Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 70, no. 1799: September 6, 1902

Text version:

September 6, 1902. RECORD AND GUIDE. 317 '^A Mi' ^y" ^ ESTABUSHED-^WUVCH215:1^1B68, DeIoi^ to RfAL EsTWE. BuiLDTf/o ApcKrrECTUKE .Household DEGOR^ri, Busiitess Ai^Themes OF GetteR^l iNTtRfS]. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE: SIX DOLLARS Vublished eVers Saturday Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14=16 Vesey Street. New YorK J. T. LINDSET. Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 'Entered at Ihp Post Office at New York. JV. Y.. as serond-claas v>a!ter." Vol. LXX. SEPTEMBER 6, 1903. THE volume of transactions in tlie stoclt market indicates a growing public interest in listed securities. This must be attributed to the confidence created by the powerful interests who have kept prices well in hand during the summer, when they are usually expected to decline. A persistence in the same line of policy foreshadows a very active and large speculation later on in the fall when money shall have become easier and there Is no danger of a squeeze. As it is, the results of the manipulation previously referred to are little short of extraordi¬ nary, and it is no wonder that people are looking around for special explanations of so remarkable a situation. It is not enough, apparently, to point to the flattering reports of railroad earnings, with all they imply, and the fact that the stocks of the railroad systems that benefit most by the sustained colossal traffic are the leaders in the movement and give tone to the whole market. Effect from cause is here easily deducible, but it is too natural, and nothing but extraordinary explanations will satisfy. To meet this peculiar condition of the public mind, an amalgamation of the great Eastern trunk lines into one grand system has been invented, and is valuable in that it has a sooth¬ ing effect, if nothing more. So far as the railroad stocks are concerned, they are backed by two important facts: A past and prospective heavy traffic and improved rates. Under these the most of them are earning big dividends which are used to put up prices of securities, the public being always willing to believe that what is will always be. The question whether tonnage and rates will be kept up sufficiently to justify the expectations of buyers at present prices is not easily answered. There will, of course, come a time when business will decline and the railroads will not have so much to do, but the recession will always leave enough that, with economical management and restricted new mileage, sufficient should be earned to maintain the regular pay¬ ment of moderate dividents upon the larger and older systems. The consolidations that have been effected in the past four or five years, and the consequent concentration of control into comparatively few bands, ought to make it possible to keep rates on a paying basis. Other issues, while dependent upon the continuation of commercial and industrial activity for their posi¬ tions in the market, have also something to expect from the consolidating process with its economizing motive. tion are being forcibly held up to view, illustrated by the results already obtained in the United States. This policy is being urged particularly upon the electric manufacturing industry, which, owing to multiplication of plants and a too plentiful paper capital, has been in a bad way for a long time. The markets In which Rand shares play an important part have been treated to cable dispatches telling in glowing terms of further gold dis¬ coveries in the Eastern Rand, The "Economist," London, says there is a "treacly mysticism" about these dispatches, and goes on to warn the public of the danger of putting too much or any faith in them by saying: "The East Rand is not a creation of to¬ day or yesterday. It had its boom like the other parts in 1895. Active prospecting has been carried on all over it for many years; reefs have been cut by the dozen and have disappeared again into the ewigkeit as mysteriously as they came. * * • • It is absurd to imagine that such a gold field situated withiu a few hours' ride of Johannesburg could have lain concealed or un¬ suspected all these years—and from such eyes, too!" The cables in question have been reproduced by the press of New York un¬ der such headlines as "Further Great Discoveries of Gold in South Africa," etc. No. 1799. ON the other side of the Atlantic, financial centres are openly expecting this side to draw on them for gold this fall. At the same time both Great Britain and France have large loans in view. The French loan will be the largest, as much as $250,- 000,000 or more, and in preparation for this Paris will be de¬ sirous of gathering rather than dispensing gold. The amount of the British loan or its terms cannot be known until Parlia¬ ment meets again for the autumn session, so that London may, meantime, be looked to to supply our wants, with Berlin stand¬ ing as a second source of supply. Of the European business- situation there is nothing new to report. German steel rail makers, builders and others are looking forward to a revival of business under the encouragement of a State policy for reform¬ ing the Prussian railroad system and extending it into districts now without steam communications. The work contemplated Includes heavy rails and equipment, new stations, etc., with faster trains. The inauguration of this work would, doubtless, be the signal for a similar reforming movement upon the rail¬ roads of the other States of the Empire, and from that a revival of the national industry would follow. It would also be the case that German manufacturers of steel and other goods would not compete so actively with our own as they do now. But that is for the future and dependent upon parliaments. For the present dullness Is supreme, and many industries are casting about for expedients to carry them over the interval. In this connection the economies that follow In the train of consolida- The Spread of the Sky-Scraper. NOTHING haa been more conspicuous about the recent ■ building movement in Manhattan than the spread of the "sky-scraper" throughout the middle regions of the Island. Buildings as high as ten stories, such as the Dakota, the Chel¬ sea and the Oshorne, were, indeed, early products of the sky¬ ward tendency of Manhattan improvements, and they were soon followed by the Majestic, the Waldorf, the Netherlands and a few similar structures. But these were isolated instances. While the financial district was becoming a solid mass of from twelve to twenty-story buildings, the skeleton construction re¬ mained a comparatively rare phenomenon in the central parts of the city. In the last few years they have suddenly become very much more numerous. On Fifth avenue alone there are now under construction six buildings of more than twelve stories in height, and there are several more, If not actually "in tbe air," at least on the boards. Two eighteen-story hotels are going up on Forty-second street, and a half a dozen almost as high could be counted on Broadway. Furthermore, if one should include nine and ten story buildings under the head of "sky-scrapers," fully forty of such structures could be enumer¬ ated without exhausting the list of those just finished, finishing or about to be started. Apparently it is only a matter of time when such avenues as Fifth and Broadway, and such streets as Thirty-fourth and Forty-second, will be lined almost continu¬ ously with buildings over ten stories in height. The values of real estate along those lines are becoming such that no other kind of improvement will pay; and what the alteration in ap¬ pearance will be may be judged from the transformation in Greeley Square which has been wrought by the erection of the Macy and the Saks stores. A natural result of the spread of the sky-scraper throughout the middle regions of the city has been an increased and In¬ creasing popular interest in this class of buildings. As long aa they were confined chiefly to lower Broadway and the financial district, they seemed to be a special class of structures, which afforded an excellent symbol of flnanelal stability and exuber¬ ance, and an impressive illustration of the stupendous achieve¬ ments of American industrial enterprise; but they affected life at only a single point, and after business hours were over men could dismiss them from thought. Now. however, they have become so numerous and widespread that they are continually in men's eyes and minds. An ever growing number of people, including the whole vast apartment hotel population, live in them. They force themselves on the attention of women who are shopping and men who are going to the theatre. Visitors from all over the country carry tales of them to the smallest cities and towns. The newspapers are full of illustrations of the newest and tallest of them. They are constantly matters of conversation at dinner tables and social gatherings. The most noticeable illustration of this aroused popular interest is the curiosity awakened by the new Fuller building at Broadway and Twenty-third street. Every circumstance combines to make this building unavoidably and flagrantly conspicuous. It occu¬ pies one of the most central and most frequented sites in the whole city. It is the only building twenty stories high north of the financial district. It stands so that It can be seen for mllea by the crowds on Broadway and Fifth avenue, and occupying, as it does, the whole block. It stands free from all surrounding buildings. A half a hundred heads may always be seen gazing up at its towering height. People, not ordinarily Interested ia building display a surprising amount of knowledge ol the wind