Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.

lOo The Record and Guide. January 23, 1886 be seen how considerable a reduction the bill will make in the chai-gps on real estate owners. The Senate on Thursday passed the measure appropriating $250,000 for the purchase of tbe old Produce Exchange ou the coi'ner of Whitehall and Pearl streets, aud $200,000 for remodeling the building. The bill now awaits the President's signature. Interesting to Builders and Owners. Editor Record and Guide: Reading the item in your paper of December 131h about having a super¬ vising board for the erection of Public Buildings, I think it would be a great help to builders if we had such a board iu the buildiug department of this city—men thafc have had experience in the building line—we will say an architect, a plumber, a carpenter or framer, and a mason, for many reasons. Now ^upi)ose I own a flat, about 75 or 85 feet deep. In the rear of or adjoining nie is au old frame building or shed about two stories high, wbich is painted once in ten years any black color to suit the owner. We also receive the smoke of said house, preventing my tenants from having their v/iudows open, therefore damaging me in letting and selling. Now this buflding committee could probably decide so as to compel the owner to make reasonable alterations. By doing so, his property would be improved and mine also. I will further say, a woman buys a house and it is not exactly built according to the building laws, and being notified to make alterations but doesn't know whether to go to an architect or a buflder first, this committee, or two or three of them, should make an inspection, or even two or three of theinspectors now ou the force of the building depart¬ ment, and see what alterations are necessary. Unsafe buildings should bo personally inspected hy the committee. Next, the ffi-e-escapes. This law started when the tenement houses were built with straight walls and no other improvements, so that in case of fire there the only way of escape was the front or rear; but the way tenements are built now with a light shaft 30 or 40 feet long, it would be just as well to have the fire-eseape.s iu the light shaft when two or more houses ai'e built together, instead of obstructing the front of houses iu a fine neighborhood even with these escapes in front. A sick person, or a woman with a chfld, cannot get down the ladders. Also after a stoi'm, the windows are always dirty; coal boxes and other articles on the escapes give the house a bad appearance, and landlords have a row sometimes with the tenants on such a subject. iJy haviug them in the light shaft, the tenant would have no chance to incumber the escapes with these articles; and, as there are two windows, each tenant would try to keep each balcony clear for the benefit of receiving more lighfc. In old bufldings, where alterations are going on, and an inspector comes around and says this is to be done and that is to be done, the committee should investigate the matter aud give their best and efficient way; so that if a person has anything to do in the buflding line, he would, 1 think, be more justly treated than he is now, and save a great many lawsuits. If this is not too much, please put it in your imper. Can you inform me when the next meeting will be held, in which Mr. O'Reflly is interesfcedi C. F. Fontham. Answer—The suggestion made iu our columns of the advisability of having a board of compefcenfc persons fco acfc in conjuncfcion with the U. S. Supervising Architect in designing Federal buildings, similar to the Naval Advisory Board, which was created to engage the best skill in designing war ships, is something quite different from what is or over should be con¬ templated by a city buUding law. For public safety it is necessary to have a law restraining owners and buflders from doing what woifld be manifestly against tbe general interest—such as the erection of woodeu buildings, unstable brick Avails, and a thousand other things. Inasmuch as it is impossible to draft a law so full aud complete as to cover every case that may arise in buflding operations, it is proper thafc a board should exisfc, as it does now, with the power to vary or modify the technical requirements of the law under certain conditions, so that the spirit of the law be observed, the public safety secured, and substantial justice be done. The manner of making up the existing Board of Examiners ensures fair treatment to aggrieved persons, and to those who present an equally good or more desu-- able form of construction than that required by the letter of the law. But it would hardly do to create a board to acfc as architects to the public, or to give advice to aU comers, or to interfere wifch fche vested rights of property- owners. Our correspondent's proposed method of placing the fire escapes iu the light shafts, instead of on the outside of buildings, wifl not