Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 49, no. 1266: June 18, 1892

Text version:

June 18.1893 Record and Guide. 9ffl ^ KTABLISHED' # :,^>^ (>-'' ^ ES™USHED"^WAi<.CH21'J^ie6e. OwoTED tO Rt^LEsrMt SuiLDlf/C AROHITECTJI\E,HoUSDÍOLCDE«Of^llOll. BUMIÍESS AIÍdThEMES Cf ÛE^EI^L l;iT£[\ESl PRICE, PER TEAR IN 1DT1!V(E, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELBPHONB .... CORTLANDT 1370. ConunuDÍcatioDs should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St J. 1. LINDSE'y, Business Manager. "Entered at the Fost-offlce at New Tork, N. iT., as second-class matier." VoL. XLIX JUNE 18, 1892. No. 1,266 WITH a powerful party working in the Orangers and a faith on the part of the public of the mountain-moving order there has been a narrow but strong buU market on the Stock Exchange for a week, which only received a real check on nearly the largest gold export movement ever seen in one week, For a time even it seemed as if that movement, usually so infallibly a factor on the bear side, was to be without influence, but it told at last, and wherever an attempt was made to market any large amount of secnrities not protected by the manipulators there was a rapid decline, But while there is a public wiUing to pay 82 l'or a non-dividend stock like St, Paul, or 37 for one so embarrassed as New England, there is notelling how soon they may go up again or where prices may go as soon as there shall come some cessation of gold shipmentf, It is highly supererogatory to point out the conditions and prospects of the railroads or to suggest the advisa- bility of discrimination in purchases whenever there is a determina- tion on the part of the public to have an advancing market and large balances laying at the banks unemployed, At such times stocks are not bought because of their earning capacities or because of the property they represent, but because the tide is strong in one direction and everything good, bad or indif- ferent must go that way. It was natural that the Stock Market should reflect the general relief felt when the farmer of the West was given a spell of good weather in which to make some endoavor to obtain a good corn crop when it became known through the Government reports that the damage by the previous bad weather was less ihan had been anticipated and when the news of the receding of the flood was received. Conservative people might have wished and expected that that reflection would have shown more vividly among stocks and bonds of the investment class. But it was not so. The gilt- edge series of stooks shov\ very little benefit from the change of opinion; in fact, some of them,notabIy the Coalers, are lower than they were last week, while transactions in bonds generally have not raised prices at all, Not only have news of crop and weather been better, but there are undoubted signs of improvement in gen- eral business, AII these are used to help the speculative advance on the Stock Exchange, The use of the latter seems inconsistent when it is remembered that only a few weeks ago dullness in out- side buyinesrt was used as a bull argument; it was without effect, and it may be for that reason that the bulls cannot be now charged with illogic. The mood the public is found to be in promises advance in prices whenever there is the least news on which to base one, provided there is no shrinkags of the funds available for specu- lation. Acontinuation of heavy gold exports and the demand from renewed activity in many lines of businesg which have been so long stagnant may so absorb the now idle money as to check speculation. So far the market looks this probability in the face with confldence. UNTIL lately the German Empire has beeu comparatively free troin the financial deficits which have been embarrassing the other cbief European nations, with the exception of Great Britain and Austro-Hungary ; but now Germany like the rest is spending a great deal more than her income. Hitherto the extra expenditure has been met principaliy by borrowing ; but the growing inorease calls for extraordinary provision. The first step taken in that direction was a reform of the income tax,, Self- declaration has been adopted; and it has considerably increased the yield of the tax already, Now a epeoial tax on funded income is proposed. These increases inay ■suíĩice for a time, but if things go on as it appears they will, new loans will become inevitable. So far, few people give thought to this, but when the new demands for money come before Parlia- ment, the question will be amply discussed, though it may be fore- seen that the whole discussion will lead to little, leaving things practically as they were. Curiously, the ojjerators. in stocks inake a good deal of this as a bullish argument, Their tactios are to adopt the reasoning which in the beginning was meant only as an evasive reply to an importunate opposition—that expensive arma- ments are better than an expensive war, In this way they go almost so far as to call every increase of the army as a freSh symptom of peace; and as peace is that which everyone longs for, ii Í8 easy to argue further, and to state that peace once being secured, business ought to improve. These arguments are not always openly expressed, but they constitute the germ of many a theory propagated to stimulate busmess. Business, however, refuses to be stimulated, Cheap money and the comparative tranquility of the general situation have, indeed, increased the price of good securities in Berlin as in London ; but there is nothing in prospect to warrant any extended advance. Great hopes are entertained that Gennany will come to a better under- standing with Russia; but they are accompanied by misgivings almost as great. