Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 47, no. 1200: March 14, 1891

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March 14, 1891 Record and Guide. 583 # -^ \ ESTABUSHED ^ (MBPH Bl'-^ IB6B. ^ De/ottD to nE^L E:st«e . SuiLoif/c Aj!,ctfiTECTORE .Household Dego^mioK. BUsirlEss Alio Themes orGEfiEF^AL I;JT€r,esi PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. FubUshed every Saturday, Telephone, - - - Cortlamdt 1S70. Communications should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. ^_^__________ Vol. XLVII MARCH 14, 1801. No. 1,200 THE stock markei atood the liquidation of La Societe des Depots de Comptes Courants so well that people who had fears of its future ai-e feeling more coufidence. There is, indeed, no reason why such afaihiro should directly affect Wall street, for very few of our securities are held in Paris, and it would be the symi^athetic disorganization of markets more closely connected with our own which ilone could influence us disastrously. After all, in spite of the 'rying time we had for a while, the United States will come out of the .trouble rather better than any one else concerned, England's standing as a financial centre has been seriously impaired, ai maybe seen from the fact that Kussia is reducing what balance she has remaining in that city, and if there had not !)een a ready market for eucb of our securities as England held, that country would have fared far worse than she did. A somewhat better feeling certainly eiists in our own market. The winter wheat crop pronaises very well. If any immediate advance takes place, however, it will probably be io stocks, which are not affected by the preseut shortage of the grain traffic, or in securities of other than railroad companies. There has been something of a slackening in general trade during the past two weeks, due, proba¬ bly, to the fact tiiat the heavy trade began earlier tbis year than usual. Tbe year, however, promises to be a very satisfactory one to the manufactuiers and dealers in cotton goods, for tbe price of raw material is low and values are well held. Tbe coal stocks have received a blow iu tbe decision of the Inter-State Commerce Com¬ mission in tlie favor of Coxe Brothers in tbeirsuit against tbe Lehigh Valley, so tliat class of securities will probably be under a cloud until the bearing of the decision is known or some counteracting news ia reportec rXlHE liquidation of a large Parisian banking house under circum- -*- sta/ices similar to those of the Barings has disturbed confi¬ dence i^'Paris, London and Berlin. Itis becoming apparent that the load which financiers abroad are carrying, in consequence of tbe Aigeutine speculations, is heavier tban bas been supposed. Tbe promjhence oi tbe bankers concerned has forced a distribution of tbe responsibility, which will ha.Miper the European money centres for years to come. The trouble will more or less react on om" market as it has done in the past, but on the whole and in tbe end it ■^ill certainly tend to facilitate the placing of our secm-ities ambng foreign investors. The losses they bave suffered in our railroads bave been nothing in comparison to those suffered else- wiiere, and if there is a problem which jurists, economists and bankers in this couutry are trying to solve it is the protection of investors. The immediate result of this exposure of the further involutions of the Argentine troubles will, of course, be a spreading and a continuance of the stagnancy, which to a greater or less extent pervades nearly all the slock markets of the world. A serious difference has arisen in tbe French Chamber of Deputies between tbe government and tbe Customs Committee. The latter bas been going over the ministry's proposals as to the tariff and increasing the duties in a wliolesaie way. The govern¬ ment now announces its refusal to accept tbe cbanges, and the Chamber will have to decide between them. In Berlin the success of three per cent Imperial and Prussian loans kept things steady until the weakness developed itself in Paris. In spite, however, of the consequent depression, the prospects in ihat city are apparently better than they have been, for the assaults of the bears havenot much impression on jrices. In. Austria the elections to the new Reichrath have occup|ed public attention to tbe exclusion of inter¬ est in other matters, i some months past one might have supposed either that there was no sucb sub-committee, or that the matter of selecting the site was one which might be postponed for a decade or so. and nobody would be much the worse. This is all the more curious in that the Elm street improvement was laid aside avowedly because of the urgency of spending so much money for the new municipal build¬ ing. Meanwhile tbe city is paying at the rate of $130,000 per annum for rentals; and the valuable records in that ugly shell in the park are in constant danger of destruction. Perhaps one good thing can be accomplished by the delay. If the commissioners can be got to revise their determination to go outside the park and spend some million dollars of the city's money in purchasing a valuable plot of land in a district where