Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 46, no. 1186: December 6, 1890

Text version:

December 6; 1890 Record and Guide. 765 DD/blED TO RN- Estate • BuiUiijfc A^itectoi^ ,KousntoiD Dego^tioiI. Bi/sit(E5s Alto Themes of CeHei^^- \mA^n PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADYANCE, SIX DOLLARS, PMished every Sctturday. Telephone, - . • CJortlandt 1370. CJommunications sbould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway J. T, LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLVI. DECEMBER 6, 1890. No. 1,186 The semi-annual Index of tki^ Kings County Conveyances, pub¬ lished in Volume 45 {from January to June, 1890) of The Record AND Guide, is now ready and will he issued to subscribers upon application at the office of publication. No. 191 Broadway. THERE is no lack of money in New York at the present time; but there is a very dangerous lack of confidence on the part of our moneyed institutions and moneyed men. It is almost impossible to obtain time loans, even on tbe best of security; and everybody who can command cash is locking it up. Hence it is that stocks have declined, and a general feeling of uneasiness has prevailed. It is a feeling of this kind which may work great dam¬ age to interests which have not been affected by the recent panic, and which are perfectly solvent. There has never been any reason for the spread of the trouble into the general mercantile commimity; but if ite effects are to be that banks will offer but narrow accom¬ modations to their customers, then these interests will most surely be affected and injured. We learn of one house of high standing, which, being forced to borrow $300,000, could get it only by pay¬ ing for it at the rate of 2}4 per cent a month. The better feeing in London ought to have its influence in this city; and the monej, of which there is no lack, should be distributed among those who need it. The quarterly pension disbursements which begin to-day ought to turn a good deal of cash into the channels of trade, and supply any possible deficiency in that direction. It is noticeable that Jay Gould's bullish utterances about Union Pacific and an easy money market have been followed by a drop in tbat stock of nearly ten points—a little occurrence which we anticipated last week. At the same time, Mr. Grould has not entered into control of the property for the purpose of running it down; and no one need be surprised if the long-delayed Fund¬ ing bill should be pushed through the present Congress. It is an encouraging fact that there has arisen in Liverpool a sudden demand for cotton, which will lead to large exporte of that com¬ modity, and which, taken with the excellent domestic demand, will make the present year exceptionally remunerative to Southem farmers and railroads. The print cloth industry, however, is stag> gering under very heavy stocks, whicb the declining prices make difficult to carry. Probably the two most encouraging symptoms are the large exporte for October and November, and heavy immi¬ gration of the present year—both of which indicate prosperity. No one need be surprised to find us importing gold before many months have elapsed. ----------■---------- THE reduction of the Bank of England's rate of discount to 5 per cent was hardly to be expected so soon. Scarcely two weeks ago the London Economist predicted that the 6 per cent rate would have to be maintained for some time to come—a time long enough, at all events, to permit the stringency to ease so far that the loan from the Bank of France could be repaid. That the directors of the Bank of EIngland felt themselves secure enough to lower the rate is an indication that the stringency was not so intense as has been supposed. There is a very material difference between an acute crisis and a complete collapse. The Bank of England during the late troubles was never under a very severe internal drain—the inevitable concomitant of a true panic; and the trouble of the Baring Broe. was more disorganising in the possi¬ bilities it suggested than in anything wbich actually happened. It is curious to note in this connection the small reserves of cash in the London joint stock banks compared to that which it is thought necessary for the banks in this city to retain. At the time of their last report, with liabilities to the public amounting to £169,628,400, their available cash amounted only to £17,438,700, or 10.3 per cent. If our own banks had ever reported such a condition, nothing less than a panic would have been the result, and if any single bank, holding the position that National Provincial does in Lon¬ don, with liabilities to the public aggregating £39,545,800, and with available cash amounting to only £3,014,000 or 73 per cent, a very pretty run on the bank would have been inevitable. The amount of cash that is required apparently for the transaction of business^in London is amazingly small, and it is a qnestion ot our requirements in that respect are not altogether too