Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 44, no. 1127: October 19, 1889

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SlOctober 19, 188!) Record ' and Guide. 139: "^ ■ ^ ESTABUSHE3)'^NWpH51'-i'*^t86a. De/oteB jo Ke^L Estme , BuiLdi//c AftctdTEcrai^E .Household DEooR^noti. BUsii^Ess A^^D Themes of GeNeraI l|iT€i\ES7 FRI€E, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELePHONt, - - JOHN 370. £ommunlcatioii5 should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway ), T, LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLIV. OCTOBER 19, 1839. No. 1,127. That it is still wallowing in the trough of the sea is all that can be said of the stock market. Money has ranged from 8 to 12 per cent, every day this week with no particular sign from any quarter that it will be any easier before Jaruiary, This seems to be the opinion of many bankers and brokers, but when one remembers that it is only a few weeks since the same men predicted right the con trary about the money market, no one needs sell house and land on their judgment. It seems that money is in demand all over the world at the present moment. Berlin, where it always rules at very low figures, recently charged stock speculators at the rate of 15 and 20 per cent, for carrying over balances. Tlie Bank of England has drawn the lines very close with borrowers for some weeks, white Italy has for' months been in a state of sPULi-panic by reason of tight money. France is really the only couutry witii a surplus of loanable funds, and .she has paid too high a price to secure her.self this comfortable position to let go of it very easily. In England tlie Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently decided to issue silver for lialf sovereigns, and this may be the first step towards the more general resumption of tlie use of silver abroad. Should this occur, and silver be remonetized abroad, we would see better business in this country than we have had since the discovery of gold in California. Such close times as they are now having with mouey in England and Gcrmauy will hasten tbeir decision and strengthen materially,the silver party who have been growing stronger every year. Tlie tigiires collected by Prof. Adams of the Inter-state Com¬ merce Commission, showing that 61,44 per cent, of the railroad stocks of the country pay no dividends whatever, and 31.69 per cent, of the bonds pay no interest, bave a great deal of light thrown upon tbem by this Atchison reorganization. Tiie stockholders of a raih'oad company take luo.st of tbe risk and get precious httle return: the bondholders take a much smaller risk and get a much larger return, wiiile the bankers take no risk at all andgetth^ biggest return of any of them. The latter aresimply necessary parasites who enrich themselves on the enterprise, mistakes and misfortunes of railroad stockholders and managers. A company is started, and the bankers get a good fat commission for fioating the bonds. The liue, let us say, pays for a wiiile and soou finds it desirable to extend its con¬ nections, with the result of more bonds and commissions. But the extensions are made too much for the future, hard times come, dividends are paid on borrowed money—for wbich a good com¬ mission is charged—and the road gets hopelessly involved. Once more the bankers step in and double theii-^ofifcs, already very large, by reorganizing, lending more money at a g' lod rate of interest, and charging once more an ample commission. Tbere are $75,000,000 of.Atchison stock, §160,786,000 of bond issues, with fixed charges amounting to $11,157,769. The fixed charges, as proposed by the plan of reorganization, will be $7,y52,390. This is where the bond¬ holders will lose, tbeir lo.ss ranging from $11 to $o8 on the interest of eacb thousand. To make up for this loss they get a certain amount of income bonds, bt^aring :"> per cent, interest—when it is paid, which it certainly will not be for some years. These income bonds are the device used to save the company from foreclosure. After the reorganization is completed uo single class of se<-urity- holders will be any better off tbau it was before, iu spite of tho scaling down of interest charges. Before tbe stockholders get any¬ thing there will still be ;f;ll,000,000 and over to be paid ; the bond¬ holders will receive less for some years, and the indebtedness of the company will be enormously increased, Tliis is not saying that the reorganization scheme is not as equitable a one as possible, but it is a lar^e price to pay for inismanagenient. Nobody will make anything except the bank(;rs. Such are the advantages ol the control of capital in the modern industrial world. The city is losing, if indeed it has not already lost, its common sense in this matter of the electric wires. We flnd the public almost in hysterics, onr streets in darkness and our olKcials ready to embrace any half-considered plan, all becatise a lineman lost his life in a conspicuous and distressing way. It is true the qnestion of burying the wires bas been discussed and fought over for a long time past, but it is safe to say that unless the pitiable accident that occurred last week had happened, tbe matter would not