Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 44, no. 1120: August 31, 1889

Text version:

August 31, 1889 Record and Guide. 1179 eX . ■* ESTABUSHED ^WARPH 211^"' Dev&je) to i^ EsrwE. BuiLDif/G ATi,ciiiTECTui\E .HouseHold DEQOI^noi*. BUsitJESs mId Themes of Ce^efv^I 1;Jtei\esi PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - - - JOHN 370. Comnmnlcattons should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. A T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLIV. AUGUST 31, 18S9. No. 1,120 No frost and the dissipation of tbe fears of tight money have put up the stock market this week from one to four points. Should the nest ten days pass without a cool wave there will be ready for harvest the most bountiful crop of all kinds of cereals that this country has ever gathered. Wall street bas had such a prolonged period of dullness that should a combination of good things come along, SUCH as are likely to occur, we shall witness a wild and reckless speculation which will not end until the fires are put out by the inevitable disaster which always accompanies such periods. In this connection it will be well for our readers to recall the fore¬ cast of Samuel Benner, published in The Record and Guide of January 13 : "I predict that there will be a wonderful advance in in-icea for iron, stocks, and alt products and commoditiefi in the year 1890 ; all business will be prosperous ; it will be a year of good crops, and the boom year in this period of activity. In the beginning of the year 1891 speculation will be at its height —a great business inflation—pig-iron fifty dollars per ton in the markets of our country." ****!(; will be remem¬ bered that Mr. Benner predicted, thirteen years ago, the business depression of the yearl888,and at tbe same time the prediction was also made that the tide would turn giving us an era of business activity during the years 1889, 1890 and 1891. England for three years past has enjoyed greafc business prosperity, and theturn of the wheel should now bring aome of it to our shores. Facts are not wanting to show that already the business pros¬ perity which Mr. Benner has predicted is being felt. An increase in our foreign imports of 17 per cent, in July and 25 per cent, hi the first three weeks in August over the corresponding periods last year are significant. This, together with a phenomenally large amount of money in circulation, au increment of 9 per cent, in rail¬ way earnings thus far in August, and unusually large bank clear¬ ings in the interior cities are sufficient indications of the present and coming expansion in our industries. Neither are special exem¬ plifications of this fact lacking. When wages are rising it means that production has justified tbe increase. Consequently, when we see the Missouri Pacific Railroad increasing spontaneously tbe wages of its employes 10 per cent., we may be sure that the situa¬ tion warrants the increase. Mr. Gould is one of the shrewdest financiers in the country, and knows very well bow to sail with the wind. Similar increases elsewhere are likely to follow. Almost a year ago an appeal waa made to the people concerning the policy which Mr. Cleveland was pursuing. The people declared themselves not satisfied with Mr. Cleveland's policy. They declared, or about one-half of them declared, that in their opinion some other policy was needed to maintain the prosperity of the country and increase it. Yet a year, or nearly a year has elapsed and not only has nothing been done to make a change in tbo national policy but no attempt has been made to do so. An extra session should have been called last spring, and whatever changes the Repubhcans intended to make in the tariff and the inland revenue system as well as efforts to rehabilitate our merchant navy and dispose of the surplus in the Treasury, in conf oi-mity with their declarations in Chicago, could have been well under way by tbis time. Instead, nothing has been done. We are exactly where we were last fall. There has been nothing but a repetition of the old disgraceful scramble for offices. We have a new administration, but it has administered nothing but the offices. At least another year will go by before Congress haa done bickering and talking- about what it is going to do and an-ived at any decision, and another year will elapse before any decision arrived at is carried into effect. —------•--------- As wehavedeterminedto have an Exposition it is, perhaps, inevit¬ able that we sbould hear a good deal about it, but the immense amount of random dlecussion tbat there bas been as to the site and probable cost reminds one iu some of its features of the hot words that once passed between a worthy couple as to what should be the name of an expected child, the sex of which had not yet been determined. It would naturally be thought that before the ques¬ tions of site and cost could be intelligently discussed, a very definite conception of the size and character of the proposed Exposition would be arrived afc. But no effort