Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 41, no. 1052: May 12, 1888

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May 13, 1888 Record ancl Guide, 597 -^ ^ ESTfcBUSBED^/yV^RCH21"^185B.^ DeV&TED to f^L ESTWE . SmLDIf/G ii^cKiTECTai^E ,h(oUSElfOU) DEGOJ^TlOtJ. Bi/si(^Ess At^D Themes of GeHei^L l;/T£i\Es-f PRICE, PER TEAR IIV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - - - JOHN 370. Communications should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. -7. r. LINDSEY, Business Manager, Vol. XLI. MAY 13, 1888. No. 1,053 The stock market does not look hopeful. The public have stopped buying, and professional trading means disti'esa and ultimately lower prices—^perhaps. The iron market is dull, crop reports are bad, and there is more trouble among the leading roads. Then it looks as if we are about to resume gold shipments. But the worst blow of all is the reductions in dividends by sterliug companies liJte the Chicago, BurHngton and Quincy. Our only hope is in generous government disbursements, but tliis does not seem likely. Still, things may change, the crops may look better, Congress may help, and the foreigners resume their purchases. Governor Hill's veto of the High License bill wiU be regretted by real estate taxpayers, as the cities and counties of tiie State will thereby lose a large revenue from the liquor dealers, which must be made good by owners of real property. Liquor dealers arc practi¬ cally untaxed and their busiuess is a very costly oue to the State. Still, we suppose Hill will not lose politically, as the liquor interest is very powerful in the machinery of both jjai-ties. Wlien it can¬ not control votes it can carry nominations aud help doctor election returns. ----------■---------- We hope that the present River and Harbor bill wUl jiass, aud by a majority large euough to overcome a possible veto by President Cleveland. When Governor, Mr. Cleveland won a gi-eat deal of cheap applause by liis vetoes. Since he has beeu President liis veto messages outnumber all the vetoes of all oui- Presidents uj) to the time he occupied the Wliite House. There was no River and Harbor bin last session, to the graat deti-iment of many needed public improvaments. It is a matter of regi'et that the sum appropriated is not at least flfty millions. The waters in the neighborhood of this city require an expenditui-e of at least If 5,000,000 ; the present bill gives us about $800,000. Buttermilk Channel, Gowauus Bay, the channel in the Lower Bay and the Harlem River improvement need to be attended to without delay, but the appropriations are miser¬ ably inadequate ; yet our provincial city press, instead of uniting to demand just appropriations, waste their editorial space iu calling attention to some three or fom* thousand dollar '' jobs " wliich have been inserted in the bill in order to secure votes. How curiously unwise are our gi'eat conservative corporations. Take the case of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, as well as the New York Central; they, as well as other leading ti-unk lines, have made a great deal of mouey witliin the last three years. The Btockbolders have not profited, for the extra money earned has been spent on betterments. This would have been justifiable if the managers of these great companies bad chosen a time to make these improvements when the price of labor and raw material was low, but they picked upon the two years when the value of labor, the pric'e of iron and steel, as well as all railroad equipments, were at their very highest figures. When labor is cheap and steel ia a drug in the market these wise railroad managers refused to spend an extra doUar; they let their roUing stock wear out and the roadbed get out of repair. This is what the New York Central and Pennsyl¬ vania Central did in 1883,1884 and 1885. They could have kept up their roads at one-tliird leas cost than during the " booming " times of 1886 and 1887. Our own government follows the same foolish practice. It cuts down expenses and discharges labor when prices are low and business bad, and so adds to the prpvaUtng distress. When it gets ready to do necessary work ii enters the field of bid-up labor at a time when the demand is greatest and prices are the highest; thus making private production as costly as possible. But the men who conduct our pubhc aifairs are called statesmen; while the railroad managers who spend at the wrong time are called wise and conservative officers. The Senate will undoubtedly pass the House River and Harbor bill after amending it by making the. gi'oss appropriations some¬ what larger. As passed by the House of Representatives the pro- pOBe4 jffiprpTementL' will t^k§ s-ljout $20,000,000 put of the Treasury; it Tvould be well to remember in this connection that the government engineers—a perfectly imiiartial body of West Point officers—think that we ought to spend iS160,000,000 on our waterways and harbors. It would advantage our internal and external com¬ merce fifty-fold were all the money forthcoming that is absolutely needed for our public works. The $20,000,0*00 proposed