Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 37, no. 932: January 23, 1886

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January '23,18&6 The Recofd and Guide. 9B 1 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broacl^wav, IST. Y. Onr Telepltone Call Is.....JOMN 370. TERMS: OIVE YEAR, in adyance, SII DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Braadway. J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVII. JANUARY 23, 1886. No. 933 The business situation looks better at the close than it did at the begiijning of this week. The reduction of the charge for money from four to three per cent, by the Bank of England insures easy rates on both sides of the Atlantic, postpones indefinitely gold exports from America, and will probably lead to a renewal of spec¬ ulation in American bonds and stocks by foreign capitalists. The domestic exchanges show business to be more active than at this time last year. There will be no stoppage of the coinage of the silver dollar, and hence there will be no break of prices from this cause. There will be some disappointed in the railroad returns . for January, but before a month is over it will be found that all the roads are doing a profitable business, which was not the case last year. The real estate outlook continues excellent. The Field civil code will soon be up before the Legislature for adoption. The lawyers will fight it bitterly, as they have in all ages opposed reformed codes, from that of Justinian to the code Napoleon. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and when a professional rnan has spent the best part of his life in learning one form of legal procedure it is not unnatural that he should object to mastering the details of a new code. But these codes are for the benefit of the general public, not for the lawyers; and while the professionals may delay their adoption tho interests of the commu- ,nity are. apt in the end to prevail. Say what the lawyers will, a reform is imperatively needed. There is too much delay and expense attending the present machinery of our courts. Justice is practically denied, and the public patience has been tested by the dilatoriness of our courts and the monstrous expense involved in going to law. It is the lawyers who make, expound and execute our laws, and hence the community hold them accountable for the miscarriage of justice. The determined opposition to all legal reform shown by the profession is not calculated to raise it in the estimation of the general public. The New York Stock Exchange has a chance to do something worthy of its great future. It has the refusal of all the ground on New,Wall and Broad streets, north of its present site, and it should take advantage of the opportunity to secure ground for what might be the finest Exchange building in the world. Five million dollars will buy the ground and erect a splendid structure, and that amount ought not to be a difficult task for the Stock Exchange of New York to raise. It ought also to make some offer to the members of the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange to occupy a part of their new building, if not to become associate members. The present front on Wall street is discreditable to the Exchange. It would pay the owners of property in the neighborhood to contri¬ bute something towards the erection of a splendid addition to the Exchange that would cover the ground on Broad, Wall and New streets, north of the present site. Engineer Gillespie, of the United States] Navy, is authority for the statement that the Gedney and other channels leading to our harbor have not shoaled appreciably during the last flve years, hence the talk about the garbage and manure dumpers injuring the channels is unfounded. What has happened is the greater size and heavier draft of the steamships which come to New York from foreign ports. First-class steamers now demand three feet more of water than did the vessels in use ten years ago. It is of the utmost importance to the commerce of this port that one or more of the channels in the lower bay should have at least thirty feet of water at low tide. To do this will cost a great deal of government money, and it behooves the New York press and our representatives in Congress not to antagonize plans of improvement for benefiting other parts of the country. We require large sums of money for coast defenses and harbor improvements, arid we cannot expect to get it by shouting "job" whenever appropriations are asked for our internal waterways. --------------9-------------. The Knights of Labor have several significant limitations to their membership. Anyone in sympathy with them can join, except Dangers, lawyers or liquor dealers. It is easy to understand why this remarkable organization of working people should dislike bankers, but what can the objection be to lawyers ? The latter are willing enough to advocate any interest in return for fees or politi¬ cal preferment. Perhaps the Knights think the lawyers have aU they ought to get in the astonishing monopoly they enjoy of filling nearly all legislative and executive positions in the country. The objection to liquor dealers is, however, a very good symptom. It is to the great discredit of our voting population, mainly working people, that they have returned so many liquor dealers to muni¬ cipal and legislative positions. There could be no reasonable objec¬ tion to a popular saloon keeper being occasionally chosen to office; but it is disheartening to a believer in universal suffrage when, year after year, fully one-third of our Aldermen and city Assembly¬ men are chosen from the ranks of the most disreputable rum- sellers in the city. The Knights of Labor would do a public service if they create a feeling among the working classes that retail peddlers of liquor are not the best persons to become legislators for the State or city. The City and the Legislature. The nine bills drafted by the Gibbs' Senatorial Committee, in¬ tended to secure better government for New York city, will doubt¬ less form the basis for some action or attempted action on the part of the Legislature now in session. It looks as if something might be accomplished this winter. All accounts agree that the personnel of the Senate and Assembly is much superior to any that has assembled in Albany for many years past. Thejcommittees of the two Houses are well organized to give us some useful legislation, while the public utterances of Governor Hill would seem to indi¬ cate that he would like to pose as a reformer of municipal charters. The drift of all legislation affecting municipalities for the past ten years has been in the direction of adding to executive authority and responsibility. Boards and commissions are just now in deserved disfavor. They have been found wasteful and irresponsi¬ ble. It is curious to note that this willingness to add to the power of mayors and heads of departments at the expense of city councils, boards of aldermen and commissions shows itself in all parts of the country, west as well as east. Brooklyn led in test¬ ing the experiment of great executive power lodged in the Mayor, and Mr. Seth Low acquitted himself so well that all the leading municipalities throughout the country have shown a dispo¬ sition to imitate the example of our sister city. The Massachusetts Legislature has enacted laws affecting cities obviously based upon the Brooklyn experiment, and now we have full reports of the results of such legislation in the recent history of Boston. In times gone by that city was ruled by its city council; all the de¬ partments for sixty years were under the control of the municipal board and the final result was anything but satisfactory. Being practically irresponsible the manipulators of the various depart¬ ments cared little for economy or efficiency. But now all this is changed. An article in Bradstreets thus sums up the character of the present government of Boston. At every official desk, from the Mayor down, are vested the executive powers formerly enjoyed by the board of aldermen or the city council, to be brought into action through the several heads of departments, under the Mayor's general supervision and control. The chiefs of departments make all contracts for labor, material, public works and the maintenance of public institutions; and the city coimcil' as a whole, as well as by its respective branches, or its members individually or as committees, is utterly forbidden to take part directly or indirectly in the administrative business just indicated. Contracts involving $2,000 or more must be approved by the Mayor before taking effect; and in order to emphasize the unity of the executive branch in its single head the chiefs of departments must meet with the Mayor once a month or oftener for consultation, advice and the impart¬ ing of information. The annual estimates of the heads of departments relative to the amount of money needed are to be submitted to the city council through the Mayor, with his recommendations. The Mayor is further given authority to veto separate items of bills involving the appro¬ priation or expenditure of money or the raising of a tax. The Mayor now in fact as well as in name the supreme executive magistrate. While differing in many respects from the Brooklyn charter it will be noticed that the main point kept in mind is the authority and responsibility of the Mayor. The proposed Gibbs' enactments have the same object in view—an executive with authority and heads of departments responsible to him; commissions and boards, as far as possible, to be dispensed with. In other words, the public business to be assimilated to the best methods of conducting private business. While favoring^his change from irresponsible boards to responsi¬ ble executives we do not believe that, even if it is accomplished, the millennium will come. We will, of course, sometimes elect mayors who will try and use their executive powers to advance their own fortunes. We cannot expect ideal municipal govern¬ ment ; but it will be some satisfaction to know who is to be held accountable for waste, corruption, or inefficiency. This is impos¬ sible, as we know, with municipal government by boards of aldermen. Should this changed administration for municipalities prove popular the time may come when our people may demand