Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1951: August 5, 1905

Text version:

August 5, 1905'- RECORD AND GUIDE 245 ^ -^ ESTABDSHED-^ MRBPH Bi^ 186 8. DdM to REA,rESTAIE.BUlLDlKG AR.cKrrEeTdR,E.KoUSfKOU)DECOStTKal,, Bl/SnJESS AltoTHEMES Of GEflEn^L WTER.E5T.; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Pablisfied etierg Saturday Communications should no addresBod to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telepbouo, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at the Post Office at ITew York, N. Y.. as second-class mailer.' Copyriglit by the Keal Est.ite Eecord and Bailders' Gnlde Company. Vol. LXXVL AUGUST 5, 1!;05. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS, (.\dverlisiug Section.) Page, Page, Cement .............. xxv Law ................. viii Clay Products .......... xxlv Machinery ............ v Contractors and Builders, vi Metal Work ........... xxii Fireproofing .......... il Stone ................ ssiii Granite .............. xlv Quick Job Directory. ,.. xxvii Heating .............. xi Real Estate ........... xii Iron and Steel.......... xviil Wood Products ........ xxvi — ' —.. ■■ , — EVERT week whicli passes without any serious damag:e to the crops is a substantial gain and tends to Eissure the busi¬ ness outlook for the coming year. The week now ended was a period of good news and increasing confidence; and this confi¬ dence was reflected in the movement of the stocli market. There was no considerable or uninterrupted advance; but.nearly all the alterations in prices were for the better. The most en¬ couraging aspect of the situation is provided hy tlie larger pur¬ chases of steel rails and cars by the railroad companies. It is purchases of tliis kind which are chiefly responsible for the firmer tone of the iron and steel markets, while they also indicate that the managers of the companies whose information is of the best, anticipate a much larger traffic this fall, for which provision must be made. At any rate, between the demand for steel on the part of the building industry and this demand on the part of the railroad industry, the prospects are that the steel manufacturing business will be busy throughout the remainder of the current year. And such prosperity is an indispensable con¬ dition of any further rise in the price of securities. There is not much room for higher prices in the cases of the majority of railroad stocks; but there is room for an advance in the prices of certain of the leading industrials. If any considerable bullish movement gathers force during the next few months, it will be concentrated chiefly upon these industrials who have pulled through the period of bad times in a thoroughly sound condition. voters of this county. He has not accomplished all that he started out to accomplish, and a good many of, his pre-election promises maive curious reading when compared witli his actual achievements. But such discrepancies need not trouble anyone but his enemies. They do not affect the essential facts that his ofiice has been competently managed during his incumbency, and that he constitutes a figure of unique and great importance in the public life of New York City. He is the one prominent politician who is not afraid to tell unpalatable truths. There are plenty of intelligent, competent and incorruptible men holding or seeking ofiice; but the tongues of ai! of these men are tied. Either political or personal affiliations makes it impossible for them to be candid in their public utterances; and there is no purgative dose, of whic the public of this city is more in need than that of candor. Mr. Jeroine represents the common public interest, as he understands it, both in his actions and his words. He deserves the support of all public-spirited citizens irrespec¬ tive of their party ties. The method whereby his candidacy has been announced is a sufficient indication of his independence. He does not wait until the several parties have had tiieir conventions and nominated their candidates. He announces that he will run in any event, and that the party machines can take iiim or leave him just as they please. He is sure to receive the support at least of the Citizens' Union; but he will poll a good deal more than the ordinary vote of the Union. Indeed, one of the most interesting results of his canvass will be the indication which it will afford of the really independent vote of New York County. Mr. Jerome should certainly come very much nearer to election than the olher anti-Tammany candidates. No IOTA. ABOUT the only occurrence in real estate during the past week of any importance was the lease of the former Crite¬ rion Hotei to Park & Tilford; but this lease has several different points of interest. In the first place it puts another of the small hotels of that part of Broadway out of business; and it pretty well indicates what will become of all of them. The small hotel cannot compete effectively with the big hotel, even for the trade of the Broadway crowd. The success of the Hotel Astor has cut into the business of all the other hotels and restaurants of that vicinity; and the owners of the Knickerbocker are spending a good deal more money than they originally in¬ tended in the flnish