Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 49, no. 1264: June 4, 1892

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June 4, 189Í Record and Guide. 88t DEVíiTrí) 10 Kíal EsrME Sí.'ildinc ApctíiTECTaHE.Ko'JsrHoLDDEGOR^noii BiIsWess and Them.es ũf Ge.^JeivI l;Ji£!\£ií PRKE, PBR ¥EAR i\ ADVAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS. í^blished every Sattirdag. TKLKPHONB: .... CORTLA.NDT 1370. CommunÍGatious sliould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the Post-offlce at Neio York, N. Y., os second-class matier." VOL, XLIX JUNE 4. 1892. No. 1,264 AGREAT deal of bad news—enougli leal to be serious, but more of the luanufactured variety—Iias been circulated during the vs'eek f( r the piirpose of depressing prices in the stock niarket. The vvorldl.v protits resulting have not justilied the spiritual perils incurred. LouisviUe & Nashville, St. Paul and Bur- lington & Qiiiney are oft'; Atchison, Rock Island, the Coalers and others, the first two of which were not loiig ago so easily afîected by bear operations, are seiling at about the price they were at a fortnight ago, while sonie of the railroad stocks, Western Union and the Industrials are higher. That there should be some weak- ness in the Grangers is not suTprising considering ihe crop and weather news, but that Atchison and Rock Island should fail to be influenced by it suggest that those securilies are down to the resistance-point for the time being. The fact that the Atchison Incomes are in process of conversion would suggest that support is given to all the is&ues of the company, but the volume of operations does not indicate any selling pressure that would make .support necessary. Reading takes the action of the Jersey Court to check the work of tbe coal combination pending a hearing on the merits of the case very well, but litigaticn is no agent for the making of better prices. It is true the courts cannot confiscate the property of the combined companies, or prevent tlieir owners fiom operating unitedly if they wish to in one form or another, but they can create a great deal of trouble and disturbance in com- pelling the legal form to be used, only in the case, of course, of the present form being iUegal. However. while the matter is in ihe courts the stocks aft'ected may be the objects of distrust and from that account alone bring lower prices. But there is no very valid reason why the Reading Income bonds should be similarly treated. The interest on the first and seconds paid last yeat was earned prior to the combinalion and they and the thirds must par- ticipate inthe belter earnings of the united roads whatever form theirunion may be compelled to take. This is oiily reason, but bondholders are such a sca'.-y people that they may not eleot to be bound by it alone. The recurrence of the gold nxport movement is an indication that foreigners havebeen among the sellers of oursecuri- ties; the limitations of that movement show that the selling has been but slight, but it also showa how i-jdiculous is the expectation that Europe wiU be a buyer of .Vmerican securities w hile they are objects of distrust in the country that issues them. What is wanted, if we are going to see better prlces at an early day, is some expansion of the buyiiig movement here and some improvement in business conditions outside of the market for securities. Such indications at the moment are less than they were a week ago. They may come at any time, but the/ ai'e not hereyet. They may come with ihe declarations on the dividends on the Vanderbilt properties, which will be made shortly and in which no disappointment is thought to be in store for thestockho'ders. -------•------- THE governmonts of Austria and Ilungary have ftnally taken an irrevocable step.in the currency reform, and have laid the six biUs on this important subject before the Austrian Reichs- rath and the Hungarian Reichstag. The bills have met with some opposition, because it is averred that the government does not offer a sufĩicient guarantee that cash payments wiU be resumed in conseqiience of the reform. It is said that the government cannot and will not at once provide by loaiis the large sums that would be needed for withdrawing the paper and silver in circula- tion at one bold stroke. The gold staiidard must be legally estab- Hshed, the proportionate value of paper, silver and gold must be determined; and then the nation's confldeiice iii the government and in the legislative aasemblies must be trusted to for letting events take theright com'se. As gold has been accumulated, the moment the biils are voted, the new currency vvill be coined and put in circulation eveu before the loans are emitted. There will then be a double currency in the monarchj—the old paper and silver florins and the old tokea money will circulate side by side with the new gold twenty and ten crown pieces and the nickel and bronze token naoney of the future. If the population is confident that the government will adhere to its measureF. there is no need to distrust this state of things; and though it may be