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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 53, no. 1360: April 7, 1894

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Apr a 7, 1894 Record and Guide. 525 ESTJlBLISHED-^ KWPU 2ia^ 1868. "dev^teD to Rej^lEsTWT.BuiLDiffo Ap.ci(iTEeTui^E.HouseholdDeoh^twi*, Bi/siilESs Alto Themes of GejJer^L IKtehe&i. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Telephone,......Cortlandt 1370 Communloatione should be addressed to C. W. .SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. I. LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 'Washington Street, Opp. Post Office. " Entered at the Post-office at Xew Tork, JV. T., as second-class matter." Vol. LIII. APRIL 7, 1894. No. 1,360 For additional Brooklyn viQitter. see Brooklyn Department immediately following New Jeraey records {page 5571. THE underlying cause (if the strength .and advance in the stock market is uudoubtedly the growing iirospect of the defeat of the Wilson Tarili' Bill in the .Senate, if not hy direct negative vote at least hy some iiiece of parliamentary tactics, or by additions that will render the measure unacceutable to the House, or throw it into the way of a sure veto. If the Demo¬ cratic party managers were blind to tlie warning they received iu the elections of last fall, it need not follow that the Senate is of equally dim vision or will pay as little regtird to the signifi¬ cance ot the utterance of Rhode Island iind other places that have favored the Republican candidiites tliis week. In fact the Capitol has all along been tlie f.irthest point north at which any interference with trade conditions has been desired since the tiiiiincial disturbances of liist summer, and the iiuiiression is now evei-3' day growing stronger tli.it even thiit point is beginning to understand or is being taught that the wishes of the country ought to have some weight in deciding whether a tariff measure is now timely or not, notwithstanding a thousiind Chicago plat¬ forms and any amount of party managerial obstinacy. With the signs that Congiess is at last becoming susceptible to reason and the conviction growing thiit there will be no interference with the tariff this year at any rate it is not surprising that the Industrials have led the recent advance; as that conviction becomes stronger they will advance further. The recent decision ot Judge Gibbons in the Whiskey Trust ease under ordinary circumstances aud in times of high prices would have been a serious set-biick to tliese stocks because the principle there laid dowu might be extended to every one in this class. The decision of Judge Caldwell in the Union Paciflc labor case, arbitrary as it may appear to be, is more generally con¬ sidered as likely to create so good an impression in labor circles ;is to make the settlement of Wiige disputes more easy. While Wall street is buoyed uii under the influeuce a'ready referred to and the great accamuliitions of idle mouey, general business shows no greater improvement than was recorded some weeks ago and uiifortutiately the lateuess of the season does not encourage the idea that it can show any considerably greater activity for some time to come. \S the Euglish governmental year draws to a close it becomes apparent that the deficiency of receipts wUl not be more than $7,000,000 instead of $10,000,000, the estimate of sixty days ago. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will, however, have to proviile not only for that deticiency, but also for about .$21,000,000 estiniiited increase of expenditures for 1894-5, The government shui-es in the Suez Canal will begin to draw regular dividends tliis year, which at the rate of hist year, 20 per cent, will create an income of more than $3,500,000, alreadj pledged, however, for the redemption of a loan. Reports of raih-oad earnings are not discouraging. In India, too, the defi¬ ciency for the year will be less than was iuiticipated, and if rail¬ road eainiugs have any Viiliie as an indication of the coudition of trade, matters are not so bad in that country as we have been led to believe. The railroad revenue last year increased by about $3,000,00t». Advices from Germany are that the opinion that general business will improve has not been so widespread and intense for fifteen years as now. This opinion gives strength to the values of shtires of manufacturing com- Iliiuies, and is sujiported b.y reports from the iron, coal and Ouilding trades, in all of which there is renewed activity. The French goverumeut is endeiivoring to bring its colonial affairs iiKire to the front, whicli affiiirs are thonglit to be of sufficient iiiiportance to ju.stify tlie creation of a niiiiistry for the colonies with a.seat in the cabinet. Hitherto this department has been idl adiunct of some other ministry, generally the Marine. This policy is calculated to have a direct and beneficial influence on French trade. From 1876 to 1893 the commerce between France and Italy fell off $115,000,000, shared between them at $57,500,000 and $55,500,000 respectively. These losses, while attributed wholly to the disturbed eommercial relations between the two