Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 45, no. 1155: May 3, 1890

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May 3, 1890 Record and Guide. 639 j^ _,__„....... De/oTED to Kem ESTME , BuiLDIf/c A^crflTECTUI^E .HoUSEHOLD DEGORAIION. BUsl^JESS A(Jd Themes ofGErJEfvil 1;jt£R,es7 PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, JOHN 370. Communications should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. _________________ Vol. XLV. MAY 3, 1890. No. 1,155. Our readers should see that they receive the twenty page supple¬ ment, illustrating the "East Side," with this issue of THE RECORD AND GUIDE. m---------• Brokers who have not smiled for months have this week grinned from ear to ear as they have watched the tape, with its daily increasing flgures markiug amounts whicii they had begun to beUeve would never be reproduced in Wall street. Wiiether prices have come to stay is the puzzle they are now called upou to solve, aud about this there are as many opinions as there are brokers. The bear faction has, however, beeu badly hurt, and is by no means so ready to bulldoze an investor v^ho ventures to express au opinion on the future of the values of railroad stocks. That the rise has only begun and that the great bulk of the stocks in the street has not, as yet, had an inning, can, we think, be safely predicted, and at the same time a speculator must be prepared for a set back in prices any day, for ifc will surely come, no matter how certain a bull mar¬ ket may be later on. As yet the general public has had no share in the rise; it has no more than made an inquiry, and it is by no means certain that this great big public, which is the only hope for a con¬ tinuance of the rise in prices, will come in, as railroad quarrels are nofc yet over wifch, and these investors do nofc like. From Maine to California, with very little exception, everything in the agricul¬ tural line is looking well. The labor strikes are suie to settle them¬ selves. It really looks as though Congress would soon satisf acton ly settle many important questions, including the silver matter, and, look where one will, it must be confessed the chances are on the hopeful side. At the same tirae, there have been so many disap¬ pointments that one cannot go far astray should he bag a part of his profit in Wall street, for no one has ever been known to get poor doing this. ----------■—•------- The week has passed without any adjustment of the differences between the Senate and the Assembly on the Rapid Transit bill, and apparently any settlement of the disagreement is as far off as ever. It is a very pretty dispute. Messrs. Fish and Gibbs are doubtless congratulating tliemselves that their sturdy refusal to wear the Platt collar has covered them with political glory, and that they will be regarded in this city as the incorruptible defenders of our local interesfc from Stafce and machine interference. If such is their belief, they will soon be disillusionized. They have stood in the way of the city when it was trying to get the World's Fair, as they have stood in the way of the best measure for rapid transit introduced into the Legislature of late years. It would be futile to enter into the political squabble and take up arms for either one side or the other. What New York wants ia a Rapid Transit bill which meets the necessities of the situation ; it is dis¬ tinctly a secondary matter who the Commissioners are, provided only that they be honest and intelligent men. All the gentlemen whose names are under consideration have these qualifications, and it is Hobson's choice among them. Thus we are indifferent to the result as long as the bill is passed ; but if it is not passed the whole crowd of politicians, and particularly the Fish-Gibbs combination, should be held strictly accountable. To do Senator Fassett justice, he has from the beginning exhibited a commendable desire to pass his bill, and to make every reasonable concession to forward this end. The offers of the Senate Conference Committee were mani¬ festly fair. We hope that rather than let the bill fail he will make still further concessions; but if it does fail, the responsibility will be mainly with the Republican " bolters." " The work of " exposing" our city officials goes on at about as lively a pace as the most avaricious scandalmonger could wish. The "portrait of a government" which has been developed lately in thia city is as vivid a delineation of pothouse vulgarity and common sordidness tn high, if indeed one should not say "holy" places, as perhaps has ever been presented to a community that makea some pretensions to be righteous, enlightened and civilized. And what is the result? Nothing, "It's a diagracel" exclaims Respectable Citizen indignantly over his morning paper, "that the city govern¬ ment should be under the control of such men, but a few minutes later he has put the paper aside, and with it his indignation. " I must have a sermon on tliis," says the clergyman. " Such a state of affairs should not be. This defilement of public life bodes ill for the State." He