Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 53, no. 1367: May 26, 1894

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Mny 26, 1894 Record and Guide. 8S7 De/oteD to Re^lEswe.BuildiKg 7\R.crfiTEeTVJRE,Kousolou)DEOCii^Tiot<, Bi/siiJess Aifo Themes of Ge^Iei^I- Ij/terest . 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. J. 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 'Washington Street, Opp. Post Office. " Entered ut the Post-offiee at New Tork, N. T., as second-class matter." Vol. liii. MAY 26, 1894. No. 1,367 For additional lirooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately following Xew Jersey records {page 8G4i. THE .-igreeirrent of the Western Trunk line presidents, thefall- iuK oil' in gold exports and the way the Tariff Bill is shap¬ ing it.self ill tlie Senate hits encouraged the buying of stocks and started shorts to cover with the result of a more buoyant market than has been seen foi' some weeks. The attack on the New York Central was jiait of the scared-be;irs' tactics. For the moment, liowever, the street is more ready to listen to good news than to bad. and while it is in this condition prices will continue to advance. There lias been in the past three or four mouths more bear talk on the New Yorlc Central and Western Union than upon any two other stocks, but they have hitlierto with¬ stood this adverse influence very well. Both are greatly affected by the dullness in bu.siness, and while a leduc- tion in the dividend of New Central seems very probable unless there is a sjieedy change in the outside conditions, it is said the usual one iind a qutirtev will be declared on We.stei'ii Union at the ne.'ct ((iiarterly meeting of the directors. In the case of Central it is doubtful if its friends will alhiw it to drop very much even if the dividend be reduced. What the real meaning of the iiresideiits' agreement is leinaiiis to be seen, and on that will depend its influence on the market. Hitherto offi¬ cial agreements to miiintain rates in times of Ijad business have not been very effective. The lessened gold exports are parily the result of foreign interest iu American securities, and while it it is ouly a siieeulative interest it is still better than none. Movemeuts are on foot for ^procuring an agreement to liiise prices in the cordage trade: on the strength of this an attempt is to be made to put up United States Cordage t'omp;iuy's securities, but investors had better carefully study the conditions of the trade and that company's relation thereto before touching these securities. Atchison is likely to come to the front in the near future. Al¬ ready the new bureaus are supplied with Mnts to test the public feeliug on the subject of reorganization. The most feasible phm yet reported embraces au assessment of 10 per cent on the stock, the reversion of the A's and B's to income bonds with provisiou for small annual capital requirements tihead of them and some scaling down of the guaranteed bonds. The soft coal miners strike has increased the ugliness of its featiu'es, encour¬ aged in Illinois no doubt by the Governor's known sympathy Avith sociiilism and auiirchy, but the resort to violence must in¬ jure the cause of the .strikers as was the case at Honiestead aud will alwiiys be the case where the discontents attempt to assert themselves by destruction of life and jiroiierty. Tlie causes which limit geiientl business to actual needs, it is hardly necessiiry to say, continue to prevail -without show of im¬ mediate improvenient. Tlie conditions upon wliich iidvances have been made in previous yeiirs, such as the hiiy, wheat, corn and oats crops ilie as good its they liave been in tmy year and only fail for tlie time being of tlieir u.sual influence because the iiiisfoi'l lines of tlie piist yeiii-have made the public less subject to them than usual.' Should nothing occur to alter these condi¬ tions they cannot fail to be beneficial not ouly to the stock miir¬ ket but to geueral trade as well. T>RITISH trade returns for April show au iucrease of iinports -*-' of .'pi l,5()0,0l>(» and iin increa.se of exports of $4,700,(100. The former' is due largely to increased imports of bread stuff and cotton; but an expansion of iinports of r.aw materials gen¬ erally is noticeiible. The increase of exports is mainly found in the items of coal and cotton manufactures. The decline in other branches of expol'ts is less niiirked than it has been hitherto. The imports of wheat were i^2,'2G0,()(W greater than in April, 1893,:iiud those of flour ;}<2,000,000 smaller. The United St.ates sent a larger amount of live stock by about $1,750,000. English railway shares are advancing in price as a result of the improvement in business. It ia prob.able that Prance will enter the market as a purchaser of silver, if it has not already doue so, to provide for the subsitliary coin made necessary by the withdrawal of Italian small silver coins from circulation in that country. The Minister of Finance is urged to melt down flve franc pieces and to reduce the present large supply, but as the seignionige to the government will be .