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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 68, no. 1760: December 7, 1901

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December 7, 1901. RECORD AND GUIDE. •7^7 mm ^ ESTABUSHED"-^i*JWpHafi^lB6a. Dr/oTd) TO Real Estate . BuiLdij/o A,Ra{rrEeTJREi{ousErioiD Deqoeij™!!. BusirJE-ss Alb Themes op GE[tR^. IjfiERPT- PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Published eVert) Saturday Communications should be addressed lo C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Slreet, New York /, T. LINDSET, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at the Post Offi'-e at New Toric, N. ¥., as second-class m.ntler." No. 1760. Vol. LXVIII. DECEMBER.?, 1901. ■^ -yr T'ALL STREET took a very favorable view of the Presi- VV dent's message, and also of Secretary Gage's report, but the stocks that ought logically to have benefited most by their contents, the Industrials, failed most lamentably to re¬ spond. It seems to have become the settled view of buyers that an Industrial must not be bought except upon an eight to ten per cent, basis, but that there is no niinimum of return for railroad issues. This is an erroneous view, but it influences the average buyer nevertheless, and explains some anomalies in current quotations. As to LUe stock market of this week, that was characterized by the same realizing tactics as were apparent last week, and the buyers who are assisting the big men to unload will be repenting soon. They probably think that the past history of the railroads and their future prospects justify much iiigher quotations, forgetting that Wall Street more than discounts everything a long way ahead. However, that thoroughfare is a school that is always receiving and dismissing scholars, and it is never possible to endow the newcomer with the wisdom of the one that is going away. EXCEPT that they have been the feature of the European re¬ ports for so long a time, the depressing statistics of trade and labor that are now finding currency, ought to Indicate that the limit of depression has been, or is about to be reached, It is significant of a probable bettering of conditions that less Is heard of the pinch In money and, while a week or two must pass before this is actually known and rates are maintained at high points, there is a promise that the present emergency will pass without much further trouble and that the opening of the year will find thp great commercial nations facing the future with renewed courage. Some encouragement comes al¬ ready from the opposition the German TariS bill is meeting In the Reichstag. The United States and its competing ability continue to hold a front rank among public questions, as will be seen by the following incident: Among the petitions ad¬ dressed to the French Senate and referred to a Committee, was one by M. Francis Laur, a mining engineer, and former Deputy, concerning the U. S. Steel Trust and the effects it may have on French industry. He remarked that France was menaced by the trust, as well as England and Germany, and suggested as a means of defence a modification of the customs duties, fol¬ lowing the example of Russia. He stated that there was a flagrant inconformity between the French and American tariffs. For machine tools the French duties are 35f. per cwt. for ma¬ chines of a weight not exceeding five cwts.; lOf. for machines from five cwts. to one ton, and 7f. 50c. for those of over a ton while such machine tools and other metal goods are charged 45 per cent, ad valorem in the United States. The committee to which the petition was referred have reported that the com¬ plaint is well founded, and propose to refer the petition to the President of the Council, to be submitted to the Minister of Commerce for him to consider by what means the French me¬ tallic industry may be defended. ENGINEER MARTIN, of the Brooklyn Bridge, in his report on the plan of the experts for improvements in the Man¬ hattan terminal, has abandoned part of it and kept the_ rest He has abandoned the Park Row and Vesey street road and has been wisely advised in so doing, for, whatever Its value (and it would be great), public opinion would not permit an elevated structure on Park Row across Broadway. He has, however, kept the Centre street approach with connections, to ;the new East River Bridge, and when it is completed. Bridge No. 3, at Canal street. That this approach .would do some¬ thing to relieve the intolerable and dangerous -condition of the -Manhattan terminal, is obviQ.us; and it wpuld 'have tiie addi¬ tional advantage of providing the new East River Bridge with a City Hall connection, and so of increasing its use to the pub¬ lic. Yet the objections urged against any such plan are weighty, and should receive careful consideration. There is a well- founded dislike