Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 42, no. 1078: November 10, 1888

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November 10. 1888 Record and Guide. 1333 "ey" ^ ESTABL]SHED^MARpH2l"^l86e.'^ De/oTED to KeM EsTWE . BuiLdij/g A;R,cKlTECTiJR,E .HobSElJOLD DEG0f(AT10ti. Bl/sii^ess aiJd Theses of GeKeraI 1j^t£i\es7 PRICE, PER TEAR IIV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE. . - . JOHN 370. Communications should h& addressed to CW, SWEET, 191 Broadway. /. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLII. NOVEMBER 10, 1888. No. 1,078 With the Presidential election over there will doubtless be a re¬ vival of busiuess operations which ought to last until the middle of December. Real estate will certainly be more active. Wall street gives every appearance of increased animation. There is a general feeling that stocks will be higher and speculation more spirited. The election of a Republican President will be interpreted to mean gi-eater government expenditure. In several of his speecliea Mr. Harrison has said that he was not afraid of the word subsidy. He evideutly believes iu using tlie surplus for rehabilitating the com¬ merce and effecting internal improvements. Then General Han-i¬ son is a pronounced silver man. He represents the debtor section of the country, and his aim will be to make money easy and cm-- rency abundant. Everything seems to conspire to help values of all kinds ; nothing, indeed, can prevent the upward surge of prices unless tbe administration should decide to put a stop to bond pur¬ chases and to permit the surplus to accumulate in the Ti-easury. It hardly, however, seems probable that the Treasury policy will be changed during Mr. Cleveland's term of office. Superficially it would seem as if the County Democracy had re¬ ceived its death-blow, Tammany won a signal victory last Tuesday, which will give it a patronage that may keep that wing of the Democracy in power for years. But there will not be offices enough to go around, and there will be a world of discontent after the distribution is effected. There will be twenty applicants for every position to be filled. The County Democracy will represent the discontent of the "outs," and will be in a position to make deals with the Republicans and help to discomfit Tammany Hall iu future elections. The Democratic party of this city is too large to be embraced within one organization. The Mugwumps cut a sorry figure in the announcement of the result of the recent election. Theii- organs, the Times, Evening Post and Harper's Weekly, supported Grover Cleveland and Warner Mil¬ ler aud Abram Hewett, all of whom were defeated, while they antagonized Harrison, Hill and Grant, ail of whom were elected. This makes a very bad showing, and deprives the Mugwumps of any power to influence nominations and elections. Indeed, tbeir organs had better abandon politics and try to follow, rather than lead, public opinion. There is always room for high-minded, inde¬ pendent, conservative jom-nals. But the Times and Evening Post have not won much honor as suijporters of the Democratic pai-ty. Jay Gould had a mortal quarrel witb the elder Robert Garrett because the latter declined to enter into a deal which would unite the Baltimore & Ohio with Gould's Southwestern system of rail¬ roads. Gould's scheme was to have a continuous raik-oad connec¬ tion extending from Baltimore by way of St. Lonis to the City of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean ; but Garrett was brought up iu too consei-vative a school for any such gigantic operation. He left the B. & 0. to his crazy son, who nearly succeeded in ruining it. But now the Richmond Terminal has come into the field and has con¬ solidated some 7,300 miles of road, extending from the Atlantic sea¬ board to the jMississippi River, and from Wasliington and Richmond to the Southwest. It is now rumored that the B. & O. will be added to this system. The fact is empliasized, that Drexel &Co. have been made the financial agents of the Riclimond Terminal. This great bankiug.firm already controls the B. & O. The next step will be the: addition of the Missouri Pacific. This would make one of the greatest railroad combinations in the world; yet the close of the year 1889 may see it carried out. It is hardly likely, however, that Gould, who flrst conceived the plan many years ago, will be allowed to have much of a voice in its final consummation. George E. Waring, the well-known sanitary engineer, writing from California, declares that the gi-eat land boom on the Paciflc Coast is over, and that the foreclosure suits about to be begun will bring values within the limits of common sense. It is remarkable, by the way, tbat the coUapse of these land spequlations in the West has not been attended by any widespread disaster. Emigration still continues to this new country, and many of those who have bought at high prices can aff rd to hold on. These