Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 53, no. 1361: April 14, 1894

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Apiil 14, 1894 Record and Guide. 571 ESTMUSHED-^ MAR.CH21«>-1868, "db^TkD TO !^r>l F^-?TE. Bi't'.r:'.'.^ 7'^=ci-';TECT'jr\E'.F(ousEiloU)DEGQ?!ATiot(, PUSNFSS i,!,-.'lTi--M':" •-'■dE>iKI'!*L I's'TtP^cSTi . PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Telephone.......Cortlandt 1370 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 'Vesey Street. ,f. 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 'Washington Street. Opp. Post Ofptce. " Entered at the Post-offlce at Neio Tork. N. T., as second-class matter." Vol. liii. APRIL 14, 1894. No. 1,361 For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately following New .lersey records (page 5961. The Duty of the Oitizen, It is not enough in a situation of trust in the commonwealth, that a man means well to his country; it is not enough that in his single person he never did an evil act, iiut always voted according to his conscience and even harangued against every design which he appre¬ hended to be prejudicial to the interests of his country. Tliis innox¬ ious and ineffectual character, that seems formed ■upon a plan of apology and tUsculpation, falls miserably short o.f the mark of public duty. That duty demands and requires that what is right shoidd not only be made known, but made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be detected, but defeated. When the public man omits to put himself in a situation of doing his duty with effect it is an omission that frustrates the purposes of his trust almost as much as if he had formally betrayed it. It is surely no very rational account of a man-s life thai he has always acted right, but has taken special care to act in such a manner that his endeavors could not possibly be productive of any consequence. I do not wonder that the behavior o.f many parties should have made persons o.f tender and scrupulous virtue sometvhat out of humor with all sorts of connection in politics. T admit that people frequently acquire in such ctmfeilerac'ies a narroio, bigoted and proscriptive spirit; that they are apt to sink the idea of the general good in this circumscribed and partial interest. But irhere duty renders a critical situation a necessary one, it is our busiuess to keep free from the evils attendant upon it, and not to,fly from the situa¬ tion itself . If a fortress is seated in an unwholesome air an officer of the garrison is obliged to he attentive to his health, but he must not desert his station. Edmund Burke. THE way the stock market has taken the bad news of the week, the sti-ike.s with accompanying violence, the stomis and the un siitisfactory condition of geueiiil business has been very encouraging to the holders of seeurities whose confidence was particularly sustained by the strength and advance in the face of the large gold engagements. In fact prices have not yet reached a point where the ordinary bad news can hurt them. It is still not difflcult to find in the list stocks and bonds sell¬ ing at low prices, which, notwithstanding the conditions, give good i)romi,se of maintaining the fair return they now make on the investment. 'While such is the fact the news must be very bad indeed, to drive prices down far. Atchison securities promise to become the immediate feature. It is reported that the plan for putting the company on its feet again is about to be announced. The break in the drought in Kansas is directly beneficial to the compauy, because it has so much mileage in that Stiite iind it is not unlikely that the practical iissuriince of the crop in that State will be taken as a fitting occasion to restore the company to credit. The most reason.ible explanation of the nearly four millious of dollars gold for shipment in one day, is that remitters have been liolding back expecting to see a fall in Exchange, and failing that have been obliged at last to ship gold. 'With the present narrow limits of foreign trade and the .absence of otlier causes that m-dinarily tend to e(iualize balances betweeu this country aud Eurojie, it maj' be that remit¬ tances against travelers' drafts, which ]iromise to be very con¬ siderable this year, niiiy cans'- the exjiort of gold to assume very considerable proportions before it cetises. Foreign buying of our securities, should it assiiiiie greiit iiroportions, vrould ott'set this, but at jiresent this ciinnot be relied on to check the export of gold. The depression of the world's business is causing the return to London of a great deal of capit.il, and as a consequence the gold in the Bank of Engl.and has increased in the jiast year more than that of all the other great state European banks put together, and the bank has iilso an unprecedeuUy high resiiive. The development of the Taritt' discussion in the Senate still favors the market movements o' the Industrials. Secretary Carlisle's sounding of the market on its capacity to take more government bonds, favors the idea that there will be no tiirift' legislation this year. General business