Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 50, no. 1287: November 12, 1892

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NoyemberlS. 188Í "pjcord and Guĩde. ÍS5>MARCHÍ|t!*-I86&.:' 611 ESTftBLlSHED ■ OeÆÍeD 10 fHL ESTVE ■ SuiLDiKg ApCiíiTECTJFtE .HoUSDÍOU) DEÛCIfĩ^TlflÛi FRICE, PER ¥EAR IIV ADTAKCE, SIX DOLLARS. F^iblished every Saturday. TELKPBONEI .... CORTLAHIIT 1370. Communlcations should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St J. 7. LINDSEY, Busîness Manager. "Entereã at tho Poat-offlce at Ifeui Tork, N. Y., aa aecond-clasa matter," VOL. L. . NOVEMBER 13, 1893. No. 1,887 THE strength of the stock market in the past week has rebuked the troiible-inoDgers and conflrmed more forcibly than eyer tlie vĩeff that the times are not propitious for bear operatione. Business îs too good generally, and the signs of improvement in some special casea where depreseion has existed for a long time are too proDOimced to permit of gloomy views fortheimmediatefuture of railroad and other securities. They have too much to expect from the events of the coming year for it tô appear probable that any congiderable^break can be elîected ĩn prices. The word has been paased around that sugar is to have a break of ten points, and the reason offered Í3 ihac it, with other " truats," will incur Ihe dis- favor of thenew administration. Officers of the Sugar Company are quoted as solemnly denyiag that they have anything to fear, etc, It has beea given out for some time that an attack would be made on the industrials should the elections turn out as they have done, and it has been begun on sugar, but the whole thing probably means no more than that insiders in that stock are endeavoring to înduce a large ahort interest in it for a bout of scalping as eoon as the bears are securely ambushed. If thie tactic ia successfuĩ in the case of sugar, ĩt will no doubt be tried in other stocks of the same class, and on the same story; though, as a matter of fact, none of them are the stocks of trusts at all, but of incorporated companiea. The general market ís becoraing more active from day to day, and this, witb the strength it displayed diu'íng a week or two of waiting forelection fervor to find subsidence at the polls, îs an augury of better prices. The most that can be expected on the other side is a smaĩl reaction from time to time, cbaracteristic of, and necessary to a healthy buU market. THE holders of the preferred stock of tbe Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad Company have recently been treated to a surprise by the managers of the company. Their stock was issued for the flrst mortgage bonds of the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Company, and is peculiar ín that it gives a lien on the property and net earnings of the company next after certain first mortgage bonds which it was found necessary to issue when the change of securitĩes took place. Tho management has been practically silent as to its doings for nîne years, and has only recently issued what it calls an annual report, but which ■ftould be better called a statement of the difficulties în whîch it finds itself when making a request of the holders of the preferred stock to permit the lien ahead of their security to be increased by $10,000 a mîle. These stockholders, having no means of knowing whether Iheir property has been properly administered in the past or whether the step proposed is the beat one to tabe in tbe emergency that seems to exist, very naturally object, and have lately held a meeting of protest at the officea and presumably under the auspices of the Boston Marine Insurance Company. Circumstances may arise in which concessions may be fairly asked of, and accorded by the holders of securitĩes of railroad companĩes. We have seen instances of late where such aid has been geuerously and promptly accorded to save certain properties from embarrassment. Security-holdera should not be discouraged from a poUcy the wisdom of which is so apparent, but it should be an inviolable condition that no such concession be made to a manage- ment which hasnot given its security-holdersfairandfull informa- tion of itg doings, or when tbere is not the clearest evidence of its necessíty, and the highest probability of itsbeing effective to remove the evils which make it necessary. The holdera of the preferred stock of the Toledo,.St. Louis & Kaneas City Eailroad Company willhelpthe cause o£ good railroad management by taking Ihis position. recently, to the task of enforcing their demands by politicai meanp, and have succeeded thereby in placing the goyernmente in uncom- fortable positions. This is particularly the case in France. The problem of maintainĩng the law and of abstaîning from injustice towards capital is difficult, particularly when complicatcd by the further necessity of avoiding the gift of a great mauy votes to the oi>po3Ĩtion by betraying any want of sympathy witli Wcirk- ingmcn's ideas. The French governmcnt has met the difficulty by passing an arbitration bill; but i ts troubles are not yet ended, and finally it may serve to put the ministry out of office. It has transpired recently that the Russian delegate în Pari.