Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 27, no. 671: January 22, 1881

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXVII. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1881. No. 671. Published Weekly by Cbc Ecal Estate Eecorb Association. TERMS. ONK VKASl. in advance___SIO.OO. O'lTriiniinications should be addressed to C. W. SAVjeKT, No. 187 Broaoway Investors and dealers who have been vis¬ iting Harlem and the annexed district dur¬ ing the past ten days, and have gone back to their homes and offices without securing the property they were looking after, should remember that the real estate market has indeed entered upon a new phase. It is of no use to clamor now that these and those lots could be had for such and such a price one or two years ago. All this has been changed since then. Real estate is at last feeling the effect of the prosperity that has been making itself felt in various lines of trade and business, and the surplus fund thus accumulated in the various banks by individual merchants and others has for more than a twelve-month past b(?en seeking a safe outlet for investment. The present high prices of railroad and other securities has at last driven investors to real estate, which, having been neglected until the very last moment, has at last come to the front. It is there now and will stay there, and, while this lasts, it is of no use to allude to the prices of one or two years ago. Improvement, $32 to f 39 premium, and this list might be indefinitely extended. The most profitable of these enterprises are never made public. These insiders, with their construction bonds, every time come ahead of the first mortgage bonds. They are often paid in first mortgage bonds to the amount of their subscription and stock as a gratuity besides. It would be an instructive chapter in the railroad building of this country, if it could be found out how much actual money was paid in by the original constructors of a railroad, and then a comparison be made between that sum and the amount of the mortgage bonds and stocks floated upon the public. Our methods of building railroads is very wasteful. There is a vast piling up of bonds and stocks, for which the public have to pay and of which a great deal is the purest fiction. It is the productive industry of the country which is finally taxed, to give vitality to these fictitious capitals. These construction companies help to make the rich richer, but the bulk of the community must assume the burden at last. It should be borne in mind that all taxation, whether corporate or national, comes finally upon land and upon labor, and the fact that land has to share so much of these burdens is why we refer to it in these columns. GROUND FLOOR INVESTMENTS. While the general public is making money, by buying stocks and bonds at pres¬ ent market prices, it should be borne in mind that the largest profits are made by the inside rings, who are constructing the new transportation lines. In connection with Jay Gould and all the large railroad men, are certain favored capitalists, who are apprised of these new undertakings. Thus, the new extension of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas road is in the hands of a construction company and the capital is al¬ ready subscribed, the shares commanding a very high premium. So with the new road to Mexico. These construction ac¬ counts are never open for public competi¬ tion. They are the profits in advance of the great operators and their special friends. Some of the quotations of premiums on these favored securities tell their own story. Central Construction of the American Union Telegraph sells from |1,00 to $1.25 ; Lacka- wana and "Western extension is from |27 to |32 premium; New Orleans Pacific subscrip- ti4 premium; Mexican National Railway, |B to $3^ premium; International REGISTER'S OFFICE. If the authorities question the expediency of erecting a new building for the valuable records now in the old building, let some of them visit the place at this time when it is deluged throughout with water, and Mr. Docharty has been compelled to ha7e the books piled trp promiscuously in such dry corners as were available. Great damage would have been done the records in this instance if he had not personally and promptly taken the measures for their pro¬ tection. THE TELEGRAPH SITUATION. At length the tardy and short-sighted people who control the daily press are be¬ ginning to call for a government ownership of the telegraph system of the country. In no other country on earth, save the United States, is this indispensable agent of modern civilization permitted to be the football for stock speculators. The Herald now mildly favors the build¬ ing of telegraph wires by the Government. The great majority of the newspapers, how¬ ever, will never dare to take any such posi¬ tion, as they are completely under the con¬ trol of the speculative operators in the tele¬ graph stocks. It is rumored that W. H. Vanderbilt was very much astonished when, on signing the papers, he discovered that the whole tele¬ graph system had passed out of his hands in¬ to those of Jay Gould. Justly, or unjustly, Mr. Vanderbilt is an object of detestation in the "street." It is charged that his best friends and members of his own family were losers by his telegraph deal with Jay Gould. Mr. Vanderbilt's great wealth is of itself suf¬ ficient to make him not only feared but hated. It is the penalty of all greatness to be envied or detested. And neither Jay Gould nor W. H, Vanderbilt have as yet linked their names with any enterprise which has for its object the good of man¬ kind. From present appearances, we judge the consolidation wiU be effected, and that the agitation for new telegraph lines wiU. quiet down. We presume the Western Union will be wise enough to deal hberal with the public, for the present at least. It can do this and pay 6 per cent, upon the eighty million of capital. There is no rivalry that can affect the companies for two years to come. The Government will not act during this short session, and any new company could not get into successful operation in less than two years. There are two small companies in exist¬ ence, one called the American Rapid Compa¬ ny, which has lines from Boston to Wash¬ ington, and which uses the automatic sys¬ tem; the Mutual Union Company is a more important organization, but its lines, as yet, extend only from Boston to Philadelphia. It will be to Washington before spring. The first National Bank is behind this last company, and it means business. Its origi¬ nal intention was to supply wires for private firms who wish to deal directly with their agencies in other cities. But, having poles and wires, it could easily go into the gener¬ al news business. There are no independ¬ ent wires west of the seaboard cities not controlled by the combination, save alone the Government wires, connecting with dis¬ tant and unprofitable weather stations. In¬ siders, say that Western Union stock is good for 125 ; that it is, in fact, the best purchase on the fist. The leaduag manipu¬ lators will make a great deal of money out of this deal, but the final upshot will be the Government control of the whole telegraph system. A GREAT SOUTHWESTERN COMBI¬ NATION. The "street" is full of stories of great railway consolidations. The latest is that the Iron Mountain, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and Texas Pacific, with connecting branches, is to be formed into one gigantic company, the stock of all the companies to be converted into one bond and one stock, covering the whole of Texas except the roads running from Denison south.to Galveston, that is, the Houston & Central as well as the minor roads which lead to the Mississippi and to Galveston. In other words, all the roads which lead south and southwest into