Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 57, no. 1454: January 25, 1896

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.nimiiiiy 25, ISJlfi Record and Goidleo ru ,"■* HPiir^iasa. Devoted id R]E\LEsTwi.BinLDii/o AR.cKnEeTvnE,HciusnfouiDE8a^J3^ Bi/siitess Alto Themes of Gtjto'.^l l^rt^lf3■j ,^ PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TBLBPHONB,......COBTLANDT 1870 Ckimsmnloatlons should be addressed to C. W, sweet, 14-16 Vesey Street. /. 7. LINDSET. Business Manager. "Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, If. T., as second-class matter.' Vol. LVII. JANUARY 2.5, 189(1 No. 1,4.->1 The Record and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports of all building operations, comp'iled to suit Y'oru business specifically, for 14 cents a day. Ton are thus kept informed of the entire market for your goods. No guess work. Every fact verified. Abundant capital and Ihe thirty years' experience of TiiK Record and Guidk (;»«ra«(ff llie com¬ pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send Jo 1-1 and IG Vesey street for information. IT iniist not be s.nid tluit tr-lding in Wall Stieet has no liutiioi- otis ph.ises at'tcv Chicago Gas, Aineiican Tobacco and otlior diat.iiictly homo stocks were said to be sold down ou the lepoit of the treaty between Kussia and Turkey, No one suppo.aes for a moment that this selling and tbe report had any couuectioii except in the minds of the foolish people who gave the one as ;i reason for the other without knowing anything about either, The fact is that the market is very dull and its movements avo due wholly to the operations ot professionals. The public hav¬ ing liquidated pretty thoroughly, have stepped out to await the result of the bond subscription. Of the success of the latter there is no doubt wh.itever, the only question regarding it at present interesting the buying public is the price that will be oljtiiined for the bonds. The most general impression is that the bids will range from 108 to 110. Some may believe that tho subscription is made a public one in order to give individual investors an opportunity to buy at the. last syndicate price. Auy who base their bids on such a belief will be fooled, because the two transactions are so entirely different tliat no comparison can bo made between them. The most important feature abont the last issue was the undertaking of the syndicate to bring gold from .abroad and to protect Ihe Treasury siirjilus for some time. There is no such undertaking now, the gold that is paid for bonds can be drawn out again with greenbacks without having to encounter auy check, moral or otherwise. The Senate, which has beeu so successful in dealing with the national currency aud finance, is now actively iuteresting itself iu foreigu atl'airs, and this, naturall.v, makes people somewhat fearful of the cou- se(|ueuees, though it should be remembered that their powers for mischief aie very much smaller iu this case than in the other. As to the repor': of the Russo-Tiirkisli alliance it is no more worlhy of belief thau was the oue that Russia would occupy Port Arthur as soon as the Japanese ev.acuated it, or that tho Biitish Hying squadron was destined for Bermud.a, but absurdi¬ ties of this class have been so useful iu attacks ou quotations that W8 may look for further editions with similar results. Still, with the success of the bond issue a.ssiired—(hat is, as¬ sured to the extent that all the bonds offered will be taken— there ought to be an improvement iu the situation. "fTJHILE the hope grows that the worUl'o peace is not to be ' » broken, there is no abatement of caution at the great European centres of business and tinancc. The leport from every market is monotonously significant of dullness, witli the attendant low rates for money and high prices for tlie best class of securities to which we have beeu accustomed for ,so long. It is about two years since the Directors of the Bank of Englnnd publicly anuouuced that they would not increase the bank's holdings of Con.sols, because they believed the quotations had attained their maximum and a decline was due. They have meantime prob.ably changed their views aud policy, because consols are higher thau they then were, and the predicted de. cline, by reason of the recent political checks given to enterprise, is apparently further ott'than ever. The South African Company will come in for a good deal of discussion as soon a* Parliament metts, aud already it is suggested that it should be made to re- imbuiso tho Exchequer any money compensation it may h.ave to pay to the Boer Republic for the Jameson raid ; a suggestion that seenis to be an eminently proper one. Moreover, it is not unlikely that its powers will bo restricted by the armed firce, which it has been allowed to organize for the^policiiig of its vast possessions, being placed under imperial direction—also a rea- .sonable arrangement in view of the predicament into which it lias dragged the home authorities. The French .Minister of Finance proposes to introduce a inogressive income tax next year. It will be interesting to see whether they will manage this matter better in Franco tlian they did in