Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 55, no. 1403: February 2, 1895

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JPebTnary 2i 1895 P.ecord and Guide„ ESTABUSHED-^ tfJWpH eW^ 1S68. Dev&teS) to Re\L Estate . BuiLDitJb Af^cif iTEerui^ .KouseHoid Dztxss^noit, BUsk/ess aiJd Themes ofGEriER^L lifTER,E&T. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. THLBPHONB, ----.. COBTtANBT 1370 OommunioationB ahould he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veeey Street. J. 2. LINDSEY. Buainesa Manager. BKOOKXT[r Office, 276-282 Washington Street, Opp. Post Office. "Entered at the Poal-offtce at Nmo Tork, If. Y., as seeondrclass matter.'^ Vol. LV. FEBRUARY 2, 1895. No. 1,403 For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately following New Jersey records (page 187 . WITH SUPPLEMENT ARRAN&EMEKTS have undoubtedly been made to afford some relief to the Treasury iu supplying it with gold. These it is hoped -will tide it over the time until the new Con¬ gress can be called together and aet. The country has to pay a liigh price for this convenience, and the situation at the same time is not made wholly satisfactory. Congress is a very uncer¬ tain factor, and the nervousness of security holders will not wholly disappear until our currency methods are refoiined. Moreover, while busiuess is continually improving, it is not at such a rate as to justify any large rise in the prices of securities. Manufacturers all over the country are gradually increasing their working forces and thereby increasing the buying power of the working classes upon which, after all said and done, tbe prosperity of the country depends. There is room for believing that, if the relief the Treasury has obtaiued is substantial, ■and especially if it takes the lorui of biinging gold from abi oad in a way that it cannot go back again by an early steamer, prices geuerally have not dis¬ counted the improvement in the situation that that wiU loccasion. But other considerations will weigh heavily in special ■cases. Eor instance, it is hard to see how the Grangers can go back to figures prevailing a year ago until there are good indi¬ cations that the results of the harvest of 1895 wiU be better than they were last year. General Electric is obviously iu a bad way, presumably because developments will compel a readju-stmeut of the capital account lessening the offsetting assets. It is not likely either that the company is doing any better than other manufacturing companies. The anthracite coal companies are still iu a state of indecision in respect to an agi'eement to restrict production and to maintain prices. What this means was shown by the reports for 1894, issued by Lackawanna and Delaware & Hudson, both of which showed large losses in net earnings. Unless an agreement is soon arranged there will be a drop in the prices of coal stocks, because it is hardly possible that all tbe companies will be satisfied with present conditions for long and some may force the fighting to secure a better position when the inevitable readjustment of the percentages of output does come. IT is a singular thing, but a fact, that the several countries of Europe have become apathetic on the subject of politics. The thrill which a great change generally imparts to a whole nation now seems to spend its force in the parliamentary cham¬ bers. This was seen when Prince Hohenloe supplanted Gen. Caprivi and M. Paure succeeded M. Casimir-Perier and ouly raised the public pulse of eifier Germany or France slightly and momentarily. The Giolotti scandal in Haly creates no great public excitement. England seems inclined to cast herself on the bosom of the Conservative party as she always does when inclined to take a political nap, and the best finance minister Hun¬ gary ever had gave his portfolio into untried hands without dis¬ turbing values in the least. Probably tbe universal necessity for looking after individual andjprivate concerns occasions the collective indifference to public ones. Then, too, the collective thinking capacity is limited. It likes a few things at a time to occupy it, and just now the prices of iron and corn and other typical goods have the call ou the public faculties to the exclu¬ sion of politics. Recently, Consols and other Government secur¬ ities have shown signs of giving way from the abnormal quota¬ tions to which they have reached, but there are no fresh signs of a demand which will reduce the enormous lioldings of money not only in Europe but even iu India and other remote places, and the fact that we do not see rates for mouey advancing ou a legitimate demand proves that there is no improvement in tbe business situation. If trade does not go backward its forward movement is not of the moat encouraging nature. The returns of the foreign trade of Great Britain in 1894 illustrate this. In imports the quantity received was 9 per cent greater and the declared values 8 per ceut lower than in 1893 j the imports of raw material for manufacture and manufactured articles fell off in quantity 3 per ceut and iu