Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 57, no. 1458: February 22, 1896

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Fcbiiiaiy 22, 1890 Record and Guide. 293 PRICF, PER ESTABUSHED'^ ISW.CH2m^ 1868. BtlsH^ESS AifoThemes orGEiiEiv>l l^rtRf* u YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. PiMis.hed ^cry Saturday, Tkliphond,......COB-riANDT 1870 OommTmloatlcns ahonld be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. /. J, LINDSET. Business Manager. " Entered at the Post-offlce at New Iork, If, Y.,as second-class matter." Vol. L\J[. FEBRUAKY 22, 18SG No. 1,4.58 The Rrcohd and Gcidr w'ill furnish you with daily detailed reports of all building operations, conipiled to suit vOfR business spcc'i,lically,.foi 14 cents a day, Tou are thus kept informed of the entire niarkel for your goods. No guess ivork. Every fact verified. Abundant capital and the thirty years' Ixperience of Tnv. Rkcoud and Guide (/iiai-aii/ic the com¬ pleteness and authentic'ity of this service. Sendjo 14 and IG Vesey street for information. WITH SUPPLEMENT. TKADEES ou the Stock iiimkct h.ave formed the only beari.8h eU'iiieiit 8iiit'c the Imud issue nud the iec()V'ei.v fioni the Veuezuel.iu-scare. At liuies iu llie past week tlie.v have m.qde several vi^'orou.s attempts to lueak i)i-ice.s, but ihe etiert has each tiuie been to disclose a scarcity ot stocks: consequcntlv buyiufj to cover caused qiuck rallies. Holders of stocks liave decliued tobe frij^liteiied out of their holdiuj;s aud the public buyiu;,' of bonds, both iuve.^tineiit aud spcculalive lias beeu (juite large witb indications of still gieafer volume to come. This move¬ ment has received help from abroad, uot iu a very large degree but sufticient to show that foreign operators are willing to take holdot our securities for a substantial turn at least. Lon¬ don, Amsterd;ini, Frankfort aud Fierliu are always willing to turn .1 ,spe(-iilati\e penn.v iu our market whenever the.v see the opportunity, notwillistaudiug their siis]iicion of our currency system. So loug as tho railroad interests cou- tirue to do as well as tiicy are now doing, aud thereby testifying to the betteriii.g condiliou of busiuess through¬ out tho couuti'.y, shrewd men will be more likel.y to in¬ crease than to decrease their speculative aud investment lines of railroad aud other securities and this makes operations on the short side diingerous except when public contidcnce receives a shock or when the bii.ying movement has goue much beyond what it has recently done. There is nothing at the moment fo dim the counutrcial piospect or to lesson the eheer- fulucss occasioned by the boud .sale. Moreover, prices, except in some few instnu(-es, are considerably below what the.y were last September, wliile iu Ihe iiiteival business has improved, so that iheie is fair warrant lor the belief that the upward move¬ ment is uot spent by auy means. "^"OW it is iu France. After pursuing its ecceutrie course -^-^ fio'di Pekiu to Constantinople, from 'S'enezuela to South Africa, the poiut of political excitement has reached Paiis, not iu the form of a foreign coniplicalion but as a very serious constitutional question. The Second, or Upper, Cb.amber of the Natioual Assembly refuses to support the Ministry Ihat iho Chamber of Deputies, the popular body, upholds by large majorities. Of cour.se the newspapers are the tirst to lose their heads aud talk of a coup cfetat ov of a revolution, but we may be sure that the uuitter is not a? serious as the journals want their readers to believe. Lui-kily for Fiance she possesses a remedy for Ihis friction in the two Chambcis iu au appeal tii the country, the proper court of linal resort iu all disputes lietweeu legislator.-!. An election cauuot. immediately cbauge the per¬ sonnel of tlie Senate, but it miiy approve or disapprove its acts by changing the coustitution of the Chamber of Deputies iu a way that neither of the coutendiug parties dire disregard whichever way the veidxt may go. (ireat Britain's imports for January increased 4.7 percent., aud the exports iucieased 15.9 per cent. Iieceut uew issues of capital also show that there is a recovery from the dullness caused by fears of embroilments abroad. Still it cannot be claimed that either iu Great Brit.iiu or in Europe there is any significant commercial activity. In financial circles there are none of those great loan operations on the carpet that, wheu succes.sful, ;il ways prove such au lueentive to general activity, and money fails to command any but the very low rates that have prevailed for so long. Souic attempts have been made to get; better tciius, but they have proved unsuccessful. Opinion as to Ihe effect of the latest United States loau appears to be divided. Some take it to lueau a revival ot business in every direction in (his country. These are, as a lule, the correspondents of the daily press. The financial journals do not take so bright a view of the trausaction, aud tho Uondoii Economist goes so farastos.ay: "At best it cau do no more tluin ali'ord a temporary respite, aud to speak of it as if it h:id inaugurated a new era of confidence and