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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1984: March 24, 1906

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March 24. 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE S" ESTABUSHED ^ i\fiRj;H EI'-J^-1858, Dev&TEB P 1^1- Estate.BuiLDiffc ApcKiTEcrtiRE ,t{oi;sEHoiD DEtME^ntHf. Bifsii^Ess Af^DThemes of GETta\AV Ir/iEP^Esi, PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published every Saturday Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New York 1 Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at ihe Post Office at New Yorl:. JT. Y, as second-class mailer." Vol, LXXVII. MARCH 24, 1906. No. 1984 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section, Page Page, Cement....................xxii Law..........................xi Consulting Engineers......xxiii Lumber .................xxviii Clay Products ...............xxiv Machinery ...................iv Contractors and Builders ......v Metal Work..................xx Electrical Interest ..........viii Quick Job Directory..........xxv Fireproofing ..................iii Real Estate ................xiv Granite ....................xxvi Roofers & Roofing Materials., ,x Heating ...................xxi Stone ....... :,............xxvi Iron and Steel................xix Wood Products ............xxix ^Vith this issue lhe Record and Guide begins its Thirty- , ninth year of service for the real eslate and builcling in¬ terests of this city. THE PEACEABLE ouf.come of the Moroccan conference is in sight, and money is undoubtedly tending towards ease. Tiie indications ave tint tlie April st^ttlemeuts r.nd lieavy in¬ terest ctnd dividend disbursements will be mode without strain. Easy money with its resultant stock exchange activity naturally causes general business iinprovement which must be necessarily advantageous to real estate interests. Foreign exchange is weak, making it a certainty tliat high money rates here would promptly attract gold from Europe, The stock market during the weel^ has been dull and narrow, with unimportant fluctu¬ ations. Tlie basic conditions are, however, unquestionably sound. In January last the highest prices oC the great ad¬ vance in stocks were readied, and at the same time there was extraordinary activity, the leccrd on the ticker being seven or eight minutes behind. Numbers of transactions were never re¬ ported because of haste. Floor brokers were often forced to resent any criticism of execution of orders, because it was a common thing in active stocks for different prices to prevail at the same moment, vfrying with the portion of the crowd in whicli the broker found himself in at the time of the execution of an order. The Stock Exchange, it may fairly be said, was overtaxed and had the market gone higher the machinery of the organization might have broken down. In other words so higli did the marlcet go in this great game of speculation that a point was reached where no more players could be accom¬ modated. This lias invariably been the case. The public will only come in on a market that has risen. The higher the prices the more pubiic it attracts—the attraction seeming to be the stories told of the profits already made,, making it easy to credit every prediction and promise of profits still awaiting pur- cliases. IF ATTENTION had been called to the intrinsic value of Reading at 15 when the marlret was dull in the Summer of 1900 the remarlc would probably have been made tliat the stocli; was moribund. The same shares representing less prop¬ erty a little over five years afterwards at 164—eleven times the price—were tipped for 300, only the more conservative venturing the cautious prediction of 200. This week Reading sold at 125, forty points under the price of two months ago, and in a market so dull that commission house or public buying had ceased, thus siiowing, as has been stated, that the higiier the price the greater the activity, the lower the price the fewer the buyers. It is an axiom in Wall Street never to sell on a dull market. When prices get so low that the public will not buy, professional Wall Street reasons that the decline is at an eud. On the other hand, when flgures advance to such an extent that brokers' clerks have to remain at work at night because of the public participation, professional Wall Street again reasons that stocks are a sale. The question that now presents itself istfiis: Does t!ie current dullness mean the end of the decline in prices, reaching as it does on the average from 20 to 40 points, and will the new and inevitable activity carry quotations to a higlier level than formerly before the in¬ dispensable public is attracted again? Some of the shrewdest persons in Wall Street believe that the decline of the last two months is merely an interlude and that on the next advance greater -momentum will be attained and much higher prices reached for all the standard securities. The United States Steel Corporation shows an increase of net earnings last year over the previous year of nearly $55,000,000. Our merchandise ex¬ ports are averaging each of the last eight months fifty millions in excess of the imports monthly. Railroad earuings ai'e from 22 to 30 per cent, over last year, while bank clearings during January and February are six thousand two hundred and eighty- five millions, or nearly 28 per cent, over last year's figures. These and similar stupendous items, combined with the end of corporation baiting, will form the substructure of the next bull movement said to be at hand. THERE is an abundance of reasons wliy property values in Manhattan should be steadily increasing and why such values should be growing most rapidly at important points of travel or traffic intersection. But one reason which supple¬ ments the others is the palpable fact that Manhattan is topo¬ graphically Incapable of enlargement, while as business grows and the population increases, its available area Is curtailed. Before the adoption of the legislation of 18S7 for the establish¬ ment of small parks in Manhattan, there were 9C0 acres of park land, of which 840 were those included 'in Central Park. Sincfi then, almost continuously, the project of new paries has been steadily going forward with the result at the beginning of this year the park area of Manhattan was 1,416 acres, while the whole acreage of Manhattan is 14,038; or more than 10 per cent, of the area of Manhattan devoted to parks and thus withdrawn from speculation of real estate development. Further, other causes have been operating to reduce the avail- rble teridtory of Manhattan. There are h,i!£ a dozen armories, eich including a city block, or the best part of a city block. There are new and Urge terminals for railwiys. parti'nilai'ly the Pennsylvania and the Central stations aud api r'ji.c'^es. Public buildings have encroached on or have been extended over much territory previously available, and on the East Side the approach to the'Delancey Street bridge has made a broad cut in buildings, as likewise the New York Central ap¬ proaches on the upper East Side have cut off many buildings there. So long as Manhattan had a residue of unused land such changes made less difference th?n is the case now, when, practically the whole territory on Manhattan Islr.nd has been developed and is in demand for use. WE ARE pleased to notice that the Board of Health is not only "sitting up" a little of late, but is also stiffening its backbone in regard to the smoke nuisance. There is a great deal of drastic work to be done if this city is to yie^erve hence¬ forth tlie purity of its atmosphere. Violations have grown apace, and manufacturers, steamship companies and others have exhibited a very determined impudence in tlie use ot soft cjal. There is no doubt a considerable profit to be reaped by the dis¬ regard of the law, and this profit works as a sleepless incentive to befoul the air. The evil can be coped with only by an equally persistent vigilance on tke part of the Board of Health sup¬ ported as the Board must be, if anything is to be obtained, by a pronounced public opinion. If manufacturers and others have a good reason in dollars and cents for using soft coal, our citizens have a much greater pecuniary reason for its pro¬ hibition. One of the greatest attractions of New York City in the past has been its clear, unfogged atmosphere, but if New York should be,:;ome as Pittsburg is, or like unto Chicago, the fact would undoubtedly be registered in the value of real estate. Our apartment houses, hotels, stores and theatres would all suffer, for New York City is now run on so big a scale that a very small adverse percentage amounts to a large sum of inor.ey, none the less real because it cannot be distributed upon individuals by a definite calculation. Residents of the eity are already complainiu^ that tlieir furniture and decorations are suffering in an unusual degree from smoke, and it is becoming much more difficult to keep places clean. These' are apparently small matters, but comfort Is made up of an accumulation of small matters, and the migration of a residential population is directed here or there, as the'case may be, by'what we may call the little details of living. New York City is surrounded by suburban competitors, of which it was the mother. Every year these competitors are instaliiug improvements and bidding thereby, with greater effect for om' population. Any one who