Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 60, no. 1542: October 2, 1897

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October 2, 1S97. Record andL'Guide ___.4^^1111. ^ ESTABUSHEB^ WWPH SIU^ 1858. DE^TEÛIoR^LE'ÎTAJĨ.BiJlLDlKGXRCJÍlTEirmi^E.HcfUSEIÍomDEGCĨIlATWíí, BJsiiÍESs aiídThemes of GĩK^L !;JiĩJt,Esi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. I'iibtisliĸd cvery fíalnrday. TEl.SPHONa, . . - - CORTLANli-r 1370. Communlcatlons sbould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 7, LINDSEY. Biis'iiiesa Mavager. "Entered at tlie rost-Oíficc at A'cra Yorlt, N. Y., as second-class nĸiller." VOL. LX. OCrOBEK 2. 18^7 NO. 1,54'2 LIQUIDATION lias fairly set in ou the Stock Marliet, and tbe cireumstances of tlie times eucoui-age tlie belief that we will se^ cousitlerably lower priees before a new upward movement of large proportious cau be orgaiiized. It is not only that the public mind is coutinuíilly dĩsquieted by the guesses of the foreign uewspaper correspoudents as to the doings of our representatives abroad and the foreigu policy of the adminis- tratiou, but at home there is the outbreaii of yeHow fever, which canuot but seriously embarrass business in a wide area, to be reclioned with. What is most immediately threatening to prices, however, is the fact that the declines of the past two weelis have removed the impressioii, tbat previously had only too strougly filled the minds of the public, that It was only nec- essary to buy iu order to malíe a quicli profit. Buyers now hesitate, aud, as the possibility of lower prices increases, those who are carrying stoclis and ean still figure profits from quota- tions will be inereasingly eager to sceure them before they dis- appear entirely. It does uot avail much that leaders in tlie late acivance protest that they have not sold stoclis but contiuue to buy. lu fact these protests ouly raise a doubt of their right to leadership; because if they did uot sell out at tbe top they showed pretty poor judgment. It is easy to uuderstand that they may not have beeu able to close up their operations as completely as tbey would have liked to have done and bave still some stocks to sell, hence their endeavors to keep the mar- ket as strong as possible aud their buliish addresses through the news agencies. The esteut of the advance and the character of so many of the issues that were conspicuous in it make auy reaetiou yet seen inadequate to form a base upon which a new movement can be reared. The people who hold the so-ealled "cats aud dogs" must kuow that their only chanee of making money out of them is through speculative movements like tbe oue they have just assisted, and as they come to sec that they have uothing better to espect for some time they wil! avail themseîves of whatever remains to them, or be shut out by the mechanical operatíoũ of the only too seduetive margin system of trading. By tbis time the buyiug fever so prevalent tbis summer wiU be íhoroughly broken and a new movement more judicious and discrirainatiug wiîl then be begun. Without doubt there are some issues that ought to sell higher than tbey do, be- cause of their earuiugs, but for the present these wiU have to suffer with those that not only ought not to sell higher but onght to sell lower; but in the eud earuiugs and divideud prospeets Qiust have theĩr proper inauenee and give the whole situation a healthier aud stroii^'er lone. Just uow it resolves itself into an over-bought mari:! i aud a varied inability to finance, small as well as large operntions. îourths of the population of the world Is carried on In that metal. Both finauce and trade abroad are dull. The demand for money and the consequeut hardeniug of rafes appear to have unsettled things somewbat, though the dullaess at bottom is a contiuuation of the reactîon from the activity eujoyed from the opeuiug of 1894 uutil last year. Trade returns for ISOtî show a shrinliage of busiuess, not ouly in Europe but also in Aus- tralasia and South America, while tbe couditious iu the East cannot be satisfactory under the malign iuflueuces of war, fam- ine and pestileuee. Political considerations iu Germauy are creating anxious thought, esiDeeially iu view of the expectatloa of a confiiet iu the next session of the Reicbstag betweeu the representatives of the people and the offieiaĩs, with the Em- yeror at their head. The peculiarities of thé latter are at length making au impression below Teutonic pblegm aud good nature. What were once excused as the veuial errors of a youug man ealled to a trying positiou are now seeu to be coustitutional de- feets of the man.aud their prospeetive continuance cannot be re- garded wîtb indiffereuce. The expensive and useless martial shows in wbich thîs imperial parvenu indulges may be borne without outspokeu complaiut, even if they are disapproved, but a