Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 35, no. 894: May 2, 1885

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May 2,1885 The Record and Guide. 489 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Fnblistied every Saturday. 191 Broad-wav, IST. "X*. TERMS: OiVE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addi-essed bo C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. A'OL. XXXV. MAY 2, 1885. No. 894 The French device in the recent contest with Cliina of waging hostilities without declaring war seems to have been adopted by EiisBia in its aggressive movements in Central Asia. It fights bat¬ tles, occupies new regions of country and advances daily nearer toward Herat without giving any explanation to Great Britain. The latter power prepares for war, but as yet has not fired a shot. Prime Minister Gladstone wants to throw the responsibiUty of the declaration upon Russia, but the latter country has nothing to say to England, but keeps on the march of its armies into Afghanistan. It has annexed Penjdeh and Meruchak just as it previously absorbed Khiva and Merv. Russia's position seems to be that Great Britainhasnocauseof offense forthe attack on Afghanistan any more than Russia had when Great Britain waged war against the same country when Lord Beaconsfield was in power. If there is a declaration of war it must come from Great Britain. ---------«--------- The newspapers went to the expense of telegraphing Mr. Glad¬ stone's speech, explaining the relations of Great Britain and Russia. It was described as a wonderful effort; as the greatest oratorial victory won in modern times, for the Tories cheered it as heartily as the Liberals. Yet the mere words of the speech do not reveal the secret of its effectiveness. It is commonplace in form and mat¬ ter. Mr. Gladstone belongs to that class of parliamentary orators whose manner, voice and elocutionary arts are singularly effective in convincing a parliamentary body, yet nothing that Mr. Glad¬ stone has ever said will live as a specimen of forensic eloquence. In this he resembles our own Henry Clay, who could always sway the Senate, but whose public speeches betrayed no evidence of his power as a debater. Edmund Burke, who was an ineffective par¬ liamentary orr.tor, has contributed speeches to the literature of England which will last as long as the English language and out¬ live Mr. Gladstone's fame, while Daniel Webster's wonderful sen¬ tences will be classics in our schools long after Henry Clay is for¬ gotten._______________ Why should not a Russian loan be floated in our money market ? We have an abundance of idle money, and while our government 3 per cent, bonds are at par, Russian 5s are selling at from 84 t© 86. It should be remembered that Russia has never defaulted on her national debt, nor is she ever likely to do so. During and im. mediately after the Crimean war Russia was careful to pay the interest on her bonds owned by English and French investors. The German bankers are as shrewd as any in Europe, and the Russian loans are held extensively on the continent, but Germany is rela tively a poor country. The English and French money lenders have discredited the Russian loans, and have been aided by the great Hebrew banking firms throughout the world, who are inimical to Russia because of the cruelties inflicted by that government upon the Jews ; but we have no quarrel with Russia, and a $50,000,000 loan would be an immense advertisement for the United States. Our bankers could well afford to follow the example of the prudent investors who do business in Berlin, Vienna and Amsterdam. The revelations consequent upon the fall of the houses which Buddensiek was building call to mind the theories of the Man_ Chester school of political economists, who argued that all govern, ment interference with any business was a mistake. Herbert Spencer concurs in this view, and has given forcible reasons why all sanitary laws aggravate the evils they seek to cure. In only eight or ten cities in the Union is there any regulation of house building. Of a thousand houses built in the United States not over two or three are subject to any official supervision whatever; yet nearly all the dangerous houses are erected in cities like New York, where the law interferes to see that edifices are properly con¬ structed. A disaster like that in Sixty-second street is never heard of in Albany, Rome, Rochester and the thousands of small towns throughout the country where building laws are unknown, and there is no official supervision whatever over the construction of houses. Still it is idle to expect that all building laws will be repealed, and the efforts of good citizens should be directed to per¬ fecting them. Not only should the pending law before the Legisla¬ ture te pasted. 