Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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34fi Record and Guid e. March 16, 1889 story that makes it a tower is pierced by a group of narrow round- arched openings, tlu-ee on the narrow and eight on the long front. The carving throughout is in the Byzantine manner, now so prevalent, and is unfaihngly good in execution and in design also, unless we except the corbels of the big brick walls. As ha^ been seen, the building contains some excellent features, and almost everywhere shows thought and feeUng. Nevertheless, it cannot be called successful as a whole, mainly for the reason that it is not a whole. The tower is the most ambitious feature, and it is also the great mistake in the composition. If it had been treated as a nearly solid shaft and steeply roofed it might have improved the outline of the building and added dignity to ifc. But since commercial con¬ siderations compelled the arcliifcect to flll it full of windows he would have done much better to omit it altogether. It gives the narrow front, which was none too wide in any case, a painfully squeezed and huddled aspect, and adds nothing to the effect of the longer front. The rolls are another mistake in this place. Around buttress may effectively fortify the angle of a building, though it oftener weakens it. But a roll too large and protrusive to be a modelling of the waU itself, which is apphed to it to strengthen it and is evidently carried by the wall which it pretends to reinforce, is an irrational aud even absurd object. The exaggeration of fche cornice is another mistake, which defeats its own purpose. That purpose must be to make it look very massive, and this is effected when a considerable projection takes place in a moderate height, and may be much enhanced by the insertion of narrow slits of aperture. When full-sized windows are interpolated, as here, the continuity and the massiveness of the cornice ai-e destroyed, and it becomes a series of lumps, by no means impressive. It is a great pity that the effective featm-es and the clever detail of this design should be in part wasted upon an unfortunate composition. Postmaster-General Wanamaker is bringing his experience as the head of a great sfcore to add to the efficiency of the government departments over which he now^ presides. It seems that in his store he employs fifty clerks to forward packages by mail to all parts of the country. The charge for this fourth-class matter, as it is called, is 16 cents per lb. This he will ask Congress to reduce to 8 cents per lb. so as thus to benefit the retail dealers and their customers. The present high charge is, of course, favored by the express companies, who naturally want to monopolize the small package business of the country. Em-opeans have now an immense advantage over this counti-y in the cheapness of their " Parcels Post," which practically takes the place of our express companies; but, of course, the cost is ti-ffiing as compared to the charges of the express monopolies of this country. A great government like that of Gei-many, France or England can make much better terms with the railroad corporations than can the American express companies with those at home, but the competi¬ tion of fche latter often bids up the price against tiiemselves. The newspapers will probably oppose Postmaster-General Wana¬ maker's proposed cheapening of mail matter. They will say ifc was suggested in order to help lus own store. The newspaper publishers now enjoy an exceedingly fat piece of public plunder in connection with the Post-office Department. While f om-th-class matter costs 16 cents per lb. and lefcfcers 3 cenfcs per oz., newspapers and periodicals, and even dime novels, are chafged only 2 cents per lb. In other words, the government makes a present of something over $13,000,000 annually to newspaper and magazine and cheap novel publishers ; but we ought to have a " Parcels Post," based upon the experience aud practice of Europe and Great Britain. It will make an immense addition to the retail trade of the country. It would, of course, help to build up vast estabhshments in the leading cities, from which retail goods could be distributed : but it is one of the tendencies of the times which cannot be altered. By all means let us have a cheap parcels service. Tlie capitalization and profits of the Bell Telephone are simply monstrous. Literally hundreds of thousands of persons have been made ricli by becoming interested in what is nothing more or less, stripped of all scientific mystery ii,nd jargon, than an improve 1 3peaking tube. The telephone ought not to cost the community the one-hundredth part of what it does, Ifc was the government of the United States which supphed the money to prove the practicability of the electric telegraph. The experimental line from Washington to Baltimore was a success. Had our government, like those of other nations, taken fche telegraph department in its hands it would have been a constant source of revenue, whilb telegraphic charges would have averaged probably one-fourtli what they have done undei- the control of private corporations. But when the telegraph was proved to be all right our government was dominated by Jeffer¬ sonian ideas, which forbade the nation doing anything useful, and hence electrical communication was turned over to stock gamblers and