Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 51, no. 1297: January 21, 1893

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B(/5niESs Alto Themes, Of Ge^ei^L I^jtl^^U PRICE, PER TEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TbUEPBONB .... COBTtANDT 1370. Conu^unicatioDB should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & 16 Vesey St, J. 7. LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the Post-offloe at New York. If. F., as second-class matter.'" year is likely to be a year of considerable suffering and disturbance in England. Vol, li. JANUARY 21. 1893, No. 1,3117 The semi-annual index, to Vol. L., of The Record and Guide, of New York Conveya^ices nnd Projected Bidldings, recorded from July to December, 1893, inclusive, accompanies tins issue. THE bull movement in the stock market, which was begun last week, shows no sign of ending. Of course, wherever large advances are made, reactions may be expected, but the tendency for the time being is upward and will continue to be, while money continues to increase at this centre and while no very bad condi¬ tion develops. Tbe advance, in the face of heavy gold shipments, shows that the buying public has ceased to fear the operations of the Sherman Silver Act. The great horror of these abnormal gold shipments arose from their apparent endlessness, but now that there is a certainty of the repeal of the act of 1&90, that fear is eliminated and people know the extent of the evil and are reassured. It does not matter that the present Congress may, and probably will fail to pass the measure for the suspension of silver purchases with the close of this year. It will answer the purpose just as well if the new administration prepares for their suspension and the next Con¬ gress orders their suspension within a short time after, if not with the passing of the Suspension act. This will make it as broad as long, and every one will be liappy again until the financial ignor¬ ance of the law-makers creates another muddle. But if Congress is loth to redress the wrong it has doiie it cannot fail to have learned ■a lesson which will be effective for a long time to come, and no -more sensational currency legislation need be apprehended so long as that lesson is remembered. The refusal of some of the banks to supply their customers with gold for export raises an expectation that the results of the Sherman Silver Act may jet extend to the very full of the evil of which it is capable. Happily this comes at a time when, in view of a wiser fiscal policy, its mischievouenesB is reduced to a minimum. THE decline in the yield of the tax on stock transations is very eloquently descriptive of the character of speculative busi¬ ness in Berlin during the past year. In 1389 the (ax yielded nearly 11,000,000 marks; in 1890 about 14,500,000 ; in 1891 about 11,000,000, and in 1893 about 8,500,000. The new year has brought tbe appear¬ ance, if not the reality', of better things in the market; but close observers are inclined to question the stability of the movement. The securities principally dealt in on the Berlin Bourse are the shares of domestic enterprises, and if any sound improvement takes place it must be based upon some improvement in German ibusiness. The various trades in that country, the textile trade lexeepted, are at present far from prosperous, and seems to preclude ithe chance of any change for the better just now. The diclara- ition of dividends which have been taking place in London during the first of the year have not been of a kind to satisfy shareholders. Nearly all the important banks reduce their rate of distribution; ithe aame is true generally of the railroads: little or no money has ibeen made on the large capital invested in the textile industry, aud ithe only iron companies which show satisfactory balances are those ■which have some special line of business. It cannot be long before ■the English government will again have trouble with -the unemployed workmen. Strikes are becoming very numerous, and, as in the case of the cotton weavers, are being very obstinately fought. The agriculture of the island is, asthe cable reports show, in a very depressed state, and the farmers are crying for a relief, which they are not likely to get. The agriculliu-al depression will of course act unfortunately by inducing more laborers to seek employment in the cities, there for the time being to swell the numbers of the unemployed. Altogether the coming THE plane which the Manhattan Company disclosed yesterday (ostensibly for tbe first time) to the Rapid Transit Commis¬ sion are scarcely less important as a contribution to the problem now before the city than tbe plans formulated by the Commission itself. It is needless to point out tbat they necessarily possess an apparently greater degree of actuality than projects coming from any other source, because the Manhattan Company ia an organiza¬ tion already in the field, possessed of all the capital and the machinery needed to complete any enterprise they may deem it to their advantage to undertake. This element of actuality will undoubtedly prove very attractive to a city which already has had to suffer much disappointmentfrom the vacuity of many good plans. The Manhattan Company's scheme, the details of which are printed elsewhere, is decidedly clever. It fairly winds around many of the niimerouB difficulties in tbe way of an extension cf the elevated roads, difficulties which if touched would become the centres of strong opposition. It ijrovidesNew York with one more line of road throughout the whole west side of the city from the Battery to Fort George. There is little to object to in ihe plan as it stands south of 45tb street, beyond the general objections which have been urged against elevated roads. The line would greatly benefit property on West street and on 7th avenue. At 45tb street, however, the line strikes Broadway, but it will be noticed, Broadway at its most unatlractive spot. We doubt whether property-owners there would seriously oppose an elevated structure. From 59th street the road makes diagonally for the Boulevard, through the whole length of which it runs. It is at Sherman square that trouble will begin, for there can be no doubt that from that point northward an ele¬ vated stru'.ture would completely change all the possi¬ bilities of that thoroughfare. The route as a whole, however, has been so cleverly laid out, that there is probably no other route in the city the selection of which would engender so little opposition either from property-owners or the city at large. Of course, if tbe Commissioners accept the Manhattan Company's plans that is an end, practically, to all un¬ derground schemes. The city will then be committed wholly to the elevated roads, and what we more particularly object to—to tbe Manhattan Co. The MunicipaUty, and no one but the Munici¬ pality, should own the permanent transportation system of this city. To turn over the immense interests of the metropolis in this matter to any private corporation will be a colossal blunder, the magnitude of which will become more and more apparent yearly. EVERYBODY with any real knowledge of the rapid transit problem will indorse the latest decision of the Rapid Transit Commissioners as expressed in their resolution recently published. At least four years ago The Record AND Guide commenced to tell its readers that the Manhattan Company would have to be consulted in any steps that might be taken to provide New York with an adequate system of transportation. At that time a majority of our citizens and all the daily papers were rabidly an¬ tagonistic to the elevated roads. The cry then was that the Man¬ hattan Company was a vile monopoly, of whom tbe public expected nothing and to whom the pubhc would grant nothing—except a bad name. THE Record and Guide fought this folly. We en¬ deavored to make it clear that tbe elevated roads, and only the ele¬ vated roads, could give the city any immediate relief from a con¬ dition which was daily becoming more and more unbearable. We advocated the wisdom of permitting tbat company to judiciously improve its structure by tbe building of a third track, by the addi¬ tion of adequate terminal facilities and by slight extensions in directions where extensions were most urgently needed. We also pointed out that if the city did not deal liberally with the ele¬ vated roads then, by and by it would have lo act hastily, un¬ wisely, acd grant in a wild, pell-mell fashion privileges that should be granted only with circumspection and with due regard to the larger and ever increasing interests of the metropohs. Every word that we have said on the subject is justified by the predica¬ ment in which the city finds itself to-day. In a sort of panic- stricken way. People and Press alike are tumbling over themselves in au effort to grant the entire city to the Manhattan Company. This is foolish. What should have been done four or five years ago—tbat and little more—remains to be done to-day. It is still tbe policy of wisdom to permit the elevated roads to improve their structure by every reasonable means possible. One or two tracks should be added to the lines already existing; better terminal facili¬ ties are needed and must be allowed; certain limited extensions should be permitted. About all this there can be no reasonable difference of opinion. Apparently, the Rapid Transit Commission¬ ers are now completely committed to the course we have indicated. Their resolutions, however, are wisely conservative, as they should be. They indicate, we sincerely trust, that the Commissioners have some reservation in mind as to the limit of the extensions which the Manhattan Company should be permitted to make. We