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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 33, no. 840: April 19, 1884

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Ai>ril 19,1884 The Record and Guide. 401 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. PublisJied every Saturday. 191 Broadway, N. Y. TBRM8: ONE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Oommunioations should be addressed to C. Ws SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LI5D3ET, Business Manager. APRIL 19, 1884, And now Judge Noah Davis ivants llio constitution amended 80 Ihat a general law cau be passei regulating mai-riage aiul divorce. Ojr State Jaws oa iliia subj:ct are " confusion worse confounded," A woman ia a wife ia one State and a mistress ia anoiher. Children are legitimate in one sectionof the countiy and bastards elsewhere. This creates unnecessary unUappiness in tens of thousands of homes. A general law affeciing all the States 13 greatly needed, but this cau never be securod unbst, aa pfiipoaed in The Record and Guide two years ago, a national constitutional conveuiiou ia lield to amend our fundamental law ia thia as ia other important particulars. -....—o—- — Tiie proposition to issue one and two dollar silver certificates 13 a foolish one. We ought to liave gold and silver in actual circula¬ tion as is lb« cnse ia Great Britain, France and Germany. Con¬ gress should withdraw the fives and tens of boih llie greenback end national bauk iijsues. This would leavea vacuum lo befilted by silver dollars and gold eagles and Jialf eagles. Were this done, and ahundred and fifty millions of gold and silver be demanded for the retail traffic of lbe country, there would be far less gold eent abroad. But we want no more small billa. Let us have actual metallic cash. Tho Civil Code now before the Legislature is vigorously de¬ nounced by Professor D.vig!it, of Columbia College Liw School, because of its interference with the old relations of landlord and tenant. He claims that should tlie code be enacted- landlords will be at a serious disadvantage ; that a tenant could make repairs of his own notion and charge it against tlje owner. There is not much likelihood of the code being accepted. The lawyers fear it would cut down their profits, aa well as to force them to study the new relations «hich will be caused between plaintiffs and defendants. o--------■—~ Why do not the property holders interested form an association to push forward the Harlem River improvement? This matter bas bet?n discussed for half a century. The United States has made the necessary appropriation to at least begin the work, and yet selfish interests are allowed to interfere with its inauguration. The people who live in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards are at a serious disadvantage bo long as the present state of affairs con¬ tinues. There are no efficient meana of supplying the centrttl zone of the annexed district with buildiog material, while coal and other bulky articles are very costly because of iasuffijient dockage on the Havlera River front. Personal interests seem to have some¬ thing to do with the delay of this needed improvement. Every proposition made to Congress involves the name of a would-be contractor who wishes to boss the job. Thia is a matter of vital interest, not only to the owners iif property lying on each sideof the Harlem River but to the city at large and the commerce of the couutry. Au associatioa of property holders ought to take this matter in hand and see that the work is prosecuted. Mr. Abram L, Earle sends ua a communication printed else¬ where anent the cable road system. AVhat he says should have weight, ai he was ooe of the Rapid Transit Commissioners who laid out the routes for the cable roads. There is no doubt but that the cable would be an improvement upon horse power. Betier time can be made with it and the riding is pleasanter. Tbe backers of this system of street roads seem to have abundance of enterprise and money but some of their methods show lack of judgment. The meetings held under their auspices at Cooper Insti¬ tute were ridiculous affairs. Singing and harp playing is not the way to commend a grave money-making project to the business men of a commercial metropolis. Then the employment of so absurd a person as Frank Spinola lo represent tliem at Albany was a serious blunder. But with nil that the cable cchenie, forooniplete- ness and the accoramodntion of the public is fur preferable to the monopoly which tlie horae car-companies are trying to get by tha aid of the Legislature and the city press. We aj« also of tbe opinion that any pystem which may he endorsed by the aulhoritioe should agree to i>ny a percentage of the gross receipts iuto the city treasury. Had our rulers wisdom in tlie past, the ferry, gas, horse- car and elevated companies would to-day be paying into the city treasury a sum equivalent