finally became monopolized by Jay Gould. The possession of the telegi-aph by the government would naturally have been fol¬ lowed by the buying up of the telephone, when its value became known so as to make it an adjunct to the telegraph service of the country. The State Senate bill permitting a husband to sell his real estate without his wife's consent ought, by all means, to become a law. Women can sell their property* without their husband's permission; and what is sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander. A woman's right of dower ought to be based on all the property of the husband, provided, of course, her means are much less than his; but fchis demand for fche wife's consent in selling of the hus¬ band's realty often works cruel injustice, for ifc ties up estates and throws a cloud upon titles, thus makuig real trouble to the com¬ munity. But we suppose the sentimental view will obtain, and that the well-meant bill will be killed. Street Improvements. One of the most serious problems to be solved by our city author¬ ities is that of sti-eet improvements in the lower part of the city, where with an enormous increase in ti-affic over that of fifty years ago the street accommodations have undergone little or no change. The question has been under discussion for a number of years; but, owing to the fact that property-owners wish to get everything and sacrffice nothhig, insm-mountable obstacles have betn placed in the way of every proposed improvement. The Dock Department has been able probably to accomplish more than any other set of officials. It has the power aud fche will to widen the exterior sti-eets, and for this much we may be thankful; but the projecfcors of every other plan liave mefc only with disappointment and delay. In anotiier column we give a letter from William P. Van Zant, who has been prominent in his opposition to the Elm street and College place improvements, and who in his opposition has repre¬ sented many property-holders on the line of the former proposed alteration. Mr. Van Zant takes the gi-onnd that, in all its work hitherto, the city has been petty and mean iu what ifc has set out to do, and that in the future there should be no more piecemeal work. Nothing but a comprehensive plau, calculated to meet not only afl preseut but many future necessities, would be of any value. Mr, Van Zant outlines what he considers to be such a plan, without, however, specifying the most essential point jjconnected with his avenue—viz: its situation. The Record and Guide has always favored tbe prompt execu-. tion of any improvement which seemed to deserve the name. It has realized that the city should not be timid or parsimonious in making changes which the increased traffic of the city required. Hence we can admit a certain degree of ti-uth in Mr. Van Zant's contentions. A half-way policy is sometimes worse than no policy at all; for such a policy often not only does not meet adequately the immediate requirements, but it prevents the carrying out of a wiser scheme in the future. Business conditionsin American cities change with surprising rapidity. What is a problem to-day has ceased to be one to-morrow. How can we tell that when we have underground connection with the Jersey shore, when more bridges span the East River, when the Harlem River is further improved, and when the annexed and further outlying districts have in'^reased in population and business importance, fche ceuti-es of trade and traffic may not have shifted. It is unwise to improve too much, because we cannot tell wifcb sufficient surety exactly what to expect. The Capitol in Wasliington was built with fche face towards the East, under the impression tliat tJie population would settle in that du-ection ; as a matter of fact the cifcy has grown towards the West, so thafc the Capitol stands with its back to the city and faces a district that is scarcely built up at all. It is useless to meet what may be temporary necessities with permanent impro vem ent s. The editorial columns of a daily newspaper are hardly the places to look for consistency—a fact that is remarkably well exemplified by their treatment of the subject of trusts. We flnd them on the one liand rejoicing at the prospective failure of the copper syndicate and on the other hand approving tbe formation of the Interstate Railway Association. Yet tbe position of the copper mines previous to the formation of the syndicate was in many ways analagous to the position of the railways previous to the formation of the asso¬ ciation. There were some differences, it ia true, but in the main both the railways and the mines were being ruined by over-compe¬ tition. According to the papers the restoration of rates in one case was merely the restoration to the stockholders of their rights ; the restoration of a reasonable price in the other case was robbery and conspiracy. Or, again, certainly one of the worst uionopohes in the country is that of the coal producers. Six or seven big corpo¬ rations virtually control the price of antluacite—a monopoly that is rendered almost impregnable by the fact that these corporations are the carriers as well as the producers. Yet in the case of the coal the bm-den of high prices falls very heavily on the poor, to whom it is a necessity. Only a lifcfcle over 2 per cent, of the annual product of Pennsylvania is exported. Copper, on the contrary.