1 ut the Building Bureau should be made an independent organization, with its head responsible only to the Mayor. The mixed responsibility of the present system is painfully apparent from the recent revelations in connection with the Sixty- second street disaster. Secretary of State Bayard has acted prudently in the matter of the Isthmus troubles. It seems Secretary Whitney wished to take and hold military control of the line of travel on the railway, but the French representatives, the local government and the rebels protested. His position might have involved a very serious dispute, but as one French iron-clad could sink our whole fleet, if it could be collected in the Gulf of Mexico, Secretary Bayard concluded that prudence was the better part of valor. Any nation with an iron¬ clad fleet of even moderate dimensions could put any insult upon us, and we dare not resent it, for we haven't a ship to take the offen¬ sive, nor a gun to protect our exposed seacoast. There is a time coming when the American people will awake to their impotency as a naval power, and then won't Randall, Holman and the Democratic opponents of a navy be called to account as well as the Republican thieves of the Robeson era, who squandered the money that might have given us enough of a navy to defend our coasts and make our flag respected ?_______________ Land Transfer Reform. The Supplement of The Record .\nd Guide which we publish to-day will be read with very great attention, not only by those who are interested in real property as owners and dealers, but by all lawyers. In this Supplement we give, without abridging one word, the reports of the majority and the minority of the Land Transfer Reform Commission appointed last June by Governor Grover Cleveland. The majority report is signed by Messrs. South¬ mayd, CoggeshaU, Riker and Strong and the minority by Dwig h H. Olmstead. Both documents are very able and exhaustive. The one point of difference is as to the proper method of indexing the Conveyances and Mortgages of real property and the legal liens against real estate. The majority think the best method is by lots, whUe Mr. Olmstead holds that index¬ ing by blocks is the only practical way. It is for the real estate public to judge which has the best of the argument. We pubUsh these two reports so that those most deeply interested can make up their mind which side to tabe and be ready when the Legislature next meets to have the necessary biU introduced early in the session. But a proper system of indexing, while important, is by no means the only reform desired by owners and dealers in real estate. The law now not only permits but creates conditions which make titles insecure and pUe up legal and official costs against real estate. The purchaser of stocks, bonds, cotton, grain, petroleum, iron and every other commodity dealt in in the markets is never troubled by questions of ownership, and its transfer is comparatively inexpen¬ sive. Real estate alone is made to bear burdens unknown to any other business, in addition to paying the bulk of the taxes for sup¬ porting the State and local governments. Some of these evils are touched upon in the reports, but the whole ground is by no means covered. For ourselves we still hold to tlie belief that the proper system is that in vogue in Australia, New South AVales, New Zealand and the Kingdom of Prussia, in which the government keeps a record and practically guarantees the;title. This plan gets rid of the law¬ yers and the parasitic officials who prey on real estate, while it gives absolute security of title at a very trifling cost. If such a system were established in this country it would add countless mUlions to the value of real estate, for then houses and lands would be as negotiable at a bank for loans as stocks and bonds now are. In other words realty would be mobilized. It would become an active instead of an inert or latent factor in the business of the country. It would make all the real estate of the nation available or floating capital, instead of as now being fixed and practicaUy un¬ available as a basis of credit. But the lawyers say that the Torrens laws, as they are called, could never be established in this country. But in their case the wish is probably father to the thought. It is the ideally perfect system, and therefore is that for which we should strive. In the meantime we must take what we can get. A useful re¬ form to which all the commission assents will he the proposed short forms for deeds. The legal verbiage by which property has been conveyed in the past will give place to a simple statement of the facts as to the transfer. A great mass of unnecessary words is now used to record a transaction which we give in three lines of The Record and Guide ; but we refer to the reports for further infor¬ mation on this and other important points. While we did not believe the gas biU in the Legislature would meet the just expectations ot gas consumers, stUl we lioped it would go tlirough. Its chief value w.ould be in the statistics it would give of the gas business, and the precedent it would establish of state