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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 25, no. 640: June 19, 1880

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXV. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1880. No. 640 Published Weekly by C^« J^mi Estate ^mxh %SBacmiian. TERMS. ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO. Communications should be addressed to C. W. S"WEE1\ No. 137 Broadway Builders and material men should read care¬ fully the Mechanics' Lien law which has just been signed by the Governor, and is printed for the first time iu the columns of to-day's Record. The importance of its various provisions will re¬ quire a general circulation of this law among tbe building trade. Extra copies of The Record containing tho new statute can be obtained at this office, and orders can be transmitted to us by telephone. Communication can now be had with this offlce BY TEIiEPHONE, an accommodation provided specially for our subscribers and advertisers. Up-town builders and agents, also, who are subscribers to the Na¬ tional Bell Telephone, can now, without delay, converse with the editor of Thk Record without being compelled to come down town. THE HEALTHY REACTION. The depression in prices, so sudden and ex¬ traordinary during the last two months in various departments of business, proves now to have been a healthy reaction from an attempt at over specu¬ lation, so readily indulged in, especially in this section of the country. This reaction was indeed necessary to maintain that steady, onward march of prosperity based upon the excellent condition of the country. Its effect has been to open the eyes of speculators in time, and to put on brakes where matters were going too fast. The lesson has been a salutary one, and the heavy stocks of merchandise brought in here from abroad, owing to the high prices, are being rapidly reduced by healthy consumption and a decrease in the volume of importations. In fact, during the week ending last Saturday the importations were smaller than they have been at any time since January. The eleven, and often thirteen, million dollars worth of foreign goods brought,to this port during the booming weeks of March and April are now re¬ duced to seven and eight millions, with a per¬ ceptible increase in the volume of exports. The result will soon make itself felt again in an increase of prices, but that increase will be sure and steady and at a moderate percentage. The example of the iron trade will not be followed with its boom¬ ing prices, since succeeded by crushing failures. Wall street, also, while recovering from the quasi-panicky feeling of the last month, is more disposed to act in accordance with the sensible ideas of merit and value. The earnings of all the railroads throughout the country are better than they were a year ago, and th^re is already felt a sound undercurrent which will give better per¬ manency to the prices of stocks. There are those in the real estate market, as well as in Wall street, who are not always disposed to reason. These people, during the recent healthy reaction, imagined that another long and tedious period was to set in. They must already see by this time the erroneous views under which they labored. Never in the history of the country has business been conducted upon a more solid basis, and the speedy breaking down of speculative prices has already had the beneficial effect of re¬ newed improvements flverywbere, of turning the flood of foreign goods and securing a steady con¬ sumption by a population vastly increased by emi¬ gration. --------•-------- WHY NOT REAL ESTATE ? If the Government, in taking the census, had made provision for gathering statistics iu regard to real estate, both improved and unimproved, property-owners might with complacency regard the schedule for New York City. It would have been like taking stock in a large warehouse, so that those interested in the number of buildings and lots on hand or occupied could have seen at a glance the extent of tlie supply. We regret that, notwithstanding the tremendous efforts made in "Washington to make the census of 1880 a model one, the authors of the census bill did not have the foresight to provide for the gathering of these statistics. It would have been shown, for instance, where the density of population causes a demand for more lots; how those not finding room enough on the soil allotted to them are be¬ ginning to build skyward, and how near we, in this city of New York, with the approaching completion of the East River Bridge, may be to the creation of a city and suburbs that must, in the course of time, eclipse even London with its four million of inhabitants. Figures tell the story, whether they show the aggregate of lots laid out or the number of miles covered by paved streets. And it is upon such figures that values may be based. Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other cities would have been benefited by statistical information on such a subject, and the comparative tables forming part of such an investigation would have been scanned with interest, not only, but with profit, by American investors generally. It is passing strange that while the general government has created special bureaus to gather all statistics in regard to man¬ ufactures, agriculture, etc., it should have over¬ looked the real estate column. Especially, in a republic like this, with its fifty millions of inhabi¬ tants, many of them owners of the soil in a ratio far surpassing that of other countries, the statis¬ tics on this subject would have been instructive, not only to the capitalist and investor, but to the political economists of this, as well as of other countries. The two most important bills affecting the prop¬ erty interests of the city passed at the last session of the legislature, were ;|the Assessment Bill, al¬ ready published in these columns, and the Bill for the improvement of Morningside Park and the avenues bounding that park, which we print to¬ day. Both bills have now been approved by tho Governor. For the passage of the latter bill the city and the West Side property owners are chiefly indebted to the efforts of the West Side Associa¬ tion, and especially of its president, Mr. Dwight H. Olmstead. A bill for the improvement of River¬ side Park was also introduced into the legislature. It passed the Senate, but failed to pass the As¬ sembly, owing to the great pressure of other busi¬ ness at the close of the session. It is understood, however, that the Morningside bill is the initia¬ tory step in the completion, at an early day, of all the public improvements on the West Side. The improvement of Morningside Park is much needed, and will open up for occupation a large and growing section of the city. The question of locating" the World's Fair of 1883 is beginning to agitate the minds of incor¬ porators as well as of property owners. It would be folly for any one, during the present embryo state of the Commission, to designate any partic¬ ular locality that answers the requisite purposes. And yet, it might as well be said now as later, that the committee charged with selecting a site will have to go where there are but few owners to deal with. It has been so in London, in Paris, in Vienna, and even in Philadelphia, and will be found to be the same when the actual work in securing the ground in New York City will have to be taken in band. Legislative enactments may give the World's Pair Corporation all the privileges they ask for, but owners of lots or of acres cannot be driven even by legislative enact¬ ment to surrender their property at nominal values. One or two may be found, and no doubt will be found to grant leases at nominal figures, or perhaps at no flgures at all, but the case wUl be different when, say twenty-five or thirty own¬ ers have to be dealt with. It all amounts to this, then, that to obviate the obstacles that will surely be put in their way by individual owners, the commissioners will have very little to choose from when the all important question must finally be decided. Aside of the Central Park but few if any tracts can be had suitable for the emergency, jirovided the Pair is to remain on Manhattan Island. Any other selection would involve tedious negotiations, owing to the num¬ ber of small owners, whose peculiar ideas as to the temporary transfer of their property, might result in upsetting the very best scheme conceived by the commissioners. Officials in charge of municipal and other cor¬ porations in calling for plans, specifications and estimates make generally a glaring mistake by announcing the fact that they will pay only for the best or second best plans. What these best or second best plans are, can be easily conjectured when no architect of standing can afford to prepare a plan in haste nor give his time for its preparation free gratis. The result is. that in many cases only the drones of the profession send in plans and take their chances, while those who have any work at all on hand keep aloof from making plans not based upon positive remunera¬ tion. Our public buildings would be less subject to criticism if all architects, when called upon to ubmit their views and ideas, were to be paid for