Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 32, no. 805: August 18, 1883

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August 18, 1883 The Record and Guide'. eoi THE RECORD AND GUIDE. 191 Broadway, N.Y. TERMS: ONE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Commujiicationa should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager, AUGUST 18, 1883. Tbe Forestry CoDgress, which met recently at St. Paul, made Bome Btntements and suggeatiouB which are worthy of public attention. It declared the time had come wben tbe United States flbould grow forests as well as destroy them. It was true that in many places, notably Ohio, New York and Maine, the acreaga of forests was increasing, but still only one-fourth of the coiintry ia covered with wood, which ia a smaller area relatively than Eastern, Western and Northern Europe. Pine lumber is disappearing, and in a few years all our supplies of that indispensable wood must come from the Gulf States. The United States government should officially designate certain sections of the country which should be devoted to the culture. Tbe head waters of all our streams and rivers, as well as their available banka, should be reclothed with forests, which might be thiuned but never destroyed. Forestry laws should be adopted based on the experience of Europe, and we then might look forward to the time when drougbtB would be rarer than they are now and river inundations almost unknown, From reports made by the building bureaus of the large citiep, there is every reason to believe that more houses will be construct¬ ed during the present than any previous year in the history of the country. Not only will there be a larger addition than ever in the way of new structures; the ediflces will also be roomier and better and will coat more money, and all this in spite of depressed trade and a semi-panicky condi tion of the stock market. This phenomenon Is due to two causes. The speculative activity of recent years has run ita course in the stock market and the business world and is now spending its force in the improvement of realty. Then the rapid increase of our population from internal growth and foreign immigration which shows itself mainly in the large cities ie creat¬ ing a constant demand for more room to house and employ the swelling tides of our population. Mr. Lorm Blodget, in a recent publication, declares that town and city industries have increased tbree fold within the last twenty-five years. In other words there are three occupations in which men aud women can make a living by industry in all our cities, where there was one before the Civil War, Not only ao, this labor is far more efficient, because of its better organization, now than it was then. Women and children are now far more extensively engaged in industrial occupations than in former generations, and every year adds to the number of women who from choice or necessity become bread winners. By 1890, it is estimated 1.71 persons in each family of 5,0i persona will bt engaged in industrial occupations. This last figure is the average number of persons in each of the 9,9i5,916 families, which were re¬ turned by the census of 1883. The proportion of workers formerly was about one in every family, that is to say, our industrial army in times past waa equivalent to about lff,000,000 measured by the census of 1880, yet tbe number of workers were given as 17,392,099 In that enumeration. We live in an age of extraordinary industrial development; hence the growth of our large cities and their sub¬ urbs. There can he no step backward in building operations. Crops may fail, business become depressed and panics may rage in Wall street, but new ediflces for work and living will be constantly needed, while old structures will call for repair and enlargement. The parcel post is now in operation in Great Britain. After absorbing the telegraph tbe liberal government proposes to dispense with the private express companies. This idea has been borrowed from Germany, whera a parcel post has been in eucceasful opera¬ tion for many years. No doubt it will be also imitated in the United States. Great Britain has got the start of us in this as in the nationalizing of the telegraph, the money order system, the postal banks and the postal note. When the parcel poat system is nationalized among us, it will effect important changes in the transaction of business: the great city emporiums will have a great advantage over local dealers. Tbe centers of population will thrive at the expense of the minor commuuitiea. The points at which goods can be produced cheapest will have the advantage of tbe vast machinery of the government to distribute their wares to the consumer. Thus the work of centralizing capital and power goes on the world over. It is a curious fact that ic is men like Professor Fawcett, a leader of the laiiisez faire school in Great Britain, a disbeliever in government, who baa been forced by circumatancea to put in operation so much national machinery to take the place of private