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that in both countries strong and persistent efforts are being made to establish a friendly political understanding compatible with the present state of European politics, and to establish also a commer- cial position advantageous to both countries, Russia being under the necessity of reconstituting her flnances, must put a high value on German financial aid, and Germany cannot conceal the fact that she i8 longing to resume her once flourishing export trade to Russia, SOBER-MINDED people must view with alarm the noticeable increase of cases of personal administration of Justice, so caUed. The newspapers (to whom, of course, such matters are "richness") have fairly teemed of late with reports of aggrieved women shooting down men at sight, husbands murdering other men or tlieir own wives, according as they viewed the requirements of their case, and in all parts of the country mobs have been busy making a holiday over the corpses of suspected offenders whom they have strongly " felt" were guilty, One is, indeed, driven to ask, is there any public adminstration of Justice in the land ? The courts apparently pay no heed tothese violences against civilization, for, needless to point out, such they are, Lamentable excesses are sure to lesult from this unbridled freedom, Every deed of the kind that goes unpunished and receives the acquiescence of silence from the public quite naturally encourages other individuals to undertake the private redress of their wrongs, or what they believe to be their wrongs, and mobs will beemboldened until the Mafia incident will be a common occurrence. The very publicity given to deeds of the kind servespo?tr encourager les autres. Now, tlie punishment, the prompt and certain pimishment of an offender is only one side of Justice, Com'ts of Law and judicial proceedings have been estab- lished by civilization not only to perform that function, important as it is, but to insure the protection of the innocent, which is even more important if any comparison may be made. The Law has still a further offlce arising from the very nature of Justice—the adjudica- tion of the degrees of acrime. It may be said that the punishment of crime is in its immediate aspeot a matter affecting, relativoly speak- ing, only a few persons. It is in a sense the accidental relation of Law to Society. The general and permanent relation is the security which the Law should afford to every individual agaiust hasty judgment, unwarranted charges, undue punishment, Thissecurity is needed by everybody, It is the most sacred obligation of the Law, and confersupon the court-house something of the ancient sanctity of the church altar. To say that colored "Johnsing" merited his fate at the limb of a convenient tree, and if he didn't, still it will serve as a warning fo others, doesn't touch the evil. That Mr, This was shot five times in the back on Broadway, or that Mrs, That was murdered in the compaiiy of her paramour may " serve them right," The great evil is that this personal admin- istration of Justicesurely creates wider possibilities, utterly vicious and dangerous in theextreme to Society itself, Experiencehasshown as clearly as it has shown anything that dangerous weapons caniiot safely be put into everybody's hands. Sooner or later they are sure to be employed with lamentable results. The tendency of pracLice is to widen priuciples, aud the principle of permitling personal vengear.ce in certain cases will not stop with those cases, but will be extended until Society wiU be obliged to wholly abolish the principle. It is fully time that rigorous punishment should be meted out to lynchers and the rapidly increasing numberof " mur- derers with excuses." Tbe sentiment that at present favors these offenders is dangerous in the extreme. IN an interview published in the Times respecting a letter which he wrote to the treasurer of the fund to build tho Washington Memorial Arch.'Mr. O. B. Potter is more than usually iieculiar in his opinions. He says that before many years 5th avenue will be continued straight across V/ashington square to join South 5th avenue, thus making another broad thoroughfare available foi pub- lic travel and trafflc of all kinds. Tliis new thoroughfare will be lined with business buildings, not with warehouse, but with oflice