Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 44, no. 1123: September 21, 1889

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Record and Guide. *2>^ ^ ESTi^BLisHED-^W^CHaiii^iaee. BiisiriESS A(i) Themes of GeHeRA^ I;JT€i\es7 PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday.^ TELEPHONE, ■ - - JOHN 370. Communications should be addressed to C. W, SWEET, 191 Broadway, A T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLIV. SEPTEMBER 21. 1839. No. 1,183 WaU street seems to be full of stocks bought in anticipation of big crops, and consequently heavy business to the railroads. The big crops are here, so are the customers with their stocks, and both are awaiting the next development—a good market to sell on. As for our wlieat, Europe seems to be in no hurry to buy, and when we consider how weii tlrey got along last year, with short croiss all around, it is plain enough that they are not at all frightened about the present outlook. Our farmers do not care to sell at ruling prices, aud railroads can get no further very kirge earnings until wheat begins to move. As for the coru crop it takes a long time for this to be reflected in the benefits to railroads, as it must go largely into animals before it conies to the market, and the corn croi* is moved more in the shape of hogs and provisions than in any other way. Our cotton, however, Europe must have at some price, and the clique which is buying it knows that not only must Europe have cotton very soon, but everyone of our own mills is also short for manufacturing purposes. EngUsh and Continental spinner.f will put off buying as long as possible, but tlie best cotton is always that which comes first to the uT.arket; so we can surely count upon a lot of exchange being made in oiu' favor in the immediate future whether grain moves or not. The rate question with the railroads, though far from being settled, seems to begradually conSning itself within narrower bounds, and should it be satisfactorily adjusted "WaU street will soon again start off on the road to higher prices. The money question may be relied upon to soon settle itself, and tight money with plenty of business in sight is a very different thing from tight money brought on by over-speculation. The government report of the ex]iorts of iirovisions from the United States during the past mouth shows that we are continuing to reap the benefit of the large coru crop of last year. Coming as it does at the moment when another large crop is assured it is pleasant news, as it foretokens a continuance of prosperous times so far as several of tlie principal products of the country are concerned. During August we shipped abroad uaore than twice as much corn as we did a year ago, twice as much ham, nearly twice as much lard, 50 per cent, more pork andover 10,000,000 pounds more bacon. Of course, all this is nothing but corn in a different shape. Every largo crop of this cereal increases the live stock of tbe country, cheapens food, in this way reacting upon other industries, and adds to tbe surplus of provisions for export. With wheat it is becoming more and more difficult for us to meet the competition of other countries, and there is little doubt that in the future our supremacy in the markets of the world as to this cereal will be disputed more strongly than ever. Indeed, considering the rapid growtii of our population, it may not be long before the home market will be the only market we need. But with corn we are so easily first that it is likely to become a more important factor on om' foreign com¬ merce than it is. So far as the newspapers are concerned, the opjjosition to the Bowling Green site for the new Custom House and Appraiser's buildiugs is principally political. The selectiou was the act of a Republican administration, hence every paper Democratically inclined feels called upon to condemn it. No good can come out of Nazareth ; though at the time ex-Secretary of the Ti-eastiry Fair- child was considering this same site, and was inclined to select it these critics had not a word to say about its uudesirableness which DOW strikes thera so forcibly. But tlien, Fairchild was a Democrat. Quite apart from politics, however, the site is about as good as could be chosen, despite aU that has been said by up-town importers, who have talked from flrst to last to suit then- own interests. So far as it goes that is all right. The selection of a site should be a matter of interest as distinct from other considerations, but the interest that decides the question should be not the interest'of tbe up-town importers, or the down-town importers, but the interests of the entire port of New York, wbich it should not be forgotten includes Brooklyn, the seat of about one-half of the commerce of the port. Apart, however, from the interests of oiu" sister city,, which after ail are our interests too, in tire choice between an up-to'wn and a down-town aite, the facts favor the latter. Surveyor Beattie says there are fifty-three bonded warehouses in this city, and they are one-third of a