of their building, so as to make it attractive enough for its location. The consequence will be that the other small hotels, which were built iu this vicinity fifteen years or more ago, will be forced out and their sites will in the course of time be occupied by business buildings of some kind. The leasing of the Criterion Hotel by Parlt & Tilford implies, of course, that they have abandoned their designs upon the Tabernacle property on Greeley Square. Even if such is the case, however, there is certainly room for a large retail grocery store on or near that square, because such a shop could do a large business with the residents of Long Island and New Jersey, which will within the next few years be landed in tliose parts by the several railroad com¬ panies. Apart from this lease, the business has been confined to the usual trading in fiats and tenements. As to the state of local building, that is rapidly getting into the condition by which it was characterized in the spring of 1902. People are complaining of high prices for materials and slow deliveries. Neither is there any sign of slackening. The structuial steel companie report a large amount of business in sight for the coming fall. EVERYONE who is interested in the slow but difficult tasit of making New York a better city in which to live, will rejoice in the decision of Mr. Jerome to run again for tlie office of District Attorney. In that office he is the right man in the right place; and he has deserved re-election at the hands of the WHATEVER the outcome of the recent scandals in connec¬ tion with the crop reports, issued by the Agricultural Department, it would be a grave mistake for the Government to discontinue the service. A number of newspapers have been claiming that the supplying of a service of this kind is entirely outside the province of the National Government; but such ob¬ jections are merely irrelevant. The Constitution declares that the National Government was organized in order to promote the welfare of the American people; and we imagine that the issuing of crop reports can be included under that comprehensive heading. There are certainly very few services which would be of more benefit to more people than the regular publication of accurate reports about the condition of the important crops, their acreage and the probable yield. Such reports are of comparatively little use to the speculator, but they are of the greatest use to the small buyer or purchaser of grain and cotton. What the speculator needs is private information so that he can tell in advance of other people, whether the existing level of prices is too high or too low. Information which he shares with ail the world is of comparatively little use to him, except in so far as he can dra:.w from sucli information shrewder inferences. But this public in¬ formation is just what the farmer or the cotton manufacturer needs. No doubt he, too, would like to have private information; but the government reports serve his purpose very well—provided they are accurate. The one thing necessary is that they be more accurate than the estimate of individual experts can be, and that they be above suspicion. To issue reports which are less accurate than the estimates of experts, is merely to betray the producer and consumer into the hands of the speculator. But there is no reason why the Government reports should not be nearer to the truth than those of any expert, although one may doubt whether such will be the case as long as the existing Secretary of the Agricultural Department retains his office. ■ R, JAMES J. HILL, who is certainly one ol the most ,inte!lL- ^ent ol! American millionaires, has hsen relieving his mind recently of certain comments on contemporary American bufji- ness conditions. He thinks that "there are too mitny liam::c:r- ing influences on commerce from governmental and individual quarters," chat "individual effort is restrained by political the¬ orists and demagogue leaders," and "that five or six years hence this country will deplore the present policy of political interference, locally and nationally." The "hamDering," "re¬ straining" and "interfering" influences, which IMr. Hill deplores can only be those which are tlie result of the agitation against trusts, combinations and large corporations, and we doubt very mucli whether five cr ten years hence the country will regret this agitation! On tBe contrary unless all signs fail the agitation will increase rather than diminish in intensity, and it will only he abandoned when public opinion is convinced that public interes'.s are iiroperly safeguarded by the auto¬ matic operation of general laws. It is undoubtedly true that there is much in the current anti-trust agitation, which is un¬ wise and harmful, just as there is much iu the existing anti¬ trust legislation which is stupid and ineffective. The Sher¬ man anti-trust law, Eur instance, strilies blindly at industrial comhiuatlons, and is an admirable instance cf what anti-trust legislation ought not to he. Nevertheless the idea which prompts thia agitaiion is a wholegome idea. A large body of public opinion is coming to believe that the larger industries of the United States have been insufficiently regulated in the