land is in great dtmand, this waste of time may mean a saving of money. We would respectfully submit that a more careful consideration of the plan advanced by E. Ellery Anderson is worth the while. We admit, of course, that this project for utilizing the site of the present City Hall would not be popular with the news¬ papers; but if people will take such protests for what they are worth, viz., aa the natural objection of property-owners to anything which might partially obscure their property, it wiU be understood that their bluster is the inevitable outcry of a person who gets a dig in the ribs. The outcry, however, is particularly offensive, because it assumes tbe hypocritical form of a windy protection of the public interests ; and the newspapers may be compared in this instance to certain mediceval Popes, who took advantage of their position to bestow divine sanction on crusades against iheir private enemies. Another class of objectors would oppose the removal of the present City Hall,becauseitisagoodoldbuildingoffairdimensions. Now it may be admitted that the City Hall shines by comparison with the World, the Tribune, or even the Sun building; but we do not think that it is of sufficient architectural or even antiquarian interest to waiTaut the expenditure of some million dolls rs for tbe sake of preserving it. In fact, it might be preserved by a far less sum by simply removing it to one of the parks in the annexed district, in which case particular care should be taken to keep intact the iron dome, the symbolic figure of justice, and the brown stone back (which bas been lately turned into a dirty white by Mr. Gilroy's agents), so tbat future generations may understand what people of tbe preseut day think wortbyof perpetuation. ThenanewCityHall could be built, which Tammany could take some comfort in, the brown stone Court House aud the Register's Office could be removed and sold for old material (if, indeed, they too should not also be transported intact to some remote region), and the people of the city could be proud of their municipal hall. ABOUT six months ago the Sub-Committee of the Sinking Fund which had iu charge tho selection of a site for thenew muni¬ cipal building, were evincing a very busy .determination to select the necessary location immediately. Various rumors appeared in the papers as to the results of their efforts; but nothing was defi¬ nitely settled^ Then all of a sudden the rumors ceased, and for IN the Herald, accompanying a libelous " cut" of Messrs, Potter & Robertson's design foi^ the new Protestant Cathedral, in which architects will not be interested, is the following statement in which we fancy the profession will take some little interest: The great Protestant Episcopal Cathedral, the architect of wliich must ere long be selected, is one of the richest plums which has ever been bid for. It is estimated to cost $.3,000,000 at ibe very lowest notch, more probably $5,000,000, and very possibly a great deal more than that. According to the usual rule the architect receives 5 per ceut of the gross cost, which alone wiil mane a pretty snug sum for the winning team, but in addition to this there are mauy wa^s of adding to the proflts, particularly if the archi¬ tects, as would nndoubledly happen in this case, are also superintendents of construction. A sharp architect would be apt to make friends with the quarrymen, the iron men and the varicus other contractors who come in for a slice, and if he was a selfish mau he ought to squeeze from a third lo a half million out of the job, to say nothing of the everlasting glory and fulure work which would come to the successful competitor in a contest of tdis magoitude. All this is so plainly in the best " reportorial" style of the day tbat we believe it is safe to regard the breezy statement about squeezing ■'from a third to a half million" out of the job, in addition to ever¬ lasting glorj, not as a broad insinuation against a profession, but simply as a reflection of the blunted moral perception of the writer and of journalism generally. We bave no desire to say bard things, but a statement of the kind printed above, appearing in a paper with a " high-water mark" of many years' standing and some circulation, demands explanation, aud the most obvious is that the fresh young men who nowadays do most of the work on the daily papers breathe an atmosphere so vitiated by vulgarity) " fake " and clap-trap sensation that with them the assumption that underhand squeezing is done by all sharp people is well-nigh inevit¬ able. Of course, it cannot be truthfully denied that some men, to whom a low standard and loose phraseology permit tbe title of architect, do " squeeze" tbeir jobs, but it is needless to say these are not of the class to which Messrs. Potter & Robertson belong, nor is •'everlasting glory" within their reach. Yet it is this better class that is involved in the Herald's slander. A READER of the Sun ot last Sunday might have noticed the following paragraph in au editorial article, headed " A Great Town Residence:" "It is assumed that the propeity on the south¬ east corner of the {sic) 5th avenue and 56th street which Mr,