Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 38, no. 971: October 23, 1886

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October S3,1886 The Record and Guide. 1291 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broadwav^, 3Sr, 1^. Onr Telephone Call Is.....JOUN 370. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in adyance, SIX DOLLARS. Commuaic^tious should be addressed fco C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVIII. OCTOBER 23, 1886. No. 971. Tlie business condition of the country is excellent. Our iron aud steel Industries are unexpectedly prosperous. True, more money was made by the iron men in 1879 and 1880, but the produc¬ tion just now of pig and manufactured iron and steel ia vastly greater than during any previous period in the history of the country. Notwithstanding the mild weather the consumption of coal is steadily increasing; a fact due to the activity of all our raanufacLures. What looks like a speculation in cotton goods has set in, aud manufacturers are making profits that would enable them to pay from 11 to 113^ cents a pound for raw cotton, yet the latter commands but a little ov^er 9 ceuts in the open market. The speculation in stocks continue, but a formidable bear party has made its appearance and there has been a good deal of hammering of specialties during the past two weeks. The general course of prices continues upward, but as yet there is no apparent danger of any serious setback. The real estate market is in a very healthy condition, and dealers as well as sellers of property have no reason to complain—the former of the number of transactions or the latter of the prices. Wliichever of the candidates is chosen on the second of Novem¬ ber next, New York is x)retty sure of electing a good Mayor. No publication has mentioned Theodore Roosevelt for that office so often and so heartily as The Record and G-uide. Abram Hewitt is an old favorite of ours, and when the Democratic party were talking about candidates for Governor and President we have backed him up warmly for those positions. His oration at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge was an effort that could not be surpassed by any orator in the country. New York honors itself when such candidates as Roosevelt and Hewitt are put in nomination for its chief magis¬ tracy. Indeed we can afford to be generous even to Henry George, for it is confessed on every side that his being in the field forced the two existing parties to put their best men to the fore. Henry George's Jetters to Abram Hewitt are two of the most power¬ ful and pointed political documents ever issued in this country. Even should he be elected, which does not seem at all probable, we do not believe any direful consequences would result. People who own improved property would not be harmed even if George could carry out his one whimsy, which is that aU land should be taxed alike whether improved or unimproved. In that case vacant lots would bear a larger share of the public burdens while improved realty would be relieved of the heavy imposts it now bears. Bul the present; generation of vacant lot owners may sleep in peace, for there is no likelihoDd of any action of the kind in any State in the Union for the next century. There will probably be one good result from the Mayoralty contest this fall. It may serve to wean over the laboring population from supporting the "Tim Campbells," "Fatty Walshes," «'FrankSpin- olas," "Johnny O'Briens" and the liquor dealing political influence generally. It is to our working people we are mainly indebted for the present condition of our city politics. The contractors and the city politicians have furnished the organizing talent and the candi¬ dates, but the laboring people have supplied the votes to help these people exploit the city treasury. If Henry George can succeed in breaking up this monstrous alliance between our poorer population and the disreputable crew who now represent us at Albany and the City Hall he will have done a real public service. Indeed it can be safely asserted thafc in nearly every large city in the country the contractors of the public works are the real rulers of municipal governments. It is they who dictate tlie nominations and get possession of the machinery by which money is extracted from the pockets of the taxpayers. Of course we do not believe that either Messrs. Roosevelt or Hewitt would lend themselves to the schemes of the contractors, but then these nominations were made because of a candidacy of Henry George and the partial revolt of our laboring classes against the local political machines. There is one plank in the labor movement upon which Henry George is standing which has not attracted the attention it deserved. It says " that in public work the direct employment of labor should be preferred to the system which gives contractors a chance to defraud the city while grinding their workmen," This is probably far in advance of public opinion, but it is undeniable that our contract system is a fraud and a nuisance. Ifc does noi give us honest work at the lowest cost. It has led to the organiza¬ tion of a, vast conspiracy upon the part of a body of contractors, who not only corrupt public officials and plunder the city, but who have become the controlers of the local political machines. The contest over the presidency of the Board of Aldermen prom¬ ises to be quite exciting. Mr. Nooney really made a very fair record for himself, particularly in the Board of Estimates. Many of the County Democracy think that he has been unfairly treated, aud he has been put in the field by the Irving Hall Democracy and the Committee of One Hundred. Ii is not unlikely that the Henry George men may quietly vote for him at the polls. He is a butcher, and his friends, as well as Mr. Nooney, say that his profes¬ sion has been spoken of desparagingly by Mr. Hewitt, but this the latter denies. The Republicans have put in the field an Alderman who refused to vote for the Broadway steal, which is a good recommendation nowadays. Mr. Hewitt himself is resp':>nsible for the selection of Park Commissioner Beekman, who would certainly make an admirable acting Mayor in case his chief was disabled. Mr. Beekman is well known in real estate circles, and is a member of the Liberty Street Exchange. He is a great friend of Mayor Grace, but he may lose some votes in the annexed district on account of his pronounced hostility to the new parks. The proposition for an appropriation by the Board of Education of $60,000 annually, to train our public school children in the industrial arts, is in keeping with what is taking place all over the country. We have found out that Continental Europe—that is, France, Switzerland and Germany—is far ahead of us in training the common people for the work of life. It is mortifying fco our pride that the most skilled and artistic workmen in our manufacto¬ ries aud shops are foreigners. We have the mosfc quick-witted, inventive and industrious population on earth, but in technical education we are far in the rear of the foremost nations of the Old World. Our public school system is behind that of other nations in this respect. Technical schools are multiplying in all parts of the country. The late Peter Cooper was far in advance of his time when he organized and endowed the .Art Union which bears his name, but no private person or corporation can educate a whole people in the industrial arts. This gigantic but necessary work must be per¬ formed by the municipality, the State and the nation. In the meantime, technical schools are multiplying. In lasfc week's Record and Guide, notice was taken of a three-story brick shop, which was to be erected afc No. 34 Stuyvesant sfcreefc, to train Hebrew children in the industrial artsj This is a new departure for the Jewish race. While it has been noted for its pre-eminence in trade it has rather avoided manual labor of any kind. Of course tax-payers will look with some concern upon the large appropriations which will be needed to give an industrial education to the children in our common schools, but the community will be benefited by the new departure in education in many ways. It will supply mechanics for all the trades which are now dominated by the trades unions, the rules of which generally create an arti¬ ficial scarcity of skilled workmen in their various occupations. Then boys and girls trained for industrial pursuits are a far more benefit to the community than swarms of unskilled work people. By all means let New York lead the van in this important change in our educational system. Our New York College should be reorganized, the study of Greek and Latin abolished, and the young men who enter should be trained for a business life or the higher mechanical employments. Property-holders living in the neighborhood of Morningside Park have recently received applications from lawyers to protect them against an unjust assessment levy. As is usual in such cases the lawyers propose to fight the assessment, and say they will be satisfied with 25 per cent, of the money saved by the lot owners. The facts in this case seem to be, that back in the " '60's" an assessment was levied but was of such a fraudulent character that the property-holders were never asked to pay it and it fell out of sight; but certain shrewd lawyers thought they saw a way to turn an honest penny, and they made an application in court for a mandamus to force the city authorities to levy this iniquitous assessment. Knowing very well that the courts would not finally confirm the assessment, the lawyers realized that they had a dead sure thing in fighting it, and they planned this neat little raid on the quadrilateral lot owners. The court, however, denied the application. There ought to be some way of punishing such