Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: no. 56, no. 1439: October 12, 1895

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Ootober 12,189(5' Record and Guide. 473 .Btrsnfess fib Themes of GEiteiyi. lKraf»i._; PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.I Published every Saturday. Tblephonb,......Oohtla.ndt 1370 OommunloatlonB shonld be addreaaed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veeey Street. /. 1. LINDSET. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street, Oi'P. Post Offiob. " E7ilered at the Post-office at New Yoj-k, if. T., as second-dass matter." Vol. LVI. OCTOBER 1-2, 1895. The Rf.corb and Guide will furnish you with dally detailed reports of all bnilding operations, compiled to suit YOtJR trnsiness s-pecifioally, .for 1-t cents a day. Yon are thus kept informed of the entire market for your goods. No guess work. Every faet verifi.e(1. Abundant capital and the thirty years' experienee of The Record a.vd Guide guarantee the com¬ pleteness and authenticity of this sei'vice. Sc.ndtol4 and 16 Vesey street for information. THE stock market has taken the depressing: news of the week very we)],a]l things eousidered. This is due to the faith of holders in the value of railroad securities chiefly; because, had there been any large desire to sell long stock in the existing conditiou of the market, with buying almost as poor as it pos¬ sibly cau be, there would have been a great impression made ou quotatious. As the week closed the news was of a better char¬ acter. The indications are that the London market will not be a disturbing influence, the day of reckoning in Kaffirs having not yet corae. At home tlie evident fact that the Easteru Trunk line managers are making a sincere effort to deal with the problem of rates, is not without its influence for good, although there are doubts whether their -work will be suc¬ cessful, the difficulties presented being so great. Another item of interest is the association of the names of geiitleineu identified with Vanderbilt interests with the reorganization of Union Pacific. So mauy interests have from time to time endeavored to get the Governmeut to terms on this matter that tbe opera¬ tions of a new one to that end caunot fail to he interesting. Tho most encouraging feature of the day, however, is the strengthening and advance in the price of silver. There is probably no industry outside of agriculture whose im¬ provement would have more influence on the prosperity of the couutry than tbat of silver. If present promise .should be realized and a substantial advance take place in the price of this metal tinder legitimate demand, ifc means an increase in the freight of the Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and California roads, and also a great increase in the pui-chasiug power of those States which cannot fail to event¬ ually benefit the trade of the whole country. Besides it would increase the chances of an early reform of our cunency, because the silver States, aud through them their representative in Congress, will be less inclined to insist on their demands on the governmentin favor otthe white metal, if its value increases under the ordinary operations of trade. portion than in the other years named. The total of mining companies, good, bad and iudiflerent, iucluded iu this year's figures is ahout $25,000,000, and the land and esploriug com¬ panies, most of whicti are the reaulfcof thesuccess in mining dis¬ tricts already developed, about $20,000,000, These are more than enough perhaps for the industries they are supposed to represent, hut their combined totals do not amount to a great deal compared with the whole money representation of the new enterprises brought out and to only a comparatively small sum when the resources of thg centre where they are isstied and subscribed is considered. The complete total of Kaffir ventures, colossal as it is, is only a fraction of European investments, and if it has to undergo fining down, as the consequences will be distributed in London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna, they will he easily borne. Whatever the extent of its overdoing it must not he forgotten that there is a .substantial basis to the Kaffir movement. The gold production of the re¬ gion on which the shares aro predicated has exceeded $4,000,000 in one month with no indication that tbat is the maximum. Where the trouble will come will be in the weeding out of the worthless issues, the honest disappointments and the frauds, but when that is done the enterprise as a whole yyill be in a sounder condition than ever ifc has been. There is no rea¬ son to fear a collapse like that of the Argentines iu 1890, be¬ cause not ouly are the foundations of the movement under suspicion better than were those of the South American loans, but the times are also diffeient. The break iu the Argentines came at a time of world-wide expansion and inflation in busi¬ ness ou which the eiirrency peculiarities of the Uuited States were superimposed. To-day business is only showing healthy improvement and the people of this country have the symptoms of returning monetary sanity. No. 1,439 \ VERY uncomfortable feeling is left iu tbe mind.s of Euro- *^^ pean security-holders by the recent break in Kaffir shares. It has shown somethiug of the possible movement of those issues under adverse influences. Every one suspects that a good many of these shares havebeeu boomed on the strength of what others have done, aud as merit is the attractive force thatall valuations musteventualiyobey, let the power that forced them from the true point of gravity for the time being be what ifc inll, they must take their proper relatiou to natural financial forces. In this operation there will he a good deal of suffering, whether it 18 gently or roughly performed, but ifc is fortunate that specula- tion has heeu nowhere else rampant than in Kaffirs. -Much the largest part of the new capital raised in tbe past two years has been by the issue of Government and municipal bonds of the best classes. For instance, in Great Britain what are called the new capital applications, comprising every form of prospectus put out to secure new capital, amouuted in the first three quartera of this year to $425,000,000, as compared with $459,000,000 tor the whole of last year, $245,000,000 iu 1 893 and $405,000- UOO m 1892. With these applications for niue months of 1895, comparmg so favorably with similar figures for any twelve months ot the preceding three years, it might be imagined that there had been this year a good deal of kiting of immeritorions ventures; the latter, however, are most probably j^ ^allerpro. THAT cousolidation is becomiug a very hot question among Brooklynites is proved by the interest created by the publication of various views upon it in our issue of Septemher 28th last. This interest is not wholly good-natured. Some of the .iouruals devoted to preserving an autonomous Brooklyn throw doubt upon the genuineness of our interviews with Mayoi' Schieren and Senator Wolfert. The former is quoted by the iS(«n