this countrj', although it may be taken for granted that discriuiinalions against thi^ Vich will find more favor there than they do here. We liave no reason, liowevcr, to quarrel with the theorj- that besides being free all men here have equal tax-paying privi¬ leges. Tlie correspondence from Cermany shows that the people there have an idea that a war with (Ireat Britain v.otild result ill tlieir taking such a large part of the latter's foreign tiado that it would pay for the conllict. Napole.ui had a similar idea. Austria and Hungary are about to renew their States' treaty on the basis of a larger contribution from the latter, which now pays only :j 1.1 per cent toward the common expenses. There are still notes to the amount of 112,000,000 florins iu circula¬ tion, and measures to retire them are about to be introduced into the legislative bodies of Auslria and Hungary to retire them. A vast amount of silver has oeen put into eirctilalion iu the past two years in place of ptiper of small denominations, yet we have heard nothing of the discontent which it was imagined this would create. Ajipareutly the ]i*ople of Austro- Huugary are sensible enough to be content with dean metal in the place of dirty paper. The time will come when we will seo the advisability of sub.stittiting silver for our small war money. Is Not New York Oity Already Large Eaough? IT is somewhat characteristic of the way we do things that nearly a year and a half after a popular vote has decided that consolidation is desirable, we should be opening up what appears likely to become a long and angry discussion as to whether sucli a move would be as satisfactory as we at first thought it would be. It is quite evident, however, that the matter had not been previously thought out, aud no one need regret tho opiiortunity for considering all the responsibilities, as well .as the benefits, that will follow an enforced union of tive counties, the vast m.ijority of whose territory is still farm land. Too much has been taken for granted. It has beeu accepted as unquestionable that a large eity will have more importance and be more economically managed than a small one; that the different communities which may go to make up this large city will be mutually and propoitionately benefited, and that, more than auythiug else, probably, it would not do, no matter what the cost might be, to allow Chicago to have a larger territory, and sub.sequently a greater population, than New York. Centralization is a good thing no doubt, but its best friends will admit that it is possible to overdo it. Like other things, it ought to come as a natural growth and not be forced. Are we forcing it by endeavoring to take in all this new, and what ma.y be termed raw territory ? With its latest addition New York City has an area of about 5S square miles ; Brooklyu an area of 77I3 square miles, reckoning the whole of Kiugs County; tho area of Queens County is about 124 square miles, including the ■whole of the town of Hempstead, and the area of Richmond County is .about .5714 square miles. Together these make a ter¬ ritory of about 31084 square miles, without counting a large part of Westchester County, wliich it is also pioposed to make a part of Greater New York, whose area we are not at the moment .able to ascertain. Admitting for the sake of argument, though not by any means asserting it as a fact or believing that we are justitied in doing so, that the consolidation of the cities of New York and Brooklyn as now constituted would be desirable, how isit with respect to the other part of this enormous territory J The combined area of Queens and Kichmond Counties, 181 square miles would contribute only semethinglike .$70,000,000 or 5*80,000,000 to value of the real estate for purposes of taxation in the consolidated city, or less than wc shall omit if we say that the remainder will be assessed at .$2,000,000,000 for the same purpose. It is in the main innocent of sewers, paving and other improvements and very imperfectly protected from lire or crime. These facts su.ggcst this question : will not the cost of supplying these deficiencies of neces.sity f.all upon the richer portions of the territory, and if so where is the latter to obtain adequate compensation for its outlay? If, as is con¬ tended, from an examination of the statistics bearing on the question, the uniou of New York and Brooklyn alone would mean an increased tax rate, or, wh.at is about the same thing, au increased ratio of assessed valuation on tho former, with how much more force would the argument apply to tho territory which is greater than these two put together, aud is as wanting iu improvements as of the means to secure them. Another quest! in : Have not both New York and Brookl.yn .already assumed .sufticient respon.'ribility in the form of new ter¬ ritory to the limit of prudence and more 1 We showed last week that Brooklyn iu its original parts was but poorly provided, and must spend a large sum each year to bring it np to even mod¬ erate reqnirements for a city of its size. Almost a third of tho .streets in the first twenty-eight wards arc unpaved, and nearly a half are covered only with cobble. We may add now that;