Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 43, no. 1090: February 2, 1889

Text version:

FebrilHry 3, 1889 Record and Guide. 133 yi^ ,^\y "eX ^ ESTABLISHED^WARPH51i-^l86a._^ De/oIED to l^E\L ESTME . BuiLDIf/c A^cKlTECTJl^E .KoUseHoIH DEGOiyLTlorJ, Basii/Ess aiJdThemes OF CEfJERAL i;^T£i\ES7 PRICE, PER YEAR liV ADTANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - . . JOHN 370. ilonmninications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. T. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLIII. FEBRUARY 3, 1889. No. 1,090 The immediate future of the stock market has a hopeful look. The bond buying continues with unabated vigor, both for domestic and foreign accounts. Conservati-re investors realize that new securi¬ ties will not be put upon the market dm"ing the coming year. Hence the bonds and mortgages now offered are attractive, as there will be a deficient supply for the rest of the business year. During nm" past history an unusual demand for bonds was always followed by a boom in the best class of stocks and junior securities. We do not see that there is much to be expected from the coal stocks, but the corn roads and the Southern stocks ought to increase greatly in value. The rise iu " Big Four," C.,C.,C. &I., Erie & Western preferred is an indication of what may be expected from the roads north of the Oliio and east of the Mississippi. That prosperous manufacturing region has had the largest corn, hay, aud miscella¬ neous crops ever known, and the plentiful supply of hogs and beeves ought to make the whole region between the Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico prosperous beyond precedent. It is now settled thatthe rate wars west of the Mississippi and the Missouri will be reduced to a minimum, but the overbuilding has been so excessive that much encouragement from that region is not to be expected. If there should be a boom during- February the corn roads east of tiie Mississippi ought to show the largest advance. Then should come the Southern securities, then the "Trunk" lines and specialties, but in our judgment it will be a long time before the Western and Southwestern roads have any marked advance in prices. What to do with the Treasury surplus will perplex the incoming administration as much as it did the one which is just about to sur¬ render power. Indeed, Mr. Cleveland's defeat was mainly due to the fact that he insisted upon so mauipulating the sui-plus as to forc'e Congress to pass a measm-e reducing the tariff. Readers of this periodical will remember that before Congress got together in the December of 1887 we had a number of articles insisting that the true policy was to spend the surplus productively—that is, in river and harbor improyements, sea-coast defenses, in public buildings, and in the rehabilitation of oiu- commerce. To supply our real needs would require fully $1,000,000,000, instead of the $160,000,000 locked up in the Treasury. While the money was being thus used in stimulating the business of the country, we argued that Congress might take up the tax and tariff questions and discuss them without any fear of interfering with the trade of the nation. The expendi- tui-es to be urged would have come in at the right time, for it would have followed the stoppage of the excessive railway consti-uction in the West. The government, of course, would have employed labor and stimulated the iron and shipbuilding industries during last summer and fall and this winter and spring. But, no I instead of spending the money on works the nation really needed, the administration saw fit to buy bonds, and since April 17th last about $110,000,000 have been paid over to the rich gentlemen and corporations who own these national obligations. The latter, of coiu-se, made splendid profits, as they had a practical corner in the price. They probably were paid 15 per cent, more than the bonds would have fetched in a normal market. Were a war or any national emergency to force the government to borrow money, these rich beneficiaries of Secretary Fairchiid's policy would be reluctant to furnish funds at even 25 per cent, below what they were paid for their bonds. It is curious to note, by the way, that President-elect Harrison has given his adhesion to this policy, and there are very few leading statesmen or newspapers that can see anything to object to in it. But, nevertheless, it was ti-ying to use the surplus to secure more liberal tariff imposts which lost Mr. Cleveland the election, and if President-elect Harrison and his administration do not act more wisely they too will be discredited. The Republicans, also, have a tariff bill, which seems to us even more objectionable than the MiUa bill. It will probably be passed in the extra session, which I solved. We do hope there will be some sense shown in deahng with this unused money. If it is used productively, it will stimu¬ late om- inriuEtries and give the country better times. It would be folly, unspeakable, to keep on paying it out in bonuses to the bond¬ holders, and absolute