Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 39, no. 1004: June 11, 1887

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Snne 11, 188? The Record, and. Guide. t9S THE RECORD AND Published every Saturday. 191 Broad^way, I^T GUIDE, Our Telephone Call is • JOHN 370. TERMS: ONE TEiR, ia advance, SIX DOLLARS. communications should fee addressed to €. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXIX. JUNE 11. 1887. No. 1,004 Mayor Hewitt is a model letter writer. His pen has point, and the substance of what he writes is generally indorsed by the mass of our citizens. The delinquent officials naturally feel sore at his criticism of their conduct, and they have reason for saying that the city charter gives him no authority to call them to account. But the Mayor is backed up by public opinion, for there is a general agreement that he should have authority over every department in the city government. The Mayor was originally a schoolmaster, and his pen is as effective as was formerly his rod. tury recLuire a different expression from what tjiey had in the tenth or twelfth centuries. We have, it seems, in feis country 120,000 churches and chapels occupied by the various Protestant denominations, but the only distinctive church edifices so far pro¬ duced is the ordinary meeting-house, such as Plymouth Church and Dr. Talmage's Tabernacle. Surely Protestantism ought to¬ have something better to show. Its chance will be in this new so-called cathedral. The bulls in Wall street are puzzled. They have been expecting a strong speculative market all the spring, but while prices have been firm nothing has yet occurred to bring about the high prices and large dealings which were expected. Yet everything has been favorable. The business of the country has been prosperous and money easy, while the railway earnings were never so large. Wes¬ tern Union Telegraph Company has commenced declaring divi¬ dends; so has several other companies for the first time in their history, while heavy additions are being made to the surpluses of the old dividend payers. Yet the market will not get out of its rut, and every now and then the bears have their innings. There is talk of tight money ahead, due to the absorption of currency by the Treasury, and then the Interstate Railroad Commissioners may permit the long and short haul clause of the national raUroad law to go into effect on July 1st. But Secretary Fairchild declares that there are several ways of getting money out of the Treasury and into the channels of trade, while the long and short haul business will only affect a portion of the railway lines of the country. The fact is the unemployed money of the country seems to be going into real estate rather than into stock speculation. The question of site for the proposed great cathedral is being discussed very warmly. The high region west of Morningside Park has been mentioned, and the proposition has been received with much favor ; for a great temple of worship, situated on that eminence, would overlook the whole upper end of the island. The projected structure ought to occupy at least two blocks, which could be had in this region without interrupting communication between avenue and avenue. Property-holders in that choice location might object, as it would probably take twenty years to build such a cathedral, and the immediate neighborhood would be kept back for at least that period of time. Far-sighted architects and builders think the fashionable quarter of the future wiU be on the high ground west of and above Morningside Park. But this is something that cannot be foretold with any degree of certainty. But all are agreed that the site for the proposed cathedral should be a very commanding one. The owners of sites suitable for small city parks are offering them to the authorities with a view of turning an honest penny for themselves. It is to be hoped that Mayor Hewitt and those associated with him in this matter will decline to accept any of the open spaces now in existence, but will use the provisions of the law to get rid of foul tenement houses. There are scores of such places in New York—centres of infection and disease which ought to be got out of the way as soon as possible. The owners of the open space on 84th street, between 4th and Lexington avenues, are very eager that the city should take that ground. But it is too near Madison square. There the neighborhood is not crowded, nor is it ever likely to be. The law was designed to rid the city of pestiferous tenement houses and to open small parks in densely- populated regions. A map of such localities could easily be pro¬ vided by the Health Department as a guide to the city authorities in expending the million dollars annually authorized by the law. The Manhattan Elevated Road has nullified a ten-hour law passed by the Legislature by forcing their employes to sign an agreement to work by the hour instead of by the day. The brakemen, con¬ ductors and gate-keepers will have to work twelve hours for less pay than they formerly received. Employers will generally sympa¬ thize with this evasion of what they consider an unjust law, but is it wise for a corporation like the Manhattan to make this record ? One-half of the stock of this company represents water, while the original ccst was probably not one-fourth of the sum total repre¬ sented by the stock and bonds issued by the corporation. Yet the bonds sell very high, while the stock is quoted at 160. As this enormous profit has been made out of the general public, does it look well for the managers of this corporation to practically set aside a law of the State? The 10 and 12 cents an hour which ia now paid to the employes is not enough to support life decently, and stockholders who have profited so largely by a municipal charter could well afford the few dollars extra which an acceptance of the ten-hour law would impose upon them. It is not wise for great corporations to give a new argument to the labor agitators. .^ Several interesting interviews with leading city architects will be found in this issue, apropos of the proposition to build a great Protestant Cathedral in the metropolis. Of course we will never really know what our best architects have in mind until competing plans are called for ; then we may expect the presentation of orig¬ inal and magnificent conceptions. A cathedral, from an etymological point of view, is a " bishop's seat" or headquarters ; but, as pre¬ sented by Bishop Potter, the proposed edifice is to be something besides a temple of worship, and will include a larger aggregation of interests than those which represent the sects that have a hierar¬ chical organization. There are plenty of good citizens who think themselves excellent Christians, yet who do not believe it is any more needful to have bishops in a church than nobles or kings in a nation, and they should not be excluded if this is to be an American Westminster Abbey, a final resting place for the dis¬ tinguished dead of all demoninations. Let the plan be catholic in the widest sense of that term. The architects whose views we give seem to incline towards the Gothic or the Romanesque style of architecture. But would not either be a mistake? Does not the age require something different from what has come down to us from the past ? The religious conceptions of the nineteenth cen_ Mr. Wniiam Blaikie objects to a tunnel under the Hudson River and proposes, instead, a bridge from Stevens Point in Hoboken to the foot of 13th street, whore the river is a little over a half mile wide, the narrowest point for thirty mUes. This bridge should be 100 feet wide to a-^commodate eight tracks; 160 feet high in the middle to clear all shipping, the grade to be only 100 feet to the mile.; the piers to be 300 feet apart and in the middle 500 feet. This would admit of. 3,000 trains each way. This bridge to be housed like the one over the Mississippi at St. Louis. This structure should not cost more than twelve to fifteen million dollars, and would easily pay 15 per cent, on the investment. The objection to a tunnel is that it could never transact the busi¬ ness that would be offered for it, and would accommodate only a single track each way. The proposed bridge would connect with two underground roads, one on each side of the city, and this would obviate the necessity for making other provisions for new- means of-rapid transit for fifty years to come. There would be a bitter opposition developed to bridging the Hudson so near its outlet, but if it was done it would be a great thing for New York city. The project is a stupendous ona, and will doubtless be eagerly canvassed by the press and the business public. A committee representing the laboring people attended the closing session of Congress to look after the bills in their infcerest. The report they publish is interesting and instructive, as showing the. methods which obtain in transacting the business of the country. It seems that practically the whole work of fche Lower House of Congress was intrusted to three men—the Committee on Rules of the House: John G. Carlisle the Speaker, Samuel J. Randall and William B. Morrison. There were two Republicans on this committee, Messrs. Reed and Hiscock, but they did not count. Nothing could be considered in the last weeks of the session that these three leading Democrats ignored. The report concludes: There has been no legislation enacted during the last fire weeks of the present session bufc such as has been subject to the scrutiny of the three members of the Committee on Rules from the dominant party (termed by the members of the House the " Steering Commifctee"), and so far as the members of the House were concerned they might as well have gone home I four weeks before adjournment, for they have had virtually nothing to say