Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 37, no. 930: January 9, 1886

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January 9, 1886 The Record and Guide. 29 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broad\^7^av, IST. '^. Our Telepbone CaU is.....JOHN 370. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVII. JANUARY 9, 1886. No. 9530 We devote a large amount of space this week to our annual review of the building material market. The business during 1885 was conducted in a very conservative manner, free from specula¬ tive manipulation and undisturbed by any serious trouble with labor, giving the markets throughout the entire season a rather monotonous tone. As a matter of fact, however, the consumption of standard descriptions of material—such as brick, cement, lime, lumber, stone, etc., was undoubtedly, in the aggregate, quite equal to 1884, a slightly lower average cost acting as a stimulant to pushing forward of work. The mild, open weather up to the end of the year permitted greater progress and, indeed, completion of jobs that under ordinary circumstances must have remained idle until spring. Dealers are divided in opinion over the pros¬ pects for the opening year, many calculating upon an excellent trade; while quite as large a number, although admitting that under the favorable conditions they have recently experienced there would be every reason to expect an excellent demand for material, express serious apprehension of extensive labor trou.bles, and there is consequent hesitation and delay in perfecting contracts. Details of the markets will be found in the regular columns. For the benefit of our advertisers, a large number of sample copies will be sent all over the country this week. There seems to be some hesitancy in the development of the busi¬ ness of the country. Real estate reports are all re-assuring; for there is good trading in realty in all the great centres of popula¬ tion, and the building movement for the coming spring is very promising. But the speculation in stocks, halts. The transactions are not half what they were in October and November last. Then exchange is higher than it ought to be this time of the year, because of the stoppage of our exportations of cotton, grain and provisions. The investment demand for bonds, however, and first-class railway securities is very large; and a good deal of the money to pay for these purchases comes from over the water. The expected Jan¬ uary boom may even yet put in an appearance, but it certainly has not shown itself on the first days of the new year. A case suggestive of the importance of a strict compliance with legal forms in partnership notices has just been decided in this city. The plaintiff was the Manhattan Company which, years ago, advanced to W. J. Phillips $50,000 on forged warehouse certifi¬ cates, and the defendant Mr. Richard H. Laimbeer, his partner. The defense rested on the claim that the partnership was special and not general, and that Mr. Laimbeer was therefore only respon sible to the amount of his contributions to the co-partnership fund. But it appeared that the certificate of co-partnership was filed and not recorded in the office of the County Clerk; an informality which, in the view of the court, rendered the instrument worthless, and left the defendent liable to the full amount of the claim. Business men forming partnerships should make a note of this case, and act with prudence. In the first place their notices of co-partnership should be published in papers that will give sufficient attention to legal details to make sure that there are no mistakes. This is a recommendation claimed only for such papers as the Register and The Record and Guide; all unspecialized journals being too care¬ less in their methods to be trusted. Bat the persons forming a co-partnership must also see to it that all legal forms are strictly observed, and trust nothing to the carefulness of clerks or subor¬ dinates. It is being discovered at last that the volume of exchange during years of prosperity or depression does not vary to the extent gen¬ erally supposed. Climatic conditions have more to do with varia¬ tions in the amount of agricultural products than restricted demand. This should always have been evident; but it has not been equally patent that the operations of productive industry in the arts always display an activity during the hard times far in excess of the common apprehension. But we are discovering that the annual production of commodities keeps well up towards a common average, the falling off never being sufficient to account for a period of depression. The significance of this discovery is beyond calculation. It teaches at once the importance of keeping market prices up to a profitable standard; the difference between a season of prosperity or depression, being made almost exclusively by the difference in returns on single transactions. We count our exports and imports by the dollar mark, and not by the pound, yard or bushel. So, also, with domestic commerce. It may even happen sometimes that the larger volume of exchange will bring the smaller returns. There is but one way under heaven by which prices may always be maintained on a paying basis, and that way must be found in more general combination. The economic theories founded on competition, and the doctrines of supply and demand, are being exploded by the irresistible logic of events. They can very well be spared. The Rev. Dr. Crosby evidently desires to reconsider his unfortu¬ nate declaration, made through John Swinton's Paper, in favor of placing a limit on the amount of property which men shall be allowed to accumulate. To set himself right before the public, he publishes a communication in a morning journal explaining his position. Instead of pushing his proposal to the front as a tangible measure, he takes a step backward, and merely reiterates the charges of rascality against rich men and corporations, which we have heard rung, during recent years, with many and varied changes, and he demands legal remedies. But where is the proof of this con¬ centrated rascality in the hearts of rich men and corporations ? Charges are not convictions; and it is curious that official investi¬ gations fail lo show the moral turpitude which is so generally sus¬ pected. The disposition to cheat is a pretty general endowment iu the bosoms of men, not universally possessed by any means, but shared in about an equal degree among all clashes. Dr. Crosby makes use of a striking figure. If you saw a man a mile hi^h, marching from the West, who had already tramped down several cities and villages, he asks if you would not begin to look about for the means of protection ? Well, no; not immediately. Ai the sight of such a colossal object we should first apply to some doctor to see if he could not detect symptoms that would justify a theory of mental hallucination. After this precaution, if the figure still persisted in manifesting itself, we might consent to join some society for the prevention or restraint of phantasms a mile high. Landlordism in America. An English member of Parliament contributes to the North American Revieto a very interesting article on the land question in the United States. Many of the facts he presents will surprise the American people. He shows that we have profited nothing by the experience of the nations which have gone before us, and that, sometime in the future, because of our short sightedness, we will have to face all the problems connected with the owiiersliip of land which has caused, and is causing, such distress in the old world. In the census of 1880 the number of persons engaged in agriculture was stated to be 7,670,493, and of this number 2,984,306 were regis¬ tered as owners of their holdings. But, of course, many of these 3,000,000 were large owners who did not farm their own lands, while a very large proportion of them were so heavily mortgaged that their hold on the land was very slight. It is doubtful if more than 1,600,000 heads of families own and tUl their own land in the United States. France, with a population 20,000,000 less than our own, has 5,000,000 rural proprietors who hold less than 20 acres each; while it has 2,000,(.00 of a class who own more than 20 acres, or are owners of house property in the towns. Then, again, according to this same census, there are 1,024,601 farms rented by tenants in the United States. Mr. T. P. Gill, whose article we are summarizing, judges that the tenants have increased for the past five years, so that there are to-day fully one million and a quarter tenant farmers in this country. The total of the same class in Great Britain and Ireland is but a little over a million, so that, whatever evils are inherent in the relation of land¬ lord and tenant, we are worse off than landlord cursed Great Brit¬ ain and Ireland. Our authority says : Probably the history of coustitutional government does not fxu-nish a more one-sided scheme of legislation than the landlord and tenant laws manufactured in the Western States. They are implements for extract¬ ing rent, as simple, terrible, and brutally candid in their design as a revolver in the hands of a peremptory road agent. At any rate, they have resulted in fixing on the free soil of the United States a land system that belongs to the ages of barbarism. Its nearest sm-viving relative in Europe is the metayage of France; but it is more like the zemeendaree and ryotwar of Britishized India, than any land system now in existence. Another fact is brought out in\a very vivid way in this article. The amount of land available for free homestead is now reduced to about 5,000,000 acres. Through waste and improvidence, as well as by downright fraud, the United States has got rid of its splendid heritage of land. By one means or another, fully 20,000,000 acres per anntun have passed into possession of private persons, who have returned therefor scarcely any equivalent. We have laid the basis for a system of land monopoly which will produce fright-