selects an appropriate text for a sermon that greatly "edifies" his congregation, and is pointed to in Monday morning's paper as an indication that the public conscience is at last "stirred,'' and the pulpit has joined the forces fighting for good government. As to the congregation, they say: " Powerful sermon that. Didn't know Mr. Sm-plice had such a grasp of secular matters. Astonishing man. There's no doubt he's right, the government of this city is a disgrace to us all." Next week all ia forgotten. The clergyman is immersed in a sermon on missions for the moral elevation of the Hottentots, and the congregation are intent upon making a dollar out of the things of Mammon. As to the newspaper editor the sub¬ ject is a rich sensation for him in the news columns, and an oppor¬ tunity for fine indignation and invective on the " editorial" page. Talk, talk. Who does anything. The citizen ? The clergy¬ man ? The congregation ? The editor ? No. Each has hia own affairs to attend to, and has no time, or will give no time to estab¬ lish in the city in which he lives a commonly decent government. Only the politician acts. The machine is put in better order, and the next election demonstrates for the hundredth time that the Mikes and the Barneys, the pothouse politicians, the heelers and diatrict bosses make the government of this city. Vulgarity and commonness rule. The bill permitting the Sinking Fund Commissioners to reduce the percentage of receipts paid by a street railroad for its franchise is a dangerous measure, and its passage by the Assembly is at least a mistake. It is said to have been created to relieve the Twenty- eighth Street RaUroad of what that corporation considers to be a bad bargain made with the city. It bid at auction for the franchise it now holds forty per cent of its grosa receipts, and this it asserts is excessive. Certainly it is a large sum, perhaps too large to be paid without actual loss to the company on its operations. But this particular case does not warrant the putting on the statute books of a general law which can be used at any time to subvert a good principle which as yet has scarcely been established in public policy, viz.: that raUroada and other corporations should contribute largely to the municipal treasury for franchises and privileges granted to them by the community. We all know there is nothing more infectious than a precedent, and the relief of one company from what it considers au onerous bargain will prompt other com¬ panies to strive for concessions. Opportunities for wrong¬ doing will thus be created, and another cause for watchfulness on the part of the public will arise. If the Twenty-eighth Street Railroad has made a bad bargain, that is nobody's fault but its own. It knew what it waa doing when it bid forty per cent, of its earnings. There was no compulsion to bid even one per cent. If the company bids a certain price for its horses or cars it has to abide by ita action, and no good reason can be given why a different principle should govern in its dealings with the city. It cau easily be understood that if a company can make ex¬ travagant bids with the knowledge that subsequently it can obtain a revision of its bid the sale of public franchises will become a farce, and the contribution of corporations to the city treasury will really be a raatter for private dicker with the Sinking Fund Com¬ missioners. The Eeal Estate Exchange Legislative Committee should take charge of this matter and make every effort to defeat this measm'e. ----------a---------- The proposed new Building Law has a doubtful chance of being passed by the Legislature, owing to the lack of time, the session expiring on the 9th instant. The bill will undoubtedly get through the Assembly within the next few days; then it has to go to the Senate, and as there are two or three hundred other bills, the friends of this particular measure fear that it cannot be reached before the hour for final adjournment arrives. Three or four bills of general iuterest: ballot reform, aqueduct claims, city investigations, will consume much time, and although the amendments to the building law is a subject worthy to stand on an equal basis with any other biU, yet there is no political patronage connected with it, uo boodle behind it, no party advantage to be gained, only a matter concern¬ ing the safety, comfort and health of the people who live in this city, and whose property interests are here; but these considerations are not weighty matters with the average legislator. However, Assemblyman Connelly, who has charge of the bill, appreciates its importauce, and will do everything in hia power by advancing the bill as promptly as parliamentary methods wiU permit to as early a vote aa possible. ----------■---------- The bill reached Albany very late owmg to the care with which it was prepared and the careful consideration of the mass of sug¬ gestions submitted to the Committee on Revision by architects, builders and otbeiB who had pubhcly been invited to offer augges- tiona for the betterment of the present law. It was presented with