Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 57, no. 1475: June 20, 1896

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Junii 20, 1896 Record and Guide. 1055 S - y '^ ESTABLISHED-^I^CHi- ____ DpAteD io REA,LESTAlT,BulLOI^fG AR.CrflTECTJI\E,HoDSE«01DDE(3Cli^TK»J^ Bi/sii/Ess Alto Themes of GEjta\&L 1Ntei\,es'i. PRICE, PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. I'nblished every Salnrday. TELEPnoNE, ------ Cortlandt 1370 Communications .should be addressed to C, W, SWEET, 14-10 Vesey Street. J, T. LINDSET, Business Alanagcr. •Entered al the Post2officc at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.' Vol. LVII. JUNE 20, 1890. No. 1,475 7^,^. Kbcord AND Guidb will furnish you with daily detailed reports of all bmlding operations, compiled to suit your husiness specifically, foi 5""'* « "dl/- You are thus kept informed of the entire mark'ct for your goods. Ao guesswork. Every .fact verified. Abundnnt cafiital and the thirty years' experience of Thk K'kciikd and Guidi:'/»<()-rt«/(r the com- ■pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send to 14 ««(( ItJ I'esei/ street for information. WITH SUPPLEMENT. "XTOW the Kepiiblicin platform has been tirawn and the candi- -^^ date named to carry it through tlio campaign, it is only i'ea8on.ablc to expect that bibsiness will improve and prices advance. The platform is very much better thau the ma,jority of people expected a couple of weeks ago. Putting aside the pyrotechnics about Cuban freedom, foreign policy and the Mon¬ roe doctrine, wliich were inevitable iu auy political programme, aud which will doubtless be duplicated in Chicago next month becciuse they are as natural cor.comitautsof a political campaign as the buttons, bunting and other forms of buncombe charac¬ teristic of party struggles, the platform ia a very reasonable one. The currency plauk is perfecUy satisfactory to the friends of really sound money; that is, the money of the whole civilized world, while the taiitt' plank surprises by its moderation. Taking it for granted that the Republican ticket will be elected next November, and it being a certainty that there will be a deflciency of leveuue to provide for wheu it comes into power, it is in accord with the policy of th.at party that this deficieucy should be provided for by an increase iu the tariff on imported goods, which come most iuto competition with similar articles manufactured iu this country. In announc¬ ing this iiolicy the convention has done so with commeudable moderation, and this, as much as the gold plank, ought to inspire contidence among business meu who have feared that a chauge of administration would mean a revolution iu trade, e.s)>ecially iu view of the fact that whichever party m.ay come into power there must be a rearrangement of the taritt' in order to meet the necessities of the Trea.sury. These facts will have due weight as they penetrate the minds of our people, but we must not expect too much at once. The silver issue still has power to daunt the timid ; nothiug but an overwhelming declaration at the polls in favor of gold will remove the fears of these, .and it will pre bably be fortunate if the Democratic convention declares for free silver, so that the gold advocates will not be divided by their party convictions as they may be if both platforms declare for gold. In that eveut an independent candidate uniliugthe .silver forces would make a better tight in the campaign, though in any eveut it is uot likely that he could wiu. However, it is because this tight has yet to be made that hesitation in business continues apparent. Wall Street has been disappointed of the foreign buyiug which it expected would follow the adoption of the gold plank. This is because it expected too much. A precedent conditiou of foreigu buying is that it should get its example from this siile. Tho people in WaU Street are very like those who practice charity at the expen.se of others. It is easy to be generous iu this case. If we want to induce foreigners to buy our securities, we must lirst show contidence iu them ourselves. The platform and pros¬ pects of the Republican party are calculated to create the feel¬ ing necessary to such a movement. TDOURSE business iu Europe is picking up again. This -*-' renewed activity is doubtless due in large part to the industrial movement that has been going on for some time. It is helped .also by the improved political outlook, and, doubtless, the bettered prospects for souud money iu the United States contribute a part of the power that moves prices. The condi¬ tion of the Uuited States has beeu and is uudoubtedly a drag upou the world's commerce, because it is impossible that it can be -wholly satisfactory while such a great nation finds tho uses for its energies and wealth restricted because it cannot finally put an end to dangers that have perplexed it for years past. However, Europe seems uow to regard our political and cur¬ rency conditions with satisfaction, and if it is true that lookers- ou see most of the game, this ought also to be comforting to the Americau busiuess community. As an indication of the satis¬ factory nature of busiuess .abroad, it