iu almost every department can be best characterized by tho word slow. rpHE issue of new capital in London forthe first quarter of the *■- current year exceeded that of the coi-responding period of last year by $12,500,000. That is undoubtedly a sign of renewed activity, but how deep is the depression from which emergence is now being made is seen from the fact that notwithstanding tho increase over last year the new capital of the first quarter of 1894 is only about one-third what it was in the same time in auy of the three years prior to last year. The figures for the flve years are: 1894, $.51,325,000; 1893, $38,850,000; 1892, $15.5,620,000; 1891, $153,225,000 ; 1890, $152,245,000. The new Canadian Tariff'Bill is gi-eeted with satisfaction in Englaud ns au acceptable break in the protectionist policy of the Dominion, It is reported in connection with the withdrawal of Italian silver coins from circulatiou in France that the government of the latter country, although it has provided for the exchange of the Italian coins, ma.v increase its own silver currency by from 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 fiaiics. Paris is to be congratultited if it is, as is reported, to have underground rixpid transit. This question has always been raised whenever an international exposition has been decided on, but the differ¬ ences between the State and the City of Paris as to what was required, the former desiring strategic connections with the gre.at lines of railroads of the countrj', and the city being unvrilling to facilitate emigration to the suburbs, as well as the great difficulty of raising the necessary capital bave always hitherto proved to be insurmountable. The continued belief in Germany in an early return of general prosperity is strengthen¬ ing all the markets there, even prices for manufactured iron are advancing. The same remark applies to Austria. Great public works are the order of the d.ay in Europe, among them it is pro¬ posed to clear the ch.annel of the Danube, so that in ten years ocean steamers can unload in 'Vienna. The final oflicial forecast of this year's Indian cotton crop estimates the yield at 2,349,500 bales of 400 lbs. each against 1,913,700 billes in 1892-93. The area under cultivation increased 15.7 percent. The depression in business has sent the young men of Westei-n Australia prospecting for gold; as a consequence exports of the yellow metal from that province in the last three months of 1893 were $926,600 as compared -with $505,200 in the same lime in the preceding .year, and the pros¬ pects for still better results this year are good. Reports of increases of gold production come from so many sources that the world's output in 1894 should pass the record of any previous year.______________ DESPITE the fact that progress has been made this week, the probabilities that the Chamber of Commerce Rapid Transit Bill will be passed by the present State Legislature are still very small. The city .authorities have publicly placed them¬ selves in an uncompromising'position of hostility to the measure, iuid we take it for gi-anted that this opposition will be decisive, in view of the undoubted copartnership that exists between the leaders of Tammany Hall aud the gentlemen now in control of the State Republican machine. 'Were there a strong, emphatic, pronounced public support given to the Chamber of Commerce bill this opposition might be less potent, but -with the people of this city as apathetic as they are, there is no impeciimeut to playing the game of "politics" fiw " all it is worth." ----------■---------- INDEED, why shonld not the selfish, personal considerations of politicians itile in a matter where the citizens of Ne-w York show themselves totally indifferent to the promotion of the Larger interests of the Metropolis? We publish elsewhere In this paper a review of the Real Est,ate Market, which in mauy particulars is markedly unsatisfactory. It will be seen that iu the upper wards ou the East Side—on the 'West Side and in Har¬ lem—real est.ate is far from being in a flourishing condition. This is partly due, undoubtedly, to the present unpropitious state of general trade, but it is indisputable that the existing intolerable condition of Rapid Transit has contributed not a little to the dullness and the weakness prevalent. The upper part of this island, to say nothing of the great wards beyond the Harlem, into which population should be spreading, is in a state of arrested development. Even if general business were booming it would be quite impossible for there to be in that region really active buying, buildiug or renting. The channels for jirosperity are choked. Exp.ansiou and enterprise on an important scale are impossible. With thousands of people, the inconvenience and barbarism of the iouriiey uptown detracts, to state the matteriu figures, full.v 25 per cent from the desirableness of i-esidence anywhere above 59th street. There can be no doubt i hat rather than endure the trip thousands wlio would otherwise be living in the region around Central .Park hu've estabiisbcd themselveB