to one-third of our assessed taj^es. The builders are not satisfied with the shape in which the new building law is now before the Legislature; what they demand is the riglit of appeal from the decision of the Superintendent of Buildings to the Board of Examiners. In the draft of the bill be¬ fore the Legislature such an appeal is permitted if the builder can induce tlie Superintendent to permit its being made. Now tho present Superintendent may be always right, but then he may have a successor who would be often wrorg, and the builders do not think they should be absolutely at tlie mercy of even the most ronecientiijus public ofiicer, A memcrial has been prepared by the Reai Estate Owners'and Builders' Associaiion setting fori li ihe facia iu the case and proposing suitable amendments to ihe law. Build¬ ers can gi't copies rf lliis document by applying to John Graham, secretary, No. 30-J East Foriy-third street. Tlieiiitenlion ia to have as many names of leading builders and ar-hitects as can be pro¬ cured so as to impress the Legislature and insure t.ho passage of tho proposed amendment. ■ .0—■----------- E'litor Murat Hilstead, an old-time advocate of "the dcllar of our daddies" is now anxious that the coinage of silver dollars should stop. Uti wanta to bring Great llriiain, Gern aiy, I'aly and the other gold unit nations to their senses by wiUidrawing iho support no\v given by the Uoited Scales to tha price of ailver bullion by the coinage of two million dollars a momli of standard dollari. Should Ihis be done there would, of course, ba a stiU greater fall in lbe price of silver bullion, and tl e dollars iu exist¬ ence, which now represent between eighty-five and eighty-six aa compared wilh gold, would probably full to seventj-five or seventy. The real phenomenon would, of course, be an enliancement in llio value of gold and a gr^'at enrichment of the capitaliot, band- liolding and fixed income classes. Bat it would be a terrible blow to the bu-*iness world, and impose fng'-.iful burdens on the debtor class. The trade of the world is st iguant and depressed because of the attempt of the commercial nations to make the one precious metal do the work of both. Stopping our silver coinage would undoubtedly pracipitate a crisis in all the money markets of Iho world, The commerce of mankind reqniies all the gold aud all the silver, as welt as all the paper that can be used convertible iuto gold and silver, to carry it on successfully. Any legislation which contracts the curreni'y of the world is sure to be followed by a period of poignant distress. A Queer Decision. Judge Van Brunt's decision in the Mauhattan-Metropolifan dis¬ pute is, to say the least, peculiar. Ha whitewashes Jay Gould and his associates. Theso gentlemen were_ n:t guilty of any wrong. It was desirable that the elevated road system should be cousoli- dsted, and the Metropolitan Company had uothing to complain of in the preference given to tha ^east aide elevated, or to the aix per cent, allottgd by the October agreement. Still, according to .fudge Van Brunt, the lease at the reduced rental was invalid, because tbe matter had not been submitted to the stockholders for ralification. This is in direct conflict with Judge Blatcbford's decision, wbich says directors have the right to do what Judge Van Brunt declares to be beyond their powers. Tbia, like nearly all recent decisions, is made in tbe intereat of courti^, lawyers aud speculators, and is a grievoua tax levied upon corporate property to beneflt alien interest. Three cUar-beaded businessmen could have settled every point in di.'^pute iu tho elevated road litigation in three days' tiiue, at a cost that ahould uot exceed two iiundred dollars. It wilt be probably five yeara from its commencement before our courts will get through wilh ibis matter while in the meantime lawyers will run up their bills into the mil'.ioas. Tbese and similar prDceedings are a mockory of justice. Our courts, with their costs and delays, are fast becoming the giant nuisance of the age. There is one thin,:; that looks queer. When Judge Van Brunt had written that portion of his opini'jn which justified Jay Gjuld and Jiis associatea in making the lease, Manhattan stock went up sixteen points, and when he finally decided against the validity of the lease the stock fell to ita old figure, two weeks before his ver¬ dict waa made public. Some one seemed to know all about the opinion while it was being written, and when it waa fiii.illy given tothe public thero waa scarcely any change in the quotation, fo accurately hid aome one in Wall street gurssed at the result beforehand. No one of course suspects Judge Van Brunt of any wrong-doing, but ihou-iandj of shares woe bought and sold by opernlors who seemed to know what hia decisioii would bo. Tho rnost inJefensi'jle pjrtioa of this opiniju is its reb;ibilitalion of the characters of tbe engineers of this Manhattan deal. It ia kuQwn I