meet with gen¬ eral approval. To say nothing of the obstruction to light and ventflation, iu case of fire the people using the escapes would be passing down into a pocket, from which no outlet, or in all probabflifcy an obstructed outlet, would render death from suffocation almost certain. The Committee on Revision of the Building Law, of which Mr. O'Reilly is a member, is holding meetings at the rooms of the Board of Fire Under¬ writers, in the Boreel buflding. We have no doubt that the committee will carefully consider the suggestions embodied in our correspondent's letter, or any other suggestion which he or any one else interested in buflding operations may desire to presenfc for considerafcion. lars per head of gold. How the American people have been fooled ou this matter by the bankers and the newspapei'S! Minister McLane, in his official report to our government on the bi-metallic problem in Europe, states that France has a sflver coinage of $600,000,000 of her own, and besides has Belgium and Italian silver coins in circulation, amounting to about $180,000,000 more. As France has about 38,000,000 population, this would give her about $31 of sflver per capita. These coins, by the way, are over 3 per cent, lighter than American sflver coins; for our ratio is sixteen parts of sflver to one of gold, and the Euro¬ pean ratio fifteen and one-half to one. " Under no cirGumstances," says Minister McLane, " would France adopt the American ratio; stfll less would she adopt any higher ratio to assimUate the present market value of sflver bullion to the value of gold." France finds no difficulty in keeping this enormous mass of light weight sflver on a par with gold, in all its domestic and international arrangements. We have less than four doUars per capita of sflver against the twenty-one doUars per capita in France, yet there are people who pretend to fear that we wfll lose our gold if we add to our stock of sflver doUars. Minister McLane, we think, has over-stated the amounfc of sflver coin in France. He confounds the amount minted by the Latin Union for that in actual circulation in France. The most trustworthy figures gives the average amount in that country at fourteen dollars per head, and of gold about twenty-five doUars per head. The proportion in this country ia three dollars and seventy-five cents per head of sflver, and aboufc eleven dol- The buflding movement on the west side during the past few years has largely been west of Ninth avenue, aud more especially between Ninth avenue, the Boulevard and Tenth avenue. With the exception of a few streets within a block or two of the elevated road stations, the immense unimproved space between Eighth and Ninth avenues has been but slightly infringed upon. But recently the tendency towards building up the streets between the lafcfcer avenues is becoming more pronounced. It is certainly surprising that this boundary has not become more crowded with brick and mortar, for ifc is nearest the Central Park and quite as near the elevated roads. What is equally strange is that Eighth avenue, from Sixty- ninth to One Hundred and Tenth sfcreet, should nofc yefc have shown signs of becoming the flue residence locabiou which is its evident destiny. It pos¬ sesses all the advantages of Fifth avenue above this point, and the maguifi- cent view which it wfll give of the Central Park to the residents who will build or occupy houses on its line should long since have created a demand for handsome residences to be erected thereon, if, indeed, the demand does not already exist. AVhen the first fine houses are built, others will follow. The Dakota apartment house is the only residence of importance reared so far. Jose F. de Navarro some time ago filed plans for several first-class ap.arfcment houses on this avenue, and though nothing has been seen of them yet, it is nofc without the range of probabflity that they will be built. Other apartment houses may also spring up, but as the law stands at present they can hardly be more than five stories high. Probably the old shanties and other nuisances which exist on Eighth avenue have had something to do with its backward character iu this respect. But when lots can be obtained for $20,000 ou Eighth avenue, many will consider twice before giving $70,000 to $80,000 on Fifth avenue. This is how west-siders talk. The World of Business. IJukuowu Jay Goulds. It is the misfortune of Jay Gould to be a conspicuous type of a bad class. There is plenty of men no better then he, whose acts are as unscrupulous and withui their range as injurious as his, but who work in the shadow and on a comparatively small scale, while his coUossal exploits are perfected more openly. Beside, there is a strong and ascer¬ tained personality in his performances. The combinations and high¬ handed usm'pations by which he has profited have been accomplished by himself. Other things as objectionable are