Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 54, no. 1388: October 20, 1894

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October 20,1894 Record and Guide. SS9 Dz/oteD to R,ea.l Estate .BtiiLDiKG %cKitectui\e .KouseHoib DEaiRATioS.. Bi/sii^ESS Alto Theues of GEJfe!\^l IHterest . PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every /Saturday. Telephone,......Cortlandt 1370 Communlcatloua ahould he addreaaed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 1. LINDSEY. Busineaa Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street, • Opp. Post Office. " Enlered al the Posl-offiee at New Tork. Sf. Y., as second-class matter." Vol. liv. OCTOBER 20, 1894. No. 1,388 For additional Brooklyu matter, see Brooklyn Departinent immediately followina Xew Jersey records [gage 568i. THE business situation is such that it offers ample argument to support either the bull or the betir view, Presitlent Roberts, whose position at the head oi the Pennsylvania Rail- roail Company gives him a gootl opportunity of judging, has causetl it to be annouuced that in his opinion busiuess is on tbe mend. Men in the position of Presideut Roberts like to be right and, therefore, seldom hazard anything btit wait nntil the cou¬ ditious are clearly defined, and even theu aro cautions of what they say. Consequently it is long odds that Mr. Roberts is right, especially as what he sees is the continuation of what began in manufactures with the Summer of hist year as a re¬ action from the panic. The greatest value Mr. Roberts' state- meut possesses ia in the influence it may naturally be expected to have upon investors who are sitting on their money for fear they should lose it, aud iu European markets where American enterprise is uow so discredited. The view that business is im¬ proving is h(irue out by some of the imiiortant dry good auction sales of the week aufl by the coutinued improvemeut in railroad earniugs. On tbe other haud returns from the irou trade are discouraging, stocks are increasing notwithstanding limitations on the normal outpitt and prices arc weak. The largest patrons of the iron traile, the railroads, are buying comparatively little. While this industry, which occupies so very promiuent a place among the industries of the country, is in the uusatisfactory conditiou that it is, tho situation as a whole cannot be good. Gold exports are always regarded with disfavor, and as an argument for lower prices in the stock market. Their occurrence just now, although their proportions are small, have a more than ordinary prominence and influence in forming opiuions. It cannot be said that they have checked business, for the reason tbat there was no business to cheek, the market contiuuing to be as it has been for .some weeks past—a purely professional one, and taking its cues fi-oiu the movements of issues which are most speculative in character. There are no very pronounced views either way, but the prospect of Republi¬ can victories at the coming elections, aud the assurances giveu that a return of the Republican party to power would uot mean an imitation ofj the recent policy of the present administration, in raising a taritt' discussion at a time when the return of com¬ mercial confidence and prosperity require that all disturbing featiu-es should be as far as possible expunged from the situa¬ tion, are creating a more bullish feeling than has beeu seen for aome time, and wiU most probably be the nest incentive to an advance. indicating that for Germany and Austi-ia the ■ unseen conditions are better than in other countrie'?. In Great Britain, two great disappointments have be^n experienced, one the failure of the iron trade to advance and the other the small results to the export trade that have followed the passage of the Gorman Taritt Act. Sir William Harcourt's budget ie proving a success in-tsmuch as sometbing more than half of the required increase of revenue of $15,000,000 was obtained in tbe first half of tbe Government year. Meanwhile the people have cheap food and clothes, as appears from the fact that among the articles that have declined iu price since last year, grain, beef, sugar and cotton are conspicuous. Foreign govern¬ ment graiu estimates do not aj^ipear to be any more reliable tban our owu. For instance, the French wheat crop estimate of the Department of Agriculture was 332,000,000 bushels, a grain trade association fi.Kes it at 387,000,000. In fact so great is the surplus that tho growers are talking of agitating for an export bounty equal to the import duty fixedlast spring of about 30c. a bushel. The government is having some ditticulty in making iocome equal estimates. The French Submarine Telegraph Company and the Ptiris to New York Cable Compauy have been amalgamated subject to governmental approval. Tbe anxiety that the bourses show about the condition of of tho Czar of Russia is oue part imaginary and the other mercenary. Should the death of the Czar occur at as early a day as latest reports indicate, while that event may be used to depress the prices of