price 2 per cent. The labor reports for December, however, indicate on the whole no increase in the numbers of the uuemployi^d, but, if anything, a decrease. The budget of the Russian Finance Minister contains some figures which are interestiug inasmuch as so little is known except in the v.igue8t way of the development of his country. These figures show that the production of pig-iron was in 1881, 546,000 tons, and in 1893, 1,416,000 tons ; the productiou of steel 376,000 tons compared with 600,000 tons; the output of coal 4,180,000 tons againsc 920,000 tons. The Russian cotton industry now employs 200,000 looms and 6,000,000 spiudlea. Sanity and Eapid Transit. AT last we stand upon firm ground in this hitherto imbecile matter of Rapid Transit. The whole problem finally has been put beyond the voice of cranks, schemers and newspaper blatherskites. What would have been done under reasonable conditions at the very outset has now been accomplished. After trying for years to evolve a practicable system of Rapid Transit from the ferment of popular ignorance and editorial preaching, we have turned to experts competent to pronounce both upon the engineering and financial sides of the matter. Henceforth it will be crass presumption for person.=% qualifietl only by (he inten¬ sity of their personal desires to propose new schemes. One must possess undoubted abililies to questiou -n-ifhout impudence the final judgment of aboard of experts of real ability. The outlook now, if uot promising, is at least intelligble. Hitherto it has not been so. Everything, at last, is reduced to the point of action, and the question no longer is, "What are we going to do f but, "Are we going to do what we ought to do if we really want Rapid Transit-?" The rei)ort of the Board of Experts must be pleasant reading for all well-infonued and iudicious citizens. It recognizes the fact that the city requires a system of transportation dittering entirely from anything it now possesses. Our present machiuery can only temporize with our difficulties. It offers no real solution to the Rapid Transit prob¬ lem. Au underground road is the only way out of the trouble. An overground system iindoubtedl.7 would be more comfortable and more popular with the people, hut apparently it is not prac¬ ticable, all existing conditions considered. The underground routes advocated in the report avoid as many difficulties as can be avoided without sacrificing the efficiency of the new system. Best of all, iu laying out the new transportation lines the Board of Expei'ts was clear-headed enough to see that there are present emergencies to be met as well as future requirements provided for, and it proceeded to recommend the doing of what unques¬ tionably shoidd be done. The Record and Guide has been advocating for years the imperative necessity of increasing the facilities of the elevated roads. It is hard to say why the public have not made this demand upon the company long ago. The company is uot to blame upou this point. It must not be for¬ gotten that theie was a time when the Manhattan people were ready enough to build additional tracks. They even went so far in the face of senseless popular opposition as to construct a third track along a considerable part of one of their lines. If people had known what was best for themselves at the time in¬ stead of falling iuto an attitude of opposition because of preju¬ dice against Jay Gould, they would have supported the company in its efforts to give better service to its patrons. As it is now, the Manhattan Company, wc believe, are not so anxious to make costly betterments. They have felt the pinch of competition of the cable roads. They are rather of the opinion, wejudge, that there is more money in maintaining things just as they are than iu changes and expansions. The extra tracks recommended by the Board of Experts should, of course, be built. Steam power should be replaced by electric traction. Were this done we should not have, of course, a real rapid transit system adequate to meet the great and increasing requirements of the city, but we should have a very serviceable system sufficient in part to satisfy the needs of the moment. There is no city iu the world that would tolerate for a day the' hog [method of transporting human beings which now prevails on the elevated lines. There is no excuse for it. It is beastly and uncivilized. We trust that tho Rapid Transit Commissioners will now pro¬ ceed with the utmost energy to carry out tiie plan advised bp the Board oE Experts. Every decent man in New York City should co-ooerate with the Commissioners and assist tliem with his voice and infiueuce. Rapid Transit has ceased to be an engineering matter. It has become a question of s-tnitation and morals, andiu these aft'airsall good citizens should be interested. Real estate men particularly have largo financial interests bound up in Rapid Transit. The further expansion of New York City is impossible until people can travel very much faster and with much more comfort, from one end of the city to the other. I