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September 13, 1902.
RECORD AND GUIDE.
359
Devoted io Keal EIstate . ©uildij/o ^rcKitecture .Househoid DeijOR^iioH,
BUSIt/ESS AttoTHEKlESOFGEltol^l Ir^TCI^Sl.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCED SIX DOLLARS
Published etlery Satardag
Com niunitrations should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at tl"' Po.i( Q^c*- at New York, jV, Y.. as spi-iniil-daas matter."
Voll. LXX.
SEPTEMBER 13, 1902.
No. ISOO.
CONDITIONS in the Stock Market hardly require explana¬
tion, except that it is not easy to understand how prices
were for the larger part of the week strong and ia many cases
advancing, in the face of an actual scarcity of money and rates
on call going as high as twenty per cent. The circumstances
reveal a remarkable continuance of confidence io listed secur¬
ities. This is based on the belief that they have an extended good
future before them, supplemented by a conviction that the lead¬
ers in speculation are still determined to carry prices upward.
It is probable that the one-sidedness of the market, to which
reference has been given before is the most sustaining factor in
the present emergency. The results of the working of the proper¬
ties upon which the securities are based are so brilliant and the
outlook for business for a considerable time to come so good, that
sales on the short side are absolutely prohibited except for very
small movements. The decline in quotations made from time to
time are merely the result of professional operations of the small
kind, the week having demonstrated that the tightness of money
has failed to provoke liquidation of long stock. At the same
time, while the condition of the money market continues to be
what it is, a general speculative movement is to be deprecated,
and is perhaps impossible. It will be sufficient vindication of
the soundness of the situation if quotations are fairly well main¬
tained over the little crisis in money through which we are now
passing. It is probable that the coming bank statement will dis¬
close further pressure by the interior on this centre for funds;
but thereafter relief ought to set in. This hope Is encouraged
by the movement of gold from Australia to San Francisco, and
the tendency of exchange rates in the direction of shipments
from Europe itself.
THERE are several signs of a coming revival of business in
Europe. One and not the least important is that Austrian
rentes lately crossed par, after selling at a discount for about
three years. Austria has been so long a black spot in the busi¬
ness prospect that this small fact is really encouraging. Then
a group of Berlin banks headed by the Handels-Gesellschaft,
have undertaken the reorganization and consolidation of the
great electrical supply manufacturing concerns whose condition
has been the greatest drag upon the situation for some time.
These aud other favoring events have given a more cheerful
tone to the Continental bourses and this reflects itself in various
directions. Wages and prices of materials are adjusting them¬
selves to conditions of lessened demand and helping to form the
new basis upon which a revival of activity may be made. The
decline in wages begun in 1900 was continued through 1901 and
into the first half of this year. The British Board of Trade re¬
ports for that period changes in wages affecting 681,000 work¬
people, of whom though 32,000 obtained increases, 619,000 suffered
decreases, miners and quarrymen being principally concerned in
the latter. Some returns of South African trade have been pub¬
lished which are interesting in view of the anticipations the
several great manufacturing nations had of contributing to the
supply of the wants of the people there after the war. It does
not appear, however, that John Bull was ousted from his own
territory as was at first stated. The imports into Natal during
the first six months of the year were valued at $30,000,000 in
round figures, of this only about $5,000,000 worth originated out-'
side the British dominions. Of this small remainder the United
States took the lion's share, though its proportionate growth was
not so great as that of Germany. In examining details, natural
fitness is found to have contributed most towards results. The
shipments of the United States were mostly in mining and ag¬
ricultural machinery aud canned goods; those of Germany in
the cheaper forms of manufactures. It is the belief of competent
authorities that Germany has shown itself quicker to grasp the
nature of existing social and economic conditions in South
Africa, and has consequently sent goods which, while suited to
the needs of settlers, are also more within the capacity of purses
impoverished by a war that for two years and a half devastated
the country and interrupted the course of business.
The City Qovernment and Real Estate
Owners.
MEMBERS of the present city government probably at no
time seriously deluded themselves with the idea that the
proposal to assess real estate on a basis of its full value would
render the administration popular with real estate owners. The
present calm should delude no one, for everybody is still some¬
what in a philosophical frame of mind concerning the proposed
innovation. By and by, when the assessments are actually made
and the working of the new plan begins, the howl will arise, and
we would not be at all surprised if the dim of it should be louder
than any that has yet arisen from real estate—that much bela¬
bored beast of burden, beaten and goaded every time an addition¬
al municipal burden has to be carried. This prognostication is
quite apart from any judgment as to the soundness or the un¬
soundness of the newly proposed policy.
This is the situation out of which protest will arise. Real es¬
tate is unfortunately a commodity in which the fortunes and the
commercial welfare of a vast number of citizens are involved.
Nevertheless, for many years past it has been dealt with by the
municipality with a freedom and indifference that might lead
one to suppose that real estate existed merely to be a channel or
avenue through which taxes might be collected, and social and
financial experiments tried. The result is unfortunate, even un¬
fair. One argument, it will be recalled, which both disputants im
the tariff reform controversy concede is, that whether free trade
or protection be right economically, an uncertain tariff, subject
to constant attack and change, is an evil to the country, A sense
of insecurity in all enterprises affected by the tariff is the result
to be expected from unceasing "tinkering." Indeed as a matter
of fact, manufacturers and merchants of all opinions long ago
agreed that the most serious consequences of the changes actu¬
ally made one way and another in the tariff during and since the
Cleveland days, were not those due to a higher or lower sched¬
ule, but those that sprang from the changes and readjustments
repeatedly necessitated by the alteration in the rate of duty. It
is known that a number of industries suffered severely on ac¬
count of these readjustments and changes.
But what did these changes and readjustments amount to in
comparison with those that have been forced upon real estate in
New York City during the last comparatively few years? It is
only yesterday that the taxes on real estate were suddenly aud
arbitrarily raised, so that many owners suffered serious pecun¬
iary loss. We have hardly escaped from the agitations occa¬
sioned by the new Building Law and the new Tenement House
Law, and the new Mortgage laws, and now again the situation is
to be upheaved. Is it not to be wondered at that real estate is
getting "tired"?
It is no answer to say the proposed method of assesment is bet¬
ter than the one it will replace, or that the Tenement House
Law will, in the end, prove to be a very satisfactory measure, or
that real estate owners found a means of readjusting the situa¬
tion to the increased taxation of a few years ago. For argu¬
ment's sake we will admit that all these changes were and are
admirable. We claim they worked into the situation at the cost
of many real estate owners, and it is not fair to entail too fre¬
quent losses upon the same people.
A few years ago the mere proposition to establish free coinage
of silver threw the entire country into alarm. Sixteen to one
never was more than a proposition. It never became a part of
the monetary system of this country. Yet it shook our financial
and industrial systems to the very foundations. Iu a smaller
way, these yearly, nay, almost monthly changes, to which real
estate is subjected, due to the ferment of politicians in Albany or
at the City Hall, disturb that sense of security necessary to the
full prosperity of those who deal in any commodity. The owner
of real estate to-day, as he stands on his property, may well feel
himself in the midst of a dissolving world. He has bought his
plot. He has invested bis money. He wishes for security. He
seeks peaceable possession and hopes for profits. But as a mat¬
ter of fact, he is not sure of what he can do with his land from
one legislature to another. To-day, the day he bought his prop¬
erty, his neighbors around are erecting twenty-story buildings.
He possesses the same right. To-morrow that right may be taken
from him. Next week the entire building law may be changed
and even at the corrupt instigation of interested concerns, he
may be prohibited from using the methods, devices and materials
open to his selection on the day he purchased his land. Or, if