible ; at the same time, there is a latent feeling in the public mind that, 80 far, people who use tlie elevated roads have been well treated, and, as much is yet expected of them, it will not do to cramp or stifle them in the beginning. Our sister city of Brooklyn is about to have a system of elevated roads, but if a grant or franchise is to be played with every year at Al¬ bany, we doubt very much whether the necessary capital will be forthcoming for them. We hope the present roads may be permitted to continue their business in consonance with their charter, and that the Legislature will watch the interests of the public by looking aiter ita safety and comfort by compelling the managers to adopt all appliances possible, and to strengthen their road at the curves, and other weak places, so that an accident shall be impossible. For the purpose of getting full information on these matters, we have interviewed one of the lead¬ ing officers of the Manhattan Railway Company, wbose views we here reproduce. A dirsctob's views. Mr. Benjamin Brewster, one of the directors of the Manhattan Eailway Company, in the pres¬ ence of Mr. H. R. Bishop, another director, at once acknowledged that no public pres¬ sure, so called, on the part of anjr individuals or representative bodies of citizens, had been made upon the company for the reduction of the fares to five cents. The public, so far as the company knew, did not demand it, and the only pressure brought to bear upon the legislatnre was composed of the clamors of the public press and of some political associations, that endeavored to make capital out of the demagogism of their leaders. " Mr. Brewster," asked the writer, " do you not actually charge smaller fares to-day than the charter allows you ?" " Yes, air, we do," replied Mr. Brewster, " we are allowed by the charter to charge five cents for eich five miles of road, and one cent for each addi¬ tional mile not exceeding seven cents during the commission hours, and ten cents for each five miles, with two cents for each additional mile dur¬ ing ordinary hours. Now, sir, please bear in mind that the road was first opened to Sixty-seventh street, then to Eighty-ninth street, and finally to One Hundred and Thirtieth street. It is singu¬ lar, indeed, that not a single newspaper, nor even a single individual, ever has given us credit for the fact that instead of adhering to the privi¬ leges granted us by our charter, we have preferred to run our trains at uniform rates, whether to Sixty-seventh street or to One Hundred and Thirtieth street, or One Hundred and Forty-fifth street. The ordinary rules of business, please also remember, are reversed in the enterprise in which we have embarked. We did our very best business at the start. While we were filling a great public need we were actually carrying people only over short distances. As we were extending our road we had to procure fresh rolling stock, and as we advanced further north we, by making heavy outlays for increased purchases, actually assisted in helping to populate districts that were heretofore desolate." "Now we hear a great clamor about the cost of maintenance, and that it is a mere bagatelle com¬ pared to what it is given put to be. What are the tacts Mr. Brewster ?" "Time only can tell what the actual cost of maintenance will be," replied Mr. Brewster. " The two years just passed have been mere experi¬ mental years. Nobody can tell to-day what it will cost ultimately to run this property. The ques¬ tion of maintenance is, so far as permanency is concerned, as yet a mystery. It is unknown. It is a. q estion we are studying; a problem that we are endeavoring to solve, but what it actually will be, no one living can tell to-day. The starting of elaborate machine shops in East Ninety-eighth street for the East Side branch, and other machine shops to be started shortly on the West Side, give you just a little insight as to the uncertainty of any calculations for the future, based upon to-day's estimate. The people, no more than the public press, have the least conception of the vast under¬ taking we have in our charge. Every day, every hour almost, new subjects of study and investi¬ gation are brought to our attention. We endeavor at all times to meet these new emergencies with promptness and liberality. Ifc is an enormous work to transport thousands of people at lightning speed, almost constantly, from one end of the Island to the other. We don't know what improve¬ ments may yet be called for, though we are every day mastering the problems more and more, whether it be in the calibre of the men we employ, the machinery we use, or the rolling stock at our command." " And yet it is claimed that even now, already, your profits are enormous ?" " Our extensions," replied Mr. Brewster, "have not yet paid interest on the cost of construction, while the increase of business to these roads will come from the upper wards. You must not forget that there is a great difference between running per mileage, and running per capita. We are running per capita, and ten cents do not pay lor this running. We have offered our very beat lines thus far, and have to make a long haul of passen¬ gers at the average fare of 7| cents for each passenger. Over the Third avenue line we are won running forty-eight trains an hour during the busy time of the day, and our average stops now are only fourteen seconds, all these matters, how¬ ever, as I said before, are even yet to-day questions that are being studied so as to enable us to accom¬ modate the enormous traffic that ia pouring in upon us. But as we go along we improve. We well know that more termini or pockets are required and the same as wo are now doing on the East Side we will very shortly do on the West Side You were mentioning that between the hours of nine and ten in the morning it is even now difficult to obtain a seat at the Twenty-third street station, going southward. This will be remedied by the additional termini that will shortly be opened on the West Side, so that fresh traina can be started from certain stations. Of course a very large sum of money, as yet unknown, will be required to complete that system of pockets and termini thoroughly. In addition to all this, the extraordi¬ nary shape of Manhattan Island, with the people all living at one end, and doing business at the other,, a tremendous rush down-townward in the morning andup-townward in the evening must not be overlooked. We have to haul empty rolling stock in a reverse direction, without compensation, twice a day, conditions most unfavorable to the principles of lowest economy. It certainly does not require an expert to tell you we cannot carry a man to Albany for 25 cents, uo more than you can carry a man to Harlem for 5 cents. The horse cars could not do it, neither can we. One hundred and seventy-five thonsand passengers weigh 12,000 ions. To earn the same gross receipts, at 5 cents fare, we must have 18,000 tons, and this can only be done at an increased cost to us and at 50 per cent, extra, wear and tear. "What is the truth of the charges about the watered stock and the inflated securities ?" asked the writer. '' At every stage of the progress ot this road, the securities," said Mr. Brewster, " have been mar¬ keted at the highest figure they possibly could bring. People must not forget now that in times past thia entire system of elevated roads was ridi¬ culed as impracticable, and its projectors de nounced as men of unsound ideas. Every security to-day outstanding against the company is for value received, and full value, too, and any movo on the part of the state to injure these securities ia unjust, because an element of value in the issue of