Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 46, no. 1181: November 1, 1890

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Norembcr 1,1880 amitmm------_-^. Record and Guide. 578 ESrJkBUSHEI)^IWpH«u^ 1868.; 1)wbTED TO I^ EsTME. BuiLoiffo A^rreCTui^ M«8nlou> Deoo^twI. Busu(ess Alb Themes or CeHbv^I \jno^n PRICE, PER TEAR IN ADYAHCE, SIX DOLLARS, Published every Saturday. Telephone, - . - Cobtlandt 1870. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLVI, NOVEMBER 1, 1890. No. 1,181 SOME of the depressing conditions which for months past have helped the fall in prices bave, during the week just closed, been removed. Investors and speculators are at length in posses¬ sion of enough facte to place a certain value on the certificates of the Sugar Trust without which in the beginning they ought never to have been dealt in on the Stock Exchange. An industrial enterprise, however, which can earn for more than two years over 15 per cent on a capital stock of $.50,000,000 is doing a good deal more than any railroad company in the country, and if the enterprise is l^al and its managers trustworthy, it consequently ought to sell for prices higher even than any it has yet touched. Wall street has had a bitter experience with industrials in the past. The idea of dealing in securities, the value of which was not indicated by a published statement of eamings, so that there were no means of ascertaining its worth, was ridiculous. There is, however, no reason in the world why the shares of large manufacturing and other companies should not be dealt in just as are the shares of railroads, but it must be under tiie same conditions. Such is the lesson of the Sugar and Ck)tton Oil Trusts. As the time is drawing near for money to return from the interior less apprehension, also, is being felt for the future of the money market, and although uneasiness still existe abroad, it does not appear that the price of money in this city will for some months to come act as a depressing factor in the market. Railrc^d rates, unfortunately, are still low, and railroad earnings do not compare favorably with those of last year, but eflEorts are being made to raise the level of the former, and last year's earnings were exceptionally large compared with previous years. Wall street has seen a constantly falling market for some months now. It is time that some reaction should take place. THE two dangers threatening the financial position of the vari¬ ous European countries are the stringency in the money market and the aggressive self-assertion of the laborers. As to the former, financiers abroad regard it with the deepest apprehension. The prices of securities, alike in London, in Paris and Berlin, have been continually falling. The money market in these centres, as in New York, while not demoralized, is so stringent that operators with engagements are very careful about incurring new obliga¬ tions. It is not considered probable that the Bank of England will get through the year without raising its rate of discount to six per cent. The prospect that Austro-Hungary will resume cash pay¬ ments remains'about where it was. The Hungarian Finance Min¬ ister, while admitting that he himself favored it, and that the Austrian government strongly desired it, declared in an interview that the details had not as yet been arranged. Much depends on the future condition of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. The Euro¬ pean financial position, however, is not without its redeeming features. So good and conservative an authority as the London Economist is of the opinion that American securities, at present prices, whether dividend-paying or not, are a purchase. It must always be remembered in this connection that the uneasy feeling abroad is not caused by an inflated or a depressed condition of busi¬ ness. It is due simply to the active demand for money all over the world, for use in mercantile and manufacturing transactions, wbich has had its reaction on the prices of securities by equalizing tbeir value to tbat of money. The consequent depreciation bas, of course, injured stock brokers and speculators; but it has not hurt business men in general. The Australian strike is now generally admitted to be a failure. Tbe organized shipping interests of tbat colony have been able, in spite of enormous losses to them¬ selves and to tbe government, to reduce tbeir laborers to a more reasonable frame of mind. Tbe same sort of struggle is at present under way in tbe west of Scotland, between the ironmasters and their employes, and apparently it is tending to a like result. American industry, at the present time is unusually free from labor troubles; but if present indications go for anything, the increasing self-assertion on the part of tbe employes and the tendency of capital to organize to protect itself will, both here and abroad, lead to struggles the like of whicb tbe world bas seldom seen. THE municipal campaign, which practically comes to a conclu¬ sion on tbe day that this paper is published, has