*, charged to negotiate a new loan of about 500,000,000 roubles, has met with failure. Though his proposals were not abruptlyrefused, he was expected to submit to conditions and clauses which he could not answer for. The practical result is therefore a postponc- ment of the negotiations, which may be cspected to be renewed at any time when the market will appear in a more favorablo coudi- lion. It seems, however, certain that Paris alone will not, in ordi- nary circumstances, charge berself with the issue of so large a loan, witbout having made sure of the more or less direct conciirrence of German financial houses. There are said to be many of the latter who would Hke to see a resumption of dealings in Russiau Joans in their own country; yet tbey are o'jliged in the mean while to submit to the actual position, which is not favorable to Ruesian financial transactions. The check which the Riissian Finance Minister has met with in Paris, though he is said to bave slated his willingness to accept an issue price of ĩ)0 inetead of 86 per cent, has added greatly to the depressing influences in Berlin. One item of foreign newe that we notîce may be of interest to property-owners in this city. An International Congress on the Transmission of Real Property bas been held lately in Paris, but it cannot exactly be called a succesa. It is true that somcthing Jike 500 persons subscribed to it and tbat tbe greater part of them were present, but they were not the kiad of sub&cribers wanted. The notaries in France, like the solicitors in England, do not take kiadiy to land transfer reform. The former considered that the establish- ment of a "land-book" would prejudice iheir vested înteresta by facÍUÍtating and simplifying transfera of rcal property. Conse- quently they attended in numbers from all parte of France aud carried a negative vote on tbe principal resolution by a majority of 338 to 71. THE public mind has at once jumped to extremee about the Democratic victory. To hear people talk, and to read the rabider of the partisan journals, one raight almost be excused for thinking that the election bad made so different an order of affairs possible in the country that there ia doubt as to wbether the Jaw of gravity wiIJ hold good during the comîng fotu- years. Surely by this time people ought to be aware of the yast distanoÊ between promise of reform and accomplishment of reform. Even the most fanatical and zealous of reformers flnds quickly how difficult it is to effect very slight changes. It is imposeible to throw a long eetab- lished custom or poJicy out of doors as one would a piece of dis- carded furniture. Even if Mr. Cleveland and the Democrtilic party wero not circumscribed by a great many very potent practi- cal considerations which it would be suicide for thetn to ignore, they woidd soon discover that it was no easy matter to root up a system whîch during the past quarter of a century has sunk ilseJf pretty deeply ĩnto the commercial existence and thought oE tlie nation. Fom' years îs a short time for the working of a deep refor- mation, and we may be sure tbat the end of Mr. Cleveland's term wiU find comparatively little change actually accomplished. The immediate ímport of the recent election liea in the fact that it was 80 emphatic an expression of popular opinîon that the appUcation of Protection had been pushed too far. An over eager extension of Free Trade or "Reform" principlea will sureíy bring a siuiilar adverse judgment upon the Democratic party. "T71RANCE, aa well asEngland, isengaged in unraveling unpleas- ■*- antly complex and difficult labor pioblems of immediate importancet Tlie workingmeu of the two countries have taken, BUT the silliest j-art of the post-election nonsense is the scare which many good Republicans profess to feel about Taiu- many, We are assured that hencsforth that organization will make the White House its headquarters, and a dire assortiiicnt of evila, not to be complelely enumerated ac this momênt, will foliow for the nation. In the flrst place, Tatnmany is by composiUon, character and purpose a local body. Ita position and power in the Doinocratic party was quite cíearly deflued at the Cbicago Conven- tĩon, and its recent contríbutiou to llie success of thc national ticket, important as it undoubtedly was, was stÍU ptu-ely local. Natioual power means national organization, and of the latter Tammany has scarcely the rudiments. But there is another view cf the matter whîch makes the scare still more ridiculous. Those who are so greatly alarmed about Tammany muet be very blitid, iudeed, if they consider any other of the great political organizaíions in this country, Republícan or Democratic, aa vaatly the superiors of Tammany in morals or purposss. No one who posesses any complete, unprejudiced knowledge of any poUtical organization would regard stone-tlirowing at Tammany as free from a large