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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 25, no. 629: April 3, 1880

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXY. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, APEIL 3, 1880. No. 629 Published Weekly by C^t Eeal Estate EccortJ ^ssonatton. tERMS. ONK YBAR. in advance....SIO.OO. Coraraunications should be addressed to C. W. STVEET. Nos. 135 AND 137 Broadawv OUR MINING SUPPLEMENT. On Tuesday next we will issue a supplement to The Real Estate Record, giving important min¬ ing intelligence, made up in the interest of invest¬ ors, and not of the sellers of shares. There is enough, and to spare, of publications aiming to in¬ duce the public to invest in mining companies. The leading daily papers of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis now h;vve departments devoted to setting forth the great value of mining properties. We think the sanguine view of this great interest is much too prominent in all the publications we have seen. There is money to lose as well as money to make in mining investments, and our aim is to represent the cautious, conservative investor, rather than the bopetul promoter. The price of the supplement will be five cents per copy, with the usual discount to the trade. Any subscriber of The Record will receive a copy free by sending to the oflice, 137 Broadway. TO OUR ADVERTISERS. The importance of The Real Estate Recokd as an advertising medium for those who have any¬ thing at all to sell that belongs to a house, whether it be the lot on which it stands, or the handle of the door that denotes the entrance to said house, is attested by the following letter received at thig office Thursday: New Yobk Soap Stone Wobks, ) 61 Gold Street. [ To the Editor of The Real Estate Recobd : I take pleasure in informing you that, after the very flrst insertion ot my advertisement in your valuable paper, a man came to this office with a PiECORD in his hand, and pointing to my advertise¬ ment therein, stating that his attention had been called to my soap stone by the same, gave me, alter some brief negotiations, an order amounting to over $300. You are at liberty to make whatever use you please of this information. W. H. Ramsdell, New York, March 31,1880. Proprietor. OUR COURSE ON MINING STOCKS. Certain city journals have taken The Real Estate Record to task for giving some attention to mining matters, lathe interest of the investing class. They allege it is out of the line of our specialty and that we have made the mistake of attacking the best securities which are dealt in on our mining exchanges. Now, it happens that the articles in Thk Real. Estate Record, upon mining, were written by those who are thoroughly competent; who know whereof they speak, and who have been in the business and on the "inside" for the last three years. We believe profoundly in mining as a legitimate industry. We regard the business in itself as worthy of encouragement, and it is in the interest of mining, as a legitimate industry, that these articles are written for The Record. We do represent the real estate interests. After a period of depression, in which well located and valuable property has been slaughtered by f ore- closuro sales, and an unreasonably gloomy view of the situation has prevailed, the time has come when real estate interests ought to look up and so the V do. Property in and about New York is held at much higher figures than was asked a year ago; still, there is no question but that real estate as yet lags behind in the general march of im¬ provement. True, it is nearly always the last interest to recover after a great panic, but wise investors do not buy property when it has become high but before it begins to rise. We believe in the mining business, but we object to a craze—to dishonest methods, to over capitalization, to the gutting of mines, to the foisting upon the Eastern public of properties at four times the value they would command in California, where they are known. We find that the whole daily press has practically entered into a conspiracy to puff all manner of properties, good, bad and indifferent, and it struck us that some paper repre¬ senting the investing class should assume the role of censor and tell some of the adverse stories about mines and mining properties as well as those which are crmplimentary. We did so last week and whether we shall continue these articles depends wholly upon our readers. If they want them, they shall have them. If they do not, we shall stop these supplements, or issue a paper especially devoted to the business of telling the truth, not only about mining matters, but about financial matters generally. And we do this because we are interested not only in the investing class, but in real estate. It should be remembered that mining is taking immense sums of money away from other legitimate business. There is just now an unwholesome excitement all over the country, and the most conservative people are putting their means into all manner of ventures, which will scatter money in the Western Territories far remote from the centres of trade. In the list of 160 companies, of which some account is given in the Tribune of last Monday, the total capitalization is $580,000,000. Now, this list does not begin to give all that there are in the United States, but only those that have ofiices and do business in the city of New York. Of course, this great aggregate is partly nominal, but still these 160 companies fail to represent the vast number of private corporations which are forming, and in which money is being invested for the purpose of finally bringing them on the Eastern market. It is not too much to say that nominally $3,000,000,000, take the country through, east of the Mississippi, is now being placed in mines in Colorado, Dakota, Nevada, Arizona and California. A good deal of money also is being sunk iu the silver mines of Maine, where already over one hundred and fifty companies are organ¬ ized, in Arkansas and in the South Atlantic States. Now, this sudden diversion of great sums of money is unwholesome. The returns, if any, are in the distant future. A great deal of this money will be absolutely wasted in pros¬ pecting, in putting up mills, in sinking shafts, in organizing water supplies, which will not tell at all, or frora which there will be no return for eight or ten years. Prom statistics recently published in tbe I)ai}.y Bulletin, it seems that of new railways there are nearly 16,000 miles either under way or projected The capitalization of these will absorb, according to the Bulletin, $-373,0'>0,000, while the nominal capitaris already put at $17.3,000,000. With re gard to this matter, the Bulletin well says : If we assume this to be the average rate of capitalization, it will follow tbat, upon the 1.5,612 miles projected and placed under construction within tbe last seven months, the new issues of stock and bonds will aggregate $137,0iiC,00O. If we take the actual cash cost of line and equip¬ ment to average $17,.500 per mile, and assume that all the projected roads will be actually built, we reach the conclusion that these new enter¬ prises will absorb $:i7S,000,000 of capital. This diversion of capital and labor from its ordinary productive employments to provide mere facili¬ ties of transport constitutes a very important element in the prevailing tendency towards high prices. It was this same process of sinking capi¬ tal in non-productive works in advance of the requirements of trade, that more than anything else brought upon the country the inflation that collapsed in 1873; aud it is anything but an assuring symptom that the evil is being so soon and so boldly repeated. With this revival of interests in non-productive work like railways, and the vast flow of capital into new mining enterprises, it will be seen that we are preparing for an unwholesome state of affairs here in the East, for tight money, for high prices, and, what is of more moment, to real estate owners, the indefinite postponement of any activity in realty. People have made money in the last year and a half, a great deal of it, but investors cannot eat their cake and have it too. They cannot invest heavily in new railways and " wild cat" mines, and then buy real estate be¬ sides. We believe the whole real estate interest will join with us in deploring the unhealthy ex¬ citement which is raging in the mining world. We believe, as they believe, that this intense in¬ terest in mines is unnatural, and that it will end in disaster. Then, as to the properties we have criticised. We have picked out the so-called best in the marketj to show even their shortcomings. We believe that in the end there is more likelihood of danger to the conservative investor from mines like the Ontario, Homestake, Father De Smet and the Standard than from the very worst " cats" on tbe market. The backers of these mines are Californians, who have so manipulated the San Francisco market that it has raised a public revolt which is driving them away from the Pacific coast. Mr. Haggin, of San Francisco, who is at the back of most of these mines, is a man of immense wealth, who has made it in ways satisfactory doubtless to himself, but not to those who have dealt with him. Our readers may have noticed in the published list of San Francisco mines tbe Tiptop, of Arizona.