Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 64, no. 1641: August 26, 1899

Text version:

August 26,1899. RECORD AND GUTDE. 305 .>«• Btâiitottjuà)lHEitESorGEHEflM> I^TOt^lc PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published every lalurday. TSLBFHOKE, CORTLANDT 137». Ccmmunlcatlons should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 2. IjINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the Fost-0$ice at Neu> York, N. S., as aee»nd-elagg ma'.ier." Vol. LXIV. AUGUST 26, 1899. No. 1.641. NOTHING could illustrate better the confident temper of the buying publie, to whieh we hâve previously pointed as the bacls of the strength of the stock marlcet, than the movements of Brooklyn Rapid Transit this week, This stock has been de¬ pressed since it made its great jump to 137 prior to the death of the late Governor Flower, and bears on ît evidently thought they had another excellent opportunity to malte a eampaign, against ît on the issue of the aunuai report. They, however, as a conséquence of overlooking the changed tone of buyers, hâve made another mistake. It is certainly remarkable that any one will pay a premium for a stock on which no dividend has ever been paid and whose prospects for dividends bave yet to appear. So far Brooklyn Rapid Transit has only appeared equal to the pecuniary responsibilities incurred in the création of the system. It now stands to benefit by any réduction that can be effected în the cost of opération and in the increase of travel along îts lines. From thèse points buyers are evidently willing to make very generous déductions, under tbe impression that the success o£ surface railroading in Manhattan will be repeated in BTOoklyn, Thèse views are not unreasonable, but the extent to whieh buyers of the stock are wiliing to discount them is phénoménal, and would not bave been possible a few yeara ago. Similar considéra¬ tions explain the bîgb prices paid for other securities and the expectations of advanees in still others. Such a market is only attainable in a period of pecuniary ease, or, indeed, affluence as well ils of entire confidence in a long future. It is pointed out by those wbo do not share tbe gênerai optimism of the times that there is a period to all things, and an end will come to the good times we are now enjoyiug. This is quite true. No con¬ ditions are permanent, but every turn of prosperity puts the older enterprises on a better plane of security, to secure the advant¬ ages of vi'hich investors are willing to put up their money and take moderate returns. FOREIGN affairs appear just now to consist almost entirely of the Dreyfus trial and the Transvaal dispute, each of which, while containing most dangerous éléments, is, so far aa can be judged from thîs distance, working itself out to a satis¬ factory conclusion. Neither bas' injuriousiy affected business much so f£ir. Prices on the Paris bourse hâve not declined more than at other centres of stock trading, notwithstanding popular outbreaks and gênerai exeitement. Among items of interest to business men in France is one calling attention to the fact that the Franco-American treaty of commerce, sign«d Juiy 24th, ap¬ plies only to France and Algeria; no réductions are made on American importations into Tunis, Indo-Cbina, Madagascar or other French colonies or protectorates. Doubtless business in¬ terests in South Afriea feel the uncertainty of the political situa¬ tion, but it has not yet shown itself in the reports from the min- ing régions. The returns of gold production in the Rand in July were the largest ever made for one month. For seven months the aggregate was 3,042,239 ozs., an increase over the correspond¬ ing period of last year of 721,333 ozs., or 31%. Berlin still feels the scareity of money accompanied by undimlnisbed activity in the main industries, and a conséquent appréciation of bank and industrial shares. In Britain elation is expressed over the sat¬ isfactory foreign trade returns of July, which display a revival in both imports and exporte. The half-yeariy returns of the Metropolitan joint-stock banks reveal a satisfactory increase in business during this year, and increased distribution of proflts. For the gratification of those who love large flgures, and to in¬ dicate the extent of the London banking business, it may be stated that 17 banks included iD' the returns, 10 of which, It should be explained, bave country branches, had on June 3ûth deposits aggregating £369,696,900; a paid-up capital and reserve of £41,320,000. Their resources were distributed under the fol¬ lowing heads, and in the proportions stated: Cash, 12,2%; money at eall, 12.5%; investments, 20%; discounts and advanees, 54.1%; and premises, etc., 1.2%. The railroad returns for the same half- year, but for England at large, and not including Scottish and Irish lines. except