Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 37, no. 948: May 15, 1886

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May 15, 1886 The Record and Guide. 635 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broad^w^av, I>T. "ST. Onr Telephone Call is.....JOH]V 370. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addi'essed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVII. MAY 15, 1886. No. 948. Now that the striking craze, so far as relates to the transporta¬ tion system, of the country, is over, there is a better feeling in Stock Exchange circles as well as in general business. The feeling of timidity amongst capitalists is wearing away. Eailway receipts are improving, and there is less disposition amongst the working classes to interfere with the orderly operations of industry. It looks, too, as though we will not ship a great deal more gold this season. The removal of great operators from the stock market probably helps price.s, as manipulation has less to do than natural causes in affecting values. Of course even a combination of great operators could not put stocks up when they ought to go down, or vice versa; but ifc was in the power of the leaders to advance quota¬ tions unnaturally or depress them unnecessarily. The most serious feature in tho business situation is the lower prices of grain and cotton. Not since the opening of the civil war have our agricul¬ tural products sold so low at this season of the year. The busy season at the Real Estate Exchange is drawing to a close. Before the fall season commences something should be done to induce the auctioneers to hold their sales at different intervals, so as not to interfere with one another. There is no reason why all the auctions should be afc twelve o'clock sharp. This absurd practice grew oufc of the fact that when New York was a small town the courts ordered the sale of real estate on the court-house steps at noon. This practice continued until New York grew into a great city; but there is no more reason why houses and lots should be sold at one particular hour any more than stocks, cotton, grain or petroleum should be bought and sold only at the noon hour. It often happens that an investor wishes to purchase property at two sales, but now he is prevented from doing so, for the reason that he cannot be in two places at once. Miscellaneous stocks and bonds have always been sold on the Exchange at a different hour from real estate, and ifc would be quite feasible to have separate times sefc apart for the various kinds of realty offered. For instance, there might be a call for unimproved property, then for dwellings. Down-town invesfcment realty could be sold by itself; also country properfcy. All the present business could be easily done between twelve and two o'clock, for ifc has been found that the average length of sales is not much over seven minutes. If the present absurd practice is kept up of selling all the property at once the Real Estate Exchange must be enlarged next year or the year after. But with a division of the sales ifc will be possible to transact twenty times the business accomplished under the present arrangement. ----:----•-------- -Another movement is under way to purify city politics. Ifc is proposed to organize a Citizens' Committee of One Hundred, who are to represent the reform sentiment in bringing a pressure to bear on both parties to make good nominations. There are some excellent names among those who are in this movement; but ex-Sheriff Jimmy O'Brien, ex-Senator Bixby and ofchers like them are not the kind of people to inspire confldence among respectable voters. The Philadelphia Committee of One Hundred became all powerful for a time, because the members pledged themselves not to accept office or to work for personal friends. There is no such self-abne¬ gation shown by those who are in this new reform party, and its probable results, should it succeed, will be in putting certain of its own members into power. It will be remembered that in the famous Committee of Seventy some sixty became office-holders or candidates for office. It is suspicious, also, that this new party has no programme except to purify politics by putting good men into office, which probably means Messrs. Bixby, O'Brien & Co. The River and Harbor bill appropriates some |15,()00,000 for improving waterways and adding to the safety of our harbors on the sea-coasts and the lakes. This represents two years' work, for there was no appropriation lasfc year, and as a consequence work under ■way that was absolutely needed was stopped to the great detriment of the regions affected. No River and Harbor bill can be entirely •unobjectionable. Some few items must be inserted to satisfy local interests! It is one of the defects of the composition of our House of Representatives that to conciliate a majority appropriations must be made, some of which are not imperatively needed. It was by picking out these out-of-the-way items and commenting upon them which gave the public a false impression respecting the admirable River and Harbor bill which ex-President Arthur vetoed. The Star is the only daily paper in New York which advocates internal improvements. With that cheap demagoguery which so belittles our daily press, all our journals are in full cry against the bill now before Congress. Yet it would be difficult to question the utility of all but a very few items in the pending River and Harbor bill. Our country is growing—it has a coast line demanding constant care. It has internal waterways, the greatest lake ports in the world, while the mighty Mississippi is what John C. Calhoun declared it to be, an " inland sea." Individuals cannot undertake these improvements, nor can the States; and unless the general government takes the m.atter in hand they cannot be made at all. But the press of our country is intensely local. The New York papers object to appropriations for the lakes, the Mississippi, or for the Pacific coast. The Chicago and St. Louis papers oppose harbor improvements on this coast, and these wretched local jealousies influence members of Congress. If the appropriation bill passes we expect, of course, to see it vetoed by President Cleveland, who, like his predecessors, will fix public attention upon trivial and unnecessary appropriations so as to discredit a bill which, if enacted, would be of the utmost value to the commerce of the country. --------------9-----------_ A motion is soon to be made in the British Parliament, asking the government to call another International Congress to re-establish bi-metallism. It is becoming clear, even to Englishmen, that the distress in business the world over is due to the steadily enhancing value of the gold unifc. This shows itself in the falling markets of all countries and the accumulation of money in the banks, for no one wants to produce when the article manufactured is certain to sell for less than its cost. Then a cry comes up from India. The fall m the value of the rupee, while it stimulates the exportation of wheat and cotton, yet puts an embargo on all imports and destroys the profits of trade, as is evidenced by the high rate of exchange. Of course the trouble with England is that its money- lending class, though small, is all powerful. A state of things which adds to the purchasing power of those who hold cash funds is for the benefifc of creditors, though it may be ruinous to general basiness. Germany alone profits by the gold unit, for being out of debfc, it can manufacture cheaper than any of its European rivals and ifc is making steady inroads into the trade of England and France. So the Broadway Arcade bill has at length become a law. If the money can be raised under the carefuUy-guarded charter which has been passed we will probably have real rapid transit from the Battery to Harlem before ten years will pass by. What a pity Governor Hoffman did not approve of the Arcade bill which passed the Legislature wiien he was Governor. By this time we would have had underground transit the length of the island, and there would have been no necessity for the Elevated roads. But " better late than never." If the Arcade road is finally constructed ifc will be the most beneficent city improvement ever carried out. It will add very largely to the value of Broadway property, and will par¬ ticularly advantage the holders of real estate who have most bitterly opposed the building of an Arcade road. Not long since we pointed out that a revival of the native American sentiment was likely to occur. There has been growing for some time past a feeling of opposition among the working classes to the competition of foreign laborers. The Anarchist out¬ breaks io Chicago and Milwaukee are calculated to strengthen this feeling, for the working people see that this violence, on the part of the Poles, Bohemians and Germans, has for the present put a stop to their agitation for shorter hours and better pay. A New York daily paper, which circulates largely among the working classes, proposes that a tax of $300 be imposed on every emigrant. This would be sufficient, it is supposed, to keep out the class of foreign desperadoes who propose to murder all who employ labor. We are trying to exclude the hard-working and generally inoffen¬ sive Chinamen, and there is no reason why we should not also shut our doors upon the murderous cranks who come to our shores from Eastern Europe. The passage of the Inter-State Railroad law by the Senate appa¬ rently insures the final appointment of a commission to supervise our entire transportation system. At first, of course, its duties will be of a routine character, but the time is coming when the nation will have a controlling voice in the management of our railway system. At present all is chaos; but if the government is able to give stability to agreements between the various companies, the public, as well as the stockholders of the great roads, will be the gainersi