Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 48, no. 1225: September 5, 1891

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Septemlber tS, 1891 Record and Guide. 287 e^- ^^ ESTABLISHED'^/AARPH21'-i^l868. De/oteO to Rea^L Estwe . BuiLdij/g Aji.crfiTECTo:\E ,KouseWold Deqoi^tioiI. Bi/siiJess Mb Themes of GeNeivL 1|/t£i\est PRICE, FER YEAR IIV ADTAIVGE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. fELEPHONE .... Cortlandt 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 2. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLYIII SEPTEJIBER 5, 1891. No. 1,225 UNDER pretense of imminence and removal of danger from frost, but really on some heavy realizing and correspond¬ ingly heavy new buying, the stock market has maintained its advance and in some cases has made net gains in the past week. Such a movement as this has not been spen for so long that it puzzles everyone rot familiar with the history of this market. It is a case where experience rather deters than helps to success. The traders, the men who are in it all the time, who assiduously watch the movements of prices and have eyes active to discover domestic or foreign complications or extrications likely to niove quotations one way or the other, have long since taken their profits and, with the exception of the few who see the unusualness of the movement and have bought again, have been working industriously for a reaction. That stocks should have made the advances they have, some as much as 17 or 18 points from tbe lowest on the last decline, with Only a reaclive movement now and then of a point or two is certainly unusual; but that, instead of giving ground for belief in a certain heavy decline, ought to prove that the situation is one not to be judged by ordinary conditions. The trader who applies the rules good in times when the market fluctuates five or six points one way or the other will lose his money. The present movement resembles a political crisis, wben neither party will take hold of some question vital to the public but only important to the poli¬ tician as a means of gaining or holding power, which the public takes up and compels its representatives to carry. In the stock raarket both hull and bear were quite content to send the ball back and forth within a 5 per cent limit, but suddenlj it was snatched from them and sent out of sight. We have passed so many feared dangers without mishap that confidence grows apace. This month has opened without disclosing that the government has any diffi¬ culty in dealing with the matured 4i^s. Money in spite of the increase in the volume of stock business is easy, and some passing of interest which was feared "~ha3 not happened. There is a strong hope, too, that present fears of trouble in particular cases may prove as lightly founded. In reviewing the whole situation, and for the moment the most just conclusion arrived at, would be that there is a grip upon tbe market which can put prices much higher, but as the movement so far can only be characterised as a speculative one there is always a danger of scare and a consequent break. If the demand for investment bonds had been maintained in the good proportions of three weeks ago, there could only be one view of the situation, but when, as now, good bonds are selling below, and in cases very much below stocks, paying little if anything more and sometimes not so much, there is always room to appre¬ hend a readjustment of the quotations. Viewed for the future, there is no doubt whatever that a bull movement is only now in its initial stage. ■----------- THE foreign markets are at the present time quite devoid of new features. It is not too much to say that almost the sole con¬ dition affecting prices is the condition of the cereal market. Any speculation in which English operators are at present indulging is carried on in American securities. Other issues are dull and weak. In a similar way Berlin is occupied with the grain situation, and its effects on Russian securities, which are of course weak and feverish. Neither is there likely to be any change in this respect throughout the fall. For a month past the political situation has been far from assuring ; but now it is apparent that the winter will be passed without any disturbaijce. With that much certainty the foreigners must rest content. /~VN Thursday evening last, the committee of one hundred ^-^ " champions of the people," as the Times calls them, minus " quite a number," assembled in one of the parlors of the Hotel Brunswick. The meeting was called only for the purpose of con¬ stituting an executive committee, which is to bear the brunt and heat of the battle. This committee numbers nine of the champions. Th8 meeting was so very free from incidents of importance, that we should not deem it necessary to grant it any attention, was it not that the future plans of the committee were revealed. • They are 'going to make an onslaught on the Park Commis¬ sioners, and if defeated there, carry the case to the Legis¬ lature. Alderman Morris thought that the executive com¬ mittee ought to address to each candidate for the Senate, the Assembly and the Board of Aldermen a list of ques tions prepared to define the attitude of every candidate in regard to this movement. We do not think that if Alderman Morris' advice is adopted they will chose the path of wisdom. There is no objection that we can see in committing the cnndidates for aldermen to the displacement of the elevated tracks in Battery Park, because the aldermen cannot do anything but pass resolutions which nobody cares anything about. But in the Legislature there is every reason to believe that the champions of the people will be on the defensive, and that is something that champions should never be. People who have been following the course of public senti¬ ment, particularly in the upper wards, are very well aware that the Manhattan Company has been gaining rather than losing ground this summer, for there can be no doubt thnt Mr. Gould's agents have secured in their favor (by corrupt means, no doubt,) the logic of events; while opposed to this there is nothing but a mass of sentiment, partly due to misunderstanding, partly peurile, partly contemptible. The logic of events has been saying more and more clearly all summer tLat during the necessarily long interval before the Rapid Transit Commissioners can get any part of any route in operation, that the traveling public will need some¬ what better accommodations, and as the pressure grows more unen¬ durable the logic of events will speak stiU louder. We by no means predict the triumph of the Battery Park " grabbers," but without doubt next winter their voices will be heard high throughout the city. The champion's mouthpiece stated last week that the obstacles in the way of the movement were the " greatest possible." Now it is obvious that even according to the words of the mouthpiece the conflict will be nothing better than the old one between an irresistible force and an immovable body. But what if this "greatest possible" obstacle should itself get under way. Manifestly its momentum would be tremendous. Could the champions withstand it ? We cannot say; but think of the possible spectacle—champions put to rout. It would be a sorry sight. THE Socialistic programme, or rather programmes, so far as drawn up, receive a good deal of vague sympathy and support from people who are not so well off as they fancy they deserve to be, because it is thought that a closer division of production by polls instead of by merit, or what passes for merit, would give everyone a very sufflcient competency. The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics has published some figures which run counter to these anticipations. Investigations made by the Bureau show that the average yearly wages of work-people of both sexes employed by individuals and firms engaged in manufactures, amount to $362.23, while the employers receive $517 each, which represents both salary and profit. The average is lower in the case of corporations, for it appears that the workmen engaged by them receive average wages of $333.22, but then the stockholders realize only $379 on their investment. These figures certainly afford no glimpses of the Socialistic millennium. Indeed, if these figures be correct, it is hard to see by what process of equal division the average earnings of work-people is to be much in¬ creased. We do not believe that very many people would give up their chances of getting " what they can " for an assurance of their "average," even with theu- share of the employer's and stockhold¬ er's net profit added thereto. These figures possess no scientific accuracy and are little better than a guess based upon a mass of data, for which the ^taxpayers in Massachusetts had to pay pretty heavily. They are not, however, so far from the truth as to be without a lesson for visionaries. THE English builder, so far as we know, has never been a per son of very much interest to his New York prototype. Building is not an international affair, being on the contrary the most local of the large industries of a country. Nevertheless, since there are some men in London and elsewhere throughout England who make money by speculative and contract building, their New York brethren in trade may be interested to learn a little something about their ways, particularly as that something is nothing to their good. According to the report of the English Inspector-General of Bankru{)tcy, the English speculative builders are men of a " bad system." Taking the country through, the Inspector- General states that while bankruptcy in those trades which are based on credit is decreasing, that of the non-trading class is increasing or remaining steady. In other words, business proper in England is becoming more secure all the time. There is, however, one trade to which this does not apply— the building trade, itself ohe of the four largest classes of failures.