Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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Record and Guide ESTABUSHEH'^ iÍARpU ^m'* 1863. DevÍjIED ĨO ReívL ESTAJt.BuiLDiKG ApftlílTECTUI^E ^HOUSEUOID DEGOHfcncxí, BasiI^ESS A^toĨHEMES OF GeTÍEpA lrlTt;Fl,E31. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturãay TBLErHONE, .... CORTLANDT 1370. Communíoatîons should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 2\ LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Eníereil at tlie Post-Offlce aí New Tork, if. T., as secoiid-elaĸa muttei'." Vol. LX. DECEMBER 25, 189T. No. 1.554 WITB FOUR PA(}K SVPPLEMENT. SPECULATIVE înterest has this week centred in locaĩ transit seciirities and in tlie coaĩers. Too miicli faith should not be placed in a movement that professes to depend upon the favor of a political party and its alleged power over the courts, or to one that seeks to advance coal stocks, in an open winter, on the oft-renewed report of an agreement among companies that have never kept thelr agreements yet. However, as we have pointed out hefore, the times and busîness conditlons favor advances rather than declines, and any stock guided with the necessary wisdom and strength can be put up, Ohviously the public wants to huy, and there would be a gen- eralĩy advancing market now if it were not for the obstacles putin the way by powerful Interests that want to see the money market freed from possibĩe adverse influences from the Union Pacific payments before speculative activity is allowed fiill play, The dullness in the wheat market has another cause. It awaits the logical effects of the fact that one man is known to own an immense amount of wheat for which he must eventually find a market, Cotton is down on the revlsed statistical posltion. The American crop is equal to ahout the whole of the world's esti- mated consumption for next year, leaving India. Egypt and other growing countries to provide a surpius, while Lan- cashire and New England both feel the necessity of lessenins the production of manufactured goods, Apart from cotton man- ufactures, the reports from the trades generally are good for the time of the year, and índicatíve of still hetter things to come in the sprĩng. -----------e----------- EUROPBAN exchanges and trade centres are at last seein? that there are prospects of trouble over China, whose par- tition is apparently hegun in a really serious way. What the actual outcome will he no one can say, exceøt that the end of the Flowery Kingdom is at hand, Jealous of the influence Russia is acquiring at the court of Pekin, the other Powers see no way of offsetting it except by holdly taking what they want. Chína can do nothing, At the present moment she is a 'Jamb that prefers to he devoured by the Russian wolf rather than by the Brítish, German or Japanese, but the latter won't consent to stand quietly by while the first disposes of the foolish vic- tîm; theír hunger must also he appeased. Until their positions and "spheres of influence" are assigned by agreement, a matter that will occupy a considerable time, fears of war will be hu- merous in the newspapers; but there is so much to divide that all can be satisfied without fighting, Anyhow, there is a beauti- ful diplomatic game to be played and the undiplomatic world will watch it with interest, Perhaps the points that arouse most curiosity are: Where the finish will leave Japan, who really hegan the game? and, What will the United States do to protect its trade with China, while handicapped by a traditional policy not to. interfere in the politics of the Eastern hemisphere? Turníng to other happenings abroad, we find that the cost of India's recent afflictions is beginning to be counted. Thc famine and plague have cut down railway earnings, the loss on ooe line for the first half of thîs year being 25% and that on another 15.6%, These are the extreme cases, but they occur on the most important railroads. Promoters have always plenty of "enterprises" ready for flotation, and the success in London of the English Sewing Cotton Company, whose stock was sub- Bcribed for five times over, has shown that there is an Invest- ment hunger to be satisfled, The conseQuence is that appeals to the public to subscribe to schemes of more or less impertinence are more than pĩentiful. Ottoman Bank shares have been weak at Paris, o;i the unsatisfactory liquidation of the bank's iiiter- ests in South Africa. Germany, hesides the vagaries of the Emperor, is interested in the trade resuĩts of the year now showing through dividends. Electricaĩ, iron and coaĩ shares make the best ones. Don Jon, of Berlin, has got as far as Ostend on his dangerous mission to China, A