be in its present acute state. The fatality, of coui-se, is to be deeply deplored; and the electric light company whose imperfectly insulated wire caused the death of the man is undoubtedly to blame, and, if it is, it deserves to be made to pay a heavy penalty for its criminal negligence. But this does not warrant oui- municipal officers in hastily committing the city to an ill-advised jiolicy in rela¬ tion to electric wires, which it seems they are about to do. Every¬ one must see that to bury insufficiently insulated wires in under¬ ground subways instead of carrying them overhead; and to fancy that thereby danger to the lives of linemen and others is lessened, resembles too closely the ostrich's plan of hiding itself to be entirely pleasant to sensible people. The safety or danger of electric wires is, practically, entirely a matter of insulation, and just so long as wireo conducting heavy cur¬ rents are permitted tobe in service the lives of liugmen will be endan¬ gered, no matter how deep below tbe street surface they (that is, both linemen and wires) are buried. Indeed, there are many reasons for thinking, in face of all that has been said, that the wire buried is a much more dangerous weapon than the wire overhead. Buried beyond observation and almost beyond inspection the badly insu¬ lated wire could make a pleasant "combine" with the"leaking gas main and attack the public at large through any stisceptible tele¬ phone or incandescent-light wire that happened to be ne^- by; besides, it would certainly be more difficult for the linemen to han¬ dle it in a dark subway amid a tangle of other wires than in broad daylight, as at present. So far as the protection of life is concerned the pro])er thin^ for the city officials to do is to see that all wires are adei|\iately insulated. Whether they are buried or not doesnot affect their dangerousness, more especially so far as linemen are concerned. IClectrieal experts need not be called in to tell us that badly insulated wires carrying heavy currents are dangerous anywhere. — - •-------- It should not be forgotten aiuid all the noise that has been raised about the death of Lineman Feeks that the number of deaths that have resulted from electi'icity is very small. Many more people meet tiieir death every year in New York City by falling down elevator shafts or by being run over in tbe streets than by elec¬ tricity. It is proposed that the use of cun-ents of only very limited power shall be permitted. No such restriction should be tolerated. It is the very worst policy possible to place impediments in the way of tbe fullest development of an agent that is only just commencing to be put to the service of man. To say that currents of only 3-50 volts may be used is very like saying that trains shaU be run no faster tban thirty miles an hour. It is sufficient to enact that no current shall be transmitted tbat is not transmitted safely, but that is very different from saying that no current of more than 250 volts may be used. It may not be possible to transmit safely a stronger current to-day tban2,50 volts, but improvements willsurely be made, and what is impossible to-day will be possible to-morrow. To put a limit to the force employed would seriously check elec¬ trical development along certain lines. Is it not time that the government of this city should cease its op]>ositiou to every scheme to impi-ove the present facilities for transportation y It bas opposed the subway project, additional tracks on the elevated roads, and electric niotoi's. It opposed the construction of a car line along Broadway until the opposition was overcome by wholesale corruption, and now, lately iu tlie case of the Tiiu'd avenue road and more recently with the Broadway and Seveuth Avenue Compauy, it is opposing the substitution of tbe cable system for horses. Instead of fighting tbe companies the city should have insisted long ago upon the change being made. The use of horses keeps the streets and atmosphere of the city in a disgusting and unhealthy condition all the year round, and the gtables that have to he maintained for thousands of animals iu different parts of the city are not only grievous offences to the eye and nostrils but must be unsanitary in the extreme. The substitu tion of the cable system on all roads would not only abolish this evil but would make the city immensely quieter and cleaner than it is—in a word, a fitter place for human habitation. Tlie change canuot he made too quickly, and our officials should not be opposing the substitution, but insisting that it he made without delay. The interests of the city are uot to be best served by a minuie analysis of legal technicalities. We need common sense, broail libei'al views of public matters, and not the fine, hair-splitting of a iiettyfogging lawyer. To si.;ore a microscopic point against a corporation, to detect a deeply-hidden meaning in the words of its charter is, after all, a poor success compared with making the city a more habitable place. Indications thus far by no means go to show that the Pan-Amer¬ ican Conference is simply to become au agency for tiie better satis¬ faction of subsidy seekers, such as some Democratic papers seemed