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wmm iiwipiiiajiTTii MVT'iiMi'^triQmr.tRt ■ September 90.1890 Record and Guide. 867 DEVbiti) TO I^L Estate . BuiLoiffc Aj«u(iTECTdi^ .HouscrfoiD Deoo^twI. BUsirtess Alto Themes of Ge^eiv^ Ij
- sition to the Vanderbilt-Union Pacific combination. The latter, it is said, will be shut out from participation in the traffic coming from San Francisco and points south. This news, together with the traffic association recently formed uniting the Gould, Hunting¬ ton and Atchison interests, materially improves the railway situa¬ tion in the West. Indeed, it may do much to compensate the roads for the crop shortage by the restoration of good rates. Wall street seems to feel that the liquidation is over for the present. There are certainly a good many stocks and bonds on tbe market which are purchases at the ruling figures. The rise may not be immediate, for there are many uncertainties bearing on the situation just at present, but there can be but little doubt that when money loosens up somewhat and begins to turn towards investments, instead of active employ¬ ment in business, that the prices of good securities will undergo an advance. A bull argument may be found in the fact that it is quite probable that large quantities of English capital will seek investment in this country during tlie next year. The Continent a d South America have ceased to draw on her as they have been doing in the past. England has been so unfortunate in her South American investments that capital is not altogether likely to go out there (in the immediate future) very extensively. " The history of our South American loans," says the London Economist, " may be .described as a succession of rampant speculation and collapse, fol¬ lowed in most cases by default.'' Among the different loans there are twenty-seven instances of a fall in price taking place after the issue of the loan, while there are but twelve instances of a rise. Uruguay, Paraguay and the Argentine Republic securities have nearly all suffered heavy depreciation, and Peruvian bonds have usually been unreliable. In Chili and Brazil less loss has taken place; but like the other South American countries they are cursed by an irredeemable paper currency, which will certainly tend to create distrust among investors. With these examples to remember British investors may well begin again to send over here large supplies of capital. THE rainy weather this week by stopping building operations in this vicinity as well as work at the yards at Verplanck has kept the brick trouble in all its phases in statu qno, so that it stands almost exactly as it did last Saturday. No settlement of the diffi¬ culty, one way or the other, is yet visible; ii.-^ither are there indica- tionsof any value forecasting what result may, with some degree of certainty, be looked for. The manufacturers profess to be quite vsatisfied with the outlook, and even with the course of events so far,, despite their disappointment that the dealers have not joiiied hands with them, wbich assistance there is no disguising they con¬ fidently expected. Without the co-operation of this division of the .grade:they calculated fetu or five weeks must necessarily elapse 9efore-tfae-stocks pn-faand were dQpIeted,-and. their actipn would begin to tell upon building operations. So far very little work has been suspended or seriously cramped for want of brick as our review of operations on the west side of the city last week showed. This week, if the manufacturers were right in their anticipations, " trouble " should have commenced; but this the rain delayed. ('onsidering the large amount of brick that must have been set since the boycott commenced, it is fair to say that if the coming week is fine and work continues, and there are no greater signs of scareity of brick than at present, there is a " leak " some¬ where, and more brick is coming into the market from some quarter or another than reports indicate, and the crisis necessary to victory for the manufacturers must be " anticipated indefinitely." TT7"E publish this week in another column the result of a num- » * ber of inquiries made in the offices of our leading architects. It shows that while what has'already l)een demonstrated, that the brick trouble has caused very little suspension of building under way, it has delayed materially the commencement of much work under contemplation. This is natural. Few builders and investors care to begin operations with the uncertainty of obtaining material so great as at present, for even in stone front buildings and in buildings where terra cotta, fireproof material, iron beams and iron supports are used, a large amount of brick enters into the side walls, foundations|and so forth. Indeed, the interest of builders, architects and owners should be very strongly enlisted on the side of the brick manufacturers. Unless the latter win in their fight it is not likely that we shall have very lively times next season, for if the labor unions carry their point there will be uncertainty next year as to whether the trouble between the men and their employers will not be renewed, either on the old score by the manufacturers themselves, or by their employes demanding further concessions as to the hours of labor, wages or some other such matter. If the manufacturers win, there will be greater certainty of quiet times, and this certainty undoubtedly will be favorable to the beginning of new operations, if, indeed, it does not positively stimulate them. --------•-------- A NEW project was launched in the Board of Estimate and -^^ Apportionment last week, which we shall doubtless hear a good deal of in the future. Commissioner Coleman submitted a resolution requesting Mayor Grant to appoint a commission of citi¬ zens to consider the advisability of building an exterior driveway along the Hudson River, from 72d street to 96th. The plan is very elaborate and will need a large sum of money to execute. It con¬ templates the building of a bulkhead some 10 feet above tide-water and the construction of a traffic road or avenue for "commercial and general business purposes." The width of this avenue is not given, but " adjoining" it, on either one side or the other, there is to be built an " elevated place or terrace," 80 feet wide and 30 feet above tide-water, which shall form a road for unrestricted driving, as regards speed. In addition to this, but in what way related to it does not appear, an equestrian roadway is to be built, with adjoining walks for j>eople on foot. The reasons urged for this improvement are, it is *' calculated to meet long pressing and meritorious demands," that it will relieve the pressure on the riding and driving roads in the Central Park, that it will secure to the city fifty acres of valu¬ able land, protect tbe water front, against " injurious and depre¬ ciating uses," and help to make the west side a more desirable and attractive place of residence. It certainly is desirable that this bit of water front should be protected, but whether it is worth while to protect at such an enormous expenditure as this plan would necessitate is quite another matter. No harm can be done, however, by passing the resolution as it stands. The commission of citizens will not cost anything; and their consideration of it may bring forth more convincing arguments than those contained in the resolution. If by any possibility, however, anything should come of the plan, surely it would be a fitting consummation to the per¬ sistent help that the city has given to the west side to make it an attractive residential section. A district that has the advantages of Central Park, Riverside Park, the Boulevard, Morningside Park, and the driveway above outlined, would be about as well " improved " an area as anyplace could well be, owned by as many people as is the west side. Property-owners eastof the park might well ask where they come in. THAT the census of 1890 is deficient and misleading, not only as regards the enumeration in this city but more or less through¬ out the whole country, there seems to be no manner of doubt. Every test that can Ije made goes to show that by no means an unimportant proportion of the inhabitants of the country have not been counted. In the first place, taking the population at 64,000,000, from which the returns of Superintendent Porter will not vary very largely, the percentage of increase throughout the decade is only about 273^, whereas the percentage of increase between 1870 and 1880 was about 30, and before the war it ran up as high as 35 and over. Admitting that the percentage has a tendency to decrease, the falling off between 1880 a»d 1890 is so large proportionately that
