Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 32, no. 824: December 29, 1883

Text version:

December 29, 188» The Record and Guide. 1047 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. 191 Broadway, N. Y. TERMS: ONE YEAR, iu advance, SIX DOLLARS. Conununications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T, LINDSET. Business Manager. DECEMBER 29, 188S, V, .'t/^.S^' The year 1883 ends somewhat gloomily. Business men generally find little satisfaction in balancing their books. There has been an unprecedented shrinkage in prices, not only in railway securities, but in all products of the earth and labor. The rich ao far have suffered the most, but the distress is now reaching the working classes, and news comes from every quarter of the stoppage of large factories, the reduction of wages and the throwing out of employ¬ ment in mid-winter of hundreds of thousands of working people. The retrospect is not pleasant, but with the new year will come a more hopeful feeling, Oura is not a people who will patiently sub¬ mit to disaster. The land is full of grain and goods, money is re- dundent, there is no possibility of a financial iianic, as the basis of our currency is gold and silver, and prices are very near to i£ they have not touched bottom. The prospect is sufficiently hopeful in wari'antiug us wishing everyone a Happy New Year, nitiea an entirely different set of conditions obtains. The mass of the community can know only a few prominent men. People generally have no personal acquaintance with their immediate neighborhood. They are of ditferent races and religions, while the unequal distribution of wealthl creates class distinctions, which renders associated action difficult and any responsibility on the part of minor officials towards the community impossible. Hence the more recent demand for Mayors and heads of departments who shall possess both authority and responsibility. It is impossible to tell who is to blame if a Board of Aldermen is corrupt, but if a Mayor is responsible for the heads of departments and the laiter misuse their power, he can be called to account immediately. In no other way can we secure good municipal government. This was the burden of Mayor Low's excellently conceived address. He 7 ^pointed out the fact that the citizens at large become intensely interested when they have actual home rule. The vote on Mayor for Brooklyn at the last election was larger than any before cast. This lesson should be taken to heart by alt who desire to see good govern¬ ment for this city. We should reform our charter, making the Mayor responsible for heads of departments, they to have power over their own subordinates and expenditures, a.id then if matters go wrong there will be no doubt as to who is to blame. It may interest real estate people to know that in early times the site of their proposed Exchange was a locality much infested by bears. It seema there was quite a swampy tree-covered tract, ex¬ tending from what ia now Cedar streefc to what in the next century was known as Maiden lane, Mrs. Martha J, Lamb, in her "History of New York," quotes the Rev, James Wooley. who tells of a bear hunt in this locality as late as 1679, in which a boy distinguished himself by climbing a tree and with some unnamed weapon wounded Bruiu in the paws 80 that the latter let go his hold and fell to the ground, where he was dispatched by the hunters. We may add that the race of bears are not extinct by any meaus, though they are not of the same variety ; they are, however, large, rampant and rapacious, and now are found further down town, where ihey haunt the purlieus of the Stock Exchange, These unamiable animals have probably left Liberty street forever, for the Real Estate Exchange will have nothing to do with them, but will extend its favors to bulls exclu¬ sively, and only to such of these as are of a gentle and generous breed. Reporting has become almost a lost art iu metropolitan journal¬ ism. In England, the utterances of the great Liberal and Conserva¬ tive leaders, aa well as other important personages, are given ver- batum, and this remark was true, also, of the Herald o£ this city when it waa a great newspaper. But of late^'years the short-hand reporter attached to our daily journals is employed in the police courts and not in reporting tbe speeches of public men. Instead of reducing their price the city journals should have increased their attractiveness by reporting the great events of the day with more fulness, and then it would have shown additional enterprise if tbey occasionally issued supplemental sheets with pictorial representa¬ tions of the current news. The Tribune alone of the daily journals is trying to fill this unoccupied field. It gave verbatum reports of all the speeches made at the New Eugand dinners, at Brooklyn and iu New York. The speakers at these gatherings were men of national fame, such as President Arthur, Wm. M, Evarts, General Grant, Geo. W. Curtia, Heury