Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 48, no. 1234: November 7, 1891

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November 7,1801 Record and Guide. 673 OSDI. py^ 'J ESTABLlbMtU »\J/1 DP/bjED JO Re^L Estwe. BuiLoiffc /^UiTECTai^E .Household D!:GO."9/rioN. BUsNe'ss Atto Themes of GeKei^L I|(Tti\ES7 PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADTAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TbI/Bphone .... Cortlandt 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 7. LINDSEY, Business Manager. the real estate interests of this city. Many of them were intro¬ duced into the Legislature last winter, but failed of passage because of the deadlock in the Senate. Among these we may mention measures providing for needed new bridges over the Harlem, for a coDtinua^ce of the present work of repaving our streets, and others of a like character. With the Democrats in complete control these bills for needed local improvements in New York City will have a far better chance of passage than they would in a Legislature divided against itself. In any case, however, the majorilies will be BO small that there will be considerable danger of miscarriages. Vol. XLVIII NOVEMBER 7, 1891. .No. 1,234 CLOSE OF THE ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBIT. The Exhibition of Architects' Drawings in the rooms of The Record and Guide, Nos. 14 anci! 16 Vesey street must be closed on Saturday, Noveniber 21st. This exhibit is one of the finest and most extensive that has ever been displayed in New York City, and those who desire to study the 300 examples of the best architectural work of the day should visit the Exhitrition without delay. Admission is free. Subscribers to The Record and Guide should see tfaat they receive the Harlem Supplement with this issue of the paper. AFTER something like six weeks of a waiting market, without any decided movement either one way or the other, the stock market has at length taken a downward turn. Bear attacks are successful in depressing values and bringing out long stock. The way in which prices yield shows that there is at present an utter absence of demand for good securities. It can hardly be said that stocks are cbeap at present prices ; they may be purchases on their prospects, but they are selling high enough considering the dividend or no-dividend that they pay. But a number of good bonds are still decidedly cheap, and the way in which they refuse to go up even in the face of gold imports which make easy money probable is one of the most discouraging features of the situation. It is a noticeable fact, however, that one of the princi¬ pal bear arguments, the failure of the Maverick National Bank, was due to the fact tbat some Boston speculators had been shorting stocks this fall and consequently losing money. The incident served to unsettle confidence and thus helped to bring about the decline. Doubtless, also, the fact Congress will shortly meet has tended to make speculators cautious until tbe probable outcome of tbe present session is known. While, therefore, there are a number of not very satisfactory elements in the market just at present, it should be remembered that the perma¬ nent substantial conditions have seldom been better. Gold continues to come this way; our crops are selling at excellent prices; a veritable car famine exists out West, and the earnings of some of the railways are surprisingly large. One great system has already increased its rate of dividend distribution, and it ie certain that others will ultimately follow suit. It is only sjiecula- tion in Wall Street that is sick; and its malady is not likely to become serious, unless unexpected developments occur. Old speculators will recollect that anterior to the great lise of 1880, Grould and Cammack were short of stocks; and in face of most favorable con- ditions forced the market down from ten to twenty points. The same influences are conspiring against tbe present market, and may be equally successful. But in this case the slump- will prob- ably be foUowjed by the same kind of a rise that occurred eleven years ago. CONSIDERING that the Democrats have indubitably elected their candidate for Grovernor, there are strong reasons for wishing that they will also win in the present dispute over the Legislature. For years past we have annually been treated to partisan squabbles at Albany of so petty and contemptible a char¬ acter that every true son of New York must have felt ashamed. Public business has been continually hampered by the bickering either between the Senate and the Assembly or between the Legis¬ lature and the Governor. Measures of great public importance, as for instance the Rapid Transit Bill, have failed to pass year after year because of these divisions. If the Republicans control during the present year either one or both of the legislative houses, we shall be compelled to bear another winter of partisan chattering and fighting, of "deals" and counter-deals, to be ended by the usual paucity of satisfactory legislation. As it happens, the local Demo¬ crats have a number o£ bills in hand of considerable importance to "]^0W that tbere is no longer any political necessity for clap- -^^ trap about the World's Fair it may be possible for us to settle down to a clear apprehension of what our real position in the matter is. New York lost the Exposition, not primarily because of any political manoeuvring, but because of the irdifference of her citi- ■ zens, their lack of public spirit and their dense stupidity regarding the power and position of their rival. That the prestige of the metropolis has suffered in the estimation of the country at large and of foreign nations there can be no doubt; the temper and opinion of the entire West evidence this, and the loss is likely to be greater when the Fair is opened and hundreds of thousands of people from all partsof the world visit the Western metropolis. Even worse, however, than the loss ofthe Fair has been the doubtful ambiguous and apparently " small" position which New York has occupied for some months past. We are rather inclined to think the position has been chiefly a newspaper one and represents the petty policy of our small-minded " journalists " a great deal more than it does the opinions and intentions of the majority of their readers. " Politics," too, probably had tiiuch to do with it, but that dirty thing has now reached its crisis and passed into other forms. New York should without further loss of time fall into line with the other States and extend a hearty co-operation to the great national enterprise which Chicago has on her hands. Though we have not the Fair, we should leave no doubt in the mind of visitors to the Exposition, many of whom will not come to Manhattan Island, that f)ew York is the Empire City. Will we make a second mistake? A RECENT report to the British Foreign Office shows very plainly the substantial similarity in the conditions and diffi¬ culties of the labor problem in Germany, Great Britain and the United States. It is stated positively that of late years the lot of the laboring man has been distinctly happier, for not only have his wages grown but their general purchasing power is greater than ever. The demand for a working day of eight hours is frequently heard, but it arises from the extreme Socialistic Party only. The movement for some sort of government intervention to regulate hours is stronger and has the general support of the .Associa¬ tion of German Trades Unions, which embraces eighteen national and 14,000 local trades unions, with 63,000 members—not a very imposing number when it is remembered that the industrial population of Germany is estimated at 7,000,OlO. The difficulties in the way of such regulation are, however, very clearly understood, and even trades nnions propose that ajoy State intervention should adapt itself to the varying circumstances of the different trades—should, for instance, be in the hands of local bodies rather than the central government. As giving some idea of the hours of labor in Germany, the report quotes statistics col¬ lected in the district of Madgeburg for the year 1890. The figures embrace 35,986 workmen, employed in 1,003 factories, and of these it is shown that fourteen workmen were engaged fourteen hours a day, 5,336 for twelve hours, 25,748 for ten hours, 2,456 for nine hours and 43 for seven hours. A number of schemes have been proposed to ameliorate the lot of the laborer, but most of them have met with only a small share of success. Take, for instance, the case of proflt sharing. The latest statistics collected on the subject are for 1888, and in that year only eighteen examples of successful proflt sharing existed throughout the whole of Germany. Moreoveor, one or two of the large firms which are named as applying the system success¬ fully adopted a scheme which seems to partake more or less of the ordinary bonus distribution rather than of any developed scheme of proflt sharing. SOME flgures which have recently been published showing the large difference between the expense of operating a horse road and an electric road should be carefully studied by the muni¬ cipal authorities all over the country. It seems from the figures (there is no reason to doubt their accuracy) that the cost of power is six times as much to a horse-car company as it is to an electric company; and that electric traction can haul the same number of passengers as animal power can at half the delay and twice the speed. When such an increase of efficiency is obtained at such a reduction of cost it is no wonder that horse-car companies are sweating all over the country to introduce an electric system. This comparatively new form of traction seems to be adequate not only to the dense trafflc^of a mid-city street, but to the lighter traffic of