Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 34, no. 871: November 23, 1884

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November 23, 1884 The Record and Guide. 1171 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. Publithed every Saturday, 191 Bpoadway, N. Y. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LIEfOBSY, Business Manager. NOVEMBER S3, 1884. Tliere has been some revival in general buBinesB during the past week. The advent of cooler weather has created a demand for coal, clothiQg and winter stores. Stocks look weak for the moment but the condition seemed to exist favoring a moderate rise. The coming year will see a better feeling in the stock market securities unless some unexpected catastrophe should intervene. In the important treaty juat negotiated with Spain it is pro¬ vided that not only our food staples, raw cotton and wool shall be imported free into Cuba and Porto Rico, but also ship-building and house-building materials and all kinds of lumber, together with engines, machinery and tools made from metals, wagons, carriages, fine furniture, rubber goods, etc. Hence this treaty ia of special interest to all dealers iu building material, as, if it is confirmed by our Senate, they will get several new and lucrative markets. This treaty has followed so cloaely upon that made with Mexico, of a similar tenor, that other treaties w^ill doubtless ;follow. Naturally the first to be negotiated will be with the South American States, and will be based on the report of the commission now in session to inquire into the practicability of some agreement between the United States and the States of South America. Next in order may come treaties with France and Germany, in both of which countries measures are on foot to tax American agricultural pro¬ ducts unless we abate the severity of our customs duties. It is in this way doubtlesE that our high dutiea will be relaxed to the advantage of our own manufacturers. It has been found impossible to pass any general act reducing our tariff imposts. Since the Civil War we have reduced the tariff in special particu¬ lars. We have taken the duty off quinine, tea and coffee, and have scaled the rates here and there, but every general act looking to a reduction has alarmed the protected interests which have united against a common danger and have succeeded in nullifying every enactment taking the shackles off of trade. But tbese treaties with different nations are all in the nature of a flank attack upon the tariff. Instead of antagonizing our protected industries they appeal to the interests of the manufacturers themselves by offering a chance at markets which they cannot find at home. But the final result will be the breaking down of many of the barriers of trade between the United States and other nations. Berlin haa come to tbe front as a great money-lending centre. New Yorkers in past times have been hoping that this city would become a rival of London as a great international money market, but the German capital has unexpectedly got the start of us. Bis¬ marck has made Germany the greatest military power on earth. He deprived Russia of the fruits of her victory over the Turks. Great Britain haa just been snubbed in "the matter of the com¬ merce of Congo Land, and haa been forced to submit her preten¬ sions to a Congress of the representatives of interested nations sit¬ ting at Berlin, with Germany taking the primacy. Population and wealth is always attracted to power. The Berlin ot to-day, aa the capital of Germany, is becoming one of the great cities of the world. A correspondent of The Record and Guide recently called attention to the amazing evidences of Berlin's superiority to every other capital of the world save alone London and Paris. Now comes the news of foreign loans being made in tbe German capital. A 5 per cent, Servian loan amounting to |2,600,000 in our money waf. recently called for, and the extraordinary sum of $825,000,000 was subscribed. Greece is about to establish specie payments on a gold basis and wants 170,000,000 francs to do so, but the applica¬ tion is made not to London or Paris, but to Berlin. Why is there not public spirit enough among our bankers to offer to take a foreign loan? Money goes begging here at 2 per cent., when it is 4}4 ^^*i ^ P^r ceut. in London. There is no present employment for unused funds. Why should we not lend money, say to Russia, which ia in the market for heavy loana to extend her railway system? That colossal power is perfectly sound and so careful of its credit that the English and French ownera of her bonded debt were promptly paid all through the Crimean war, A foreign loan negotiated in our market would be a splendid advertisement for this country, and of course would pay better than investments in our own national securities. This matter ought to be discussed in the directors' rooms of the banks In Wall street. To defray the extra expenses of the Soudan campaign the Brit¬ ish government has added a penny in the pound to the income tax already in force. It is surprising that this tax does not exist in this country. It is by far the most equitable of any form of taxa¬ tion. The income any person is in receipt of represents the benefit he derives from the economic forces of the community. Courts, jails, armies and navies exist to protect the rights of property and prop¬ erty should pay according to ita means, which ia best shown from the income derived from investments. Under our present system real estate bears all the burdens. Owners of vast fortunes based on personal property escape " scot free." The owner of $20,000 worth of realty pays more for the support of the government tban dots any of our great capitalists, such as Jay Gould or Wm, H. Vander¬ bilt. There are grave objections against taxing personal property but au income tax is equitable and should be levied to lighten the burdens of real estate owners. Lower Wages. The liquidation in wages in thu return for all services and labor has fairly begun. In the dry-goods district there will be a general reducing of salaries and many clerka and bookkeepers will be thrown out of employment. For some time past factory operatives have been required not only to accept a smaller compensation but to submit to a reduction of the time in which they are employed. This movement is becoming general. The coming year will see the great army of the unemployed doubled, if not trebled, both in this country and in Europe, whilst those who are retained at work must submit to a serious reduction of tbeir former incomes. But these economies are not confined to the operative classes proper. The railroads are reducing their expenses, and the high officials are beginning to feel the pressure as well as the men work¬ ing on the lines. President King, of the Erie road, not only accepts $25,000 a year in lieu of the $40,000 charged by his predeceaacr, but has announced his intention of cutting down the high salaries which that road has always paid to its unnecessarily large staff of officers. Other roads will be forced, by public opinion and the demands of their stockholders, to reduce the perquisites of their principal officers, as well as the wages of the working force on the lines. The time has come when all en&aged in tbe building trade should reduce the wages of their employes. There must be no sentiment about the matter. During the busy times through which we have passed the bricklayers, stone masons, painters and house finishers have by means of co-operative effort in their trade unions held em¬ ployers at their mercy; the latter were single-handed and the trade unions used their power mercilessly. The employers will from this time forth have the upper hand, and they will not hesitate to be as regardful of their own interests as the laborers were of theirs. With a period of liquidation on hand and the general trade of the country in a desperately bad state, the trades unions insisted upon the highest wages and the shortest hours of work. They were warned that they were killing the building business and cutting their own throats, but while they had tbe power they used it regard¬ less of consequences. They will now be made to suffer for their folly. Everything in the way of buiMing material is now cheap. We have reached the lowest point for bricks, lumber, etc., known in many years. The one item in which there has been no rebate is labor ; but that must yield as all others have yielded, and be con¬ tent with a smaller return. The quicker the situation is accepted the better it will be all around. We are not among those who look upon a general reduction of wages to the lowest point as a desirable thing in itself, On the contrary we regard it as an almost unmixed evil. The working clasa is the great consuming claaa ; when ita compensation is cut down to the lowest point every business interest suffers. Individual employers are naturally anxious to get their work done at the, lowest possible rate, but a moment's consideration must show them, that if the great consuming class is impoverished by inadequate wages or no employment at all, tbat every business interest receives, a vital blow. Let us dwell on this matter for a moment. With our present population there ought to be at least 12,000,000 of wage receivers, men, women and children. Let us suppoae that in pros¬ perous times the average income would be $15 per week ; but hard times come, production is checked, many are thrown out of employment, there are fewer days of labor, and the sum paid to the working classes then averages say $5 weekly less per capita. This makes $60,000,000 a week, and over $3,000,000,000 in the year. This vast sum is withdrawn from active retail trade in tho course of one year, and with what results? Bankruptcies, reduced rents, cutting off of profits, the distress of every one engaged in all the