not been con¬ ducted by eitber of the two contending parties with any great amount of dignity aud fairness. Wben Tammany renominated Mayor Qrant, its leaders explicitly appealed to the people of tbis city on the record that be had made. The Mayor's letter of accept¬ ance was framed to justify this record: and the wigwam omtors, in tbeir public speeches, pointed to it witb pride. But tbe Tam¬ many plan of campaign was soon shifted to otber issues. Totally irrelevant matters, such as the McKinley bill and the Force bill, were brought in. Thomas C. Piatt and William R. Grace were held up to contumely; and occasionally tbe cultured vi it of Bfr. Bourke Cockran and Mr. Delancey Nicoll found expression in mak¬ ing pot-bouse references to their opponents individually, or to tbe " parson's" and " lady's " campaign. The issue, however, cannot be evaded by the introduction of national politics; neither can it be obscured by 4th-Ward vituperation. In tbe opinion of all good citizens the Mayor of New York City must be judged by what he has done for tbe metropolis, not by what the Republicans bave or bave not done in Washington. With such a standard clearly before us, excluding as it does all extrane¬ ous issues, it is a comparatively simple matter to sum up the discussion which has waged around Mr. Scott's claims for election and Mayor Grant's claims for re-election. The former, in so far as be protested against tbe entire surrender of our city depart¬ ments to Tammany Hall " heelers," was taking up an impregnable position ; but in bis attempts to trace in the specific acts of the departments examples of incompetence and unfair dealing he was not so fortunate. Mayor Grant's standing on the cleaning of the streets, the subways, tbe Elm street improvement, rapid transit, and tbe schools, is open to merited criticism; but when Mr. Scott, in speaking in North New York, endeavors to score a point against the city government by criticising its attitude towards street improve¬ ments in tbe 23d and S4tb Wards, be touches upon a matter in which Tammany's work has been particularly commendable. The Corporation Counsel's oflSce has been very active in tbe past two years in advancing proceedings that had been almost stationary for years past. Tammany's opponents bave also been unfortunate, as we pointed out last week, in many of their criticisms on the Tax Department. An equitable consideration of these matters will be greatly aided by distinguishing between the improvements wbicb Tammany has originated and those which it has merely pro¬ gressed. Mayor Grant and bis associates cannot claim tbe credit of having conceived and executed any betterments of their own; but in tbe Dock Department, in the Corporation Counsel's oflSce and to some extent in tt.e Public Works Department, necessary improvemente, long under consideration, have been considerably advanced. Undoubtedly, however, Tammany has lacked fruitful ideas. IN another column will be found a statement of the present con¬ dition of the movement to erect a new Appraisers' Stores in this city. Of all the parcels of land for a site submitted to Secre¬ tary Windom, we believe there is only one wbicb be bas seriously considered. We bave good reasons for believing that, as a matter of fact, tbe Secretary does not personally favor the selection of any up-town site. Following bis own judgment, be would locate tbe Appraisers' Store on the Bowling Green site, where the new Custom Housti is to be. Very strong pressure, however, from interested parties, has been brought to bear upon the Secretary, and appar¬ ently be bas succumbed to it, and has practically put tbe matter into the hands of a small committee of New York merchante, and their voice will go a long way to decide which site the government will purchase. It bas been our belief all along, in view of the fact that the Appraisers' Store is to serve for the whole port of New York, and not merely for New York City, that Bowling Green is the proper place to locate it on. We believe so still. Who knows what changes a very few years will bring in the character of tbe district in which are situated the stores of the dry-goods men who are clamoring for an up-town site. They may be forced to migrate to a section more diflScult to reach from the Appraisers' Store than tbe Battery, for it must be bome in mind in this matter it is not so mucb distance that counte as accessibility. HOW surely the philanthropic and reformatory spirit of the day is merging into what may be broadly termed Socialism is furtber evidenced by the proceedings of tbe Church Congress recently held at HuU, in England. So little attention was tbere given to either theological or ecclesiastical matters, and so much to " Labor;" to qaestions of wages and the condition of the working classes, that it came very near to being a Socialist Congress. As the president, the Bishop of Durham, said in his opening address: " The programme gives a moet conspicuous place to social quee- tiontt. We are asked to consider theories and probleoui: we are