Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 51, no. 1306: March 25, 1893

Text version:

March 25,1893 Record and Guide. 411 if/^y/____ ESTmiSHED'^"'WPK21'>'18(j&..;^ "^id) TO f^ ESTAJE eulL01^'c ARC>^&, PRICE, PER YEAR IIV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. i*ul>itsAe<2 every Saturday. Tklbfhokb ... CommtinicatlonB should be addreased to Cortlandt 1370. C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the Post-office at New York. N. Y., as second-class matter.''' Vol, li. MARCH 25. 1893, No. 1,E06 HOLDERS of railroad securities have taken some comfort from the fact that the peoplewho manage their properties hav^ at last got into the last ditch and decided to sustain each olher in resisting the demands of labor. Probably the trouble with the switchmen ia Buffalo last summer could have been settled as easily as was tho trouble with the switchmen in Chicago recently if the railroads entering Buffalo had been as united as those in Chicago were. Mr. Depew's opinion on the situation and the failure of the threatened gold exports have also been factors on the side of higher prices. So far, however, the market has been largely in professional hands, the buying from tlie outside lieing small. There hasbeen none of the investment buying which is generally characteristic of a return of public favor to the stock niarket. Tliis is due to the fact that the monetary situation has not changed materially, nor will it until the big speculation in natui'al products is ended. There is an expectation of gold exports and stifEer rates for money in the coming week, and if these come they will work injury to prices, but the same causes that pre¬ vented the fulfillment of similar predictions a week ago maj be still at work. DISCUSSION concerning the Webster bill, which allows the city to condemn property and lake possession of it before the question of compensation is determined, certainly reveals more than one serious objection to the measure, which we believe the city officials who are behind the bill should consider before they press it on to the statute books. Opposition at present comes entirely from the owners of property on Elm street, but all owners of real estate in the city are interested in the bill because it is possi¬ ble that at any moment its pi-ovisions may operate in the case of their possessions. Necessity for the proposed legislation lies wholly in the fact that condemnation proceedings are now tedious operations, wherein lbe gieater interests of the public frequently suffer. There is real need for hastening condemnation proceedings; but some method for accelerating tho present legal process can surely be devised, which does not work injury to property-owners; and, upon consideration, it does seem to us that this Webster bill is likely to work injury. As we have already stated in these columns, it proposes that the city may, after a certain course of advertising in the obscure City Record, take possession of whatever property it needs, and leave the adjudication of the claims of property-owners to practically any future time. The bill sets no limit to the patience which the property-owner must exercise. ONE of the reasons why condemnation proceedings drag their weary length along from month to month and year to year is that the pay of the Commissioners, who have charge of these proceedings, augment by deiajs. The Commissioners do not want to " close shop " any sooner than they can, so long as they are get¬ ting $10 a day. Here lies the root of the evil. The proper course for the city officials.to pursue is to "reform the Commissioners," make thein act in the interest of property-owners and of tbe city. The promoters of the Webster bill, however, dodge this course. The old delay is to continue, but under tbe Webster bill it is to continue to the detriment of property-owners. They are to wait, and not the city, until the Commissioners consider that they have received a sufficient number of $10 bills. This is the sort of reformation that does not reform. IE works injustice. It puts property-owners whose property has been taken by the city in a position of the utmost difficulty to prove their loss. For example : 20 feet of a building is taken for street purposes from a large manufacturing estabhsh- menc ; heavy, expensive machinery has to be moved and, perhaps. the curtailed space left to the useof the proprietor necessitates the purchase of other machinery and, perhaps, occasions loss during replacement. Under present conditions the manufacturer can demonstrate his loss ; he can give occular evidence to the Commis¬ sioners of the changes which the city's action would occasion. But, under the Webster bill, all the proofs would, as it were, pass into the possession of the municipality and be destroyed. In case of a dispute, what couid the manufacturer show to demoustra'e his loss, it might be, it probably would be, two, three or flve years after he was dispossessed of bis property. Expert testimony, under tlie present law, can be applied to each particular case ; but what expert testimony can be called in when the property has been removed? No. Property should be left iu the possession of ils owner until bis claims are set¬ tled. The City should buy what it needs precisely as every indi¬ vidual has to buy what he needs, either by paying cash or upon terms of credit acceptable to the seiter. And, if Commissioners aie dilatory under the present law, how much more dilatory will they be under the Webster law V Not even nature will prompt them, as in tbe case of a properly-constituted hen, to relinquish their setting when their work becomes useless. THE events of the past week put an end practically to all legisla¬ tive action this session on the matter of Rapid Transit. Tbe actual rulers of New York have spoken. They have decreed in favor of preserving for an indefinite time longer the condition of transportation that now prevails. As no one can possibly be bene¬ fited by the maintenance of it but the Manhattan tlJompany, is itnot reasonable to assume that the Manhatlan Company dominato both official and legislative actiou? Unless public opinion exerts itself otherwise than sporadically, as inthe past, the city must aban¬ don hope. The Ellison and the Farquhar bills are dead. We shall only hear of them again in an obituary tone on their way to the graveyard of pious legislation. Tlie Manhattan Company want neither of them ; consequently the city officials and tbe legislature will not consider them. What a pitiful and disgraceful position the metropolis occupies ! Public decency, pablic morals ave out¬ raged, the development of the city retarded in order to make large dividends fora private corpoi'ation. Not a single public official whose voice would be powerful speaks ou behalf of the people's interests. But we hear a great deal about speedways ! IT is plain to-day, beyond the possibility of any mistake, that New York cannot have better Rapid Transit except with the explicit permission of the Manhattan Company. The Manhattan Company will neither accept themselves nor sanction giving to anybody else facilities and privileges that do nob pay thei)i heavily. Any ideas of developing the " North Side" by improvements m the Rapid Transit service are vain and foolish. It won't pay the Manhattau Company to build into the " Nonh Side" or into the 23d and 24th Wards just at present, consequently they will not accept any priv¬ ileges in that direetion. The idea of a Rapid Transit system, sub¬ servient to the comfort and development of the metropolis, is not to be realized. We shall have Manhattan elevated roads wher¬ ever they will pay, constructed in the form that wili pay, managed in the manner that will pay, not according to any ordinary ideas of remuneration, but, as in the past, upon awatered stock basis, Tlie sooner the people of New York wake up to the position they are in, the less hard sitting tbey ^will have to do by and by on the stool of repentance. THE bill making it a misdemeanor for a newspaper to exag¬ gerate its circulation should certainly be passed, but we are afraid it won't. Hardly second to the politician for charlatanry and humbug is the newspaper, and these two in combination would probably defeat a measure strictly in the interests of the l>ublic. Every well-informed person knows that all the "high- water marks" and "circulation accounts" which screech in the columns of our newspapers have as little relation to the truth as the statement of the fake circus proprietor who swore that every one of tbe advertised features of his show was a sacred pledge. Indeed, so far has this wholesale lying been carried that the public judgment has been perverted, and things have come to such a pass that a reputable journal dare not announce its real circulation, although that circulatian might be actually a large one. The public have been made to believe in circula¬ tions running up into hundreds of thousands, and though tl ey probably allow "a factor of safety" in accepting publishers' statements they are still dupes of the unscrupulous. We couid never understand why the Press should be judged by auy other than the common standard of morals and manners. What it is disgraceful for a gentleman to pry into, it is disgr.tceful for a news¬ paper to pry into, Catch-penny methods which no reputable firm would resort to should not be resorted to by reputable news¬ papers; and, to obtain money hy false preten.ses, by lying state¬ ments about circulation, deserves punishment quite as much in the case of the newspaper proprietor as in that of the smart swindler