is ridicu¬ lously inadequate, but our Eastern papers very generally oppose any River aud Harbor biU, and they create a prejudice against them by showing, wluch they can easily do, that some of the expenditure is for comparatively worthless objects. By inference, however, they give the impression that the whole bill is a mass of " jobs." As a matter of fact there probably is not more than $100,000 of the $30,000,000 that will be misspent. Legislation of tliie kiud with the present constitution of our House of Representatives necessarily involves log-rolling. Each member must look out for his district; national or trade conditions affect bim only vaguely. Hence the flaws which papers like our daily Times find so easy to pick in every River and Harbor bill presented. This is an evil all legisla¬ tion sufiers from, and cannot very well be remedied until our con¬ stitution is so amended as to secure the election of at least one third of our representatives on a general ticket. This would effect two very desirable objects; it would put a-stop to !og-rolhng and would give every incoming President a party majority in the Lower House. The Roman Catholic Church stands where it has always stood since it has been a great temporal as well as spiritual power, on the side of the powers that be. Its interest is in existing institutions. It was a bold act for the leading Cardinals and the Pope to condemn the Irish "plan of campaign" and ''the boycott," and to antag¬ onize its own communicants iu the interest of the Tory government of Great Britain. The great bulk of Americans will not be disposed to flnd fault with the Catholic Church authorities. The " boycott'' ie generally held by om' people to be an illegitimate weapon of Social warfare, wliile the "jjlan of campaign" is so extreme a mode of procedure that even Parnell would never indorse it. The Irish land laws, as formulated by Gladstone and administered by the Tories, would be regai'ded as an outiageous interference with property rights by the bulk of American landlords. It will be remembered that no bargain is permitted between the owner and the tenant. The landlord cannot accept what the tenant is wiUing to give. All lie is entitled to is the rent flxed by a judge, based upon valuations in vogue many years back. Bnt the " plan of camiiaign " involves tbe payment of this restricted reut to a third person, the landlord to receive uothing until the coercion bill is withtU'awn ora lower rent is established. The Catholic Church in the past waa a great land owner, and its instincts, and traditions are with the prop¬ erty owning classes. Hence it regards the "plan of campaign" as absolutely immoral. It has the courage of its convictions or it would not condemn so heartily a measure which, either right or wrong, originated with and is upheld by a population belonging exclusively to the CathoUc Chui'cli. The action of the Pope and his Cardinals is a direct aid and encom-agement to the Tory government of Great Britain, wliich will doubtless retm-n some equivalent for tliis moral and religious sanction to the rights of propetty. Although undoubtedly well meant, this edict of the Pope and Cardinals will discredit the Roman hierarchy among the revolutionaiy classes and will help the McGlynns and their warfare on Mother Church. Judge Barrett's article in the Forum, on "The Miscamages of Justice," is a significant one, as it shows that some of the more inteUigent of the judiciary realize that a day of wrath is coming when the public wiU not stand the waste of money and time, and the shocking injustice which results from existing defects in our legal machinery. At an age when human ingenuity is exercised in eveiy way to facilitate and cheapen business transactions, our retrograde courts are more dilatory than ever in wasting the time and money of tbe business community. While they ai-e giving ua a great deal of law they fail in the important matters of equity and justice. A law suit now in this State cannot be concluded within two to five years; in the Federal courts business is behind three years and a half. Judge Barrett sneers at those who complain of this waste of time; but he admits, nevertheless, everything charged by the critics of our judicial macliinery. He explains how it is that our courts exist primarily not to do jus¬ tice as between litigants, but to enable a few lawyers to charge extravagant fees. The calendars, he admits, are made up wholly in the interest of these leading members of the bar. These favored mortals are engaged, say, in four or five different com'ts. When trials are called these gentlemen can be present at ouly one, and judges, juries, witnesses, and opposing aud associated counsel lose their time day after day dancing attendance upon these leaders of the bar. Of coruse tliis is only one cause of complaint. The pre¬ posterous decisions, appeals, reversals and retrials is another evil, Tlien the natural tardiness of the courts and the average laws delay amounts to a miscarriage of justice in nine cages out of ten. There s^enjg tg bf no way out of this tangle, for pur la'fVR are made by