mile nearer to Bowling Green than to the present Appraiser's Store at Greenwich and Laight streets, and of the num¬ ber of packages sent to these stores the destination of about .51 was south of Canal street, about .36 between Canal and 14th streets, and only .05 above i4th street: All that has beeu said about the heavier expenses for hauling that will be entailed upon importers by the choice of the Bowling Green site for the Appraiser's Stores is largely nonsense, because packages for appraisement are deliv¬ ered at the expense of the government, while other packages remain at the wharves where they arrive, and are thence carted direct to their destination. From the tenor of the objections that have been made it might be imagined that all merchandise imported, every ton of pig iron, every baiTel of soda, or beer, all machinery, aud every crate of goods passed through the Appraiser's Store, and, iudeed, the Custom House as well. In the recent strike in London, philanthropists. Socialistic reformers, Radicals and the " friends of Labor" generally, worked up a great deal of sympathy for the dockyard men by descanting on the " tyranny of Capital" and the " duty of employers," until one might be led to believe that in some way a certain portion of mankind has become tainted with vices from which another por¬ tion is wholly, or to a great part, free. This idea, or something like it—that there are two classes of meu, the wolves and the sheep, and that tlie latter need constant protection against the former— underlies a great part of the Socialistic and paternal legislation of recent years, and has created and is creating a mass of purely class laws whicii in many cases are identical in principle with much of the olmoxious legislation of bygone centuries. The difference is this, that the legislative machiuery then ground in the interests of the aristocracy, whereas to-day it is grinding almost as finely for Labor. Tho ci-iticism of Socialists to-day upon Capital is after all mainly a criticism upon human nature, and such phrases aa the " tyranny of Capital," " the selfishness of Capital," with which our oars are filled would merely be completed by being widened into the " tjranny and selfishness of Human Nature." As a proof of this one has only to consider the treatment to which Labor sub¬ jected the men who took the place of the strikers in the London dockyards. They were bodily maltreated and in many cases driven from work. Every strike in this country wherein the " scab " has taken a part has furnished examples of this, and everyone who has had any dealings with Union labor knows how tyrannous and positively unjust many of the Union rules are, not only to the employer but to Labor itself, and especially to that larger part of it whicii is not organized and includes the most unfortunate. It is as certain as anything can be, that if Labor took the place of Capital to-morrow the "working class" would be no better treated than it is to-day, and we know that in co-operative enter¬ prises, wherever they have been established, where the operatives are at once capitalists and laborers, wages are no higher nor is the treatment better than in the factories of the cajntalists. That Capital as a whole is reaping the fruits of the earth and starving the rest of mankind is disproved by all the statistics that have been obtained. Edward Atkinson has shown that 90 per cent, of the firms that go into business go out of it by failure, and the erroneous ideas which obtain regarding the condition of Capital are largely due to taking a few extraordinary cases, such as the Vanderbilts, Carnegie and certain railroad and trust magnates, and holding them up as typical of all other capitalists. The same method of arguing applied to Labor would yield queer results. The question which we should never lose sight of in all discus¬ sion of tbe subject is this : Is Labor less tyrannous, less selfish than Capital, or are both part of mankind possessed in an equal degi-ee of its virtues and faults ? The judgments which we pass on others are, nine cases out of ten, judgments on ourselves. During the great blizzard in 1888, if we remember rightly, some of the employes of the Western Union in this city roundly denounced the selfishness of the management in deducting wages for a part of the time that they were away from their posts. Yet it was shown that some of the employes easily made their way to the office- the day after the storm, and many of those that stayed away spent their time inspecting the "sights" about tbe city. It might be added to this that these men themselves demand extra ijay for overwork, and during this same blizzard were paid extra wages for the overtime they put in because of tbe rusii of business which followed the resumption of the telegraphic service. There are many laws on the statute books regulating eraploj'ors. What would be said to a suggestion to pass ouly one law to regu¬ late Labor as to its efficiency, cleanliness, industry and so forth. Some people are crying for a " minimum-ivage" law. Suppose, afc