Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1822: February 14, 1903

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February 14, 1903. KECORD AND GUIDE 289 DwtTti) TO RPA.L Estate . SuiLOTflG Afitcjfitecture .KouseHoui Dego^midiI. .Business AlioThehes of GEtiER^ iKnj^sp PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Published eVers) Saturday Communications should be addreaaed to C. W. SWEET, !4-16 Vesey Street, New YorH I, T, I,INDSEY, Business Manager Tolophone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al the Post O.Sice at 2^ew York. N. 7.. as second-class matter." Vol, LXXI. FEBRUARY 14, 1903. No. 1S22 ■ The Index to Vohrme LXX. of the Becord and Guide, cover¬ ing the period between JiiIi/1 and Deeeinber ^1, 1902, is ready for deJiver)/. Priw. $1.00, This Jiidcv in Us enlarged form is now reeoynized as indispensable tu erery one engaged or interested in real estate and bnilding operations. It covers all transaclions — deeds, mortgages, leases, anciion sales, building plans filed, etc. Orders for the Index should be sent at once io the office of publication, 14 and 10 Vesey St. T T 7 HILE Viusiiiess in the stock market is predominantly pro- V X fessional, there has been enough support from outsiders to improve tbe prospects this week. A better reeling prevails as a result of the Federal legislative prospect—especially the pros¬ pect tbat Congress must soon adjourn. It is felt that if any trust legislation is enacted it will not be detrimental to tbe busi¬ ness carried on by the great corporations aud as for any meas¬ ure of publicity likely to be carried, it cannot go beyond the desires of the financial world, whose attitude is always one of wanting to know. If this Congress passes the Aldricb bill it will help the situation, considerably. The bond market has picked up somewhat lately. The bulk of tiie transactions have been in a few issues, the new i per cents, for instance, but tliis i;^ due to tbe fact tbat tiiere is little else to buy. The dearth oE tbe most favored form of investment has compelled attention to tbe bonds and preferred stocks of tbe older Industrials, for v/hicb there has be^ inquiry and some buying. Comparatively small as tbe latter has been it has advanced prices materially and it is now becoming app;irent that tried senior industrial securities are passing away from tbe speculative into tbe invest¬ ment lists. The break in time money rates is likely to materially increase tbe investment demand, and the query "What shall I buy?" finds less response than ever. The inquiry will be more keen and the response more tardy as the supply of money in¬ creases; and, aside from tbe new issues of .standard ?'ailroad stocks, which will appear this spring, there is nothing to satisfy tbe demand outside of the tried industrials, which still sell at figures yielding a goo dinvestment return,and one that gives them a preference over the loan market in the use of money for definite periods. As to the outloolv for speculation this spring, activity is likely to be encouraged by lew money rates, and if current prices as a general thing suggest prudence, a recessionary market is hardly likely while so many important financial opera¬ tions remain to be developed as now. Nearly all the leading railroads have plans for which they require new capital and it is not usual for such applications to accompany declining values. quotations. Governments, with tbe exception of Consols, have gone up, but while that security languishes on the London Ex¬ change, the pifincipal railroad shares have made a tardy re¬ sponse to the increased dividends declared on the statements of earning for the last balf of 1902. Industrial shares are in more demand, the movement being more pronounced at Berlin than elsewhere, but, looking tbe European situation all round, tbe signs of renewed vitality in business are increasing. Great Britain's foreign trade reports for January show an excess of ex¬ ports over imports, so that we shall not hear so much of the self- consuming process of the country's capital as we did a week ago; final figures for the January output of the Rand reveal a small gain over the production of December, but make another post-bellum record. The figures are 199,279 ounces for last month, and 196,023 for the preceding one. Germany is making progress with her industrial reorganization, and the latent wealth of France always appears more than sufficient to make good any reverses she may sustain; just now references to in¬ discreet Russian advances have ceased. The point of anxiety is the Near East, But, if, as now seems to be tbe case, the Great Powers are acting in agreement to compel reforms in iVIacedonia, armed resistance by Turkey would have little or no unfavorable influence on tbe markets, and might stimulate them to more activity. Tbe Turk does