severe. How¬ soever that may be, the fact that the Bank of England weathered the crisis only by a call on the Bank of France is a triumph for bi-metalism. M, Alphonse Allard, Director of the Brussels mint, goes so far as to say that the crisis in England will contribute to the ultimate triumph of the double standard. The reported inten¬ tion of Mr. (Joschen to permit the Bank of England to issue small notes against a silver guarantee foreshadows, M. Allard believes-. a first step by England toward tbe estoblisbmebt of bi-metollism. The Berlin market has been despondent, though by no means pan¬ icky; but it is probable that the restoration of confidence in London indicated by the reduction of the Bank of England's rate of discount will help to stimulate prices in Grermany. The Aus¬ trian Bourse continues undisturbed by the .troubles elsewhere, and though prices have declined no difficulty is anticipated. ELSEWHERE in this paper there is a statement of the plan of the New York & New Jersey Bridge Co., as well as a few words concerning what the larger effects of the project will be if it should ever be carried out. There is, however, one very import¬ ant aspect of the matter, which we reserve for consideration here. Just at present the newspapers, the officers of the company and the public are talking much about what a great thing' it will be for real estate when the bridge and viaduct and the great Union Depot, etc., etc., are built and trains are running from the very heart of New York to the uttermost parts of the continent. We do not wish to undervalue imagination in human affairs, and we know very well that it plays a most important part in carrying out so large a scheme as the one which the N. Y. & N. J. Bridge Co. have on their hands; but leaving the future to bring forth what it may. we would like to point out one very important effect which this project, as a project, has and will have for some time to come on real estate. IN laying out the route, the new bridge commissioners have taken the map of New York and drawn what at present is an imaginary line through blocks and blocks of property from Tlst to 38th street. It is very easy to do that, and it is not mucb more difficult to publish the fact when done with a flourish of trumpets; but il ought not to be overlooked that this red line when drawn with legislative sanction locks up and becomes, as it were, a flaw in the title, of not only every piece of property that it touches, but all contiguous property. No man cares to buy real estate that may be taken from him the day after the deed conveying it to him is signed. People do not want to acquire or improve property that to-morrow may be facing a railroad struct¬ ure with the noises and inconveniences attacbed to it. Not so very long ago, it will be remembered, another company in this city undertook to project a red line almost from one end of Manhattan Mand to the other, through iuillions of dollars worth of property. The project was much heralded; every day we were told that work was about to be commenced; surveyors were out " locating" the line, and appraisers appraising the property needed. Owners did not know when they might be called upon to surrender posses¬ sion of their houses and lots for a price which, if not satisfactory to them, could be amended only by a long and costly legal process. For a long time it was well-nigh impossible to sell any of the prop¬ erty over which the shadow of that project fell. Yet the first stone has not yet been laid for the viaducts for that road, and the iron of which its first rail is to be made has not yet been mined; and, from all accounte, the line from London to Calcutta, to-day, is nearer completion than it is. NOW, of course, before any large railroad enterprise can take shape, a great deal of projectmg and trumpet-blowing and legislating and financiering, etc., has to be done; but, it seems to us that it is little short of a public outrage that, while the project is still only a project, before the first share of stock has been issued, before the scheme has become a hard reality, wbile it is still uncer¬ tain of fulfillment, it is possible for any commission or company to impair the commercial value of millions and millions of dollars worth of other people's property by rendering it less marketable. It seems to us that legal powers should not be given to these com¬ panies until tbey have obtained or are ready to guarantee the greater part of the capital they require. PERHAPS it would be unfair to blame President Harrison because his message is a partisan document. It ia only too obvious that it was written by a partisan, in a partisan spirit, for partisan purposes. As is the case with so many other of our "institutions," the Presidential mes¬ sage has been degraded in purpose, so tbat instead of being a State paper it very seldom serves any higher pur¬ pose than that of tbe political pamphlet. Indeed, since the day when the " scurvy p(ditician " usurped the position of statesman