supposed that each indií idual will be desirous at first to see for himself whether he can really change his old note of ten florins for a gold twenly crown piece he will soon be convinced, and will then wait patiently until tinie and efTort have replaced the last florin note by itsequivalent in gold. Business in Krance is being very miich depressed by the new tarift'. The efîect of the vvar of tarilĩs betvveen France and Spain is Deing felt particularly severely by French merchants trading vvith the latter country. Letters published in the newspapers describe the situation as disastrous, for French merchandise is sub- ject to the higher scaleof duties, while England and Germany con- tinue to enjoy the minitBum tarifî. "]^rO one, even remotely interested in real estate, needs to be told -^' of the very rapid growtlĸ^f the title insurance companies, during the past few years. Mauifestly, they have done goodservice and supxjlied a real public need. Indeed, the services they perform havebecome almost of the nature of a public fuuction, and are now part of the trade macbinery of the real estate business. A proposition has been made Ihis week, by the Commissioners of AccountP, that these title companies shall pay to the city a cerlain percentage of their incomes, iii order to offset the decreased income of the County Clerk's and Register's ottíces, due to the competition of these institutions. The Commissioners say : " Legislatiou ought to be passed which would coiupel the title guarantee companies to pay the city certaiu percentages of their iticomes, in order to compensate, to some extent, the tajpajers of tbis city from the loss they are sustainiog by the compelition of these companies. " It Í3 true tbat the records are public property, but it is questioaabla whether public property can be applied in the manner in which Ihe lille guarantee companies have done it aud derived a reveijue thorefrom, with- out some coniponsation to the public. This injustice ought to be cured by proper legidlation." We have always contended that private corporations should pay, and liberally pay for public facilities from which they derive income. But this case is not one wherein any franchise or mon- opoly is granted. The records are public property, and anyone is free to raake the use of theni that the title compauies do. The real injustice is that the public have been driven to rely upoii private enterprise for a service in kind and ([uality which the oity itself should have provided, but does not. The title companies would never have existed had the city been alive to public requirements. It is this defect that should be removed by " proper legislation." Tlie Commissioners of Accounts have taken up the wrong end of the stick. Any "..ax imposed upon the title companies would ultimately fall upon the piiblic, so that in a sense the public would be fined for the deficiencics of the municipai administration. That would be '■ getting it" on both sides. C'IOLUMBIA has uudoubtedly secured the best possible site for ^ its purposes south of the Harlem ; but the New York Uni- versity, by the expenditure of a much smaller sum has secured a site equally as large on the other side of the river. No one who is famillar with Sedgwick avenue and its vicinity can avoid congratulating the University on the selection of its trustees. The site for the beauty and diversity of the view it commands, and for the advantages ví various kinds which it offers, is second to none iu a city that possesses great natural attractions. It commands a view, not only of Washington Heighls, and the low lands north of Fort George, but of the Hudson beyond aad thePalisades. Whatever the looatiou of its buildinga can do for a university, this location could do for this institution. The opportunity is offered for surrounding the students with an atmosphere as different from that which envelops the University's present buildings as confinement is from freedom. It is very much to be hoped that the institution wiU be able to form a community up in Fordham iu the sense that Columbia never can be a com- munity under circumstancea present or to come. In securing thia location the University hasgained a greatadvantage overCoIumbia, and one which will prove of much advantage in the future. Doubthíss the architecture of the new buildings wiil be fully equal to the aiie, and if the Univeisity can only get funds enougli it will be admirably equipped to surroun.i the student with that euuobling atmosphere which does a great deal to influence impressionable youth aud to make a university dear to the memory of its gradu- ates. Xew York City is also to be congratulated on this latest addi- tion to its monumental public improvemeuts. Fordham Heights is a singularly attraclive neighborhood aud needs just the kind of development which vvill be supplied by the grounds and buildings of the University. -------•------- IT Í8 curious that wiudy political orators, who make " patríot- ism" an end in itself, never seem to have aufficient .sense to confiue their inflated mouthing to the realm of facts. In a apeech