governmeut secuiities, the actual results are likely to be small. At any rate they would uot develop so rapidly that prices shottld go to pieces at once as the cables indicate to be tbe view abroad. FRENCH ill-feeling toward England is giving as rauch anxiety at Versailles as in Downing street. There are no points of dispute between the two countnes that ought uot to be amicably settled, but that does not always signify for peace wheu the population of either one of two countries, or of both, is in an uuamiable mood. Recent attempts of leading Parisian jotirnals to stem this chauvinistic tide may have the desired effect; their efforts will certainly have the support aud approval of all that hope for advancement and civilization. England's suggestiou that the great powers seek to end the war between Chiua aud Japan has aiipareutly failed of its purposes, none of the other powers caring to take it up, either because they each wanted to be first in the movement, or because they considered the moment not a iittiug one. There is, however, an idea preva¬ lent that the war will not be protracted very much further. China is uow in tho market as a borrower aod Jai>an is expected to be before the close of the war. The war material which is now being destr.iyed or used will have to be reuewed. Com¬ plaints, botb of volume of busiuess and of prices, are very general throughout'■ Europe. The bull movement on the Berlin and Vfenna bourses haa not yet run out, THAT government monopolies may be very inconvenient lo the pubbc is pi'oved by what is taking place iu France. Spurreil by the difficulty of making receipts cover expenditures the government has looked to its monopolies closer than ever. Haviug failed iu the courts to sustain a claim that it alone had tbe right to manufacture cigarettes, it proposes to obtain the right by legislation. If it is successful in this it will also claim the right to manufacture cigarette paper. A large trade is done botb m the making of cigarettes and of cigarette paper which woidd most likelv never have beeu distiu'bed except for the present coudition of tbe treasury. It also proposes to protect more rigorously its monopoly of match-making, not the amor¬ ous kind be ifc understootl, though that might be possible in a government so paternally iacliued as tbat of France to-day, but phosphorous match-making. The duty on playing cards is 12 cents a pack, a fact that in counectiou with the price created an indus¬ try of card cleauing and trimming, whieh made over dirty cafe cards for a small cousideration. Such an evidence of honest indnst'y, one would thiuk, ought to be commended. One of the cleaners, however, has just been prosecuted aud fined $200 for defrauding the governmeut by making a pack of cards serve two lives instead of one. Finally, to cap this catalogue of official pettiness, telegrams addressed to the best known firms and indivitluals have beeu returned to the senders when the full address was not giveu. The object oE this trick was to compel the addressees to register a telegraphic address for which a charge of $8 a year is made. But this new rule raised such an outcry agaiust the government that it was forced to cancel it. Receivers of telegrams are, it may naturally be presumed, richer and more influential thau makers of centime boxes of matches or playing card cleaners, and their voices sounded louder in official ears. The saying: They do these thiugs much better in France evidently does not apply either to the collection of revenue or the equal treatment of rich and poor. TEMERITY characterizes tho action of the Americau Bankers' Assoeiatiou at their meeting at Ballimore in adopting a scheme for the reform of the currency, at least this appears so when it is considered bow quiet the banting interest has been in the last three or foui'years' currency discussion. Lookiug back over this time it really appears asif the cowboy and the bucolic elemeut in Congress were the ouly people qualified to take part in the debate, aud that the representatives of tbe moneyed and financial interests knew nothing of what was their daily occu- patiot], or dared uot speak for fear of increasing the prejudice with which they were regarded by those who have had all the say, aud whose knowledge of political economy never went far¬ ther thau counting the change for a teu dollar bill. Seriously siJeaking, the suggestiou of a scheme of currency reform coming from tbe American Bankers' Association ought to start Ihe discus¬ sion on afairbasis--the basis of knowledge of the subject instead of ignorance ofthe subject, which characterizes suggestions from other quarters. The association does not exhaust all the expert testimony that should he heard on this question before a decision is arrived at, nor does it follow that the association's scheme is exactly what this country wants, though the description: A currency that moves automatically iu accordance with tlie wauts of the country, if a true one, shows that the right uote has been struck. The important thing is that the right people have