Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 41, no. 1038: February 4, 1888

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February 4, 1888 The Record and Guide. 137 De/otq) TO I^L Estate , SuiLoif/c ^^Hitectji^e .Household Degm^tioS. Dl;5l^iEss AftoTHEMES or Ge^JeraI !;^T£I\ES^ PRICE, PER, YEAa liV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Ptihlished every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - - - JOHN 370. ComiuunicatioQS should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway J. T. LTNDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLI. FEBRUARY 4, 1888. No. 1,038 Mayor Hewitt's brilliant and remarkable message on city improvements and the possible future of New York has, of course, been read by all the subncribej-s to The Record and Guide. It is not therefore necessary to restate any of his propOHals for benefiting the metropolis. His rapid transit scheme naturally attracts the most attention. It is a well digested plan, and if it could be carried out would answer every requirement of city travel and would be an enormous benefit to the city. But we fear there is no chance for it, because it is so perfect a plan. The Mayor takes the ground so often urged in these columns—that the city itself should build the required rapid transit route, as well as make otber necessary city improvements. Our Croton water service is by all odda the most efficient and economical, if compared with the gas service or the horse-car service, or any under the control of cor¬ porations. The latter naturally desire to give the poorest service for the most money. Were the city to own ita own gasworks the cost would not be one-tenth the water capital which represents the various gas corporations, nor would the cost of gas be more than half what haa been charged by the companies. Were the horse- car lines built and owned by the city the cost of construction would not be one-third, as compared with the bonded and stocked obligations of these organizations. The fare ere tbis would have been reduced to '6 cents under the city management, while there ivould be a general system of transfer tickets, and every one would have a seat in a comfortable warm car. And then the employes of the roaJs would have been fairly treated and would have formed a part of the police force of the city. But we have elected to give away the street franchiaes to corporations, of which that human shark, Jake Sharp, ia a very fair specimen. While Mayor Hewitt's plan is in every way admirable and would fill the bill, we doubt if it haa any chance of being carried out. It would be opposed by the Manhattan Company, by the great cor¬ porate interests which expect to profit by construction stock and by the issue of unnecesBary obligations. Then that most powerful of municipal interests, the individuals and syndicates engaged in city contracting, will oppose the plan because of the difficulty of plundering the city under it. So far the city press has favored the Mayor's programme on its merits, but soon tbe cry will be raised against handing over tbe building of such a road to the city author¬ ities. It will be called a scheme to add to the revenues of tbe New York Central Road, and a thousand objections will be made, until finally we judge tbe whole preaa of New York will oppose it, as tbey heretofore have all city improvements. We are still of the opinion that the Arcade Road under Broadway would be preferable to the scheme put forward by Mayor Hewitt. But tbat enterprise apparently lags, becauee not indorsed by capitalists wbo can com¬ mand the means to build it. Whai the Mayor says as to tbe value of the Erie Canal and the necessity for improving our harbor ia all true enough. But how can we espect our harbor improved when our press and our Eastern representatives steadily oppose the improvement of the waterways in other parts of the'country. Then look at tbe oppo¬ sition to the Hennepin Canal. The proposition to unite tbe waters of ihe Mississippi to those of the lakes is urged in the interests of the commerce of thia port as well as by the agriculturists of the Northweet, It would be another Erie Canal, yet it is denounced as a job, just aa " Clinton's ditch " was called a job. The tone of our press and the opinions of our representatives is provincial, and ia not creditable to the organs of public opinion of the great metropolis. ----------•---------• All the Mayor says'about street paving and the ducks is true enough. If his splendid plans were carried out the debt Of this city would be largely increased, far beyond the limit of the 10 per cent, on its assessed valuation of real estate. Every object the Mayor haa in mind is undoubtedly desirable. But will our cax- payera be willing tbjiavp o«r ^ebt increased by forty or fifty miUion. We believe in liberal expenditures for works of city improve¬ ment. 