and other causes help to break the fall in land valnes. It is worthy of note that since 1837 there has been no general land speculation. The fever has broken out in spots, as it were. Every State has had it in turn, but the e-xcitement, when it appears, is confined to certain locahties. It is uot so long ago when it was heard of iu Manitoba, on the line of the Northern Pacific road, and in Dakota. Later there was a violent land speculation iu the coal and irou regions of Northern Alabama and Mississippi and Southern Tennessee. A great railroad building movement in 1885 and 1886 was started by laud speculative cities like Denver, Kansas City, Wichita, and probably a liundred other smaller places. Some time in the not distant future New York real estate will have a; boom. The rapid increase of our pojiulation warrants it, especially as we are limited by bays and rivers, whicli permit growth in only one direction. Whenever the unsold houses within our city Umits are absorbed there is likely to set in an active demand for unimproved real estate. Prof. John A. Church, well known in engineering circles in this couutry, has made liis mark in China in opening copper and gold mines. He writes home there is a new departui-e in that ancient empire. There are now about a hundred miles of standard gauge railroad built, and he says there ia little doubt that tbis hne will eventually extend into a great system of iron roads. The Ping Chuan copper mines are under the charge of Mr. Elhs Clark, and the Ping Tu gold mines are being opened by H. M. Ellsworth, both Americans, The mineral wealth of Cliina is enormous, but has as yet been undeveloped. Tho importance of this matter is that Americana are in favor in China. True, Em-ope so far supphes the rails, but we can furnish locomotives, cars and general machinery, Our trade with China ought to be very profitable, and hence the bad policy of our exclusion laws in the way they were passed. There is no objection to putting a stop to Chinese immigration into this country, but it should be done in a maimer not to offend the natural susceptibiUties of the Chinese people. Mayor-Elect Hugh J. Grant, The Mayor elected last Tuesday has a chance to distinguish him¬ self above any chief magistrate of the city who has ever taken lug seat in the City Hall. There is no question as to the Mayor-elect's personal honesty and his desire to do his whole duty. As an Alder¬ man he was above reproach, and his management of the Sheriff's oflice has won him warm commendations from all who know what good work he has done in that department of the city government. Under his management the Sheriff's office has been a credit to the meti-opolis. The incoming Mayor is well posted in New York real estate. As a busiuess he imderstands it thoroughly. It follows that we may expect an intelhgent oversight in everything that relates to realty. Mayor Hewitt has many brilhant qualities, but he was capricious in dealing with the larger interests of the city. He objected to the widening of Elm street. His rapid transit scheme was impractic¬ able. He had no good scheme for relieving the gorged thorough¬ fares in the lower pai-t of the city. He was atodds with the Alder¬ men and with the State Legislature, and then his love of quaiTel- ing has impeded the city business. But Mayor-elect Grant is a very different kind of man. He is sensible and straightforward, while he wiU be in harmony, at fii'st at least, with the other depai-tments of the city government. His great power of appointment wUl practically make him master of tbe situation so far as this city is concerned. Among the matters to which his attention should be du-ected are the following: 1. The utilization of our present elevated system. Double tracks should be permitted on the Second, Thhd aud Sixth avenues so as to give more frequent and fast trains, which wooJd save at least twenty minutes in running the length of the island. Then the tracks ought to be extended to the principal ferries. 2. The widening and extension of Elm street so aa to form a continuous thoroughfare from tho Brooklyu Bridge to the Harlem River. No street cars should be permitted, but another elevated road should be authorized to accommodate the increase of travel along the centi-e of the island. iJ. A west side widening and extension of some street to relieve the gorged traffic in that part of the city. 4. The extension of the cable system so as to embrace the Thii-d, Sixth and Eighth avenues. This would ,'give swifter transit and reheve the streets of unnecessary cars and horses. 5. Improvement and extension of our dock system. An elevated road over the ends of the piers for freighting purposes, so as to get rid of trucks and carts in our street. 6. A system of half-yearly, if not quarterly, payment of taxes, so. as to get rid of the necessity, which now exists, of borrowing money in advance to carry on the bueiness of the city. This is done in