clear-sigbted, clever justice-loving people cauuot see with in- dilĩereiice the vigorous enforcement of absurd laws against lese majeste, by whcli respectable, and even eminent people are given the punishmeut of depraved erimiuals for a hastily spoken word. The lines drawu, too, betweeu the military aud civil classes ío the ûisadvautage of the latter tend also to produce iudiguatiou and probable eouĩĩiet. T^ UROPB continues to concern itself with the silver propo- -^ sition. Opposition to action by the Eaũk of England or f ree coinage by Franee grows. M. Leroy Beaulieu predicts the woefullest results to Frauce ou tbe opeuing of her mints to free coiuage of silver, and other writers on both sides of tbe Channel eudorse bis sentiment. But these economists appear like ner- rous rceruits to be discharging their guns prematurely, aud in the face of an imagiued enemy only. They do not know what the proposals of íhe Americau aud Freuch ageuts are, or what view the Priíish govcrniiieut will take of them. As both will come out shortly, it would be as well if they exereised a little patience before discusaing theni. Free eoiuage by Frauce aud the Uuited States is all bosh, neither the French Chambers nor Congress could be iuduced to coiiscut to it; but able represen- tatives of the great commereiaĩ uatious ought to be able to de- vise somcthjng between tbe extravagance of tbe silverite and the bigotry of tbe goldite tĩiat would give to silver a stabler position than it now oecupies. Auyway, it is worth while to make tbe attempt, seeing that tbe busĩness of probably three- A CEMENT COMBINATION. T~N URING tbe past two or íhree years tbe cement trade has -^-^ been at times more or less interesíed iu rumors which iiave beeu iu cireulation relative to the formation of an asso- ciation of tbe mauufacturers of Rosendale Cement for the pro- teetion of theîr interest. Tbese rumors have been somewhat more general the past season than has previously been tbe case, aud developmeuts lately indicate that the proposition is be- ing more seriously eonsidered by manufacturers than at any time previous. For tlie past few years the output of Rosendale cemeut bas been steadily increasing; tĩie productiou in the Rosendale dis- tricts for tbe year 1S96 being 3,42G.G92 barrels, as compared wiíh 3,230,051 barrels ĩn 1895 ; and 2,GOO,G01 barrels in 1S04, and it is expeeted that the outturn for the present year wilt even exceed that of 1806. As tbe demaud has not iucreased with the same rapidity as the production there bas, naturaily, developed a very keeu competition between mauufacturers to æarket tbeir supplies with the result tbat priees have beeu gfadually forced dowuward, manufacturers complaiuing that they are now on such a low basis as to be uuremunerative. With the market in its demoralized conditiou so far as prîces are coneerned it is not surprisĩng that mauufaeturers are ans- iously lookiug around to find some way out of the difflculty, with the result that they naturally turn to the much-talked-of prop osition of formiûg a combiuation. As far as can be learDed, there are no manufacturers wbo show oppositiou to such a move, and as soou as a satisfactory scheme cau be íutroduced for the briugiug togetber of the interests of tbis trade on a sat- isfactory basis something of a practical uature will follow. It is stated that there are certain negotĩatious under way at pres- ent wiĩich may bring the decided result about, but as those In- terested are uot disposed to talk freely, as yet nothing of a definite charaeter can be learned, exeept that there is a grow- iug impressiou among those who follow the workîugs of the trade elosely that by the opening of the spriug season at least some kind of a mutual agreement will have been reached be- tween manufacturers, îf not an actual eombination formed. T Tt 7EST SIDERS who have in charge the movement to pre- J^ * vent Amsterdam avenue being turned over to the es- clusive nse of the traetiou eompanies of tbe city should fiud out wliat tbe tradcsmeu aud real estate agents on 3d avenue say are the results of a cable road, operating cars on oue miuute headway, on busĩuess and renting values. A cauvass of the opinious of these geutlemen ought to furnish valuable argu- ments against admĩtting two eompanies operaling undergrouud trollies in eompetition on auy street or aveuue. Third avenue, only a few years ago, oue of the best retaii thoroughfares of the city, in which it was a very rare thing to Gud a vacaut store, contaius now a startling number of vacaucies to whicb detailed referenee will be fouud iu another column of this issue, together with the reasons given therefor by a number of representative real estate men. In tbe latter the influeuce of thecableroad takes a prominent plaee. Admittiug this reason to be a poteut one, the question naturally arisss, if oue cable road can iojure a