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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 73, no. 1881: April 2, 1904

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April 2, 1904. RECORD AND GUIDE 725 .Biisofcas juId Themes of GEttn^ iKrugji fRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. SIX DOLLARS PubUsfiad eVerg Saturday OommunicfttlonB should be addroflaed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. Ne'w YorS '1 T. UHDSET,BuslnoBB Managir TelephoBS. OortlaadtSlBT ''Xrdered at tht Poat Office at Nea Twli. N. T., as aecond-daBt f. Vol. LXXIII. APRIL 2, 1904. No. 1881. THE stock market is showing plain symptoms of a recovery of tone. Speculative sentiment is more cheerful than It has been since the beginning of the liquidation, and this senti¬ ment reflects a better satisfied frame of mind on the part of the owners of securities. They are shaking off the apprehensions created by the period of liquidation; they are beginning to see plainly that 1904 will be a fair business year, and that while railroad and industrial earnings will decrease somewhat, they will not decrease so much as to imperil dividends in many cases. But granted that existing rates of distribution will not be low¬ ered, stocks are still cheap in a great many cases, and as the strain on the money market is relieved they can hardly fail to go higher. It is improbable, however, tbat the strain on the money market will be wholly relieved at any time in the immediate future. The causes which have kept security holders apprehen¬ sive and investors timid—viz., the necessary capital flotations of the big railroad corporations—are as present as ever, and will forbid any very considerable advance in prices during the next few months. It may be expected that values will have a strong undertone and will on the whole Improve, but that any sharp advances will bring out a good deal of stock. A more positively bullish market than the one described above would not be de¬ sirable, because it would not be based on the underlying con¬ ditions. IF the Republican party fails to carry the State next tall, be¬ cause of its unpopularity In this city, there can be no doubt that the Legislature will have contributed materially to this consummation. Early in the session, Governor Odell showed that he was aware of the resentment which had been aroused in New York during the last few years by the Repub¬ lican pfiicial programme, and he apparently proposed to make a bid for favor by passing some home rule legislation. But whether he has lost his former authority or whether he never made the proposal seriously—frora whatever cause, New York is at the end of the session calmly informed that it has been granted as much control over Its own affairs as it deserves. In the meanwhile the bills in which the city is particularly in¬ terested are either killed or are in an exceedingly dubious legis¬ lative position. The mortgage tax recording bill, which would have saved the borrowers of money on real estate many mil¬ lions of dollars a year and increased the revenues of the State, has been pronounced dead—partly because it will malce a dif¬ ference of a few thousand dollars a year to one or two rural counties, and partly because the Republicans doubtless wish to keep the whole matter of mortgage taxation open until they are ready to deal with the new State revenues required for the canal bonds. Consequently the mortgage loan business will remain exposed for an additional indefinite period to the danger and. in some cases, to the reality of double taxation. The other bills, the passage of which is particularly desirable, viz.: those introduced by the Rapid Transit Commission, still have a change of enactment; but there is unfortunately no assurance that they will be treated as they deserve. In the shuffle of the last few days of a legislative session, bills pass or are rejected in the most arbitrary manuer; and the Assembly Committee on Rules, which controls the situation, is not a body which has the in¬ terest of New York very much at heart. However, these bills still have a chance, and tbat is something. THE real estate news of the week has been devoid of new characteristics. There has been some extraordinary ac¬ tivity in certain restricted classes of property, shown both by the papers recorded at the Register's ofiice and by the daily reports of sales. It is difiicult to say when this activity—pro¬ duced as it is by the larger earning power of tenement and flat property—will run its course. It will not be stopped by the labor troubles. Indeed, should building be suspended again this summer because of those troubles, it would increase rather than diminish this speculation, because another idle summer would intensify the existing scarcity of house-room. At the same time the day must come when even the small margins of profit, which are the object in most of this trading, will no longer exist and the prices of tenement-house property in Harlem will reach a more stable level, just as they have reached such a level on the lower east side. However, that day is not yet, and if the strike continues it may be postponed for a long time. On the other hand, the continuation of the strike will soon paralyze the more important activities of both the real estate and building mar¬ kets. Already it has produced an extremely bad impression and caused the abandonment or postponement of many important projects; but if it is settled before long and thoroughly well settled, the evil may not be past curing. The strike is the only thing that stands in the way of a building year that will be above the average iu the amount of money spent. The high prices of wages and materials would not stand in the way; and the necessary loans can be negotiated, even though a somewhat higher rate of interest would have to be paid. Capital is being loaned on real estate very freely at the present time, the totals being considerably larger than they were for the corresponding period last year. Even in the department of office building, in which there is less temptation than usual to increase the sup¬ ply, a considerable amount of work is promised, including the Trinity Building, that of the International Banking Corporation, the extension to the Commercial Cable Building, the new oflices of the Produce Exchange Bank, the yearly enterprise Mr. W. K. Astor's on east Wall street, and the proposed insurance build¬ ing on William street. This constitutes a very fair list, and should, with the several "sky-scrapers" planned for the middle section of the city, give sufficient employment to the constructors of- this class of huildAng. IT was to be expected that Commissioner Best of the Depart¬ ment of Bridges would reverse the plans of his predecessor in respect to the structure of the new Manhattan Bridge; and It was consequently also to be expected that he would either have the architecture which accompanied these engineering plans, altered; or else would dispense with architectural em¬ bellishment entirely. What was not Lo be expected, however, considering the record in this respect of the Van. Wyck admin¬ istration, was that in employing another firm of architects he would select one of the best in the city. Few of the actions of the Van Wyck administration provoked more intense, if not more widespread irritation, than its action in giving all of the city work to one firm of architects; and this irritation would have existed no matter how high the reputation of that flrm might be. The present administration fortunately seems to prefer the precedent set by its immediate predecessor of em¬ ploying a number of architects in good standing on the various city jobs; and the flrm of architects selected to give a satis¬ factory appearance to the Manhattan Bridge, Messrs. Carrfere & Hastings will meet with general approval. But, of course, it Is one thing to approve the selection of iVIessrs. Carr6re & Hast¬ ings, and it is quite another to approve the rejection of Mr. Hornbostel's designs. With the engineering plans with which these designs were associated, we have nothing to do, but Mr. Hornbostel had deserved better of the city than to be thrown over with so little ceremony. His designs had been greeted with very general commendation, and constituted a very original and ingenious attempt to give an architectural consummation and meaning to certain stubborn engineering forms. Of course the abstract right of the new Commissioner to have the plans of his predecessor altered cannot be denied; but there may be two opinions about the wisdom of exercising that right, and in any event full compensation for work already performed should not be withheld from Mr. Hornbostel any more than it should be withheld from Mr. Washington Hull. The city cannot ex¬ pect to have its work done by the good architects, provided every new administration reverses the acts of its predecessors, and then refuses to pay the men who have in good faith spent money, time and talent in preparing important architectural rpHE deadlock between the Mason Buildera' Association and ■^ the Bricklayers' Union continues, notwithstanding the apparently strenuous efforts which are being made to bring both parties to terms. The bricklayers will not accept anything less than a modified recognition of the Laborers' Union, and the Mason Builders cannot grant that concession. The Mason Builders have, of course, another card to play. They can, with the support of the Emergency Committee of the Employers' As¬ sociation and the Material Dealers' Association, shut down work