Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 917: October 10, 1885

Text version:

October" 10, 1885 The 'Record and Guide. 1095 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broad-vsrav, IsT. Y. Our Teleplioue Call is.....JOHPT 370. TERMS: OIVE YEAR, iu advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addi-i^ssetl to €• W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. Vol. XXXVI. OCTOBER 10, 1885. No, 911 The business outlook still continues favorable, though there is less activity in trade in the Eastern and Middle States, due it is tfaought to the prolonged summer weather which lasted to the end of Sep¬ tember. There is, however, no abatement, but rather an increase in the volume of business South and West. The railroad situation i.s daUy improving. Rates will soon be re-established so as to insure good dividends to the leading trunk lines, at>d wiU be so copper- fastened that there will be no danger for years to come of any dis¬ ruption of the pool. Real estate is looking up, so far as New York and Brooklyn are concerned, and a noteworthy sign of better times has been the quiet buying of high-priced residences wliich have been so slow of sale for the past two years. Altogether there is nothing to discourage business men from entering upon new enter¬ prises._____________ The interest in the daily meetings of brokers of our city Exchange grows apace. New faces appear daily and the number of trans¬ actions is on the increase. Every Wednesday and Saturday a slip is printed giving the wants and offerings of brokers. In this way time is saved, and the buyer and seller get the advantage of haviug a great number of brokers interested in meeting his wishes. Our city is so large that there is some embarrassment in brokers attend¬ ing the daily meetings and at the same time looking after the business at their offices. Hence there has been quite a demand for substitute tickets, and a proposition has been made for clerks to do business for their employers who are members. This difficulty can, however, be overcome by making junior members of the brokers' firms, or confidential employes, associate members of the Exchange._____________ A Chicago correspondent informs us that one of the beneficial results of the creation of a Real Estate Exchange in that city is that it has practically put a stop to the dishonest commission cut¬ ting so prevalent in aU other cities in real estate dea'iiigs. The daily meeting have engendered an esprit de corps among brokers and agents, and those who wish to stand well in the trade cannot afford to intf rfere in pending ne^-otiations so as to obtain an illegit¬ imate advantage over their fellow-brokers. The *'single represen¬ tation " principle, which our New York Real Estate Exchange is try¬ ing to establish, is in very general operation in Chicago, for owners have learned that they reach a larger market in dealing with a member of the Exchange, and are less liable than under the old system for vexatious law suits for commissions. ---------«--------- How to treat questionable resorts in populous centres is one of the most serious problems all over the world for those who control municipal affairs. Great cities comprise all sorts of people, and include the depraved as well as the virtuous. In Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Brussels and London the authorities are forced to give licenses to places which are resorted to by pleasure lovers who are not over-fastidious on the score of morality. The magistrates who license the Alhambra and the great gin-palaces in London which are the resort of alluring women who lead questionable livts, are perplexed every year when they are asked to give their official sanction to the existence of such places. By one subterfuge or another the required license is granted, because of the belief that it is better to keep them under the surveillance of the police and under legal restraint than to permit the haunts of vice to flourish in spite of the law and public opinion. Some years ago, in New York, there was a crusade against the large and brilliant establishments which employed pretty but presumably dissolute waiter girls, but the shutting up of the large halls was followed by the opening of dives of a far worse character aU o per the city. These considera¬ tions should have weight with those who would govern a great city wisely, but they do not excuse the two excise commissioners in granting licenses to ex-convicts and to notorious resorts of the vilest characters. But the solution of this vexed question as to where the Une should be drawn is a perplexing one and cannot be decided offhand. .