Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 37, no. 937: February 27, 1886

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February 27,1886 The Record and Guide. 245 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broad^^aTT, IST. 'Y. Our Telephone Call is.....JOHN 3 70. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addi-essed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LrNDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVII. FEBRUARY 27, 1886. No. 937. be in getting angry at a blizzard or an earthquake. Matters have been so ordained in this country, that when a great public improvement is caUed for, the privilege of serving the community can only be secured by bribing legislatures, courts, lawyers and aldermen. New York has been suffering for the want of a Broadway railroad for thirty years. It is an undeniable public benefit; yet, as our newspapers know, there was no way of getting the charter except with the machinery employed by Jake Sharp. If the press and the public would unite to put an end to this vicious machinery it would do some good ; but the indignation should be directed against the vicious system even more than against the guilty per¬ sons who take advantage of it. We are unable to publish the report of the majority of the Land Transfer Reform. Commission, in advocacy of the lot system of indexing, this week, owing to the failure to get the copy in time for to-day's issue of The Record and Guide. Mr. Dwight H. Olmstead has one great advantage over his opponents in the promptness and perseverance which characterises his advocacy of the block system. ---------e--------- It is a pity that we cannot nationalize the Torrens' Laws which have made the transfer of real estate so cheap and easy in the British South Paciflc colonies. There is no question in those countries as to indexing either by lot or block. The government keeps an official map in which all properties and their owners are indicated, and upon payment of a trifling fee the government guarantees the title when the transfer is made. The same system obtains in many of the States of Germany. A subscriber, a native of Baden, informs us that in that city the municipality guarantees the title upon the payment of a moderate fee. There is no need to hire a lawyer, for there are no searches. This gentleman thinks that the city of New York might realize a large revenue from this source if it would give a similar guarantee to those who bought real estate. The purchasers would in that case save nine-tenths of the money tliey are forced to expend and the transfer could be made in a day, whereas it now takes a month. .----------------A---------------- There is no marked change in the business situation. The trans¬ actions in real estate continue unusually large ; the building move¬ ment shows no signs of abatement, and general business is fairly good. The striking workingmen have no reason to complain, for in many branches of business the prosiiects are so good as to warrant employers in advancing wages. The stock market may be described as strong, but dull. The Reading" reorganization will certainly go on, as it is now settled that the purchase of the stock from the Vanderbilts was to secure better terms for the junior securities from the Drexel syndicate. Some gold is still being shipped; but there is no likelihood of any large quantity of the yellow metal leaving our shores, because we have again begun to ship cotton and grain. A rise in exchange beyond the gold export¬ ing point would lead to heavy shipments of American agricultural products. The foreign news shows that there is great depression in business abroad. The United States seems to be the only prosper¬ ous country on earth. What a muddle this Broadway railroad business is to be sure. The.community is so angry over the revelations showing the turpi¬ tude of Jake Sharp and his associates that there .is a demand that the charter be annulled, and a resolution to that effect has been introduced into the State Legislature which, if pressed to a vote, would certainly go through without even a protest from the press. But the case against Sharp & Co. has not been made up as yet. The investigation is still going on; there has been no action of the Grand Jury—no court has given a verdict in the case. No one doubts the guilt of these people ; but before the Legislature can act surely there should be a warrant from some court. The least the Legislature should do would be to wait untfl. the end of the investigation of the Senate Committee, when the evidence will be submitted formally. Our perversely unwise newspapers are applauding this premature movement to annul the charter, never thinking of the consequences. Apart from the many innocent stock-holders whose property would be imperiled, if not confis¬ cated, if the Legislature should prove to have the power to annul charters upon eajjpar^e evidence, corporate securities would suffer a severe depreciation, for the Albany lobby would convert the Leg¬ islature into a huge blackmailing machine. Undoubtedly other corporations have secured their charters by the same means as were employed by Jake Sharp in getting the Broadway franchise. What a bonanza this would open to the lobby ? The fact is, Jake Sharp and corporate promoters like him are the natural result of our political, legal and business machinery. There is no more sense in being indignant at him than there would The Money Actually Invested, Were it not that newspapers furnish a medium for the propaga¬ tion of truth as well as falsehood, and supply an atmosphere, so to speak, through which the sun of common sense can sometimes penetrate the malarial fogs which they serve to maintain in mid- heaven, we should be compelled to doubt the utflity of diurnal printing presses. The most pretentious of our daily newspapers seem to be conducted by an editorial corps of juvenUe cadets, with only an occasional adult or two who can do no more than try to hold the helm while the youthful and disorderly crew trim the sails to catch the winds aback, or in any manner that will either drive the craft in the wrong direction or throw her on her beam-ends. The prevailing cant of the newspapers, echoed in this instance in legislative chambers and committee rooms, refers to the money actually invested in any enterprise or work of construction from which incomes are drawn, and the ratio of profits derived in return. If a railroad brings in more than 4 per cent, on the money paid to the iron founders, rolling stock manufacturers, track-layers, etc., by whom the work was carried to completion, the stock is watered and the public is being defrauded. On the same princi¬ ple, if a builder succeeds in selling a new dwelling for a trifle more than the amount of the loan that enabled him to undertake the construction, with six per cent, and his living expenses added, he is a most dishonest man and should be care¬ fully watched in all future attempts at bargain and sale. If a land¬ lord charges more thaii enough for rent to pay his taxes and insur¬ ance dues, and keep his property in repair, he is to be suspected of being a rapacious gadgrind who wishes to filch from honest poverty and toil the wherewithal to pay for extravagant dinners and sump¬ tuous apparel. The money actually invested is to be the guage of all charges and the key of all industrial transactions. But who ever yet knew an instance where the money actually invested in production was the true standard for estimating the value of any piece of property ? Will two dwellings, each built at a cost of $50,000, and located, one on Fifth avenue opposite Central Park, and the other on Baxter street, bring precisely the same price in the market ? It ought not to take a very wise man nor a very old man to see that it is extraneous circumstances that give economic values to property, and that cost, except in a very secondary degree, is not even a factor in fixing the standai'd. The very men, org boys, who write these sage paragraphs in our daily papers about exorbitant profits on the money actually invested will go forth exhausted or emasculated by their labor in search of a ditmer; and if the condition of their finances will permit the sacrifice to respectability, they wfll seek a restaurant where they know that the charges wiU represent a profit of several hundred per cent, on the food actually eaten. They will go to this place in preference to the ten-cent restaurant just around the corner, where they could feed quite as heartily with a restaurateur who would be satisfied with less than one-half the profits. It is respectabflity for which these young gentlemen are willing to pay. The cost of the food is only a subject of secondary consideration, or, as Toots says, " a matter of no consequence." Let us draw a still further illustration from that same fountain of wisdom from which so large a proportion of the community drink an inteUectual fluid more frequently to be compared to fire¬ water than to pure Croton. We will call up the World newspaper. That journal is a champion of the poor and needy ; a bitter foe of all the Jacob Sharps in the community who insist on doubling and quadrupling the value of property by seeking fields for investment from whence extraordinary returns may be drawn. Now, it is barely possible that the present proprietor of the World may have invested, counting money and collaterals together, $150,000 in his new property. Yet, admitting the truth of his claims for circulation and custom of all kinds, he would not probably to¬ day, after two years possession, thank any person who offered to take the paper off his hands for a consideration faUing much below $1,000,000. But he says not one word about reducing the subscrip¬ tion price of his journal, and is known to be endeavoring, by every resource within reach, to increase his rates per line for advertising. Day by day he goes on at his nefarious work of watering his stock, not always even being very solicitous to inquire if the water be not contributed from the sewer. Yet there are many thousands of