Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 51, no. 1314: May 20, 1893

Text version:

Mar so, 1898 Record and Guide. 783 PRICE, PER TEAR IIV ADTAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS. Publisbed every Saturday. Tbi-bphoitbI .... CoBXLAimT 1870. CFommtinicationa should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St J. 7, LINDSEY, Business Manager, "Entered at the I'ost-offtce at New York, N. T., as second-olase matter." Vol. U. MAY 20, 1898. No. 1,814 THERE is evidently a desire to take the financial aituation at its best, and ae a consequence prices have responded to any¬ thing like favorable develcpments ina way that must have been very encouraging to the men who have engineered the recent rise. The patching up process seems to afford everywhere satisfaction, even when, as in the great majority of cases, details are lacking. The stockholder, immersed in a sea of unpleasant conjecture, catches gratefully at any straw of comfort blown to him. Northern Pacific preferred advanced on the statement that the load of debt in front of it will be permanently increased, without its being known what terms have to be paid for this doubtful accommodation. Union Pacific advanced on its managers making a similar arrange¬ ment some time ago, but to-day the stock is selling lower than it did when it became known that such accommodation had become necessary. Details of the condition of Cordage are still lacking, but the fact that several well-known bankers have been willing to represent its creditors and seem hopeful of devising a plan to help them has rallied the stock and kept it strong for some days, though until more definite informa¬ tion of the obligations outstanding and means to meet them aie forthcoming it is not likely to advance materially further. Read¬ ing interests appear to be iu a fair way of settlement, though here again something more thau has yet been announced is necessaiy to better quotations for its securities. What, however, has helped the situation most has been the strength displayed on both sides of the Atlantic in meeting adverse occurrences. The effect on the London; market of the continuous stream of Australian failures was, all things considered, very small, as was als© the effect in New York of the bad news which has been coming out for a fort¬ night here and iu the West. This shows that great foresight had been exercised as well as steadiness in meetmg the crises when they came. The result has been seen in advancing prices and strength of the past few days. While the circumstances warranted this rally from the depression of the early part of the week they cannot of course be expected to encourage the hope of au active market with largely rising prices. The condition of the money market forbids this, Tbe same caution on the part of the men who control the purse of the commution that met late disasters will prevent the danger of their early recTirrence if possible. THE Loudon stock market has, during the past week, been very much depressed in all speculative branches. The continued decline in Australian securities, the great uncertainty of the large English investments which have been made in that country has tightened the money market, and the increased difficulty in obtain¬ ing loans squeezed the wind out of a " boom" in South African seciurities. These Australian losses will be more severely felt by the British investor than were those in Argentina, for not only is the gross amount of money involved much larger, but the losses will be distributed among a much greater number of people. ;ProbabIy the eventual wiping out of capital will not be so immense as it was in the other case, but it muat also be remembered that any substantial recovery will take a good many years. The assets of the bankrupt banks are chiefly locked up in real estate and it will take a long time and a large increase in population and wealth before the trade of the Australian colonies will restore the land values on which the boom was based. Both in Germany and Austria the stock markets are suffering from unfavorable crop reports. The same cause is also responsible for a recent decline in Russian notes. Predictions based upon these reports are, however, con¬ sidered premature. What cannot be denied is the damage done so far by want of rain in April. The textile and several other trades in Germany report a better condition of affairs. To this improvement the iron and coal trades constitute an exception, but this is chiefly due to the fact that iu both departmenta production has grown beyond ordinary and reasonable limits. From 40 to 45 per cent of the entire iron and steel production is consumed by the railways, and the extension of the railway system and its improve¬ ment have powerfully contributed the iron and steel as well as the coal industries very renumerative. The present financial diflBcul- ties of the German government have stopped all such improve¬ ments, and hence it is that these lines of trade continue depressed. WE are beginning to get a foretaste of what is ahead for ua, because we have trusted to the Manhattan Company for the solution of the rapid transit problem. It is clear enough that no matter what we may get beyond what we have to-day, we shall not get rapid transit. New Yorkers will still continue to travel in indecently packed cars in order that private individuals may make dividends. The growth of the city proper will continue to be a ham¬ pered, difBcult process which will at once perpetuate or intensify the fearful evils of overcrowding on Manhattan Island and drive popula¬ tion into Brooklyn and New Jersey. Everyone whose opinion is entitled to weight would testify that the franchises and privileges which the Commissioners have offered to the Manhattan Company are the mosi, valuable that have e ver been granted to a set of private individuals in this country. The price demanded, considering both the time-limit and the cash payment is ridiculously small. It is impossible to estimate the value of what the Com¬ missioners are offering. As we have pointed out in these columns the 5 per cent demanded is not a rate that has been determined by any valid process of calculation ; it is a hap-hazard figure. We believe that the new franchises and concessions are worth a great deal more than 5 per cent, for that rate would be a low one for the Manhattan Company to have to pay for even the privileges it now possesses. Yet, despite the squandering of tbe people's interest which the Commissioners have proposed, the Manhatlan Company receives their proposals in the mean spirit which marks all corporate dealings with the public and thus, as we have said, gives us at the very outset a foretaste of what we may expect in the future. The company meets the Commissioners with pretexts and sophistry. The company is very poor, it says; it is doing so much for the public; it cannot pay what is asked; it must build slowly, construct new lines only when New York cannot possibly squeeze through its daily existence without them. It objects to being bound down to anything. In short it wants to make Rapid Transit a great big dividend-paying affair ; a sort of gold mine where vital public interests will be worKed for •' all they will stand." Is this exactly the sort of Rapid Transit New York needs ? Certainly we are fools if we believe that we will get anything of a different sort from the Manhattan Company, for it is plain enough from all that the officers of that company have said that their idea of Rapid Transit and of the accommodation which the public requires is the Rapid Transit w^e now have and the accommodation they now grant us. From the dividend point of view the elevated cars are not overcrowded, or indecent, or unhealthy, and the trains run fast enough to make the head of a director of the Man¬ hattan Company dizzy. And the dividend point of view is the only point of view the Manhattan Oompany will ever be able to take- It sounds preposterous to ask the company to strain every financial and engineering possibility to give the city fche fastest service, the greatest number of cars, a seat for eacli person, or at least seats so that the women of the city can travel with some sort of decency and propriety. In short the only object the Manhattan Company has is to perpetuate the sort of Rapid Transit we have to-day, the Rapid Transit which Russell|Sage likes, the Rapid Transit thatpays big dividends on an enormous watered stock. The whole affair, from A to Z, is a monstrous travesty upon the real requirement of the metropolis. If om- people are fools enough to permit it they deserve to be ground betweea the upper and nether millstones of big divi¬ dends and poor service. That they will he ground exceedingly small will be their just deserts. BEYOND these considerations lies the undoubted fact that even if the Manhattan Company accedes to and carries out in good faith all the requirements stipulated by the Commissioners, New York will not have Rapid Transit. Tbe extra tracks contemplated will not satisfy future requirements ; they are needed to the utter¬ most to-day. The possibilities of the present system with ail the extra tracks that can possibly be put upon it will not give this city common decent transportation. And, even as the new lines are building, they will speedily create new demands which will soon outrun their possibilities. Indeed, in the face of present and future requirements of the metropolis, the elevated roads are little better than toys, andcansatisfy our necessities just about as well aa they can the traffic of the New York Central. What New York needs from one end to the other of the city is a trunk line of practically unlimited possibilities, both as to capacity and speed. Until we get some such system we shall be perpetually tinkering with our difii¬ culties. New York is so circumstanced thafc only the municipality oan give it the service it should have. It is foolish to expect dividends