Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 45, no. 1157: May 17, 1890

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May 17, 1890 Record and Guide. 729 ^^ ^ ESTABUSHED^fWRpH5l'-^^16S8. De/oTED to F^EfL ESTME. SuiLOlf/o Af^cKlTECT'JRE .HoUSEjlOLD De60R,ATIoN. BiisifJEss AtiDThemes of GeHeraL 1|(tei\est PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. PubUshed every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - - • JOHN 370. CommuDications should be addressed to C.W. SWEET; 191 Broadway. 7. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLV. MAY 17, 18S0. No. 1,157. The stock market has lost none of its animation, thougli tlie con¬ ditions have somewhat changed. The Lull market is by no means over, but for the time being money rates have become uncertain, and as a consequence conservative houses are advising caution in pm-chases and the taking of profits. Tliat this should be the case is uot surprising, nor would it be surprising if the market should now react somewhat and create a new basis before another advance is made. There has now been a month of good business with a steady advance, no set-backs fo speak of, and a considerable increase in the number of active stocks. Most of tbe securities which were in the front of the advamr, however, give evidences of extensive realizings, and those whicb have joined the movement in the later stages have found it difficult to hold their gains. Money, which was plentiful at nominal rates at the beginning of the week, has spasmodically gone up, at some period of each of the last few days' trading, to points which check, if not forbid, new operations and L-orapel realizings. The stocks likely to be least affected by these conditions are those which have shown little activity, and tbese, too, have the best chances, probably, in any new advance. The present situation is one which is not of infre¬ quent occurrence in the stock market; one fi^om which it is very difficult to predict the immediate future; and in which, of course, advice becomes from that very reason all the more valuable, and the caution alluded to as coming from conservative brokers, is per¬ haps the best that can be given under the circumstances. Congress is at length beginning to appreciate that the step taken when the Bland bill was passed must be followed up by further legislation in the same direction. In spite of the failure of all the pessimistic predictions as to the results of the bill made by the advo¬ cates of a single gold standard, in spite of the substantial betterment of the finances of the Government under its provisions, the Secre¬ taries of the Treasury have uever coined more than the §3,000,000 per month necessitated by the law. The new legislation will so materially increase this sum that it will practically make the coin¬ age free, and thereby the country will be supplied with a currency sufficient to meet the expansion of our trade and to take the place of the gradually decreasing national bank circulation. It is encour¬ aging to witness the effect of the prospect of this new legislation on Wall street. Three or four years ago, so completely was the street permeated by tbe mono-metallic theories that any proposal for increased silver coinage w-ould have had a depressing effect; but at present, on the contrary, it has formed the basis for a sustained advance. Furthermore, the newspaper opposition to silver legisla¬ tion, wliile still heard, is by no means so confident and virulent as it was formerly. The present Republican Congress may be charged with a good many errors of partisanship and policy, but if it suc¬ ceeds in passing the silver bill it will have earned the gratitude of all to wl\om higher prices mean activity of trade and prosperity. The bill is uot perfect iu all its details, but it is sanctioned by a sound economy and v.-ill go far towards restoring silver to a place in our currency system on an equality with gold. President George H. Scott did wisely jn calling so promptly a meeting of the Eeal Estate Exchange to consider the condition in whicii the adjouniment of the Legislature, without having passed any measure, leaves the Rapid Transit problem. Mr. Scott evi¬ dently recognizes that only by keeping the matter before the public, by agitating, by refusing to allow the question to sleep, can public feeling as to the inadequacy of our rapid transit facilities be brought to such a point that politicians dare not trifle with it. This is dis¬ tinctly the best com'se to pursue. We hope Mr. Scott will continue it. But as to the special effort to resuscitate politically the Eapid Transit question at this season we fear it will be a failure. It is not at all Ukely tbat Governor Hill will consent to reopen a contest in which it is by no means certain that himself or his party would figure to advantage or with profit: even if the request for an extra session should be much more influential tban any the Real Estate Exchange can make just now. The fact is, and it is well that it ehould be recognized, the consideration which the recommendations and wishes of the Real Estate Exchange receive in Albany dimin¬ ished materially during the last few sessions of the Legislature. The Exchange has busied itself with too much. It has dissipated its strength in the consideration