Ward Beecher, Chauncey M. Depew, the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn, and others equally notable. AU the ofcher jouruals dismiss these nota¬ ble utterances with a paragraph or two. If the Tribune contin¬ ues in the same way, New York will soon be able to boast of hav¬ ing one paper, at least, that can compare with the leading Chicago journals. »--------- ■ Mayor Low, of Brooklyn, made a speech at the New England Society's banquet which should be reproduced in every leading newspaper in the country. He elaborated a point frequently made in these columns, showing the inapplicability of the theory of the New England town meeting to the government of a great city. In a farming community, where everyone knows bia neighbor and all are of the same race and rehgion, it ia wiae to disti-ibute responsi¬ bility aud create a large number of officials armed with a brief authority, and whose salaries were a mere triflg. No more perfect democracy ever existed, as De Toqueville pointed out, than these New England township organizations. But ia populous commu- Shall it be free ships or subsidized steamship lines? This is the coQUndrum which Congress will attempt to solve before this ses¬ sion is over. The interest of New York would favor the adoption of both projects. More ships, whether home or foreign, would add to the businesft of this port. But why not a compromise? Why not allow American companies to order Clyde built vessels, pro¬ vided the latter are constructed under some general plan preppred by United States engineers, which would make it possible to use them as cruisers in caae of war? The very few armored vessels which it ia proposed to i'.dd to our navy would be confined in case of war to the coaat service. American war vessels, in times of hostilities, would be excluded from foreign porta, and we have uo coaling stations iu any part of the world. They could not carry a sufficient quantity of coal for a long voyage. What we would urgently need in caae of an international conflict, would be steel cruisers, armed with a few guns and as swift as the " Alaska" or " City of Rome," capable of carrying large quantities of coal, and which could make use of sails when not pursuing and cap¬ turing the merchant steamers of the enemy. Then the government might also encourage the construction of home built vessels by paying handsomely for the carriage of the mails. By some such policy as this, we might iu a couple of years have a fleet of swift cruisers at small cost to ourselves, but which would be a consfcant menace to maritime nations who might otherwise be tempted to pick a quarrel with us. We desire no wars, but there is no instance in history of a great and powerful nation which has not during its career been brought into conflict with other countries. Against auch a contingency we should be provided; that is, we should not be so absolutely defenseless as we are now. The Rep¬ resentatives of Congress from thia city and State should do what they can to help build a defensive navy and a merchant marine. The Wealth Represented in the Rea! Estate Exchange. One of the most striking facts in connection with our newly organized Real Estate Exchange is that its membership probably represents more wealth than does that of the Stock Exchange, although there are two members of the latter to one of the former. In perusing the list such names occur aa Astor, Aspinwall, Cornell, Gniger, Crimmins, Cadwalader, Cutting, Cram, Duggin, Degraaf, Ely, Fish, Ford, Hamilton, Higgins, Hurlbut, Harbeck, Jay, Kings- land, LeRoy, Livingstone, Lynch, Lounsberry, Macy, Marquand, Morrison, Newcomb, PaiTish, Roosevelt, Sherwood, Stewart, Til¬ ford, Varnum, Willard, Wetmore, Babcock, Bernbeimer, Church, Maclay, Minturn, Russell, Smith, White, Wilson, Cashman, Jones and scores of-others equally notable. Then many large estates are represented by their brokers and agents, and institutions like the Mutual Life by trustees. The greai ovpuers of tha railway securities are not aa a general thing members of the Stock Exchange. The Vanderbilts, Goulds, Huntingtons and other railway magnates do business through their brokers; but in the Real Estafce Exchange the owners of realty are themselves members. There are not in all over fifty active brokers in the list, but these, of course, include nearly every dealer of prominence. The tendency, naturally, will be to make the list still more exclusive as time rolls by. It is safe to say that not over 150 of the 500 could be induced to sell their shares at any price likely to be offered; hut it is also probable that a hundred or less will sell out during the first year; bnt in nearly every case it is rich men and persons largely interested in realty, who will replace those who retire. Hence the Exchange wilt every jear become more and more the repreaentative of the large realty interests of the metropolis. But it may be queried, will a rich and exclusive body like this be