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January 21, 1905
KECORD AND GUIDE
127
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De/ouD 10 Real Csr*n. BuiLWKo «iRcHtTECT«E .rioiismou) DccosfllDH.
BusiiJessaiJdThemes QpCErJERAl IfJTtRfsT.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
TabUshed eVers Saturday
Communications should bo addreased to
C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK
J. T. LINDSEY. Euslnosa HiLnajiur TBiophono. Cortlandt 3157
"Erdersd at the Post OJftce at New Yor!-. .V, Y.. as semnd-class mattpi\"
Vol. LXXV.
JANUARY 21, iy05.
No. I'.r2c
The Growth of The Record and Guide and
the Resulting Changes.
W'E spoko recently lu these eoliinnis of the growth of the
Record and Guide and the necessity which that
growth has thrust nijon tbe management of the paper to pro¬
vide some plan whereby the vastly larger mass of legal records
can be handled mechanically and otherwise with the least in¬
crease of financial pressure upon our readers. It must be per¬
fectly clear to every one of our subscribers that it is commer¬
cially out of tbe question for the Record and Guide to go on
augmenting in built year by year, accompanied by the printing
of thousands of additional legal papers annually, without in¬
creasing in some manner or form tbe cost of its service to its
readers. A real estate agent, who should undertake to manage
a certain estate for a fixed sum of money, could not permit
the owner to go on indefinitely enlarging that estate, thereby
increasing the agent's'labors and expenses, without demanding
increased compensation. A builder, who should contract to
erect a ten-story building for a fixed amount, could not permit
the owner to add story upon story without demanding an in¬
creased cost. The Record and Guide, however, has been in tbe
position of this hypothetical real estate agent and builder for
many years past. It has steadily increased the size of its issues
while rigorously maintaining tbe duality ot its service. It has,
without any stint ot money, enlarged its mechanical establish¬
ment so as to deliver copies to its readers as early as possible
on Saturday mornings, and in this effort it has increased its
force and its expenses very nearly tour-told, until to-day the
Record and Guide is the most costly trade-paper ot any kind
whatsoever, and prints nearly flve pages ot reading matter for
"each page of advertising.
As we pointed out some weeks ago, this is tbe result ot con¬
ditions peculiar to the real estate field. Tbe Record and Gmde
is loyally supported by the interests it serves. It possesses one
ot the largest circulations ot any trade-paper extant, and a cir¬
culation that, locally considered, is in its concentration and
completeness, quite unique. "Printers' Ink" accords to tbe Rec¬
ord and Guide the "double bull's-eye rating" tor "extraordinary
,' excellence ot circulation." The Record and Guide undoubtedly
: occupies its field, but attached to tbis field are peculiar clrcum-
stances^circumstances that compel the continued printing ot
more and more reading matter without any possibility of re¬
striction or curtailment, unless, ot course, the value of the
paper's service were at the same time to be impaired. The
â– latter is out ot the question. It only remains that the situation
should be lalrly met by all concerned-by the Record and Guide
itself on its part, by its subscribers on their part No one can
sell an article below cost or at an unfair commercial price with¬
out disadvantage all around. Alter carefully considering tbe
situation, it has seemed to the management ot the Record and
Guide that the most desirable way out ot tbe existing difliculty
â– is to separate the matter that now appears in the paper into
â– two parts. Nothing, It would seem, can be lost were all the
matter that pertains to Manhattan and the Bronx printed m one
paper or edition, and were all the matter that pertains to Brook-
lyn be printed in another paper or edition, and then the two
be charged for separately and at a fair price.
Our readers must bave noticed tbe improvements that bave
recently been made in our paper, and these improvements are
only tbe initial steps ot a well-defined prcgressive policy. Here¬
after tbe Record and Guide will be issued as two papers:
1. The Record and Guide—Manhattan and the Bronx edition;
2. Tbe Record and Guide—Brooklyn edition.
The former will be supplied to readers and subscribers, as at
present, for p.00 a year, or 15 cents per copy. The latter will
be sold for $3.50 a year, or 10 cents per copy. Those who desire
both papers will be supplied for ?8.00 a year.
Working on the supposition that all subscribers who receive
tbe Record and Guide to-day at an address in IManbattan or tbe
Bronx, are interested solely in information pertaining to those
two boroughs, tbe Manhattan and the Bronx edition alone will
hereafter be sent to those who dwell in Manhattan and the
Bronx; and on a like supposition, tbe Brooklyn edition alone
will be sent to those who dwell in the big borough beyond tbe
East River. Any subscriber, however, whose paid subscription
is stiil current, may by dropping us a postal card stating his
f'esire, obtain both editions without any extra cbarge whatso¬
ever during the life ot his existing subscription. Of nourse, at
the end of tbe subscription, it will be open to him to elect wbich
edition he needs, paying for one or tbe other, or both as the
circumstances may be.
In conclusion, the Record and Guide would like to assure its
old friends that this new step has been talten only after the
greatest patience and with the utmost care for every interest
concerned. It is most emphatically not a one-sided move.
Moreover, it is not a solitary move, but one that has been
fully prepared tor by the management, and by the careful adop¬
tion of a wider policy that will surely give our readers, when
ii is completely worked out, a very much superior service both
in Manhattan and the Bronx, and in Brooklyn.
H LMOST every day during tbe past week the daily papers
•C^ have described tbe stock market as â– â– irregular," so that
irregularity appears to be the regular thing. Speculation cliques
have been able to force up the price of such scarce stocks as
Reading, but 90, or even a liltle under, appears to bo a very high
price for a three per cent, stock. Such operations as these do
not add to one's confidence in security values. There can be no
doubc that it remains a professional market, in which it Is occa¬
sionally possible to advance the prices ot particular securities,
but lu which any general advance is not to be anticipated. Cf
course, tbe general tendency, if there is any, is upward, and
rightly so; but this tendency cannot apparently be accelerated
very much without causing annoying reactions. General busl-
i.ess conditions continue, however, to be so excellent that it IS
at present merely a question ot waiting lo discover what effect
prosperity will have on net earnings.
THE neighborhood of 5th av and 34th st is a veritable whirl¬
wind of real estate ac'Jvity and new price records, and ono
announcement follows upon another so rapidly that it is difli-
cult 10 run fast enough to keep abreast of tbe procession. It is
not only that the corner of 35th st and 5th av has been sold at
a record price, and that Mr. John Claflin has secured a plot
100x200 running through from 34th to 35th st, but the whole
block Is In a ferment. A few months ago, when Mr. Altman
was paying S250,000 for lots on 34lh st east ot 6tb av, people
wondered whether he would ever get his money back, but, dur¬
ing tbe past week, }350,000 has been refused tor lots west ot
5th av and 34th st, and $500,000 has heen asked for them. At
the present rate ot expansion, it will not be so veiT long before
people will be paying S200 a square toot tor inside lots on 34th
Bt Just what will come of it all cannot be precisely asserted
until we know what new business will actually come in on the
block- but we have no doubt that eventually tbe block will
contain some of the flnest stores ih New York. It Is not merely
the vicinity ot 34th st and 5th av, however, which is excited.
All along 6tb av and on the side streets sales are being made
and negotiations are under way. Neither are the otber centers
of recent activity becoming dull. Business property downtown
is in excellent demand, and residences ot a good class are being
sold in unusually largo numbers. Some twenty-seven have