activity is utterly fallacious." TS insanity catching? Popular phases of mental derangement ■*- seem to be. Lunacy, in the form of "crazes" and " move- meUts" that sweej) over the country periodically, has an epi¬ demic character like small-pox or typhoid fever. Tho latest mentiil contagion i-i the three-cent railroad fare idea. Wc don't know where it tirst started—perhaps it is to be traced to the Populist bacillus of the far West—but certainly it has propo- gated with marked celerity; and,uo-w, points so widely separated as Chica.go, Philadelphia and New York City are suffering badly from it. It has cast a mimber of good people who, in an ordi¬ nary state of health, are neither Populists nor AnarehistK, Pirates uor Couliscatoi.", into a condition of mind so unsound that they rave for demagogic legislation which cauuot but result inasciioits i-etarda(ion of i-ajiid transit development. Here iu New York Cily, for instance, we have been on our knees for years praying capital to forsake other channels of investment— and those chaunrls are uumeroiis—to extend tho elevated roads, byild underground lines, improve the surface systems of trans- poi'tatinn, so that we may move in comfort and decency between our homes and our business places, etc. Our prayers h.ave not yet been " heard"; nevertheless here we are crying for a " three- cent fare'' iipp.'ireutly with tho intent, to "encourage" capital to forsake the iinmok'sted lines of iuveatinent and supply our needs. If this isn't crazincss, what is 'I And, after the three- cent faie, what next ! One-cent lares, uo doubt, and (hen con- liscatiou. The rankest Populist fiom Kansas or the Anarchist "down" ou wealth fur the benefit of mankind, is entirel.y with us iu such schemes. 'Ihey are right out of his book. He would luefer, perhaps, to give the principle involved a wider range of .•ippliciifion, S'l that its operafion would bear upon all forms of investment, upon the business of bankers, manufacturers, tradesmen, but (haulc heaven theie is plenty of time before us, and when the railroads aro done with, we can deal with the "otheis," eveu with ourselves, as the Revolutionists did in Fr.iucu a hundred years a;:o, when real aristocrats became scarce aud the guillotine was supplied from the "people." Our policy has almost b'.>come this : wherever you sec wealth or auy accuiuulatioii duo to industr.y, economy, prudence, strike it. Yet we deplore the, timidity of capital, lack of enterprise, bad times, and lament that people are chary in investing their savings in buildings, iu uew factories, new lailroads .and oth'^i enter¬ prises which put money in ciiculatiou nud give work to our increasing millions! Capital uudoubtedly h.is its duties, but also it has its riglits; and, too frefiuently, in popular insistence upon the former, the latter is outrageously trampled on. It will go bard with the countiy if the common-sense of plain people, ^vho are neither fools nor knaves, does not oppose out-and- out jiiracies like this three-cent fare proposition. The " Door¬ man'' whine which accompanies the scheme is pure blathers- ki(e. What tbe poor-man wants in this city is not so much cheaper fares, as better service, quicker transit, so that he needn't stew in his own broth in congested tenement districts, unless he prefers that particular species of simmering. If we could dis¬ perse our population somewhat, we wouldu't have the sickening slums wc are inflictid with, which competent observers liken to the nastiest pans of (Jonstantinoplc ; and there would be less need for sentimental Tenement House Commissions aud extrav¬ agant regulations lor the housing of people—regulations as to V,all-paper aud hall-transoms aud similar detiils. Our trans¬ portation, however, cannot be improved without the aid of cap¬ ital, aud capital will not assist us in the f.ice of coufiscafory laws and in the dreadof popular .animosity and crazy legislation. People who ache to be carried ten miles iu well lit, speedy trains for a cent must build their own lines—uutil all busiuess become liure philanthropy. THE City Club bill to limit the heights of buildiug iu New York City, as iutiodiiced into the Legislature, varies some¬ what from the tentative measure which was put forward a few weeks ago to testprofessioualniiiuion upon the main proposition, that heretifter the tup floor of a buildiug should uot be higher than filteen times the square root of th(^ width of the street ou which it stands. It is piojioscd to allow a uumber of exceptions ' For instance, where a buildiug is sit back from (he street line, tlie height of the building may be carried beyond the geneial limit to twice the dislauce it is set back. Where the buildiug faces a public siiuare, or a thoroughfare more than a huudred feet wide, or is at the end of a street sixi.y feet wide, there is no r.-stiict'on upon height, except that the])lansiu this respect must have the approval of the heads of the Liuilding and Health De- partmeiits aud a member of the (Jo iiu-il of the Fiue Arts Federa'iou, to be appointed from its meuibership for such pur¬ pose, giveu iu the form of a certificate to be tiled with the plau8