Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 74, no. 1919: December 24, 1904

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December 24, 1904 RECORD AND GUIDE 1417 De/oteD id f^L Ectwe . BuiLDif/o *^R&KiTE(mjRE ,h(ousn!oiD DekhjjidiI. BUSUlESSAlbTHEHESOFGElJEP^I !fJTEf^3T. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Published eVerp Satardag Communications should bo adilroased to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager Telephono, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al tlie Post Office atNeuo Yorlc. N. T..as second-class maUer." Vol. LXXIV. DECEMBER 24. 1904. No. 191S. The Growth of the Record and Guide And Its Necessities. THE growth o£ the "Record and Guide" in the last thirty-six years is the most significant and indisputable evidence obtainable of the growth cl the real estate and building interests in New yorlt City during a period that covers the worlving-days of almost two generations. How many remain ol those who read the first issues of this publication and for years followed its early career? Their successors, and in many cases the successors of these successors, constitute the public to which this journal now spealis. New York City has grown within that time from a town of quite modest dimensions and almost parochial character to the position of one of the greatest and certainly the most vital of the world's capitals. If New York City has "cashed in," no small part of its great expectations of the early "sixties," the "Record and Guide" has been in a peculiarly special sense the Register of the transaction. Com¬ pare the weekly issues of this journal of to-day with those of thirty, twenty or even ten years ago! The comparison is in¬ structive. The measure of the Oifference to be noted would no doubt surprise even those of our readers who have been most closely associated with the progress. Machinery that works smoothly and accelerates its speed regularly and gradually con¬ ceals its own motion. The "Record and Guide" has so steadily and persistently moved with the growth and development of the interests it represents that the vast increase in the service it renders its readers may easily be overlooked by the multitude who are not curious regarding such affairs. In tbe matter of mere bulk, this journal to-day is one of the largest in the world. A few, a very few of our contemporaries print perhaps a greater number of pages, but in those cases the excess consists almost wholly of advertising matter. The "Record and Guide" fre¬ quently publishes five pages of text for each page of advertise¬ ments, and this, as far as we know, is a proportion quite without parallel in journalism. The usual proportion of advertising to reading matter is page for page. All other papers can control this proportion. They can strictly limit the amount of text they print. With the "Record and Guide, on the contrary, the pub¬ lisher has assumed a service toward his readers that is not per¬ formed until tbe last recorded legal account has heen tran¬ scribed, verified and printed. In this way the paper can be regarded as strictly an integral part of the growth of the city. A very few years ago the average issue of the "'Record and Guide" contained fifty-six pages, to-day ninety-six pages are uot infrequent, and occasionally even this ?mouut has been ex¬ ceeded. The temporary overloading of the Register's office, the strain that has been put upon tbe highly organized title com¬ panies and others measures in a sense the task which the "Rec¬ ord and Guide" has discharged without an extra penny of compensation from its subscribers. No one needs to be reminded that the price of other commodities and services, especially labor, and real estate itself have not been stationary, but have increased greatly, so that apart from the larger bulk of tbe journal it is fair to say that the intrinsic value of the "Record and Guide" in recent years has been augmented at tbe very lowest computation, fourfold. The machinery for the produc¬ tion of the paper, its staff and the other elements of its organiza¬ tion have been enlarged more than fourfold to meet the requirements. There is every indication that all that has been done to deal with the situation is inadequate to meet the necessities ot even the near future. The Reai Estate and Euilding Trades of New York City are apparently eo nearer to their limit of growth than they were thirty-six years ago. The Bronx is just entering upon its career, Brooklyn is absorbing its undeveloped acres and the older sections of the city are only "mewing their mighty youth." New Ycrk City has become a more active building center than any other half dozen cities of the Union combined. Millions upon millions are pouring into metropolitan real estate as one of the gilt-edge securities of the wt-rld. If the "Record and Guide" iu the future is to be of the same serv¬ ice to the Real Estate profession and the Builders that it has been in the past, the greater demands of the years to come must be anticipated and prepared for. The "Record and Guide" has reached the limit of convenient size—yet it must be enlarged. Its service must at the same time be prompt, and, as the saying is, "up to tlie minute." for this journal is strictly an instrument of trade. An announcement will be made In these pages next week regarding the details of the plan adopted for a new distribution of the contents cf the "Record and Guide." X S the "Record and Guide" anticipated, the stock market ^*> has on tbe wbole sagged during the past week. The plain fact i? that stocks are not very attractive at present prices, and that some concessions are being made in order to tempt buyers We do not imagine that these concessions will have to go very far, because reports as to business of all kinds become better and better. The complete rehabilitation of a great property like the Reading Railroad testifies eloquently to the perma¬ nently high level which the busiuess of important roads is achieving. Building is becoming more active than it was two years ago throughout the country. The Geo. A. Fuller Company reports, for instance, that it is bidding at the present time on buildings the erection of which wiil require G7,000 tons of structural steel and $20,000,000 of money. Such facts as these explain the renewed prosperity of the steel trade. If this sort of thing continues it will make for higher values in time; hut at present a further bull speculation could only be unwholesome, if successful. Assuming that the business expansion is genuine, it can not for the present spare much money for a huge stock speculation. MR JOHN B. McDonald, since he has gone over from the Interborough Company to the New York City Railway Company, is reported as favoring important changes in tbe new transit routes on which the second company wants to bid. He considers the best route for his company to be a four-track belt line, running dov.'u Third Avenue and the Bowery on the East Side, and up Seventh or Eighth Avenue on the West Side. It does not seem to the "Record and Guide" that it would be good economy for the Rapid Transit Commission to accept a route such as the one roughly described above. Mr. McDonald's insist¬ ence on a four-track subway is an excellent thing, particu¬ larly in view of the fact that his new associates have hitherto been lukewarm upon this essential aspect of a new subway; but Third Avenue is not the one to be used for the purpose. Mr. McDonald's proposal is based frankly upon an abandonment of Lexington Avenue to the Interborough Company to be used as a feeder, and tbis is rigbt because the streets nearest Central Park on the East Side need the Lexington Avenue subway, which can be operated most elRciently by tbe Interborough Company, But if Lexington Avenue is tunneled, and if the carrying capacity of the Second and Third Avenue elevated structures are increased, as they should he. it would be a dupli¬ cation of existing facilities to run a new subway on Third Avenue. That it would be convenient for the Metropolitan in¬ terest to have a subway on Third Avenue we can well under¬ stand, because Third Avenue is the most central line of travel on the East Side not already pre-empted; but in the interest of a comprehensive and economical transit system, the four-track East Side subway should be run on First Avenue. The new transit system should not be constructed with a view to displac¬ ing the elevated roads, but with a view to supplementing them. For tbe time heing the elevated roads should be made as useful