to any extension of the elevated roads in Manhattan; and the objection would have, in this instance, peculiar force, because the building of the new Hall of Records, and the destrutStion of the old structures in City Hall Park of¬ fer an opportunity of making a spacious and appropriate pub¬ lic square at this great center of present and future inter¬ borough .traffic; and, obviously, an elevated road through this square would forever make it an ugly and gloomy place. Prob¬ ably this objection should not count, in case the proposed ap¬ proach really and permanently relieved the crush at the ter¬ minal; but it is at bottom only a makeshift. Nothing can per¬ manently relieve the pressure of traffic on the existing bridge, except the completion of new bridges and tunnels. If the pro¬ posed approach is only a makeshift it is a pity to sacrifice per¬ manently the appearance of one of the most important squares to the city to attain a merely temporary object. There must be some way of attaining that object for the time being without the construction of such an elevated approach. The opposition which takes its stand on these lines cannot be lightly ignored; and the Board of Estimate, before it consents to the proposed Centre street road, should be well assured that no other less objectionable makeshift cannot be devised. EVIDENCES continue to accumulate that the present Con¬ gress at least is not likely to do anything in the matter of reciprocity. It is announced that the treaties negotiated un¬ der the Dingley Law are finally dead, beyond all hope of resur¬ rection. The reciprocity convention in Washington could agree only upon resolutions, which were a flat denial of the principle of international trade, upon which alone reciprocity can have any meaning. Even President Roosevelt, in his message, prac¬ tically dodged the issue. Assertions to the effect that reciprocity is the handmaid of protection are meaningless, when protection¬ ists object to any reciprocal treaties with foreign countries^ which abate one small fraction of the exclusive protection which American industries now enjoy. It is apparent, that is, that the interests which made the present tariff and profit from it have not yet come to see the necessity of sacrificing in some measure the exclusive control of the domestic markets for the sake of preserving and extending the foreign markets. They want to keep everything and give nothing, and the result can only be in time the practical exclusion of this country from Continental Europe. The fight during the present session is likely to turn particularly upon the proposed reciprocity con¬ vention with Cuba, for it is in this direction only that the ad¬ ministration is committed to definite measures. At present the opponents of any tariff concessions to Cuba or the Pbilippines appear to hold the strongest hand; but the game is exceedingly interesting, because it brings into clear relief the larger and more national considerations of policy, which for the first time in the history of tbe country have become plainly and unavoid¬ ably relevant. It is urged that in this matter the United States is bound to consider not merely their own interests, but the welfare of the Cubans and Filipinos, ou the penalty, in case the well-being of those islands is ignored, of being obliged to face continual restlessnesss and political commotion. It remains to be seen whether sueh unfamiliar reasoning will possess any weight with rigidly protectionist Congressmen; but the mere fact that the policy of the country must hereafter be influenced by something besides a combination of private and special in¬ terests, is a most important and salutary fact. ANEW, or an amended suggestion is made for increasing the funds available for city improvements. This by Comptroller-elect Grout, who thinks that the proposal of Comp¬ troller Coler, to release from the debt limit bonds issued for self-sustaining works, would open up an era of extravagance by giving the city too large a new borrowing power at once. He thinks it would be better to capitalize the income of these improvements at 4% under supervision of the State Auditor; then allow the city to expend only 10% of such new capital in any one year, and only 60% in all. By this homcepathic proc¬ ess he hopes to see latent ejctravagance prevented. The im¬ portance of Mr. Grout's remarks is not so much in the sugges¬ tion contained in them, as in the implied admission that some¬ thing ought to be done to better enfund the city, if we may use the term. His amendment raises all the objections raised by the original proposition, with another added, that the inter¬ ference of a State functionary, controlling in so important a matter, would tmly increase that State control of local affairs of which C!i^nj.ijj3i,n,t IjHa- aiJ'eady been so loudj, a^nd which ihe