not appear to have acted in Mace¬ donia as badly as he did in Bulgaria, when be earned the sting¬ ing degrading epithet of "unspeakable"'from Gladstone's in¬ dignant lips, but it does seem as if the time has arrived when another step has to be made to lessen if not remove the anomaly of Asiatic misrule existing in an environment of Eastern methods of government. It is a matter of the impossibility of the Mahomniedan properly governing Christians. The present movement for emphasizing this fact being initiated by Russia and Austria jointlj', and, if It has the approval of other Chris¬ tian powers, will not be open to suspicion of selfishness on the part of any one of them, so that the danger of a general conflict, which it has been said only awaited the next liovement to coerce the Turk, is apparently averted. RATES for money make London the point of attraction at the moment for European surplus funds. Whether they will induce gold shipments from this side is uncertain and doubtful. The tendency of exchange suggests it and the re¬ tention of the high—4 per cent.—discount rate, by the Banli of England, is calculated to assist it if the disposition is right, but there are gathering so many requirements for money in our midst and up to this time shipments have been so carefully avoided, that it is reasonable to conclude that none will be per¬ mitted, at least, until the important financial operations now under way have been concluded. Paris and Berlin are both in very easy circumstances now, and it is more likely that either one or the other, or both, will supply London's need for gold should any transpire in connection with the financing of the forthcoming Government loan. Between New York and Lon¬ don there is likely to be a see-saw maintaining an equilibrium: If we take any part of the new loan, London will subscribe for portions of the new issues of railroad securities about to be made here. The exchanges at the most important European points have been a little more active this week on advancing A BILL was introduced at Albany during the week, providing tbe appointment of a new Board of Transit Commission¬ ers, whose functions in general it shall be to exercise the right of control over the local transit companies, tbat the State Boar"a of Railway Commissioners has recently been trying to exercise. It is improbable that this bill has been seriously introduced, for so far as we know, the Record and Guide has been the only newspaper which has insisted upon the constitution of some effective local control; but, whether serious or not, tbe bill should never be passed in Its present form. One local Board of Transit Commissioners is enough even for the Greater New York; two such boards would only complicate a problem, every part and aspect of which is closely connected with every other part. The present Board possesses the confidence of the public, and is as luliy equippea lor the work of reforming the existing transit machinery as it is for providing new machinery. The recommendations of the State Commissioners for tbe improve¬ ment of the service of the Metropolitan company are obviously intended to be ignored and will be ignored just as far as the company dares or cares. Moreover, at best, they do no more than skim the surface of the problem, Even the State Com¬ mission, however, makes bold to recommend a subway for sur¬ face cars at 34th street and Broadway, and a suhway as in certain parts of Boston there will have to be—only it will be longer than the one just recommended. But no better illustra¬ tion could be desired of the essential unity of the whole prob¬ lem than this matter of Greeley Square, for the Rapid Transit Commissioners are now considering a rapid transit tunnel for that part of Broadway—^which tunnel, if built, should be planned v.'ith some reference to the needs of the present surface as well as the long distance traffic. THAT the country is busy and that business is prosperous as a whole, is strikingly suggested hy the returns of Jan¬ uary failures, which make the best record for ten years. The month usually makes an important contribution to these statis¬ tics, because the volume of the holiday business indicates the ability and temper of the public as buyers, and the annual reck¬ oning tbat merchants customarily make, brings to light both the prospects for trade and the capacity of those engaged in it for continuing operations. It is therefore highly satisfactory to find that the post-holiday failures were fewer this year in number than in any corresponding month for a decade, and that less was involved, with one exception, than in any of the other nine Janu- aries. Taking "Bradstreets" figures, we find that the number of failures in the United States for the last month was 1,113, with total assets of $4,572,140, and liabilities of ?10,5S0,20O. In Jan-