countries, were partly due to the same causes that have diminished the trade of the whole world. It being probable that the Italian Minister of Finance -wUl be able to carry through his proposals to meet the pecuniary dif¬ ficulties of the country, Italian securities have advanced in the foreign markets and commercial relations with that country give promise of improvement. The faU of Don German Gamazo, the Spanish Finance Minister, is a blow to good government in Spain. His policy of compelling retrenchments in all depart¬ ments from the throne downward and his insistance on an honest collection of taxes without regard to political affiliations prom¬ ised more for the finances and political morality of the country than that of any minister of recent years. South American affairs are the least assuring of any, though, in the present low condi¬ tion of the business of the world it must not be supposed that interruptions to trade and defaults can have as far-reaching effects as they had a few years ago. SO far as we can see, the annual spriug opening of the rapid transit farce at Albany is drawing to a close. The threads of the somewhat complex plot of the play this year are gathering together .and now it is apparent that we shall have to witness at the close the old, stale, unprofitiible termination ou which the curtain has fallen year after year for nian.y .years. The entire busiuess is a sickening exhibition of popular imbecility. From any point of view it is that. Surely if New Yorkers wish to retain their reputation for common sense they should either cease to deplore their sufferings on account of inadequate rtipid transit or they should do something. We know what we have to choose from. All the pother in the world will neither add nor subtract from what is offered to us. We can either extend the present elevated system, or build new elevated roads or run trains through the block upon arches or around the city water front, or we can build underground. Moreover, we can commit the work either into the hands of private entei-prise, or turn it over to the city authorities, or iidopt a middle course upou the line proposed in the Chamber of Commerce bill. With the fore¬ going we exhaust the category of possibilities unless we can have some aerial road with flying machines. Why, then, if the city needs rapid transit, if people reaUy object to be jiacked like a parcel of hogs on the top of one another, breathing and puffing each other's breath, for a space of time, no matter how short, that should be enough to sicken decency, why don't we make some decision, even if it be only the hopeless decision that the Fates are agaiust us and nothing desirable can be done. Why beat the air any longer? Why not pack off the Steiuway Commission to private usefulness; cease agitating ourselves and "ring the bell," as the phrase goes, upon anybody who mentions Rapid Transit. This would be logical, intelligible; but to keep on talking, to pursue au interminable discussion without ever moving an inch towards a decision, to appoint commissions for the purpose of exhibiting the impotency of a few individuals, to prepare bills and eliiborate schemes which we will neither support nor treat with hostility, surely this is to make for Rapid Transit through Bloomingdale. But the aetion the city won't take, others will. As onr correspondent elsewhere says, the schemers .arO already at work at Albany, aud there is no manuer of doubt the city is fated to be sold out, lock, stock and barrel. It will serve us right if our streets are invaded by elevated structures, if our avenues are bespoiled aud franchises of enormous value frittered away for the traditional song. Real Estate owners particularly will suffer fi-om this. Their rights will be invaded, and then, perhaps, we shall have a wonderful awakening and protesting and petitiouing which will be iis futile as the hubbub that was made when the elev.ited roads were built through the narrow streets down town. Public opinion that will not assert itself intelligently .and at the proper time deserves to be trtimpled on. «---------- ^ENATOR CANTOR has put forth a bill at Albany, this week, ^ prolubiting in New York City the erection of a stable within 100 feet of a church. The bill should be passed. But what the Legislature shoidd do is to proceed to foi-mulate ii comprehen¬ sive system of regulations for the protection of localities against similar nuisances. Not only does there exist to-day a set of thugs who gain a piratical living by purchasing lots contiguous to fine residences and then threatening the alarmed property- holders with the erection of stables or factories unless they stand and deliver, but there is also a scarcely less reprehensible class composed of wealthy citizens who manifest an exasperating indifference to the comfort, and, if one may say so, extra-legal rights of others. A notorious example of this lack of social amenity is furnished in the case of John Jacob Astor, with his stable on 65th street and Madison avenue. This gentleman appar¬ ently has determined to build upon the spot he has chosen despite the requests, protests and even the financial offers of persons