'New York is growing with marvelous rapidity, and some of the outlay would repay itself twenty-fold. But property-holders are conservative, and fear nothing so much as lavish expenditures. How difficult it is to make a body of legislators understand the value of time. Congress bas been sitting for two months aud haa done nothing but talk. The surplus in the Treasury is steadily increasing and no outlet has yet been found to it. It amounts now to over 180,000,000, of which over $50,000,000 is let out to the National banks. The check given to manufacturing interests by the prospect of tariif legislation is again piling up money in the banks, so that the latter will soon bave no use for the government funds. Altogether tbe outlook is not promising. The tariff reduc¬ tion bill will soon be introduced, but nothing is more certain than that it will not pass. Probably at the close of the session some hastily prepared measure may go through extending the free liata and taking off the duty on sugar and tobacco. But from present appearances it is quite impossible to pasa any comprehensive tariff reform measure. .---------»--------- Both Senate and House aeem disponed to pasa large appropria¬ tions for needed public buildings. But there is a lack of system in the way thia is done. Kissing goes by favor, and the largest ap¬ propriations are secured by a species of log-rolling. There ought to be a bureau of new buildings, which should recommend to Con¬ gress the structures to be erected aud their cost, ho that no un¬ necessary partiality would be shown to one city over another. We could afford to spend $20,000,000 in new post-offices and Federal Court-bouaes. We could thus get some of the uoneceaaary money out of the Treasury, and could give employment to thousands of mechanica on work that ia very greatly needed. Some Facts About the Anthracite Coal Imbroglio. The daily press all published President Austin Corbin's letter anent the coal miners' strikes, and have commended him warmly for tbe position he took. According to Mr. Corbin, the Reading Company mined in twelve years 51,000,000 tons of coal, for which the miners got $57,110,000 in the way of wagea, which was $13,370,000 more than the Reading Company itaelf obtained. But the daily press was careful to suppress the figures published by tbe Philadelphia Record, which tell quite a different story. According to the annual reports of the Reading Coal and Iron Company, in twelve yeara the receipts were $86,024,188.84, or $41,000,000 more than Mr. Corbin stated them. Of courae tbia different result was brought about by bookkeeping, for tbere are two companies in the case. The Coal and Iron Company and the Railroad Company proper. It was not the miners that plundered that corporation and bankrupted it over and over again; it was its own managers. This whole quarrel with the miners seems to have been a pitiful busineaa. Tbe coal companiea last year were all exceptionally prosperous. Reading made a profit of $18,000,000 net after paying all charges. The Delaware & Lackawanna and the Delaware & Hudson in their recent reports show a profit of nearly IS per cent, on their common stock, after paying expenses and intereat on theip bonds. Instead of treating their working people with ordinary consideration they have provoked these unnecessary strikes ao aa to have an excuse for raising the price of coal to the general public. Every railroad corporation, every factory, and every household is forced to pay extravagant prices for anthracite because of the quarrel,which should never have been commenced, and for which these great money corporations are primarily to blame, It ia to the infinite credit of the Vanderbilt reads—indeed ,we may say of all the railroad companies except those controlled by Jay Gould and the Coal Barons—that tbey have bad no trouble with their employes. We have 150,000 miles of railroad in the country, and there are no strikes or trouble of any kind except on about 20,000 miles of road controlled by utterly selfish managers. There is, we believe, one person who is more reaponaible than anyone else for the present coal troubles. It ia hia Honor Mayor Abram S. Hewitt of New York; he ia tbe leading spirit among the syndicate of capitalists wbo control the coal production of the Lehigh Valley region. This section of countryproduoes the beat coal and it brings the highest price in the market. When the Schuylkill and Wyoming corporations, in view of the prosperity of the trade, were willing to make the modest advance of 8 per ceut. asked for by the miners the Hewitt ayndicate refused, and the coal industry in that region has been paralyzed ever since. Austin Corbin declined to continue tbe 8 per cent, after January 1st because the Lehigh Valley region would not pay the advance. This quarrel dates back to the lit of last September. It will be remembered what furious anti-labor letters Mayor Hewitt wrote after the quarrel was under way. Mr. Hewitt makes an admirable Mayor of New York, but' he is directly responsible for a vast deal of the misery among the'miherg and laborers in the coal regions, as well aa for the extravagant price which everyone is forced itoipav for anthracite^