Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 35, no. 896: May 16, 1885

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May 16, 18 6 The Record and Guide. 657 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday, 191 Broadwav, IST. Y. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Comruunieations should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. Vol. XXXV. MAY 16, 1835. No. 896 The sale of cotton goode on T]iursday passed off successfully, the prices being almost up to the private offerings. The manufactur¬ ers who sold have reason to be satisfied for they have got rid of their goods, but it is doubtful if tho trade generally will be advan¬ taged. There will be less demand for other goods, and another sale of the sarae kind would doubtless show a weaker market. The domestic goods business is not in a flourishing condition, for the consumptive demand is far below the supply. The gas consumers have been again defeated at Albany under circumstances which clearly prove that the Legislature was bribed. The consumers must keep up their organization and try it again. They can easily defeat a majority of the city members who are in the pay of the gas company. The next Legislature carmot be so bad as the present one. Mayor Grace deserves credit for his recent appointments. All of them are not ideal officers, but in practical politics it is not always possible to confer office only upon the fittest. Party and personal considerations will have their weight. The choice of Michael Coleman for Tax Commissioner was the very best that could be made. Mr. Co'eman has had fifteen years experience, is an officer of the highest integrity and has long been the brains of the com¬ mission. He is thoroughly equipped for the responsible office to which he was appointed. There was some disappointment that Mr. William B. Asten was not reappointed, but while an economical and valuable Tax Commissioner, it has often appeared as if he made unnecessary trouble in the Board of Estimates. There was a sus¬ picion that he had newspaper applause in view quite as much as the interest of the city. Mr. Coleman is all that Mr. Asten was and a good deal more besides. ----------------------------------------------------•----------------------------------------------------■ It would be useful if there was an unpractical non-partisan investi¬ gation into the expenses and government of New York City. It is quite true that our expenditure is enormous judged by that of other cities, that our salary lists have too many sinecures, and that there is unnecessary waste in all the departments of the city gov¬ ernment. But a commission composed of Albany politicians repre¬ senting one party is open to the suspicion of being a blackmailing concern. We have had many legislative commissions, and much valuable information has been elicited by them, but they have never carried the weight with the public or led to such important results as have the labors of the English Parliamentary Commis- eions, which are always made up of experts, not members of Parlia¬ ment. The State Senate Commission of Inquiry may bring to light many interesting facts connected with the administration of affairs in this city ; but who will be able to tell what abuses have been deliberately ignored ? ---------•-------- We have repeatedly urged that the large taxpayers of New York should be organized into a permanent body, recognized by law and charged with the duty of examining every bill, including those for salaries, presented to the city treasury for payment. By examining the work performed for the money charged we could soon learn how much was wasted, but the politicians will probably never per¬ mit such an organization to come into existence. Still, if the large taxpayers have public spirit enough, they might voluntarily raise funds and do this work themselves or get the Eeal Estate Exchange to do it for them. --------•-------- The proceedings in the Surrogate's Court having for their object the plunder of the estate of the late Jesse Hoyt by certain so-called eminent counsel is an outrage on the moral sense of the com¬ munity. What makes the matter the more monstrous is that the instrument for wrecking the estate is a poor girl who has been in an insane asylum, and whose conduct since has brought her before the courts repeatedly as a person of unbalanced, if not of unsound mind. " The distinguished counsel" who are profiting by this litigation are among the foremost men in the nation, but in what respect does their conduct and motive differ from that of the meanest Tombs shyster ? In each case it is the desire to make money with¬ out any respect to moral considerations. It looks as if this trial wUl bave tbe same end ae djd tbe litigation in tbe Taylor 'will cftse, wbere a couple of weak-minded women were played upon by "eminent" legal practitioners until not only was a large esta'e dissipated, but brought in debt to the lawyers. The most disheartening feature of these cases is the stolid indifference of the