enterprise. Both parties in thia country swarm with political idiota, who cannot see that in certain things centralized government is inevitable. Ttie Cause of tlie Trouble. There is a rythmic motion in all human affairs, including buai¬ nesa, as there ia in music. The tide of speculation rose through the period of inflation up to 1870, fell in the cycle which closed in 1877, took an upward turn again until the summer of 1881, since which time the tide has been again running out. The condition of affairs during the paat week iu Walt street justifies the expecta¬ tion that the lowest point for the present haa at length been reached, We may now expect feverish reactions, but it is not likely that the market will recover ita tone immediately. The losses have been eo recent and so heavy that none but the bold aud fortunate will have the courage to re-enter the field as bulla, A few leaders cannot make a market. It requires a large body of subsidiary operators to do so, and the conditions do not exist for any consid- able number of capitalists venturing upon new speculations in the street, Of course, the newspaper theoriata have come to the front to account for the recent disturbances. It was Jay Gould, says one authority, who wished to break down Villard and capture the Northern Paciflc, but every interest of that noted operator is clear¬ ly on the side of a buoyant market and higher prices. Left to hia iuBtincts, he might be a bear, but his enormous holdings of telegraph and railway stocks are a guarantee that be cannot afford to aell the market for anything more than a turn. A Tribune editorial writer puts forth a curiously absurd theory to account for the disturbance. Thia is, that there is too much honest money in the country. He says: On the day of specie resumption we had in the country about f 1,005,000,- 000 of money of varioua kinds, includinK *3a.5,OOO,O0O of coin and $670,0oO„ OUO of legal tenders and bank notes. In eight months the increase waa * 110,000,00(1; in two jearg t31'',000,000; in three years tlOO.OOO.OOl); in four years over ?433,000,000. Tbe amount nt United States bank notes did not greatly cliange, but there were added to the circulation about $6^,000,000 of gold certiflcatea, 873,600,000 of silver certiScatss, and $35,300,0U0 of silver dollars, besides a very large amount o( gold coin. Of the certifi¬ cates, too, t6El,500.000 ot the silver and S27,0U0,0u0ot the gold had gone mto active circulation July 1st, aud were not in the Treasury nor in the banks, besiJes $38,000,000 iu silver dollars. In this view two very separate facta are confounded. Au infla¬ tion of irredeemable paper is an unmixed evil, but all additions to the precious metal wealth of the nation ia an unmixed good. A capi- taliat may ba insecure whose wealth consiated of notes represent¬ ing doubtful enterprises, but the ownership of gold and silver or certificates and notea convertible into the precioua metals ensures solvency beyond all peradventure. In the whole history of the world, the nation with the largest precioua metals reserve has been regarded as being in the hest possible position. If the Tribune writer is correct, France must be in a moat periloua condition, for the gold and silver in that couutry amounts to about $54.54 per capita, while our whole currency, including greenbacks aud bank¬ notes, is about $26 per cupifa. Leaving out the paper representa¬ tives of gold and silver, we have not one-quarter the precious metal reserve of the French pesple, although our population is nearly 20,000,000 greater. The primary cause of our troubles haa heen railroad building through regions which can yield UO immediate return. It is thia cause whichproducedRomany financial crises in densely populated Eng¬ land and Scotland. With two or three noted exceptions, such as Rock Island and Lake Shore, all the great lines weat of the Alleghanies have repeatedly been on the verge of bankruptcy or in the hands of receivers. It waa the failure of the Northern Pacific which commenced the panic of 1873. It is safe to predict that every transcontinental line will again go into the hands of receivers, lb iathe acme of absurdity to expect that roads which run through deserts can be profitable, when the New York Central, whose route from New York to Buffalo is studded with great cities, finda it difficult to pay its dividends. Tlie bear attacks of the past week were naturally directed against the "wilderness" roads, which are aod will continue to be the assailable securities in the market. The country is in a fairly good condition. It has au abundance of animal and veget¬ able food, and its transportation lines will continue to do a profit¬ able business. One of the most cheering indications of the times ig the activity in builling operations in all the large cities, espec¬ ially in the Western centres. While the unnatural land specula¬ tion bas come to an end in the Northwest, realty holds its own everywhere, for the constant additions to our population are certain to make land more valuable as time passes by.