hill before the Hungarian Reichstag fixes May 1, 189S, as the date when the Austrian government must have laid a deflnite treaty before Parĩiament. and when, otherwise, Hungary will consider herself free to arrange a!l economic and financial questions for herself, Argentine securities are rising on the improved prospects for business produced by the crops. RAPID transit has undergoue so many transformations that it is risky to regard even the most apparently concluslve phase of it as finai. It does seem, however, that the recent de- cision of the Appellate Court practically nullifies all that has been done in the last few years to provide New York with ade- quate rapid transit by means of an underground railroad. No one is in the least likely to put up the ?15,000,000 bond demanded by the court, and in default of that, as the matter now stands, the scheme which the Rapid Transit Commissioners have con- structed after so hard an effiort falls utterly to pieces. This result is all the raore to be deplored because it is due to an apparentiy unwarranted assumption of legĩslative power by the court. The amount of the bond could and should have been determined by the Rapid Transit Commission. The members of that bocĩy are necessarily more familiar with the plans than the Judges can be, and being also men of large business expe- rience are in a miich better position than the judiciary to deter- mine the amount that would be at once a sufficient guarantee, yet not prohibitive. How the matter can now be altered or amended it is difficult to see, particularly as there ís not a sufR- cient public sentiment in favor of the underground plans to have any weight at Albany, in case the only way to support and continue what has been done is by legislation. The apathy of the public, and even of real estate owners, is hard to explain except by supposing that there never was any real popular inter- ost in rapid transit, and that the majority are utterly insensible to the barbarities that mark the transportation of human beings in New York City. The little noise that was made a few years ago about rapid transit was evidently manufactured by tbe newspapers. There was nothing substantial in it. As long as the public have no violent objection to hanging on to straps and breathing the foul air of overcrowded cars the companies wĩll see to it that they get transportation of that kind. There is more proflt in it, and that is a cardinal virtue with corporations, It seem,s that the only way to better our condition Is by improv- ing the facilities we have, That is the line to work on henee- forth, Invested interests of one kind and another are now so great and powerful that intrusion of any new factor into the sltuation is resented, and the tactics of delay are so long-winded and ĩegal and other pitfalls so numerous that success for a new enterprise can only be a happy accident. HE fogs this Fall have been numerous enough to give New Yorkers a special reminder that with the growth of Greater New York there is need for more scrupulous vigilance than ever in protecting the city from the smoke nuisance. The muggy weather we have had lately gave evidence that the facto- ries multiplying in and around Brooklyn and Jersey City are depriviug New York of one of its most valuable assets. After January the first, when consolidation is complete, it wiU be possible to deal wíth the smoke nuisance in Brooklyn as It has hitherto been dealt with in New York, It might even he possi- ble to effect some arrangement with the New Jersey officials for the institution of some reasonable regulations across the Hud- son. There shoukî be on this subject a strong public opinion, Chicago and other cities have suffered incalculably because of their indiffierence to the early stages of the nuisance. Indus- trialism is aíl very well, but there is a point beyond which even manufaeturing and money-making does not pay. Surely that point is reached when the air is befouled by mephitic odors and deposits of coal, such as inflict the inuabitants o£ Chicago, Pitts- burg and London. New York is fortunate in its nearness to the anthracite coal flelds, and that advantage should no more be squandered than that cf its proximity to the sea. Clear skies havebeen one of the great attractions of New York, and until we lose thera we shaĩl probably never know how great a blesslng they are, ----------•---------- ARE YOU INTERESTED IN REAL ESTATE. If 50. yoti ought to have a copy o[ the real estate man's Web- ster—Van Slclcn's •'GuIde to Buyers and Sellers of Real Es- -.iite." It answers every questlon you can ask, Send for It. In cloih. $1.00; in paper, 70 cents. Record and Guide Office. 14-10 Vestíjf street.