Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 38, no. 975: November 20, 1886

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November 20,1886 The Record and Guide. 1416 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broad¬wav, IsT. IT. Oar Telephone Call is.....JOHN 370. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in adTance, SIX DOLLARS. Communicatioiis should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. Vol. XXXVIII. NOVEMBER 20, 1886. No. 975. A volume which shoidd be in the hands of every builder, con¬ tractor, architect, and owner and dealer in real estate, is now ready and can be procured at the offlce of The Record and Guide. It is a new edition of the law relating to buildings in the City of New York, with added matter, marginal notes and colored engravings to illustrate the subject. It contains the law limiting the height of divelling-houses, also the existi7igMechanics' Lien Law. This work is edited by William J. Fryer, Jr., whose original and well-thought-out comments give it a special value. The volume will also contain a complete directory of architects in New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark and Yonkers. The book is handsomely bound in cloth, and is sold at the low price of seventy-flve cents, by mail eighty-five cents. It is an open question as yet whether speculative capitalists " want the earth." Just now there is a semi-fever in Wall street, and all manner of stocks, good, bad and indifferent are being eagerly purchased at advancing figures. General business is feel¬ ing the new impulse of better prices and larger transactions, and it is as certain as anything in the future can be that vacant real estate will be taken in hand by the investing and speculating public, but when is still an open question. There were several important sales last week, but the prices for some of them, though very good, were not regarded as satisfactory to the holders and the bulk of the offerings were withdrawn. But the sale of the Carri¬ gan estate brought excellent prices, beyond the expectations of the heirs for whose benefit they were sold. On the whole, real estate dealers and owners have nothing to complain of in the present state of business or the Outlook for next spring. It really looks as if European capitalists were about to put their spare funds into American securities. London has always dealt more or less in what they call "Americans," and the purchases of English speculators and investors have recently been very heavy. The continental bourses have traded more or less in our bonds and stock?, and recently Berlin absorbed an American railway loan for the first time in the history of the Exchange of that city. The fact is, Europe does not know what to do with its surplus funds. Government loans are not as popular as they were, due, to the unfortunate investments in Turkish, Egyptian and South American national loans. The field for railway securities is limited, as on the continent the governments are the chief owners of the steam transportation lines. B 'rlia has been speculating to a dangerous extent in Russian securities. Indeed it is this fact which is tying the hands of Germany in dealing with Muscovite pretensions in Southeastern Europe. Now that silver is rising in value and there is a disposition to embark in new enterprises, America naturally offers the most tempting field to the capitalist. Our population is increasing at the rate of 2,000,000 per annum; our industries are becoming more diversified, the general average value of land is steadily rising, while we have no end of mineral wealth, and the great, foreign investors are naturally tempted to put their money in a railway system which will see 7,000 miles added to it this year, and from 8,000 to 9,000 next year. Tbe present bull campaign has given large profits to foreigners, and it looks as though next year there may be an unprecedented amount of European money put into American securities of all kinds. able President, At the close of his career as chief executive officer, he developed into something like a first-class statesman in dealing with the foreign commerce of the country. Realizing how impossible it was to reduce the tariff so as to give us a chance in the markets abroad for our manufactures, he favored a plan for agreeing upon trade treaties with the leading commercial nations. He hoped by this means to benefit our home manufactures and foreign trade at the same time. Had President Cleveland and the Democratic party in Congress contiaued his policy, we might have such modification of the tariff as would have met the wishes of revenue reformers and given our home-made goods a better sale throughout the world. But President Cleveland, Speaker Carlisle and Mr. Morrison preferred making an attack on the tariff along the whole line. This has often bean tried and has always ended disastrously. The protected interests '.are so powerful that when they all combine they are stronger than any administration or any party majority in Congress. Our tariff laws have been greatly changed since the close of the civil war, but in every case it has been done piecemeal. The death of ex-President Arthur again calls attention to the anomalous position of those who have been chief magistrates of the nation. They have no careers after their occupancy at the White House is over, and the country does not benefit by the experience they have passed through. They ought to be made members of the Senate for life, with handsome pensions. The special distinction of Chester A. Arthur was his common sense and tact in dealing with men and affairs. It was these qualities which made him a successful party manager and a very accept- Will Silver Continue lo Rise? The coincidence betwe'en the revival of industry throughout the world and the rise in the price of silver has been very generaUy remarked, and it therefore seems a vital matter whether the appre¬ ciation of the white metal is to continue. We are here taking for granted that there has been a real alteration in the value of silver, but this way of looking at the matter is misleading. The change has occurred because gold will buy less than it did a couple of months since, the value it had then having in part passed into the commodities it measured, silver included. There is now a hopeful feeling in all the business circles of the world, because there is a general expectation that in time silver as well as gold will become a measurer of values, and that at the ratio of 15)^ of the white metal to 1 of the yellow, silver would be quoted at Old. per ounce, instead of as now 473^d. Should the businesa world be mistaken on this point—should there be no prospect of the rehabilitation of silver as a money metal, then would a blow be given to-all the revived industries of the nation, and a semi-panic would set in throughout every department of international trade. We give place in this issue to a communication from an Anglo- East Indian, who holds to the theory that England does not intend to help re-establish bimetallism. He avers the appointment of the Royal Commission on metallic currencies was simply a tub thrown to the bimetallic V7hale. According to our correspondent the root of ^he trouble, indeed the cause of the depreciation of silver as compared with gold, is due to the Anglo-Indian Council, which has the yearly disbursement of £13,000,000 of East India drafts. This represents interest on the East India debt, the pay of the Indian army and the civil service; also the payment for contracts for new railways and the improvements countenanced by the home govern¬ ment. If we understand Mr. Paul the bulk of this money could be spent directly in India. The consequent reduction of the amount of the drafts drawn in London would add so much to the silver currency in the Peninsula. But the policy of England is to depress prices, and hence India has far less silver than is required by its industrial enterprises. In other words, if the markets of India were opened the surplus silver would be drained away from the rest of the world, and the white metal would rise in value as compared with gold. This is not the view taken by biinetallLsts generally. They claim the blow at prices was struck by Germany when it adopted gold monometallism, so as to utilize the enormous gold indemnity paid to her by France in 1870 and 1871. From that time to the present, gold alone has practically been the sole measure of all values in the commercial world. This han had a disastrous effect upon busi¬ ness everywhere, which required more instead of less metallic money with which to carry out its enormously growing transactions. We relieved ourself from the keen distress of other nations, by par¬ tially remonetizing silver in 1878. The coinage of the silver dollar, making it by law as good as gold for all business purposes, has had the very best results with us. Were the coinage of tlie dollar to be stopped it would bring widespread disaster upon every trade interest in the country. In this connection the following from the "Washington corre¬ spondent of the Commercial Bulletin ■will be read with interest: In an undemonstrative way the representatives of the administration have been making use of the opportunities afforded by the presence in this country of the representatives of the English government entrusted with the duty of collecting information on the subject of bimetallism. The nature of the appointment and mission of these gentlemen was construed as precluding official recognition of their visit or the appointment of a representative of this government to confer with them. The purpose of their appointment, while not that of international conference, was one fully as well calculated to secure the information desired on the subject of I bimetallic coinage in all its international phases. What information was desired has been placed at the disposal of these gentlemen, and the impor¬ tance apd significance of their visit has been.apprecjated. Jt is pot too