done by unidentified indi¬ viduals of an organized body. When Jay GOuld is seen throwing the bucket of water into a stock there is a livelier sense of indignation thau when it is reported that the dilution has been effected by an impalpable corporation. Therefore, Gould suffers not only for his own misdeeds, but, vicariously, for those of other people. The heai-ty whacks he gets—and far be it from the Eagle to say that he does not deserve them—are all the heartier because he represents a good many other persons afc whom the public cannot easily get a chance. If what has been done dming the last sixty years by the gas seUers of New Yoi-k had been done by a notorious railroad king in a day, everybody knows what an uproar would have been raised. There would have been a loud call for State and Federal legisla¬ tion, and the Government would have been asked to take control of the carrying companies either directly or by rigid and minute regulations. The New York Gaslight Company was formed in 1833 with a capital of $1,000,000, of which only $750,000 ever were paid in cash. Up. to 1871 nearly $13,000,000 had been divided among the stockholders—more than 30 per cent, a year on the investment. The profits flowed in ui such volume that, in 1871, $3,000,000 worth of water was emptied into the concern and made subject to dividends. In the next thirteen years an annual average of about $300,000 proflt was divided on the nominal capital of $4,000,0u0 and a real investment of $750,000. Upon the consolidation of all the com¬ panies the New York Gaslight received as its allotment of new stock 5;7,60O,0UO, now earning good dividends. The original sum of three quarters of a miUion, a rolling and gathering financial snowbaU, has swollen to the comfortable magnitude of more than twenty-two millions. Of course, this could not have happened under the ordinary laws of actual competition—which seems to be almost impracticable as to a few articles of commerce, of which gas is one. The younger consoUdated companies have done scarcely so well, but no doubt they have made a good thmg of ifc. These opulent accretions have gone on under the eye of some of " our very best citizens," excellent persons who probably never go to church without a devout feeling of thankfulness that they are not as other men, even as this Jay Gould. No doubt, they can discourse spiritedly on jobbing, company consoUdation, stock watering and other modern methods of manipulating something out of nothing, as "one of the most alarming signs of the times, sir." The pubUc does nofc distinctly identify them as it does Gould, or ihey would be Ukely to hear from it. If their mysterious expense accounts could be thoroughly analyzed, it would appeal- tnat their prosperity has cost them a gooa deal of corporate money. AU of their disbursements have not been lor making and distributing gas. While they have paid dividends to shareowners, they have paid blacKmafl to " strik¬ ers." It has become proverbial that an "investigation " in New York, or a " cheap gas " biU at Albany, means simply a " strike." Ifc would be rash fco say of the inquiry now gomg on across the river, that there is nofc " money in ifc" somewhere. These gentlemen might have saved at least whatever uncomfortable feeling may grow out of this side of their business by abat¬ ing theii- pecuniary ambition. It is their large wealth, and more especiaUy the impression of their stfll greater wealth, that stimulates the activity of the "strikers," and, what is worse, deprives the managers of the friendship and trust of the people. The history of "gas extortion" in this city is feeble and commonplace compared with that of }New York; but there are, no doubt, directors in the parent company here, who remember very weU that the Eagle years ago advised them to deal with their customers on terms of the broadest liberality, and so, intrenching themselves in the pubUc confidence, be enabled to avoid sham competition and to defy the " strikejs."—Brooklyn Eagle. British ts. American Manufactures in Spanish America. Mr. Cecfl Sharp, British Consul at San Jos6, Costa Rica, writes as f oUowas —' 'The considerable import and export trade caiTied on between the different countries of Central and South America and the three principal mauuf ao turing countries of Europe—England, I>rauce and Germany—is now a constant theme for discussion among statesmen, merchants and manufact¬ urers in the United States. The question is no longer one of a few manu¬ facturing and exporting firms complaining of the short-comings of their business relations with tne countries of Central and South America, but ifc has already become a national one, affecting, as it does, the interests of the manufacturing and exporting community, of the United States. It has already received the respectful attention ot Congress, who, on July 7, 1884, eUcited a vote for the immediate nomination of a commission to