such as are operated by English companies, show an,increase in gross earnings of £2,228,845, of which £1,- 516,239, or 68%, was absorbed in working expeuses, leaving £712,- 609 to swell the balance of net revenues. Little has been heard nf the Manchester ship canal for a good while. It is, however, making financial progress. For the half-year ended June 30thi both gross and net revenues expanded somewhat. Some nat¬ ural euriosity exists regarding the manner in which the Indian Government is to acquire a gold reserve in order to carry out its plans. It appears that Southern India produces about £1,500,- 000 of gold, which, now all exported to London, is to be iîiter- cepted under an arrangement by which tbe government is to exchange rupees for it. In this way the government hopes to accumulate a store of gold without interfering with or drawing upon the stock heid in London. The différence between drawing on a stock and intercepting supplies to it is only one of means which will not alter results. Late reports of India crop con¬ ditions limit scareity or failure to a few provinces. The Russian news is bad; the great failure just reported may be taken as a resuit inévitable to continuous agricultural disaster. Australian news is good, so that the colonies seem at last to bave recovered from the disasters which started the 'cycle of panics that ended with our own in 1893. A CCORDING to the rule that dangerous cases require heroic ■**■ treatment. the public wili offer no objection to the exécu¬ tion of any fairly reasonable plan for countering the obstinacy of the Municipal Assembly in the matter of street paving and r-^pairing. If something is not done, and done soon, the probable condition of the streets throughout Greater New York in the com¬ ing winter is not pleasant to contemplate. Not only hâve the Municipal Assembly failed for months to act upon the schedule of new paving laid out by the Commissioner of Highways, and approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, but the Commissioner has also failed, in spite of urgent entreaty, to ob¬ tain approval of the appropriation for making necessary repaire, The repair guarantees on more than two hundred streets, dis¬ tributed Miroughout the greater city. under whieh the asphalt carriageways bave been kept in condition by the companies by whom the pavements were laid, expired last Thursday, and Com¬ missioner Keating, of the Department of Highways, has asked Corporation Counsel Wbalen whether he can make contracts for repairs without the consent of the Municipal Assembly, If no authority can be chtained, outside the Municipal Assembly. and that body refuses to act when it reconvenes on the 6th proxixQO, the asphalted streets must go unatteuded until the Législature can suply a remedy for aldermanic obduracy. This is a most un- happy state of affairs, not only because it predicts the ruin of the' System of paving by which the city, and particularly Manhattan, was so greatly improved prior to the iniquitous commission of consolidation, and an incalculable amount of inconvenience and loss of business by obstructed traffic in the coming winter, but also because it dégrades the Municipal Assembly in the eyes of the people. It is obvious that a system of municipal government that makes possible a state of things that so directiy inconvenience the municipality and involve it in large unnecessary expenses cannot be permitted to continue. If the medley of boards, depart¬ ments and législative bodies created by the charter and pro¬ nounced at the time a trlumph of construetive genius in the making of municipal government machinery, cannot find the remedy among themselves, the state Législature will inevi- tably bave to intervene. THE résignation of George B, Post of the office of représenta¬ tive of the New York Chapter of the American Institut» of Architects. on the Board of Examiners, bas been announced. Mr. Post was eleeted some years ago to succeed Napol-eon Le Brun, who lesigned after serving on the board from the time of itK création. During Mr. Post's term of office he has, naturaily, pioved a valuabie member of the board, and his retirement, therefore, is regarded with regret by its other members. Mr. Post gives as his reason for retiring the pressure of his private business, and, although one of the evening papers most antago- nistic toward the administration, chooses to contradict him and to déclare that certain notorious disputes over construetive and architectural features of municipal buildings forced Mr. Post out, WP are willing to accept Mr, Post's own explanatlon of his re- tiiement from the Board of Examiners. We are more willing to do this because we know, as the evening journal referred to apparently does not, that Mr. Post's position on tbe Board of Examiners, which is purely a board of référence and appeal In