$800,00(3 more from the new met.al than from the tive franc pieces, it is presumed the minister will choose the former. The supply of Egj'ptian cotton is expected to be more largely in excess of the estimate than ever. The prevailing feature of tho Beriiu market is siiid to be a totiil absence of animation. In the theoretical discussion of the declining tendency in iirices, it is calculated that the fall in Germany, tiiking the average prices of 1870-89 to stand at 100, has been for the succeeding years as follows: 1891, 98.14; 1892, 95.32; 1893, 91.52; only the year 1890 .showed a rise to 105.21. The export tnide of the empire stood at 104.7 in 1892, 102.6 in 1891 and 96.7 in 1892. These are coiupared with tigures of 104, 97.5 and 92.4 severally for the exports of Englaud in the same years. The Neiie Freie .Pressc speaks hopefully of the industiy ot Austria, which, it is believed, will uuder preseut favorable conditions take a fresh start. The .announcement of another Indian sterling loan is accepted as a sign that the government will make uo change in its mint policy. Italy has started on a policy of rigorous economy which .should materially improve its credit. IF for no other reiison, in view of the present hard times when everybody is feeling the pressure of tinancial contraction there is something willfully leekless about Governor Flower's .appro\iil of the act for increasing the pay, in certain departments, of the police force, on the score—sluiU we say ^—that the men at present cannot deposit the entire iimount of their p.ay eaeh month to their several credits in the Savings bank—as, of course, these fellows should. These iire not the exact words of the guberuiitorial iipproval; but iis everyone knows, consider¬ ing the work to be done and the previous pav of patrolmen, they comprise its ti^riiis exactly. The New York public has observed the whole cotu'se of Senator Coggeshall's measure of unnecessary and quite unwarranted generosity to the police force with cynical amusement, but has done little or nothiug to oppose it. This is the characteristic attitude of the New Yorker towartl the police. He looks upou the force iis very necessary, and, lit the same time, as something dangerous to come iuto con- i let with iindei- any circumstances ; in certain cases brave and I'fficient, but considering the mental calibre of the men employed and the nature of the work they have to perform^andthe lucra- tiveness of the work they tloii't perfoim^very much over- jiaid. But no one, for |obvious reasons, aud jiarticiilarly for reasons that reflei.'t unfavoiiibly upon the character of the men emijloyed, has had the temerity to raise a strong voice of protest against the further greasing of the fatted " force," and the New Yorker as he passes along the streets and giizes into the vacant countenance of the city's beefy guardians satirically jjraises Heaven that at least the fortunes of some are superior to the times. THE question most vitiil to the interests and progress of the City of New York, rapid transit, is in as satisfactory a shape as it can now be jiut by the approval by Governor Flower of, the " Chiimber of Commerce Rapid Transit Bill." This is essentially a citizens' and not a politicians' measure and consequeutly puts the matter in its best aud most practical shape. So long as the matter was left to politiciiins it was impossible to hope for anything like progress. As soon as it was taken up earnestly by a represent.itive body who could authoritatively sjieak with the voice of the city at large, progress began by the introduction of the measure just apjjroved into the Legislature. The enforcement of the measure still remaius with our citizens as a body, because it is almost certain thiit there must be a referendum when the comiuis.sion has decided upon the pliiu, because it is quite hopeless, in view of the cost of the work and the lengthy period within which the capit.al employed must remain unremuneriitive, to expect any business syndicato to take it up without municipal backing. In fact any .syndicate that would undertake such a contract, in view of all the difficul¬ ties that .so obviously surround it, should be regarded 'with great .suspicion, aud their bona-tides submitted to tlie severest tests. It should not be difficult, however, to prove to the people of this city, when the matter is submitted to their ajjproval, that they cannot make a better investment for their owu comfort and well- being than to guarantee judicious expenditures in providiug rapid transit. ---------■--------- THE retirement of Mr. Croker from the dictatorship of New York city is, people are almost tempted to say, ton good to be credited. Probably they would say so were they not instantly checked by the thought that nothing either in the act of abdica¬ tion itself or in the supposable consequences of tho act strictly