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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 59, no. 1526: June 12, 1897

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June 12, 1897. Record and Guide 1005 DEV&TEBlDftE^LEsTATE.BuiLOIffO ^Rj::rilTE'er, and is invaluable to architects, builders and others interested in building oper¬ ations. The new edition will bring the building laws up to date, together with the Greater New York Charter provisions, which latter take effect next January. Orders for the new publication may now be sent in to the Record and Guide, Nos. 14 and i6 Vesey Street, New York, and deliveries will be made at the earliest day practi¬ cable. EVIDENTLY the public is becoming impresseil. with the fact that we are progressing towards better times and things, aud have found courage to buy securities whose fu¬ ture depends upon our commercial fortunes. A week or two ago the commission houses were empty and their forces idle; to-day they are more active than they have been at any time since the election rise of last fall. The question now arises. What is Wall Street doing? Is it discounting the close of the tarifC discussion, and the reasonable probability of currency legislation within tbe nest year; aud also the outlook for the passage of a pooling bill, or a measure that will enable the rail¬ roads to make combinations on rates less disastrous to their business than the system that has prevailed for a long time? If this is beiug done, and there is no doubt that the rise is based upon some such reasoning, then prices have not seen their high¬ est on this move. '1 lie best information points to an early pass¬ age of the Tiir-iV l).ll, practically in tbe form in which it will leave the Senate; there is no doubt corporations ai'e in better standing with the public than they were only a year ago, and there is also no doubt that under the influence of prosperous times, currency dementia, which has been so prevalent and so mischievous, will disappear. Kvery cent's rise in the price of grain, or of iron, or of other staples, will draw people away from errors that were due to a poor state of mind, sympathiz¬ ing with an impoverished pocket. Foreigners are also begin¬ ning to wake up to a truer perception of the real ruling senti¬ ment of this country, and what is now probably only specula¬ tive buying will soon become investment buying. Such a move¬ ment would terminate gold exports very speedily and put the finishing touch to the creation of excellent prospects. WITH peace assured and the programme of the Powers for giving autonomy to Crete to be carried out after the delay the war occasioned, it is proper to conaider what will be their effects in the financial world. It will assuredly occur that Turkey, and probably Crete as well, will come into the market as borrowers in order to meet the conditions of their new cir¬ cumstances. The negotiations for peace, Involving, as they will the payment of an indemnity to Turkey, must alao embrace a consideration and readjustment of Greece's foreign indebted¬ ness, aud, while the country Is penniless and utterly without credit, it is not unlikely that an appeal to the market will be made In order to find means for the reorganization of its fi¬ nances, the new loan, if one Is floated, taking the place of old ones cancelled. The idea of an international commission to see that whatever pecuniary obligations are placed on Greece are punctually performed, or, in other words, the creation of a re¬ ceivership by the Court of the Powers, is spreading and Is being advocated by leading economists of Europe—M. Leroy Beaulieu for instance, who, in doing so, stigmatizes Greece's bankruptcy as the most cynical and shameful of the nineteenth century. We expect, too, to see Turkey the scene of some important de¬ velopments. Her navy will doubtless be reorganized as her army has been and interior provinces will it is equally prob¬ able be opened up by railroads. The Powers would doubtlesp be glad to see Armenia brought by this agency nearer the seat of government and the government thereby held to stricter ac¬ countability for the lives and property of its Christian subjects. Moreover, a Southern trans-Asian railway, which has been long debated, must be taken up soon«: or later; the times afford a good opportunity for a favorable beginning. It is out of con- tingancies, such as those created by recent events in Southeast¬ ern Europe, that progress finds its means of growth, so that it would be extraordinary, if these should not be followed by de¬ velopments not now capable of being precisely defined, but which will surely come to pass and add to the world's enlight¬ enment and prosperity. Running away from the scene of one political difficulty to another of equal bearing on the financial situation, we find the London "Economist" of May 29 predicting a financial crash in Johannesburg within thirty days from May 3, that bsing the date of the letter in which this prophecy is made. As the cable has announced no such catastrophe, it must be concluded that the correspondent was misinformed as to time at any rate. The returns of the gold output of the Rand do not support predictions of disaster, as they continue, month after month, to make better records. y^TOW that the Republicans have secured control of tariff ■^^ legislation by means of secession from the Democratic ranks, it is to be hoped that they will hurry along and enact their measure. Longer time is hardly necessary for a real consideration of the bill, as there has been from the first very little disposition to bestow upon the new schedules any delib¬ eration other than that inspired by political and commercial greed. Both parties, apparently, have thrown away all that was ever earnest in their belief iu one side or the other of pro- teetiou. Tariff making is not any longer a clash of principles, but a distribution of spoils and an opportunity for dickering. Nevertheless, as we are destined to have a new tariff, it is best that we get it quickly. The first effect is likely to be a stimu¬ lation of business, and it is not at all unlikely that the new rates will go into effect coincident with a quick pulse of trade, which will be further excited by the strengthening of the homa mar¬ liet which usually accompanies the first establishment of higher duties. The business of this country to-day Is In a mueh stronger and more wholesome state than most people imagine. It has had a long rest from speculative excitement and a very small dose of stimulant will be sufficient to set trade moving briskly again. The tariff may be this dose. IN DULL TIMES a great deal of money comes from the country to the New York banks for the sake of the inter¬ est paid ou deposits by the banks here, as well as for its safe custody. Of this fact the public is often reminded. Another fact, that country money is seeking the security and the re¬ muneration offered by New York City realty, is not so well known. But it is true, nevertheless. Brokers inform us that large amounts of what may be called "foreign" money are of¬ fered ou mortgage in this market. The information given was soraewhat indefinite and to test its accuracy we investigated our record of mortgages filed for two years past. Restricting our inquiry to large loans we found that in the year ending with last month, th.it is, from .Tune 1, 1896, to May 31, 1897, $3,252,- 500 was loaned on mortgage by out-of-town parties in sums of .$50,000 and upwards out of a total of .?206,205,717; while for a corresponding period immediately preceding, similar loans only amounted to $1,852,000, out of a total of $221,165,497, In mak¬ ing up these flgures moneys loaned by well-known New York City business men hnving residences in nearby States were ex¬ cluded from the out-of-town flgures, as were also mortgages filed by corporations, to secure bonds not wholly predicated on realty from the general totals. Tn this way our figures repre¬ sent out-of-town money and real estate loans only, Tbe larger amount of out-of-town loans In the year of the smaller general