---------«--------- But one thing is very clear, our city treasury does not profit as largely by the license it gives to liquor saloons as it should do. Permits to sell spirits ought to yield one-and-a-half to two million dollars yearly. The lower and baser sort of places should not be permitted to exist at all, but the great saloons could well afford to pay one or two thousand dollars per annum for the exclusive priv¬ ilege which would then be granted them of dispensing alcoholic beverages. Places where beer and light wines lire sold should not have to pay so much, but there should be a rigid inspection of all alcoholic beverages sold to our citizens or the strangers within oui* gates. In Germany, if beer such as is vended in one-half the shops of New York were offered a customer, the establishment would be seized and the miserable stuff poured into the gutters. If the city or State exacted a high license it would be morally bound to see that the beverage sold under its sanction would not be of a char¬ acter to poison the community. Real estate should not bear all the taxation. The liquor interest, at least, should iu part compensate the community for the crime and pauperism which results from the traffic, and for which property-owners are called upon to make constant pecuniary sacrifices. --------•—^^------ President Cleveland deserves every credit for his determination to enforce the civil service rules and thoroughly reform the admin¬ istration of the government. The baser elements of his own party have tried to discredit him, but he stands high in the opinion of good citizens of all parties for his evident conscientious detsermina- tion to rid the country for ever of the spoils system. But the atti¬ tude of Secretaries Whitney and Vilas towards our commercial community is wholly indefensible. Other governments are anxious to encourage steamship lines, even when there is some trifling loss to the treasury, in view of the benefit to the commerce of the nation incident to the maintenance of great steamship transporta¬ tion lines. But these Secretaries seem to have conspired to nullify one of the laws of Congress so as to injure the Pacific Mail Steam¬ ship Company, although by doing so they embarrass and delay the maUs sent by our merchants to their correspondents in the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere. Congress should teach these members of the Cabinet that the government of the United States was instituted for the benefit of the country and business, aud uot to save a few dollars for the national treasury. Now that the Court of Appeals has affirmed the constitutionality of the law authorizing the laying out of the new parks north of the Harlem, it is to be hoped that the Mayor and other malcontents will make the best of the situation. The object now should be to see that there is no jobbery in connection with the awards. The ownera of the condemned lands will try of course to get as much as they can for their property, but the effort of the authorities should be directed towards saving the city's money. Nor should there be any obstruction put in the way of the issuance of bonds to pay the awards. Litigation wiU only involve additional expense to the taxpayers, and it would never do to try and saddle property-holders with the immediate payment of the sums requisite to secure the lands for the parks. Then care should be taken that the work on the new parks should cost as little as possible, and that nothing should be done beyond fitting them for open-air resorts. In time undoubtedly the new parks will be made worthy of the metropolis, but our taxpayers have no money to spare for improvements of this kind until the aqueduct is completed and partly paid for. After all, the new parks are not so very extensive in extent, for the entire area, including the space on this island devoted to parks, will be less than five thousand acres. London has twenty-two thousand acres, and has only recently added seven thousand to what she had previously. This journal has never taken much stock in the outcry against Pelham Park because it was outside of the city limits, for municipalities have always had the power to buy necessary land Vieyond their borders for municipal purposes. There were, however, other objections to Pelham Park which were better founded, but which it would be ancient history to discuss here. However tax¬ payers may feel about this park business to-day, it seems safe to predict that the inhabitants of the city of New York in the year nineteen hundred will feel very grateful to the promoters of the city improvements north of the Harlem, The news from France is very grave. The reactionaries, that is, the Imperialists and Orleanists and the Radicals, have gained largely, and the number of opportunists, that is, Moderate Repub¬ licans, has been greatly reduced in numbers in the Legislative Chamber. Our American newspapers are belittling this matter, but it really imperils the French Republic, and may pave the way for a revolution. The fact is, France is in a bad way financially. Taxation is so enormous as to sap the vitality of the nation, and the discontent shows itself in the defeat of the government can¬ didates. The coming year will probably witness stirring times in the Old World, for it now looks as though the burning Eastern question is about to plunge the European nations into a war whiuh may involve every power west of the Ural Mountains. France, it was supposed, would be the ally of Russia in the event of a contest,