Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 67, no. 1718: February 16, 1901

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February i6, 1901. RECORD AND GUIDE. 273 PRICE PER YEAR IX ASVAKCE SIX SOLEARS. PubUt\ed every Saturday. TELEPHONE, COSTLANDT 1370. Communications ihoutd b« jtddreBted to C. W. SWEET, 14-18 Veaey Street. /. r. LINDSEY, Business Manaser. "Entered at the Poit-Ottlce at Netc Tork, N, T.. as gecond-clasa matter." Vol. LXVH. FEBRUARY 16, 1901. No 1718. T T THILE the prospects for an amalgamation of ttie great ^ * iron and steel interests hold good, it is not reasonahle to expect any serious weakening of the stock market, let values be ever so much inflated. There are also too many evidences of industrial and commercial growth and development in the coun¬ try plain aud clear upon the surface to permit holders of long stock thinking tha,t the time has come to let go in order to buy back cheaper later on; large buying in the bond market and of investment stocks reveals a daily growth in the amount of cap¬ ital requiring investment and, finally, securities are very scarce, owing, not only to the large volume of investment purchases since last October, but also because there must be a great deal tied up in the negotiations that are going on for the rounding out of and consolidations into the great railroad and industrial systems. The attempt to work a reaction this week made stocks so quickly and easily loanable that the futility of a selling move¬ ment of large proportions was soon demonstrated. It may be that the great reaction which, the market speculatively con¬ sidered, is more than overdue will have to await the completion of the consolidating process, when the stocks that are now im¬ pounded by that work will be released to the market. By com¬ pleted we mean that a sufQcient progress has beeu made for the time being. No one can say when final completion will be ef¬ fected either in railroad or industrial consolidation. The an¬ nouncement of the union of the Cramps and Vickers Sons and Maxim Co. proves this. If the two concerns, located so far apart and operated under differing political and fiscal institutions, can be amalgamated, which cannot? If in shipbuilding and kindred work, why not in transportation? Given time, we may yet have a through line from San Fi'ancisco via either, say Hong Kong or New York to London or Paris, controlled by one corporation and represented in the mai-ket by oue stock. This last idea may be extravagant, but in the light of present events is not unrea¬ sonable. One question that is .brought nearer for discussion as a result of this latest development is not merely the pecuniary but also the political consequences that will follow the working of American and British capital for mutual benefit or along parallel lines and in the same territories. In this connection the references to the American capital now employed in Canada, which will be found in tbe next paragraph, are to be considered. EASE of money in Europe, which has become quite apparent recently, is directly traceable to the release of capital from business undertakings. The Chairman of the London and Westminster, one of the largest London banks, having many country branches, said recently that in the past half-year there had been a shifting of the bank's money from more to less re¬ munerative employment. When they came to trace this to its source they found that many of their large clients, especially in the country, had large balances to their credit, whereas six months before they had stood on the other side of the account as borrowers. The significance of this change, he said further, laid in the fact that it no doubt indicated a falling off in the de¬ mand for money to be used in industry throughout the United Kingdom. Given a general similarity of banking experience in Europe, it will account for the reduction last week of the Bank of England's rate of discount, and the appreciation in govern¬ ment bond issues. The successful flotation of new government loans also supports this view. So far as Europe is concerned, speculation will return to this class of security, now that the bloom is so completely taken off the industrial, and the Uni¬ ted States will not again for some time be called upon to meet the requirements of foreign national treasuries as was the case a short time ago. While speaking of,the overflow of American capital into other countries it is interesting to note the attention that is being given to its movement toward Canada. Up to 1896 Britain almost wholly flnanced the Dominion, but since that year, it is estimated, $100,000,000 have crossed our northern border. In one or two instances Americans have flnanced Canadian mu¬ nicipal loans; but, so far, they have not touched either Federal or provincial loans, which have continued to go to Great Britain. In industrial development Americans have lent a strong, steady helping hand. The Standard Oil Co. have acquired control of the Western Ontario oil industry; American capital mainly estab¬ lished the large steel and iron works at Sydney, Cape Breton, as well as developed the best of the Nova Scotian coal fields; Ohi- ans control the great nickel industry at Sudbury, North Ontario; Philadelphias are about to build a railroad from Sault Ste. Marie to James Bay and create iron, nickel, pulp and paper-making works; Yankees are active in the gold-mining region of Fort William, in what is called New Ontario, and are exploring the country between Lake Superior and the Height of Land; ex- Secretary of War Alger has a large pulp and paper factory at Grand Mere on the Maurice River; Bostonians have put up a large electric plant at Shawinigan Falls to supply power to a number of American-owned factories; the Great Northern rail¬ road's interests in Canada are quite large and an American com¬ pany, it is reported, is being formed to carry grain from Chicago, Duluth and Fort William to Montreal. In Canadian mining and lumbering again Americans are quite active and prominent. Finally, free or cheaper land is said to be beginning to attract farmers from the States to Manitoba, and the regions beyond. This growing participation from our side in the material growth of Canada, some claim, must lead to a change in the fiscal, if not in the political relations of the two countries; though there are others who hold that it is more probable that the former must come through the latter. ■^T" HE tunnel, which the Rapid Transit Commission proposes ■^ to build to Brooklyn is, from a rapid transit point of view, second only in importance to the trunk line along the backbone of Manhattan. A new transit route from the vicinity of the City Hall to some point near the Long Island Railroad station in Brooklyn would do more to relieve existing inconveniences, and to open up new territory for settlement than any bridge or tun¬ nel which has been proposed. The new bridge over the East River at Grand street will be a great, convenience, but it will not apply relief where it is most needed. It is only a tunnel along the present line of the greatest traffic which can do that, and such a tunnel should be built as soon as possible. It is cu¬ rious that one bridge has been completed for a great many years, and another bridge almost completed before a tunnel under the River will even be started; for tunnels are cheaper to build and can be used for heavier trains running at a higher speed. Of course bridges have a more extended usefulness in that they permit the passage of foot passengers and wagons, but the im¬ portance of providing a carriageway and footway is much less imperative than that of providing trainways. They are what ia needed above everything else, and the traffic could find full em¬ ployment, not merely for one tunnel, but for several of them. The great difficulty of the present situation is that the need in¬ creases so much faster than any practicabJe way of satisfying it, for bridges and tunnels take years to plan and years to build, and population increases apace. YERY little if any doubt need exist of the object of the Els¬ berg bill for local option in taxation. The most prom¬ inent of the speakers before the Senate and Assembly Commit¬ tees on Taxation and Retrenchment at Albany on Thursday frankly owned that it was to place all the taxation on real estate; that is to say, they anticipated that the municipaliies, if endowed with the option, would exercise it to bring that about The remarkable support the bill received from this city, which hitherto was inexplicable, seems to have beeu due in part to the fact that its true import was not sufficiently understood; because some of its lesser advocates admitted that they had no idea of this intent and would not support it if they thought the result would be that stated. The bill has apparently no chance of be¬ coming law and it is therefore not necessary to discuss it, or the circumstances of Thursday's hearing in detail. It may be as well, however, to point out that the bill embodies two principles, to each of which a strong and separate objection can be made. Local option, with the view ol throwing all burden of taxation upon real estate, has not been as favorably regarded here as it was three years ago. The enormous increase in the public re¬ quirements, brought about by the creation of Greater New York, all suddenly concentrated on real estate did much damage and showed that to avoid a similar infliction the bi-oadening of ths