may be mentioned that the capital applications in Great Britain for the first tive months of this year were unprecedentedly large. They are etiual to the totals for the whole of the followiug years named to this extent: 1895, six-tenths; 1894, two-thirds; 1893, one-fifth more than the whole ; 1892, three-fourths, and 1891, about ninety- five per cent. Much of this increase is due to the capitalization of industrials, and the market is even now being prepared for the subscription to the stock predicated upon the most famous brewery iu the world, Barclay & Perkius', and which is to be capitalized for $22,500,000. The release of the leaders of the Johannesburg reform committee has turned speculative atten¬ tion back to South African gold mines, and this has helped the Paris as well as the London market. Berlin is arranging for the issue of a uumber of small loans for some of the States of the German Empire aud, besides, for the stock of the German Trans¬ oceanic Bank and a number of industrial corporations. The iron aud coal statistics of Germany make also an evidence of the renewal of business activity, both showing large increases iu production and export for the current year. T5Y deciding to carry the New York approach of the New -'-' East River Bridge to Clinton street, instead of making the curve from Delauey street to Grand street at Pitt street to con¬ nect with Division street and East Broadway, we canuot but think that the Bridge Commission has exceeded its'powers. It is true they are the judges of where the approaches shoiUd come, but only within certaiu lines. It was obviously the intention of Chapter 789, laws of 1895, which provides for the building of the bridge, that the approach should be aloug Grand street. All the discussion had previous to the passage of the act pointed to that conclusion, as does al.so the language of the act itself, which locates the western end.of the bridge proper, "at or near the foot of Grand street." A terse and not improper criticism of the approaches as now located isthat they tend to build up Broad¬ way, Brooklyn, at the expense of Grand street, New York. In carrying the approach to Cliuton street, the Commissioners have practically decided that New York City shall undertake a very costly street improvement, 5vhich it may or may not care to do, and which it certainly will not be able to do for a good many years to come. The geueral impression, and the reasonable one, was that the best use of existing thoroughfares would be made for approaches. It was certainly never intended to utterly de¬ stroy the business future of lower Grand street, or to give the Commission powers belonging only to the Legislature and never exerted except on local request, to compel New York City to enter on a scheme of street improvements involviu" a cost greater than that estimated for the bridge itself. It is suggestetl that Delaney street can be widened to a width of 140 feet from the western end of the approach to the Bowery, but this will not give a more satisfactory entrance to the bridge than Grand street antl the other streets converging at Pitt street would do and, with the plaza between Clinton and Norfolk streets, will add auywhere from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 more to the cost of the bridge than the shorter approach would do. To be entirely satisfactory the selected approach wUl have to have the feeding thoroughfares from north and south, and these mean the expenditure of more money than the condition of the city's finances will permit for twenty years to come. Meantime the efficiency of the bridge as a communication be¬ tween the two cities -will be seriously impaired. The action of the Commission, besides being au arrogation of powers that do uot belong to them, is not in line with their duty to provide the quickest as well as the best addition to the transpontine facili¬ ties, with due regard to the economy that ought always to con¬ trol such works. The position of New York is admirably set out in the remarks of oue of the commission given in another column and which we commend to the atteutiou of the tax¬ payers of this city who have failed to make themselves acquainted with what hatj been going on, so that their silence has beeu taken for consent, but who will hereafter have to pay the piper. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------•-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------■ XT/'HAT a fondness trade disputants have for stroug lan- V T guage! This gives an aspect of fierceness to business disputes that ought not really belong to them. The man who in any of these troubles is calling another his foe or his enemy, must know very well that in a little while he will be calling him his friend aud submitting estimates for his work. In the mean¬ time, however, the use of immoderate language has created a heat out of all proportion to the importance of the matter in contention. There is no more reason why the words " foe " and " enemy " should be used in these matters, or the sword used as a figurative descriptiou of the feelings iu trade disputes than in those little spats that are a part of domestic life. Any man