Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 925: December 5, 1885

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Djc ember 5, 1885 The Record and Guide. 1333 I THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Safnrdai/. IQl Broadway, IST. IZ", Our Xelepbone Call Is.....JOHN 370. TERMS: 0:VE ¥EAn, In advance, SIX DOLLARS. Coininumcations should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. Vol. XXXVI. DECEMBER 5, 1885. No. 925 General trade continues to improve. Storekeepers expect to do a better holiday business than they have for years. The domestic E.xchanges show that trading of all kinds is very active. And yes¬ terday the announcement was made that pig iron had advanced $1.50 a ton, and ore 50 cents a ton. This last is the best sign yet. There has been a notable advance in steel rails; but when the advauce began there were such large stores of pig iron ahead, that it did not advance in price until during the week past. The feeling in real estate circles is excellent. Notwithstanding the approach of the dull season there is a great deal doing, and all dealers look forward to the new year with confidence. Tho stock market looks somewhat shaky, due to a number of causes, but more especially because the Baltimore & Ohio refuses to agree to the passenger pooh Railway securities, however, have had such a large advance that even a decided sft-back should not be a reason for discouragement. The general situation is quite hopeful. If the Republicans in the United States Senate were wise in their generation, they would elect a Democrat of high character as their presiding officer; so that, if Mr. Cleveland should die, the party who wou the victory at the last election should administer the govern¬ ment up to the time a new President was chosen. The Democrats have been two decades out of office; and after a sharp contest they succeeded in securing a majority in the electoral college, as well as in the popular vote. If the Republicans should elect John A. Logan, they would perpetrate what would seem to be a party blunder, as well as a political crime. There is nothing to be said against Mr. Logan's fitness as a presiding officer; but he ran for the Vice-Presidency, and was defeated. To put him in a place where he may become President, would be a monstrous thing to do; and would shock right minded people of all parties. He showed his good sense in declining the caucus nomination. In any event, Sonitor Hoar's bill, vesting the Presidential succession in the members of the cabinet, should be passed through both Houses before they adjourn over for the holidays. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------•---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------■ "If in this city the li<(\xor trade were conducted under a systera of high license, requiring every dealer to pay from $'3lX) to $:i,000. according to the inagnitude of bis establishment, tbe city treasury would easily derive from it a revenue of a couple of millions a year; the trade itself would be safer and better; public order would be promoted, aud temperance would be encouraged without auy oppressive iuterfereuce with the liberty of the citizeu."—»S'u)i. This is the position taken by The Record and Guide long since. Apart from any question of public morals, it is desirable that the lifpior dealers should pay their share in sustaining municipal bur¬ dens. We ought to raise between $-3,500,000 to |3,000,000 per annum from the licensing of beer and liquor shops. The liquor trade is an expensive one to th-i city. It necessitates additional policemen and criminal courts, and swells the bills caused by crime and pauperism. Instead of taxing them, as we do other citizens whose property has to be protected. New York City has in every way favored those who sell ardent spirits. They have been scarcely taxed at all, while the liquor traffic is better represented in the City Hall than is any other interest in the city. By afl means let us have high license, rigidly enforced. This is undoubt¬ edly the view entertained by the great majority of tax-payers. Clearly we have entered upon an era of cheap food. The world is full of wheat, notwithstanding the deficiency in this country. Corn was never so plentiful. Our oat crop thia year was the largest ever known. Then there has been no deficiency iu rye, bar¬ ley and the other cereal productions. Our growing winter wheat crop is very promising. The superabundant^ rains in Califoinia almost insures heavier crops next summer tlian were ever known on the Pacific coast. Then animal food is certaiu to be very cheap, not only on account of a greater supply of cattle and hogs, but because of the facilities for transporting dressed meat from when* it is killed to points of consumption. The meat consuming world is now being supplied from South America and Australia, where the number of available cattle is practically illimitable. We have exported recently about 15,000,000 more pounds of provisions than wo did last year, yet the total of provisions now in Chicago amounts to about 55,500,000 pounds, agaiust less than 14,000,000 pounds this time last year. Cheap as food, especially animal focd, has been, and is, it i)romises to be still lower in price as time rolls by. *' Whether they stop the coinage of silver or not, tbe Secretary of the Treasury would do well to call ui the balance of the dog's-eared, disease- infected bills; otherwise the Board of Health will be obliged to take the matter in baud. Small bills are nuisances anyway."