of too many measures. It has come too near to being a sort of self-constituted petty Legislature which spends its time criticising or passing recommendations upon the acts of the superior body in the State capital. Politicians are quite shrewd enough to discriminate betvveen perfunctory criticism tbat begins and ends on the paper which contains the memorial addressed to them, and the vigorous opposition of a determined organization aroused to look after its own interests. The Real Estate Exchange seldom should speak except iu the latter fashion. It should speak as a unit, and only upon matters about which the great real estate interest feels strongly, and is willing to act decidedly. To pass resolutions about the hours of labor of postal clerks, or small local improvements, about which every one knows not ten real estate men in the city would cross the street, tends to destroy the influence of the Exchange in larger matters. If the Exchange had done nothing else this session but organize a strong demand for the passage of a Eapid Transit measure, and had urged thst demand at every stage of the disgraceful political fight, a bill might have been passed ; and more would then have been done for real estate and New York City than could be accomplished by a hundred resolu¬ tions favoring an eight-hour day for postal clerks. As it was, at many of the meetings about rapid transit, it was impossible to obtain a quorum ; aud at the general meeting this week on the Exchange fioor, there was a lamentable lack of vivacity, enthusiasm and determination. Politicians know these facts ; and we may be sure they very materiaUy quaUfy "resolutions" and the utterances of committees iu Albany. No misinterpretation cau fairly be put upon these remarks. The Record and Guide was one of the first to pro¬ pose that the E.xcharge should exert its influence in political matters for the welfare of the real estate interest. We have supported over and over again the action of the Exchange in carrying out this policy, and we believe much good has been obtained by it. But the very desire that the Exchange should have influence for good government in Albany causes us to point out that a course of action has been pursued of recent years which, we believe, must in the end destroy that infiuence. ----------■---------- The Seventeenth National Conference of Charities and Correction now in session at Baltimoi'e has economic as well as moral and social import- The man of every day affairs is not apt to regard the practical importance of such meetings. To him they are little more than so many occasions for the relief of over-wrought philanthropic zeal. As a matter of fact, however, the direct purpose of these annual conferences is to diffuse intelUgent information respecting benevolent, charitable, penal and reformatory work. The repre¬ sentatives present at the session in Baltimore are for the most part people who have had wide practical esperience in charity and reform work, and the papers presented are by specialists who rank among the first in the various branches of the field. To the charity organiza¬ tions represented in this conference is due tbe credit of placing the administration of reUef to dependent classes upon a scientific basis in this ctuntry. The law passed by the last Legislature of New York, which provides for the removal of the insane from county poor houses to State institutions, is regarded as one of the most important reforms enacted in this State during the last thirty years. This reform was promulgated by the State Charities Aid Associa¬ tion of this city, and was based on scientific investigations which it had been carrying forward for seventeen years. It is the meeting of these charitable organizations in conference tbat enables local systems and measures which have been proved practicable and efficient to become national. It follows logically that what elevates the condition of the dependent classes not only adds to the economic force of the community, but also relieves taxpayers to the extent of the amount previously outlaid for the support of the classes thus bettered. This is an obvious truth, but one not clearly perceived by the work-a-day public. The araount which this city pays out each year for the support of indigent classes is no small item of its expenditure. It is through charity organizations that administra¬ tive law for treating with the poor aud dependent are in the greatest measure to come that will relieve the citizens from this yearly tax. Not long since we called attention to the large nuraber of club buildings which had been or were being erected in tins city and Brooklyn—buildings which were superior to anything of their kind elsewhere in this country and very nearly the equal of the best in Europe. Such structures are from their very nature likely to be better examples of architecture than any office building, hotel or the Uke. The architect is not limited by natural desire of the owner to make the investment pay. It is true that the rich banks and corporations of tliis city have some of thera pu,- up buildings w^hich are, in their way, well conceived and imposing elevations, but their great height necessarily restricts the designer, and any I lavishnesa of decoration, if it exists, is felt to be out of place. A