Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 74, no. 1920: December 31, 1904

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December 31, 1904 RECORD AND GUIDE [487 ^i eV ESTAEUSHED'^NWCHSli-^ISBa. CtVcrIEDIORfJ^LE;sT«T.SlllLDI^'C ApcKlTECnVRE ,h(cfusnioiB DEGffl^noil. Business aiJdThemes Of GeKer^ IfJiti^sT. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Published eVerg iXaturdojr paper or edition, and were all the matter that pertains to Brook¬ lyn be printed in another paper 01 edition, and then the two be charged for separately and at a fair price. Our readers must have noticed the improvements that have recently been made in our paper, and these improvements are only the initial steps of a well-deflced progressive policy. Next week and thereafter, the Record and Guide will be issued as two I Communications stould be addreBsed, fo C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New Yorh t. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager Telephono, Cortlandt 3157 •■Entered at the Post Office at New Tork. N. Y..as second-class matter." Vol. LXXIV. DECEMBER 31, 1904. The Growth of The Record and Guide and the Resulting Changes. T T 7 E spoke last week in these columns of the growth of the Record and Guide and the necessity which that growth has thrust upon the management of the paper to pro¬ vide some plan whereby the vastly larger mass of legal records can be handled mechanically and otherwise with the least in¬ crease ot financial pressure upon our readers. It must he per¬ fectly clear to every one of our subscribers that it is commer¬ cially out of the question for the Record and Guide to go on augmenting in bulk year by year, accompanied by tlie printing of thousands of additional legal papers annually, without in¬ creasing in some manner or form the cost of its service to its readers. A real estate agent, who should undertake to manage a certain estate for a fixed sum of money, could not permit the owner to go on indefinitely enlarging that estate, thereby increasing the agent's labors and expenses, without demanding increased compensation. A builder, who should contract to erect a ten-story building for a fixed amount, could not permit the owner to add story upon story without demanding an in¬ creased cost. The Record and Guide, however, has been in the position of this hypothetical real estate agent and builder for many years past. It has steadily increased tbe size of its issues while rigorously maintaining the quality of its service. It has, without any stint of money, enlarged its mechanical establish¬ ment so as to deliver copies to its readers as early as possible on Saturday mornings, and in this effort it has increased its force and its expenses very nearly four-fold, until to-day the Record and Guide is the most costly trade-paper of any kind whatsoever, and prints nearly five pages of reading matter for each page of advertising. As we pointed out last week, this is the result of special con¬ ditions peculiar to the real estate field. The Record and Guide is loyally supported by the interests it serves. It possesses one of the largest circulations of any trade-paper extant, and a cir¬ culation that, locally considered, is in its concentration and completeness, tiuite unique. "Printers' Ink" accords to the Rec¬ ord and Guide the "double hull's-eye rating" for "extraordinary excellence of circulation." The Record and Guide undoubtedly occupies its field, but attached to this field are peculiar circum¬ stances—circumstances that compel the continued printing of more and more read ing-matter without any possibility of re¬ striction or curtailment, unless, of cpurse, the value of the paper's service were at the same time to be impaired. The latter is out of the question. It only remains that the situation should he fairly met by all concerned—by the Record and Guide itself on its part, by its subscribers on their part. No one can sell an article below cost or at an unfair commercial price with¬ out disadvantage all around. After carefully considering the situation, it has seemed to the management of the Record and Guide that the most desirable way out of the existing difficulty is to separate the matter that now appears in the paper into two parts. Nothing, it would seem, can be lost were all the matter that pertains to Manhattan and the Bronx printed in one 1. The Rpcord and Guide—Manhattan and the Bronx edition; 2. The Record and Guide—Brooklyn edition. The former will be supplied to readers and subscribers, as at present, for ?fi,00 a year, or 15 cents per copy. The latter will be sold for $3.50 a year, or 10 cents per copy. Those who desire bcth papers will be supplied for $8.00 a year. Working on the supposition that all subscribers who receive the Record and Guide to-day at an address in Manhattan or the Bronx, are interested solely in information pertaining to those two boroughs, the Manhattan and the Bronx edition alone will hereafter be sent to those who dwell in Manhattan and the Bronx; and on a like supposition, the Brooklyn edition alone will be sent to those who dwell in the big borough beyond the Bast River. Any subscriber, however, whose paid subscription is still current, may hy dropping us a postal card stating his desire, obtain both editions without any extra charge whatso¬ ever during the life of his existing subscription. Of course, at the end of the subscription, it will be open to him to elect whicli edition he needs, paying tor one or the other, or both as the circumstances may be. In conclusion, the Record and Guide would like to assure its old friends that this new step has been taken only after the greatest patience and with the utmost care for every interest concerned. It is most emphatically not a one-sided move. Moreover, it is not a solitary move, but one that has been fully prepared for by the management, and by the careful adop¬ tion of a wider policy that will surely give our readers, when jt is completely worked out, a very much superior service hoth in Manhattan and the Bronx, and in Brooklyn. THE stock market has been showing marked strength as a result of what appears to be a very excellent class of buying; and in spite of the fact that prices are undoubtedly very high—practically as high as those of the spring of 1902— the reasons for this marked strength are not far to seek. The impression is spreading that stocks are becoming intrinsically more valuable than they were two years ago. The hest indus¬ trial stocks are more valuable, because the big industrial corpo¬ rations have pulled through a period of very bad business, and becatise they will be in a position now to use their surplus earn¬ ings—after paying their preferred stock dividends—in strength¬ ening their supplies of working capital. In this way they very much increase the chance of maintaining the dividends on the preferred, while at the same time they are adopting the only policy which can in the long run give substantial value to the common stock, Tiie good railroad stocks are also believed to be more valuable, because they are showing an increased earning power. Tliere is talk of increased dividends on a number of important stocks, and the resumption of dividends on others, and this talk is in some measure justified by actual events. In fact the railroad companies, such as the Pennsylvania and the New York Central, which are large holders of the stocks of other companies, are likely to he very much benefited by the prospective increased rates of dividend distribution. All this makes for investment buyiny and suggests that a permanently higher level of values may be effected by the events of the next year. THE only comment there is to make upon the real estate marliot of the past week is that it has been possessed by a seasonable dullness. Whatever movement has been shown has been in the same direction as tbat which has been con¬ spicuous during the past month. Property in and near the financial center is in demand for the construction of ofiice build¬ ings and 5lh Ave. property or lots in that vicinity are also in demand both for new residences and for the retail trade. The lot speculation is becoming smaller and smaller, and the most recent purchasers are doubtless beginning to consider seriously