Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 27, no. 675: February 19, 1881

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXVIL NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1881. No. 675 Published Weekly by TERMS. O-VE yE.luK.. in advance....810,00. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, No. 137 Broadway Massachusetts, as usual, is moving in the right direction. A bill is now pending before its legislature for relieving mortgages from taxation. Let New York now follow this example. We gave ample and cogent reasons for the abolition of the tax on mortgages in a recent issue of The Record. It is time that the veil be lifted from the eyes of those who, while professedly favoring the lessening of taxation, are not able to see wherein lies the true source of wealth and prosperity for our state. It may interest the present generation, who notice the demands now before the legislature for charters on the part of new water companies, that the city of New York before the Croton water was introduced was supplied with water by the Manhattan Wa¬ ter Company. This company, under its charter, had banking privileges and when the Croton was introduced, it took advant¬ age of these clauses in its charter and went iuto the banking business. Hence, the Man¬ hattan Company, now one of the best finan¬ cial institutions in Wall street, which knew how to judiciously control a bank, even after it had watered all of its previous operations. RENTS AS INCOMES. Rents are the profits or rather the income au owner receives for disposing of his prop¬ erty, which, in this instance, is real estate. A merchant who disposes of a lot of dry goods even should he charge flve per cent. beyond the actual market rate, is not subject to a tithe of the abuse the landlord receives when he talks of raising his rents. He parts witli his property, be it for one or two years, as fully and completely as the merchant who sells his goods. True, he recovers pos¬ session of the same after the expiration of the lease, but cannot the merchant who sells his case of denims and ducks or hogshead of molasses, replace the property he disposes of u\uch quicker than the landlord, who, as everybody knows cannot duplicate his lot say on Thirty-fourth street or his building on Broadway ? Thia being the case, and tak¬ ing into consideration the total amount of expenditures an owner of real estate has while he is holding it, compared to the merchant who simply pays his rent and his clerk hire, why this outcry we hear of oc¬ casionally against landlords, when they raise reats? In our review of the rent market, as published last week, we showed how one-quarter of certain incomes from real estate goes towards maintaining our city government. Do groceries, dry goods, fancy goods, boots and shoes and other lines of trades pay such a direct tax ? We may be told they pay it indirectly in the shape of high rents. So be it, but when the balance sheet is drawn at the end of the year it will be readily found that notwithstanding their professed indirect payment of this tax, the disposal of these commodities leaves a much larger margin of profit than the renting of real property. It is about time that in an intelligent community like this, where every citizen, if he so desires can become the owner of the soil, there should be an end to this annual outcry against the landlords. repairs upon the ships purchased from abroad would give them profitable occupa¬ tion. Ships wear out rapidly and require frequent repairs. The liberty to purchase vessels abroad for a year would, in that time, give us a fleet second to none in the world, save that of Great Britain alone. Once more would the American flag be seen upon every sea and the profits from cari-ying American products, which are now monopolized by foreign merchants, would naturally find their way into the pockets of our own capitalists. Why will not some member from New York, or one of the sea-board cities, so largely in¬ terested, try to bring about a combination of the two schemes for reviving our commerce, free ships and generous payments for ocean mail service. WHY NOT AMERICAN SHIPS AND COMMERCE. What an addition it would be to the wealth and importance of the metropolis, if the United States once more disputed the sover¬ eignty of the seas with Great Britain. The passage of a wise bill by Congress for the encouragement of our steam marine, would create a profitable mercantile interest in this city, which would add largely to the capital invested here, and which would, in time, greatly inctease the value of real estate. Look at the facts, as shown by the follow¬ ing table: Tonnage of Foreign Corn- Shipping, merce. 1860................ 2,379,396 $667,192,000 1880................. 1,314,402 1,503,593,300 In other words, in twenty years the ton¬ nage of our merchant marine has declined 45 per cent., while the value of our mer¬ chandise has increased during that period 125 per cent. How are we to restore our commerce ? Senator Beck says, let us repeal our absurd navigation laws, and allow the merchant to purchase Clyde built ships, or wherever he can get them cheapest. But Senator Blaine objects to this proposition. Let us he says, subsidize steamship lines, as England, Ger¬ many and France have done, and that would not only help oux commerce, but our manu¬ factures and ship building interests as well. Why not adopt both plans ? We want these ships immediately. The money is available, and we should secure our profit upon the transport^of our own productions. Why not, then, permit the free purchase of foreign ships, to sail under the American flag, for one year, and at the same time of¬ fer a generous subvention to American steamship lines carrying the mails. The fact that the navigation laws would again be re- imposed at the end of the year, would give an assurance to the ship building interests that they would have an abundance of work for years to come. For, even if they con¬ structed no vessels for five or six years, the THE PLUMBER'S BILL. It is a mistake to presume that the bill affecting plumbers, pending before the legis¬ lature, is disapproved of by a majority of the trade. The very contrary is the fact. The only complaint is that the bill does not go far enough. The very best plumbers are delighted at the idea that a more strict su¬ pervision is to be kept over their business, but they claim that the mere registry of names at the Health Board does not answer present requirements. It should be enacted along with the bill now pending, that a board of experts be ordered to examine all applicants for a license now granted to any one calling for same at the Department of Public Works. Not every one capable of soldering a pipe, or stopping a leak, is worthy of receiving a license, and knowl¬ edge required from plumbers, considering the labors entrusted to them, is a mere bag¬ atelle when compared to the danger that may result from defective w^ork. If our Health Board be at aU what it is said to be, there ought to be no difficulty in causing it to control the appointment of and exact su¬ perior work from all plumbers permitted to hang out their shingle in this city. THE RAID ON SHANTIES AND ITS RESULTS. Our readers must have noticed in the market reports of The Recoed during the past two weeks that bo7ia fide sales of lots have been made to builders and capitalists on the West Side, and that these lots are to be immediately improved. We merely allude now to the sale of Seventy-third street lots, between Ninth and Tenth avenues, by the son of the late Fernando Wood, and the sale of eight lots by Mr. Higgins in the same street, all of which will be improved at once in order to bring into prominence the causes which led to these purchases. These sales were made only after the shanties in this vicinity had been removed. A year ago there were at least a dozen shanties in this identi.