Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 34, no. 866: October 18, 1884

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©ctober 18, 1884 The Record and Guide. 1045 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. Published every Saturday. 191 Broad-way, N. Y. TERMS: ONE TE\R, in advauce^ SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager, OCTOBER 18, 1884. The issue of the Ohio election leaves the result on the presiden¬ tial vote in doubt, with the chances £ lightly in Mr. Blaine's favor. Everything now depends on New York, and the stalwarts hrve it an their power to say whether Mr. Blaine can have the thirty-six ■votes of this State or not. So far it is understood that the office- Jiolding Kepublicana have come to no understanding with Mr, Blaine's managers. It will be a curious result of party faction if Mr. Cleveland, who was elected Governor by the half-breed defec¬ tion two years ago, should be chosen President because of the isecret hostility or lukewarmness of the stalwarts in this contest. The contest until the close of the polls on election day will be a very fierce one, and will, while it lasts, affect unfavorably the business of the country. ----------»—,—_— The outlook for the stock market is very much mixed. The dis¬ turbing factors seem to be Robert Garrett and the West Shore load. The former has undertaken to fight every leading railroad interest in the East. He is at war with the Pennsylvania Central, the New York Central, the Pullman Palace Car interest and the express companies of the country, in addition to the Western Union, whioh he is attacking by building a rival line. He is also interested in the ocean cable controversy. As a consequence rates are demoralized, and there is a gloom in railroad circles. But this state of things cannot last always, and after the general election is over, when the corn crop begins to move, there will undoubtedly be a better feeling in the stock market. The local contest is all in doubt, for as yet the bosses, with the exception of John Kelly, have not shown their hand. Levi M. Bates is talked of as the Republican candidate for Mayor, and Robert B. Roosevelt was on tho slate for the County Democracy, but at last accounts his name had beeu dropped. It is of vital importance that New York should have a flrst-class Mayor for the next three years. It wants another ?eth Low. He should be an energetic business man, with ^ unimpeached character and free from strong party bias. Tammany has done well, and its action should be emulated by the County Democracy and the Republicans. -------------------■—•——~- Matters look somewhat brighter iui the real estate market. The strikes of the masons and bricklayers are ot an end and the men have learned a lesson which they will not forget for a year at least. Were the political uncertainty removed dealers would speak more confidently of tbe future. The sales last week both public and private brought rather low pricea but then there is a better feeling in the renting market. One very hopeful symptom is the excellent prices bid for lots of the Fox estate in the annexed district on the line of the Suburban Road, The market has been a dull one, though strong so far, but there are those who think it may become active after the general election is over in November, The large wheat movement has been a surprise to the business world. The farmers, contrary to the general belief, have sold their grain very freely. Not since 1879 has there been so heavy a crop movement so far as the small grains are concerned. Corn receipts show a heavy falling off and for the obvious reason that the farmers have none to sell of laat year's short crop. But it is a curious fact that while receipts at what are known as the primary markets In the West show that the farmers have been free sellers, the shipments to the seaboard are far lees than in former years. The new wheat is in fact in tbe bands of the speculators and is stored in the eleva¬ tors awaiting higher prices. These investors in grain may yet be forced to sell at low figures iu the absence of any foreign demand, but the farmers have their money already secured. The fact that the farmers have sold their wljeat so freely, not¬ withstanding the low prices obtained, is nu assurance that when the new corn is marketable it will also be sold. Farmers want means with which to buy goods, and hence we may expect that by December the railroads will have all that they can do in hatUing com to the pointa of distribution and consumption, Wall street as usual will probably discount this state of things in November. As our imports are light, while wheat, corn, cotton and petroleum are being shipped freely, we may expect exchange to fall so low that gold will begin to come to our shores in considerable quantities. The outlook for the coming winter and spring therefore is very good, but the troubles in the general trade of the country are not yet over. Our national bank note currency is rapidly being withdrawn, the circulation is now down to $296,787,473, of which $143,949,090 is secured by deposits of 3 per cent, bonds, which are rapidly being paid off. Hence our bank note circulation is disappearing, but with all this there is no contraction, for the gold notes and silver certificates are being issued in greater quantities than the bank notes are withdrawn. There are now $188,000,000 of gold and silver notes in circulation, and should the whole of the $295,000,000 bank notes be surrendered the Treasury Department will pay out ten- dollar silver notes and twenty-dollar gold notes for a corresponding amount. It is one of the possibilities of the future that long before the close of this century the national bank notes will have disap¬ peared and their place be taken by gold and silver notes of bigh denominations, the government greenbacks supplying the retail demands of commerce for bills under ten doUars. It would be wise if Congress should prohibit the issue of any bill under five dollars, so that the retail money of tbe country would be exclusively gold and silver, as is the case in England, France, Germany and other leading commercial nations. The Cause of the Depression. The business publications which reach us from all parts of the world a:re filled with complaints respecting the depression in all the industries of mankind. There is so much wheat and other food products tbat their price is unremunerativo to the farmer. Cotton goods are in such abundance thac the mills are stopping both in Europe and America. Wool is so low that sheep grow¬ ers are discouraged and are giving up the business, while woolen manufactured goods are produced at a loss. Iron, the key to the industrial situation, is selling in all the markets of the world for less than cost. The coal industry is also unprofitable. It has been found, too, that there has been an overproduction in iron steam¬ ships. One-third of the steam tonnageof theworld is unemployed. Depression reigns in every house in Europe as well as on every exchange in America. The cause universally assigned is overproduction, and hence the remedy suggested in every quarter is a stoppage of work and non- employment of all the agencies of production until consumption " catches on" to the former. Yet we have ventured to question the wisdom of this view. We say that the difliculty is undercon¬ sumption, not overproduction; that millions of people on this globe have too little food and tens of millions an inadequate sup¬ ply of clothing; tbat were all the wants of mankind, natural and acquired, fully supplied, every bushel of grain would be in eager demand at advancing prices, and all the productive machinery in the world would be inadequate to furnish tbe clothing which would b3 called for by those who now must stint themselves for lack of money. We have argued that what the commercial nations need ia more real money. In every epoch of the world's history in which there was an abundance or a superabundance of the precious metala in general circulation prices rose and all classes of workers and trad¬ ers were proaperoua. This was the condition of the world under the early Roman emperors. The great revival of trade during the Elizabethan era was traceable directly to the countless millions of silver money which was poured out of the Central and South American mines after the Spanish conquest. The next upheaval in prices and great prosperity was duo to the gold discoveries in 1849 in California, Australia and other precious metal bearing regions. On the other hand the poverty of the Middle Ages waa due to the disappearance of the precious metals because of the religious prejudice against the mining of gold and silver. Of late years the gold and silver mines, especially the' former, have lessened their product at a time when there was a prodigious development'of industry requiring more money in which to transact the business of mankind, In addition to this natural scarcity of the precious metals an artificial famine waa produced by the attempt of the leading commercial nations to make gold the aole unitof\alue, dispensing with silver, thus reducing the precious metal fund one- half. .This theory will account forthe phenomena of.the distress in trade and declining pricea the world ovei-, , ; - But the Northwestern (Ghicago) Lumberiiiun considers this view " a mere abstraction," It adheres to the general belief that "the boom of 1880-81 overdid production, and for a time glutted the" markets." It calls attention to the fact that money is abundant at all the commercial centres, that it is a glut in the market_ "Why more money?" it is asked, "when we have too much already." A little reflection, however, will sbow our Chicago con¬ temporary that the accumulation of money in the chief cities ia I