wickedness to lavish more millions on pen¬ sions. In 1880 our annual pension payments were $56,000,000. In 1888 they were over $80,000,000. Two-thirds of our pension pay¬ ments are the sheerest plunder, as all the Congressmen know who voted for the various bills. Let our surplus money be spent in public buildings which are needed in tbis growing country, or in river and harbor improvements, for wliich an appropriation of $60,000,000 per annum would not be too much, instead of the $7,000,000, which is the beggarly sum at present spent for our vast coast fines and magnificent internal waterways. Right here, in New York harbor, the expenditure should be from seven to eight millions, and other sections of the country need equally large appropriations. But no more throwing away of themoney to bond¬ holders or in villainous pension legislation. An article that recently appeared in the Sun, saying that rents in Brooklya generally would be lower this year than last, has found its way into several Brooklyn journals, and by some inexphcable blunder has been credited to The Record and Guide, No state¬ ment of the kind, either direct or inferential, has appeared in tho columns of this journal, and we are rather surprised to see such an utterance, under the circumstances, fathered upon us. One tie-up on the New York and Brooklyn horse-car syatema might be excusable, but their frequent occurrenceis wholly unjusti¬ fiable, and is alike discreditable to the companies, their employes and the city and State authorities. The business of the community and the comfort of our citizens should never be at the merby of quarreling corporations and their employes. We do not propose to discuss the right or wrong of this quarrel between the horse- car hne companies and their workpeople. The State has provided a machinery for putting a prompt end to all disputes by the refer¬ ence of tho matter to a State Board of Arbitrators. But the horse- car owners decline to recognize the representatives of their employes and will not arbitrate. The position they take is heartily sustained by the entire press of New York, and, as far as we can judge, the newspapers represent the opinion of our employing and business classes. The class that sympathizes with the strikers may he large, but it is not influential. It has no representation in the press and no way of making its wishes effective when these con¬ flicts are under way. The violence incidental to such labor revolts, in the end, tells against tlie strikers. No strikes such as we have suffered from during the past week are ever heard of in European cities. In many cases the tramway lines are owned by the city, which rents them to companies which agree to give perpetual service. The latter also usually contrib¬ utes to the Sinking Fund, by wluch the city eventually gets posses- sion|of the tracks without cost to the citizens. In time, notonly the tocal railroad in Paris, but nearly all the great railway systems throughout France will pass under the control of the nation. We have thoughtlessly given away for perpetuity these valuable fran¬ chises to private corporations. ---------•--------- Our solution of the city railroad problem is the licensing of the conductors and car-drivers by the city authorities. They would be thus made public officers—part of the police force of the city. Their pay and hours of labor as well as general treatment should be estabUshed by the city or State; this would end sti-ikes and would put a large body of men under the control of the city government in the event of any widespread riot. We are so practical a people that we should put a stop at once and forever to these preposterous and business-disturbing quarrels between the horse-car companies and their employes. Tlie treatment of General Boulanger by the American editors is not creditable to their sense of fairness and discrimination. They repeat the hostile and malicious statements of Boulan- ger's French enemies, as if they were settled facts. Boulanger is really a clever man, who made his mark, as Minister of War, in reorganizing the French army. He showed so much vigor and efficiency as to excite the jealousy of his associate Cabinet Ministers and political leaders. It was the latter's attempts to degrade and discredit him which iiave been resented by the mass of the French people. Then, as we have often pointed out in these columns, France does not take kindly to parfiamentary government. The present constitution was confessedly a makeshift until something better could be devised ; and it has not worked well. The nation has had no stable policy ; Cabinets have lasted only a few months at a time, while the publi<' debt has heavily increased withoutthere being veiy much to show for it. Hence the demand for an altered constitution, which would give the nation the advantage of more ■wiU certainly be called ; but, as it wifi take time to tell how it wfil affppt tbe revenues, the existing surplus is still a problem to be | personal and responsible government, such aa that of Germany f^n^