Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 68, no. 1755: November 2, 1901

Text version:

November 2, 1901. RECORD AKD GUIDE. 567 ESTABUSHED"^ fiViR.CH2l*;"^ 1B68. Dpf'o-r^ TO Real Estaie . BulLDl^b ApcH'iTEcnuRE.HousdIoii) DEQQUftnml. BU51[JESS AlioTHFJ^ES Of GE[iER^. IjftERfST. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS published etierff Saturday CommuiilcB.tloiis should be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New YopK great lines, carrying as much on one voyage as an ordinary "tramp" can carry in four or flve voyages. The tramps dis¬ placed from the North Atlantic have to seek employment else¬ where, and in the African, Eastern and Colonial trades they are finding the same son of thing developing. J. T. UNDSEY, Business Manager Telepbone, Cortlanilt 3157 'Entered al the Post Office at Mew York. if. Y., as second-class mailer." Vol. LXVIII. NOVEMBER 2, 1901. No. 1755, THE Stock Market has disappointed its friends this week by taking fright very easily at unfavorable developments and being too impatient and too readily disappointed by the de¬ lay in the. announcement of a settlement of the Union Pacific- Northern Pacific imbroglio. There is still some good outside buying both of stocks and bonds, ibut it. is very discriminating if not actually suspicious, and in the main the market has re¬ verted to professionalism. As the professional is bearish prices in these circumstances, naturally, show a tendency to decline. All that had been expected was a rally—a break in the downward movement, and we do not appear to be going to have even that, unless the small advance we saw in the last two or three weeks was the rally, and was not recognized when it came. This is possible because things are so different now to what they used to be, and so regardless of precedent that it is very hard to find out just what they mean. Of course the great standing menace that any who undertake to advance prices have to meet is found in the consideration that comes from a comparison of present quotations with those of a comparatively recent past. When this is made, the fact that there has been a decline any¬ where up to 30 or more points in individual cases since the spring, counts for little, because the range between the lowest and present quotations is still very great. This week's change of market-front must be largely attributed to the increased im¬ portance of money as a factor in hoth the investment and specu¬ lative fields. Rates cannot he said to be high for a period of great industrial and commercial activity, but there is not only no confidence in their permanence, hut some fears of a short¬ age and stringency. The renewal of offers of reliei by the Treasury which may be, on the whole, wise and necessary are not reassuring. Some feel encouraged by them, but the ma¬ jority regard askance a commercial condition that needs official and extraneous supports. PART of the agitation of our own money market is due to the advance of the Bank of England rate of discount to the war flgure of 4 per cent. An advance had been expected, but not one of one per cent made at once. This action of the. Bank shows that its governors appraise the situation at a serious rate and think the case can only be met by radical action. This view is supported by the fact that the jump in the rate comes at a moment when it was thought that London had been re¬ lieved by the transference of the demand of Paris for gold to the New York market. This must have given some relief, but evidently it was not enough, hence the action of the Bank had to be so pronounced as to guard not only its own reserves, but to reassure its public also. The latest development in the Eu¬ ropean commercial situation is a collapse in ocean freight rates, one of the chain of events that produces the extreme decline from an extremity of activity. It looks as if shipping interests have now come face to face with their pei'iod of trial, of what duration they cannot say, but it is now clear that there is at present an over-supply of tonnage in the world; and, second, that the volume of merchandise requiring sea transport will be less in the near future than it has been in the recent past. With regard to the first, there is no remedy in 3ight,while almost every shipyard is booked full of work for several months to come, and British, American, German, and even Japanese ship¬ builders are steadily increasing their output. The "tramp" owner suffers most from the present condition of the shipping trade. For not only is he caught by the depression in freights and the elevation in working expenses, but he is being driven out of the best routes by the big cargo "liner." Between this country and the chief ports of North Europe all the carrying trade is, or can be, done by the mammoth cargo boats of the 1 ■pROBABLY of greater Importance than the departmental ^^ appropriations made by the budget, just completed by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, are the appropriations for new improvements contained in the table of bonds to be here¬ after issued given iu another column. This shows the policy of the Board toward those great works by which real estate is benefited and the building business encouraged. It will be no¬ ticed that large provision is made for docks and school buildings aud the completion and extension of the park system. One item that is to be especially commended is the generous allotment o£ bonds for work on the New East River Bridge, $3,500,000, as compared with that, $600,000, for other bridges between Man¬ hattan and Brooklyn. This is as it should be. The Record and Guide has several times pointed out that, as far as possible, all the funds available for bridging the Bast River ought to be con¬ centrated, where they will bring the earliest possible relief to the one over-taxed structure that furnishes the transpontine connection of the two boroughs. If any criticism could be made on these anticipatory bond authorizations it might be of the amount set apart for repaving, as $2,000,000 is a small amount to apply to the necessities of all the boroughs under this head. The condition of the pavements of the city as a whole is such that the eity government ought really to adopt a more genej-ous policy towards them, in order that they may be brought up somewhere nearer modern standards. "p HE protest of the Broadway merchants against the pro- -*■ posed line of surface cars on Elm street is from every point of view justifiable. To grant a franchise for a surface road on Elm street would simply be a violation of good faith on the part of the city. Elm street was widened, and the property of the unfortunate property owners takeu over by the city for the speciflc purpose of affording a truckway for the business of the dry-goods district. As it is scarcely necessary to point out, trucking to and from lofts in that section is carried on at pres¬ ent with the greatest difficulty. Broadway is crowded, and municipal ordinances forbid the backing of trucks on that thor¬ oughfare; the other streets running up and down town are nar¬ row and inconvenient; only Elm street is left for the purpose of affording the necessary thoroughfare for street traffic; and it would be the height of folly, as well as a matter of bad faith, to turn it over to the Metropolitan Traction Company. Were Elm street really a wide street, the admission of surface cars would not make very much difference; but its width is such that two rows of tracks would leave very little space for trucks or carriages, and it would be necessary there as on Broadway to enforce a municipal regulation against backing in. The rea¬ sons against the proposed line are so obvious and overwhelm¬ ing that any further action on the part of the municipal author¬ ities in favor of the Metropolitan Traction Co. will be closely scrutinized, and will be regarded with extreme suspicion. No reasonable compensation would justify the granting of the franchise. PROPERTY-OWNERS will doubtless feel somewhat relieved that the Budget for the coming year promises to be some¬ what less than the Budget for the current year, and that, ac¬ cording to Comptroller Coler, there is a prospect that the tax rate will be reduced as much as 10 cents. But it must be re¬ membered that the only reason that there does not promise to be an increase rather than a diminution is that the city's con¬ tribution to the state taxes will be $2,443,527 less than it is in 1901, and that had not this margin existed they might have looked forward not to less but to move taxes. A temporary stop-gap has been provided, but the future is still threatening, and the necessity for the adoption of some policy, whereby ex¬ penditure will be diminished or revenues increased without ad¬ ditional taxation as urgent and as unavoidable as ever. THE rtiunicipal campaign now closing has assuredly been one of the most remarkable in the history of the city. Never have the issues at stake been more intelligently and thoroughly discussed. Never has there been so little chatter about merely irrelevant and unimportant matters. Never has the party war¬ fare been waged on the whole with more dignity and propriety. Never has there been a better prospect for good government, no