has been made to do anything of the kind. The Site Committee and the Finance Committee have been set to work with nothing before tbem but images of pasfc Expositions and the Fair at present opeu in tbe Champ de Mars. That ideas on the subject vary slightly may be inferred from the fact that one writer on the subject speaks of 1,500 acres, " at least," as necessary for the buildings and suitable sun-oundiugs, while another meekly suggests as a proper site St. Ma;ry's Park, in which there are just .25 acres. Morningside and Riverside Parks,[120 acres in extent, have many advocates; while others are positive that any site less extensive than Van Courtlandt Park, which has an area of 1,070 acres, or Pelham Bay Park of 1,748 acres, would be entirely inadequate. ----------»------~ Now, the sooner we get rid of the idea that tlie Exposition cannot be a success unless it covers a greater number of square acres than any other show on earth the better. That is the P. T. Barnum ideal of an Exposition. Nothing is to be gained by erecting huge edifices, and causing the visitors to wander in weariness among soda-water fountains, ice-cream makers and a chaotic display of merchandise, exhibited solely with a view to the advertisement gained thereby. What is needed is quality of exhibits and not ' quantity; and, to obtain this, a very strict selection should be exer¬ cised. With an Exposition of limited area this selectiou is more likely to he carefully made. The Exposition of 1893 is to commemorate a historic event, and no better plan could be adopted than to make the exhibits historic— that is, to have them show ihe development that has occurred in the arts and manufactures during the 'past 400 years, especially with reference to this country. As Mr. Atkmson has pointed out in his letters to the Chamber of Commerce, there is abundance of material for such an Exposition here and abroad. It would be a good thing to limit the exhibitors in many lines of manufacture to say five, and to let it be known that space would be allotted to the five that sent in the best exhibit showing the development of their trade from the earliest times. A plan of this kind carried out even moderately well would give us an Exposition that few would like to see scatteretJ. It would educate thousands of people and mark out a new course for future world's fairs. The old Exposition plan of a vast display of merchandise and a scramble for medals, which in most cases, are of no more value than the metal they contain, is, in the vulgar phrase, "played out." Something new is needed. Those in charge of the matter have a great opportunity. Will they be strong enough to seize it ? " Our Impartial Observer," this week, has a few uncomplimentary words to say about the law. It is lamentable that most of what he says and a great deal of what he implies is beyond contradiction. It is all within the common knowledge of every man who knows anything of what is going on around him. It has often been shown that our courts have been corrupt, and that our judges administer a gi-eat deal of " poUtics" with their justice, the uncer¬ tainty and delays of the law have got beyond the reacli of exagger¬ ation, and every lawyer, not too innocent for the profession, knows that the door to success with him has to be opened with an inside "pull." In oneof the best known and most highly respected law firms in this city, a firm with a very long and high-sounding name, the junior member is innocent of all legal knowledge, having gradu¬ ated in life as the starter on a race track. But then he knows several judges and a great deal about " politics." No wonder that, as Christopher Walton points out, the business in lawyers' offices is falling off, and litigants endeavor by subter¬ fuge to get their cases into Federal courts where the judges are not so much under the debasing influence of politics, and thus have not to prostitute justice to gain tbeir living. But ■' Our Impartial Observer" fails to point out the very important part that lawyers play in discrediting the law. They are quite as responsible as " politics" in the court and on the bench for the preseut state of things wherein people prefer to suffer injustice, or to "compromise,'* or "arbitrate," rather than go to law; and why large commercial institutions like the Chamber of Commerce perform for themselves the most vital function the State has to discharge. We have only to remember how completely large estates have heen wrecked iu disputed will cases to realize what an impediment to justice the delays and expenses of law must be with people of moderate means. The reform of tho law is the great reform which the hour demands, and the danger is that while we are all crying loudly for the preservation of our forests, tho rehabihta- tion of our navy, the purification of our civil service, as matters essential to the happiness and greatness of the country, no one thinks of raising a voice for the preservation of justice, the purification of our courts and the rehabilitation of our