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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 28, no. 697: July 23, 1881

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EAL Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. YoL, XXYIII. NEW YOBK, SATUEDAY, JULY 23, 1881 No. 697 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE TEAR, in adyancc.....$6.00 Communications shoxdd be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. The crop accounts from the West get worse and worse. It is now certain that there will be a serious deficiency in both wheat and corn. As the country is full of money which must find employment, it is easy to foresee that the speculative move¬ ment will find vent in land purchases, rather than in railroads which are losing their bus¬ iness. Governor Cornell continues his vetoes, his last jierformance in that line being a refusal to endorse a change in the grades on the West Side above eighty-fourth street west of the Boulevard. The Governor seetas lo have one fixed purpose in mind. He will not add to public and private burdens upon the plea of improvement. The new croton aqueduct, however much needed, would have cost a great deal of money, and proper- holders have the consolation of knowing, that if they can't have the improvements they ask for, they at least won't be required to put their hands in their pockets to pay for them. THE SITUATION ON THE STREET. Instead of a bull we are having a bear mar¬ ket. Prices, instead of going up, are steadily going down and the end may not be yet. While everything seemed to point to a high market, every one admitted there was one cloud in the sky, aud that was a j)robable deficiency in the crops. It is now settled that we are to have a short wheat crop and a backward corn crop. The roads will not have so much to do and as a consequence their dividend value will not be as high as it has been during the past two years. .So the result has been a marking down of quotations and the liberal selling of long stock. The end is not yet, and may not be until about the 1st of August, by which time wiU be pretty well known the exact condition of our own wheat crop and a clear understanding of what is to be expected abroad. There has been a heavy speculation in wheat and corn, based on the belief that the crop will not only be deficient in this country but in Europe. The probabilities, however, are that while there will be a fall¬ ing off in the production of grain on this side of the Atlantic, the foreign crops will be much better than they were last year. If this is the condition of affairs, it is idle to expect gold shipments, and without the stimulus of gold inflation, there can be no marked advance in railway shares. All the present indications point to lower prices; but the time will come when there wiU be an important rally if not a permanent advance. In the first place money will be abundant and cheap, that much is certain. Then after the full effect of the short crops has been discounted it will be found out that after all the country is in a very good condition; that labor is employed at full wages; that money is abundant for all profitable enter¬ prises, and that the value of land is steadily rising in all parts of the country. The im¬ mense immigration is another factor in sus¬ taining prices. As a matter of fact, we live in bull times, and the present set back is only one of the eddies in the current toward high prices. One of the influences to sustain the mar¬ ket is the vast number of enterprises that are underway, and which have behind them strong men and plenty of money. Many of those have been commenced and none fin¬ ished, and the capitalists who have embarked in them will strain every nerve to sustain prices and make their ventures profitable. Even if the market should go off there will be many stocks in which there will be spe¬ cial deals, for connections will be made and districts opened that will give profitable busi¬ ness to new lines made or old hues extended. The most serious feature of the situation is the cutting of rates. There does not seem to be any sense in a railroad war, when it depends on only three or four gentlemen to settle matters. It may be that war has act¬ ually broken out between Vanderbilt and Jay Gould. If it has, then shall we have lively times for many months to come, and others will get hm-t as well as the principal combatants. There is another factor which may help to keep up prices, and that is the cotton crop. From all accounts it will be larger than even the great yield of last year. Cotton, at one time, was king, and may occupy the same relative place during the coming year. The better wages of tli.e working class in the north, will lead to a very heavy consumption of cotton goods, and the better harvest abroad will increase very largely the con¬ sumption of cotton fabrics in Europe. It is then possible that the deficiency in wheat an,d corn wiU be more than made up by the increased value of oxir splendid cotton crop. This wiU have a particularly beneficial effect upon the Southern system of railways, and especially the Southwestern, where the in¬ creased percentage of cotton raised yearly, exceeds that of any other section of the south. But we cannot tell about the cotton crop, and will not feel its good effects until September, and in the meantime the bears may make further attacks upon the market, especially upon Western and Northwestern stocks. There is no danger of any trouble about money, for the Government disburses some $40,000,000 during August, in payment for the called bonds. <♦> So far, but little has been said about Edi¬ son's electric light company. Public atten¬ tion has been attracted rather to the more ^ showy performances of the other electric light organizations. By October 1, however, Edison will be in the field and ready, not only to furnish electric light, but motive power to a large section of the lower part of New York city. Indeed, by the 1st of January every house below Chambers street can procure electricity for motive power or for illuminating purposes. Before another year is over; the steam and water heating companies will be in operation. Should they succeed, it ought to make a material difference in insurance rates in New York, as the danger from fire is thereby very greatly lessened. WHAT WILL THE CHANGE AMOUNT TO? To put it understandingly, the elevated railroad system has passed out of the hands of steamboat men and gamblers, into the control of railroad men and yet greater gamblers. We say this deliberately, perfectly aware of the fact that ]\fi-. Navarro was not a steamboat man; nor can Cyrus W. Field be called a practical railroad manager, although he was for a short time president of the Wabash road. But still it is apparent that the elevated system was manipulated by the Garrisons, whose chief experience was in managing steamboat lines, and it is hereafter to be controlled by some of the foremost, if not the ablest, railroad managers in the country. Nobody can question the ability of the " Wabash crowd," Jay Gould, Russell Sage, Sidney Dillon, Sam Sloan and their other associates iu the Metropolitan direc- torj'. The two receivers were clearly ap¬ pointed in the Wabash interest, and the fact that Cyrus W. Field and Russell Sage were both on the bail bonds, shows that a new combination is in control, and that it can do what it pleases with the elevated system. But what will be done ? He who can solve that question ought to be able to make money in elevated stock. Field, in the Evening Mail, and Jay Gould, in the World, are bearing the elevated stocks on paper. There are loud demands in both journals that Manhattan stock shall be wiped out. Sage threatens to extend the Metropolitan structure down Broad street, so as to fight the Elevated, and Field pretends that he wants the Elevated back so as to ruin the Metropolitan. We venture to pre¬ dict, however^ that the Manhattan Company will not be wiped out, and that there wiU be no conflict between the Metropolitan and Elevated systems, for the very good reason that the insiders in all three companies have the same interests, and are working for the same ends. There is no doubt that ,some scheme is afoot for making our elevated road system the terminus of certain Western and Southwestern trunk lines. The weakness of the Vanderbilt stocks is partly due to the fact that other trunk lines will have as good, if not even better, access to all parts of the island than has the Central road. The Hud¬ son River tunnel wiU bring this about, in time, for aU the roads which are now stopped on the banks of the Hudson; but there are a