Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 32, no. 814: October 20, 1883

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October SO, 1883 1 he Kecord and uuide. 803 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. 191 Broadway, N. Y. TERMS: ONE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Commuriications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Buainess Manager. OCTOBER 20, 1883. The time has come to cry halt in the great b«ar campaign of the fall of 188S. Thia paper has foretold the break in prices and given the reason why. But we now believe that values have been unduly depressed. The bears in stocks have made so much money that they are flushed with victory and will continue their attacks upon the market, but investors can now purchase with confidence, provideri they exercise judgment. We ought also to see better prices before the close of the year for our wheat and cotton. There are better times coming, but perhaps not right away. The construction of the new bridge over the Harlem River at Second avenue will soon be under way. Contracts have been given out for a portion of the work, and we are assured that it will be prosecuted vigorously. It is understood that the Suburban Rapid Transit Company is building this bridge, and will soon commence the construction of its tra«ks in the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Wards. This ought to cause an immediate rise in value in the annexed district, for property on the other side of the Harlem .will soon be available for improvement. The bridge and the new railroads will necessarily bring large areas into the market. The ease of money is phenomenal for this season of the year. Money is generally easy when a bear speculation is under way ; it is bull markets which create a demand for currency. But much of the ease is undoubtedly due to the continued issue of silver cer¬ tificates. These are a perfect currency, better than any a bauk can issue, as they are based upon the actual deposit of coin, dollar for dollar, in the government vaults. It should be borne in mind that these silver certificates are generally paid for in gold. The denominations callpd for are generally of ten and twenty dollars, and are extremely useful in payments for moving the crops in the South and West, where national banks are few in number. Taxpayers have nothing to expect from the result of the coming fall elections. Neither the Democrats, Republicans nor Citizens announce any programme for giving us a better city government. Even the Anti-Monopolists and the Constitution Club people prom ise nothing but to support honest men for office. An entire and radical change iu the machinery of our local government is demanded, but the politiciana who control the several factions are intent merely upon a distribution of the spoils. The revelation of the condition of affairs in the Controller's office is simply appalling, and there is every reason to believe that all the departments of our local government are in a most unsatisfactory condition. We want home rule and responsible city government, but none of the news¬ papers seem to be interested in reform, and not a word is said about the new charter at the meetings of the various bodies that are nominating candidates for the coming election. Voters generally are extremely apathetic. We will probably continue our present wretched system for several years, when an explouon will corae that will startle tbe community and force apathetic citizens to institute reforms. There ought to be an active canvass to return the right kind of Senators and Assemblymen, pledged to specific reforms, but nothing is done. The Citizens by the way did well to dispand. The reform movement they started was a contemptible affair. ------------------------------------------------•------------------------------------------------■ Nearly every authority which has appeared before the Senate Commission hag arraigned oar present system of common school education as being too literary. The " three r's " do not suffice iu this industrial age. Boys and girls must be trained to work as well as to read and write. The American workingman is now at a dis¬ advantage with the French, German and Swiss artisan who has been educated in the technical schools oC those countries. The leading workmen in all our manufactories and shops are foreigners. It is the American and the Irishman who are "the hewers of wood and the drawers of water," and who are "bossed" by the artistic and skilled workman from over the water. This is galling to us as a peo¬ ple, especially in view of the exaggerated value we have heretofore accorded to our common school system. Peter Cooper was a decade ahead of his age. His "Union" is a model of the school of the future. Facts are to be taught hereafter as well as letters. The eyes and the hf^uds are to be trained as well as the memory. In twenty years from now there will be fewer bookkeepers and clerks and a vastly greater number of skilled and artistic work people. When that time comes we will be released from the tyranny of the trades' unions, for when the bulk of our workmen are trained in our technical schools, the limitation in the number of apprentices by these trade organizations will be of no avail, for skilled labor will be abundant for all industrial work. A Warning to Debtors. All customers of the national banks as well as debtors would do well to read the address of E. C. Bohne, at the recent Convention of Bankers at Louisville, Ky. Thia document was suppressed in the reports of the New York papers, which are all thick and thin advocates of our national bank system, and are committed in every possible way to gold monometallism. Stripped of all verbiage, Mr. Bohne'a address, which will be found else¬ where in this issue, is an appeal to the tanks to put the screws on and ruin all their embarrased customers. Hia theme is the appreciation of gold. His arguments, facts aod figures go to show that the substitution of the one precious metal for the two has caused and is causing a ruinous depreciation in prices. He gives Mr, Goschen's table, showing that during the last ten years the market value of all articles, except tobacco and spirits, has depreciated from twenty to fifty-two per cent. Tbe creditor class haa been greatly benefited and the debtor class fearfully embar¬ rassed by the steadily increasing value of gold, for this is the real phenomenon which accounts for the depressed trade and increas¬ ing number of bankruptcies here as well as in Europe. Bimetal¬ lism prevailed for seventy-five years up to 1873. Germany, in receipt of milliards of French gold, demonetized her silver aud sold it as a commodity on the markets of the world. In the same year the United States also discarded silver. The result was a panic in prices, which impoverished Germany, Austria and other formerly silver using countries. The United States had its panic, from which it did not recover until the passage of the Bland bill in 1878. Among the worst sufferers were the merchants of monometallic England ; all engaged in che Asiatic and East Indian trade suffered terribly by the tumble in exchange, due to the depreciation of silver, the sole currency of the Asiatic countries. The trouble in England culminated in the failure of the Bank of Glasgow. Mr. Bohne in the paper we publish declinea to discuss the ques¬ tion of bimetallism. He simply points out the obvious fact that prices have declined and are declining, and draws the natural inference that matters will get worse before they are better. He appeals to the national banks to look out for their own interests. They must keep themselves informed touching the solvency of their customers, and if the latter are too enterprising and Irheir business becomes too extended they must be ruined by the with¬ drawal of all bank facilities. This is very natural advice; the money lender, as such, can think only of himself ; his business is to profit by the misfortunes of those who borrow hia money. The national banks just now are withdrawing their currency, because its circulation is no longer profitable. Their New York press organs, with the object of still further injuring the mercantile community, are denouncing the issue of silver certificates, the most safe and perfect form of paper money ever devised, and which has helped and is hel:ung so greatly the planters of the South and the farmers of the West to move their crops without drawing upon thia centre, and thus still further distressing the business men who desire to borrow money. That we have not too much currency is shown by the fact that the amount per capita in the United States, taking into account gold, silver and paper, averages only about twenty-eight dollars, against thirty-three in Belgium and Holland, and fifty-seven in France. The national banks, in withdrawing their currency and denying help to our over-venturesome traders, and so embarrassing them, are only obeying the law of self-preservation. They were instituted to make money for their stockholders. But their present attitude ought to convince the business world of the mistake it haa made in condemning silver aa a money metal, and upholding gold mono¬ metallism, which is the cause of nearly all the woes which are now afflicting the business world. Since Germany adopted the gold unit of value, other nations have followed her example, notably Holland and Italy. Aa Mr. Goschen pointed out, one thousand mil¬ lion dollars in gold bas been required in the laat ten yeai s to satisfy the currency requirements of the United States, Germany, Holland and Italy, that is, rather more than the total production of gold in that period, not taking into account the large quantity of gold used in the arts. Hence the ahrinking of the "yard atick," the measurer of all values, which has had such disaatrous results throughout the commercial world. The doubfing up of our cur¬ rency by resumption in 1879, gave us an advantage over the rest of the world for a few years, but the murder of President Garfield