—Shoe and Leather Reporter. Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer makes substantially tho same demand in his paper, the St(tr. If Congress could only be induced to pass a law, withdrawing all national bank issues under twenty-five dollars, and at the same time order the coinage of a sufficiency of gold eagles, half-eagles and quarter-eagles, the country would be in every way benefited. We would utilize at once our idle stores of gold and silver bullion for coinage purposes. This would help prevent the exportation of gold when exchange threatened to be against us; for the yellow metal would be in demand for currency uses, which is not now the case. We would then have a retail currency of gold and silver similar to that of commercial Europe, which includes all the foremost nations— Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. There are no small bills in any of these countries. There need be no contraction, for the bills withdrawn could be reissued in larger denominations. If this were done, it would put an eiid to tho clamor about silver dollars. Of these we have only four dollars per head, while France has fourteen per head. But there is no difficulty in the latter country, because of the absence of small bills and the plentifulness of minor gold coin. All this is so sensible and bo obvious that it is surprising there is not a universal demand for an exclusive gold and silver retail currency. Down with the disease-breeding small bills. Real Estate Business for Eleven Months. The plans for new buildings, for November, show a handsome increase over the corresponding months in 1884 and 1883, as will be seen by the figures given in the annexed tables. The ratio of increase of buildings in New York is not as largo as in Brooklyn; but, as will be seen, this side of the East River is doing very well indeed. It is safe to say that by the close of this year there will be about 3,400 new houses finished or under way within otu- city limits, the cost of which will be nearly $46,000,000, when com¬ pleted. In Brooklyn tliere will be about 4,000 new structures, which will cost about $20,000,000, making an expenditure in New York and Brooklyn of new house construction of about $66,000,000 for the year 1885. Staten Island, Queens County and Westchester County in this State, and Hudson and Essex Counties in New Jer¬ sey, if included, would aggregate nearly 13,000 new structures of all kinds within the populous region which centres around New York Harbor. The total cost would not, we judge, be far from $80,000,000. Of course these larger figures are merely estimates ; the $46,000,000 for New York City, and the $20,000,000 for Brook¬ lyn, are practically official. As the other large cities of the Union have increased the number of their houses to meet the growing population and trade, it follows that the expenditure in real estate buildiug investments must, dur¬ ing the year 1885, havo aggregated a very large sum of money, as much, perhaps, as was ever spent in railway construction in one year. Unfortunately, neither the nation, State, or localities, keep records of the new houses built, or their cost. Hence, the steady change from floating to fixed capital involved in the continuous construction of new edifices is not taken into account in ordinary financial discussions. The following is the table of new buildings for November, in this city, as well as for the eleven months endiug the 30th of Novembtr last: Total No. of buildings projected......... Estimatedcost....................... No. south of Uth st..................... Cost.................................. No. bet 14th and 59th sts............... Cost................................. No. bet 59th and 12oth sts, east of 5th av. Cost................................. No. bet 59th and 125th sts, west of 8tb av. Cost.............................. No. bet 110th aud 125th sts, 5th and SI h avs Cost.................................. No. north of 125th st.................. Cost................................ No. 23d and 34th Wards................. Cost................................ Jan to Oct. iucl., November....... No. 2.272 15t) _1BR3.------------, Cost. $;:j).(;i)r.ltS i,rro,33i November, 1883. 156 $1,770,^30 14 $185,901) 31 8727,200 47 $169,500 9 $170,1)01) 2^ $IW..1:)0 :\2 $S1 .OSO ---------1884. November, 1S84. 163 $2,119,fiK5 n $237,7''0 21 $563,450 29 $337,2.'>0 3S $;5],700 13 $t 18,885 51 $110,700 November, 1.S85. 233 $2,980,205 19 $20S,2f'O 38 $727,000 77 $1,132,850 37 $532,800 141.000 16 $141,280 89 $102,075 No. 2,470 163 No. 2,'<74 23 J -1885.- Cost. $39,917,626 2,i)S!i,205 Total........... 2,428 $11,377,778 2,639 $10,089,073 3,107 $42,903,831 In the above table it will be noticed there has been a revival of house building between Fourteenth and Fifty-ninth streets ; the same remark is true respecting the region east of Fifth avenue,