public and the press. The robbery goes on before their eyes and there is no one to cry shame. Every one of the legal sharks engaged in this nefarious business, if they had their deserts, would be sent to States Prison. Why should Fish and Ward be punished, and these prcifessionals allowed tl-make away with their plunder? The former availed themselves of the defects in our commercial machinery to spend money which did not belong to them; the latter are taking advan¬ tage of the shortcomings of our legal machinery to plunder the estate of a dead mau. To their credit, be it said, neither Fish nor Ward took any advantage of an imbecile girl. The persons they robbed were shrewd business men who ought to have been able to take care of themselves. «----------- A vigorous protest from an exchange will be found in "Our World of Business " against the wrecking of our raUway companies through the machinery of the courts. Bad and irresponsible as has been corporate management, it has been integrity itself compared with the plundering methods made use of by receivers under the sanction of the judiciary. Receivers have been the bane of bank¬ rupt roads. The law favors the bondholders by giving them the first lien on the property of the corporation. Without this guarantee our magnificent railroad system could never have been constructed; but the courts have struck at the very life of the railroads by per¬ mitting receivers to issue certificates for other purposes than the mere running of the road. They have done all they could to pro¬ tect junior securities in defiance of the clear intention of the law. The article on the subject we republish from the Commercial Bulletin calls attention to a great and growing evil. A stop should be put to the practice of charging our judges with business cases. Because in the past the bench was noted for its integrity and freedom from interested motives, it has of late years been assigned the duty of taking charge of corporations which were in trouble and manipulating business interests in various ways. Now lawyers and judges are proverbially bad business men and the history of our bankruptcy courts and of the legal receiverships is simply appalling. Jobbery and robbery is the rule. Some day the whole story will be told and it will be found that the worst thing you can do with an embarrassed estate is to put it under the man¬ agement of judges and lawyers. It is time a public sentiment was created divorcing the judiciary from any responsibility in the man¬ agement of property. Their business is to decide disputes involving questions of law and equity, but in every possible way should they be guarded against the temptations of the commercial world. A correspondent is apprehensive that the recent test of the Brooklyn Bridge as to its capacity for carrying Pullman car sand freight trains, was the forerunner of an attempt to convey freight trains at night from the Grand Central Depot, via the bridge, to the Brooklyn warehouses in South Brooklyn. We doubt whether the Central Railroad people are insane enough to urge any such scheme, but our correspondent is probably justified in thinking that a sys¬ tem of tunnels under the North and East Rivers and the Narrows may be the solution of the warehousing problem in the neighbor¬ hood of New York. In other words, the great Western Railway lines wUl not be satisfied permanently with the barrier of the North River between them and the commerce of this port. Their objec¬ tive point is New York City, and incidentally the warehouse region of Brooklyn. The work on the Hudson River tunnel has been resumed, and it is said that a tunnel under the Narrows will soon be in order. Bridges over the North River are out of the question, but one wUl doubtless in time be built over the East River at Blackwell's Island connecting the railway system of Long Island with the New York Central at the depot in Forty-second street. Brooklyn has an elevated road at last. It will undoubtedly be a good thing for our sister city, and will be of great advantage to the real estate owners along the route. Whether it wUl pay the stock¬ holders is, however, still an open question. One company went into bankruiitcy in trying to build the road. This benefited the succeeding company, for it purchased some experience cheap and becamo heir to what plant there was at a very low rate. But this new enterprise can expect no such traffic as the Manhattan Com¬ pany of this city. Population is dense on this island, and is prac¬ ticaUy confined in its growth to the region reached by the "L" roads. Brooklyn, on the other hand, is a city covering a large surface, and while population along the route of the road wiU thicken, the number of passengers will relatively be always far less than on the New York roads; but, profitable or not, other elevated roads will be built, for they will he a great public conven¬ ience, and the people whose interest it is lo construct such struc¬ tures never find any insuperable difficulties in tbe way of raising tbe funds,