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October 5, 1901.
RECORD AND GUIDE.
403
"^y^ ^ ESTABUSHEd'^ )4rPH21^ 1868,
BiJsit^Ess Mb Themes of Grrfenil. I/ftERfST-
PRICE PER YEAR. IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
Published every Satarday
Oommimlcattons Bliould bo addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorR
J. T. UNDSEY, Buslneea Managter
Telepbone, Cort^ndt 1370
'Entered at the Post Office at New York. N. Y., as second-class malter."
Vol. LXVIII.
OCTOBER 5, 1901.
No. 1751.
THOUGH the Stock Market is attracting a good deal of at¬
tention by reason of its weakness, there is very little for
us to say about it. It is simply in a process, still incomplete,
of producing the natural results of previous events under which
values were unduly inflated. Our readers were prepared for
what has taken place and are also, by the previous remarks,
prepared for what is still to take place. If anything shows the
indifference of the public to the allurements of the bull pools,
it is tbe coolness not to say suspicion with which the really good
statement of the U. S. Steel Co. was received. The figures re¬
flect on the securities values much higher than those now
quoted, yet they declined more than they advanced. The report
declared the late strike had been more blessing than hurtful
to the enterprise, yet the public metaphorically expressed their
sentiments by inhalations and the momentary drawings to¬
gether of the eyelids. This statement is now placed alongside
of that of President Ripley regarding the benefits of a crop
failure to the railroads operating in the stricken section. When
such statements as these are made to influence prices and,
especially when they are allowed to leak out ahead of the puh¬
lication of the reports themselves, they naturally arouse sus¬
picion and encourage operations on the short side. No less
suspicious is the wonderful story attaching to each issue of
prominence of new developments about to transpire calculated
to raise values, and equally destructive of quoted values is its
circulation.
SO soon as tfie pending governmental loans are out, there
will be more activity in the security markets of Europe, but
meanwhile these markets have to hold themselves in reserve to
meet the demands of their rulers. The intending borrowers in¬
clude Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Japan and oth¬
ers, and their oiterings will inspirit the market and extend
movement to other investment issues, commencing with col¬
onials and municipals. The fact that these issues are to make
the business of the financial markets in the near future, gives
interest to the application that has been made to list some
Frankfort-on-the-Main ZVc's on the New York Stock Exchange.
We pointed out some time ago the desirability of establishing
a foreign department on our exchange and are glad to see the
first step taken towards it. If the national dreams of a largely
increased foreign trade are realized as certainly as our expec¬
tations of increased wealth are sure to be, there are two good
reasons why the home facilities for buying and selling foreign
securities should be ample and easily available. The flrst, that
surplus capital may have an enlarged field of investment and,
the second, that there may be a ready market for the bonds
which we must often take in payment for our goods. As it is
there is a volume of British and German securities held here
large enough to begin a foreign department with, and when
once one is established the extension of its operations as new
issues are added would be. simply mechanical. However, to go
back to our proper subject, the condition of business in Europe,
we have still to record that there is rather more depression
than improvement in the industrial situation, though the Stock
Exchanges have taken on a little more cheerfulness, probably
due chiefly to the expected activity in government bonds reflect¬
ing itself In other directions.
IT is to be regretted that Comptroller Coler has not received
a nomination either for Mayor or Comptroller by one side
or the other. He has not, indeed, been occupying a very digni¬
fied position politically during the past few months; but that
should not obscure the fact that during his term of office, he
has been one of the most efficient financial managers New
Vork has ever had. The city needs more municipal politicians
of the same type as Mr. Coler^men, who really make an exact
and painstaking study of the needs of the city, and who are
not afraid, either to expose extravagant practices or to come
out with a definite and comprehensive policy of improvement.
This is about the last attitude which either Tammany office
holders or their opponents assume. They study the official
business of the city in the newspapers, and show little indica¬
tion of a first-hand knowledge of municipal affairs, or of the
possession of any definite and adequate policy—beyond the
adoption of a few current phrases. But Mr. Coler knew what
he was about, and the eity will be fortunate to get a successor
who knows it as well.
i
Ante=New Law Tenements.
OWNERS of tenement property are gradually realizing
what there is for them in the provisions of the New Tene¬
ment House Law relating to "Now-Existing Tenements;" that
is, tenements that were standing when the bill went into effect
on April 12th last; hut the realty world generally have but a
faint conception of what the enforcement of these provisions
will mean to the real estate market. The owners of tenements
are showing their appreciation of the situation by joining pro¬
tective associations, and there may possibly grow out of this
movement an organization so large and so united that the small
property owner may be able to speak through it with good ef¬
fect when the Legislature conTenes, aud, in any case, can make
common cause with his fellows in the courts.
The alterations required in old tenements run all the way
from a moderate amount of fireproofing to the insertion of an
air-shaft which will necessitate expensive structural changes
carrying away one room on each floor and thereby destroying
the financial scheme on which such buildings are generally run.
A special provision renders useless any bedroom not contain¬
ing 600 cubic ft. of air space, and limits the number of persons us¬
ing a bedroom to a divisor of the cubic air space that will pro¬
duce 600 cubic ft. for each. The landlord is, most absurdly, re¬
quired to see that this provision is obeyed and he is to be liable
to a heavy fine or a term in jail if he fails to do so. Of course,
given a strict enforcement of the law, he would for his own pro¬
tection have to throw any room not up to the minimum re¬
quirements for air space into an adjoining one and thus reduce
the rental value of the apartment and, further, devise some
means to prevent more people than the law allows sleeping in
any room, a problem for which we are utterly unable to sug¬
gest any solution whatever. In addition to facing a certain loss
of rental value, the owner will have to provide additional cap¬
ital to meet the expense of squaring his building with the law.
This expense will run from a few hundred to five or six thou¬
sand dollars. A careful calculation has shown that the con¬
struction of the shaft with the other exactions in a six-room
deep floor will cost the larger amount and in a four-room deep
floor from $2,500 to $3,000. The consequent increase in capital
account accompanied hy loss of income must leave to many an
owner no alternative but the surrender of his property to- an
unwilling mortgagee, because of the destruction of his equity
in any case.
Such a state of affairs would he fraught with the gravest
consequences to the real estate market, of which tenements
form so large a part. These consequences are not fully por¬
trayed in the case of the'individual owner. That is done better
by showing aggregate results. Those who are. responsible for
the Tenement House Law kept their eyes fixed upon Cherry
Hill, while framing a law that applies to the whole of Greater
New York. There are, therefore, thousands of houses in the
outlying sections, where certainly light and air are plentiful
enough that must be altered along with the worst rookery the
Department of Health can point to. This swells the total of
houses affected to enormous proportions. The exact number
could only be ascertained by an actual count, but a rough cal¬
culation is that 65 per cent of the 82,000 tenements in the eity.
exclusive of three-family dwellings, come, more or less, within
the provisions of the law. This would give a total of 53,000 to
be altered at expenditures anywhere within the range previously
given. The average per house is placed variously at $1,000,
$2,000 or $3,000, or a total new capital to be provided on 65 per
cent of the tenement property of the city in the course of six
months or so of from $53,000,000 to $159,000,000, and this in the
face of a materially reduced rental value. Whatever
amount we take as a base for our calculation, the resulting
lowest sum total runs into eight flgures, and the question
naturally arises, where is all this money to come from? Have
the owners so much loose cash, or would the market supply it?
We think not in each case, and that much of the property it¬
self—a great deal too much for its good—would have to come
onto the market. â– . â–
n