Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 33, no. 844: May 17, 1884

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May 17, 1884 The Record and Guide. 629 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. tiiblished every Saturday, 191 Broadway, N. Y. TERMS: OifE TCAR, in advance, SII DOLLARS. Conununications should.be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Businesa Manager. MAY 17, 1884. An immediate recovery of confidence in values must not be looked for. A panic such as that of last Wednesday is usually followed by an unwholesome reaction, but later on prices sag off again. Spec¬ ulation is being killed, the swarm of brokers in all the exchanges in the lower part of the city wili fiud tbat a great part of their occu¬ pation is gone, and many of them will be forced to change their business and enter some productive employment. Confidence is a plant of slow growth, and even good securities will be in the mar¬ ket at low figures until there is an assurance of large cottou, corn and wheat crops. IE the Republicans make a wise nomination for the presidency there will probably be a rally in prices, The only property that will command good figurea for the rest of the year is real eatate. ----------------------------■—•-------------------------------------------------- The national banks have the preaa of the country at their back, and the business public is al\vaya eager to countenance legislation that will give the banka all tbey want in transacting their busi¬ ness. But when the day of trouble comes, the banka take care of no interests but their own, and slaughter tbeir customers without mercy. Tha panic of last Wednesday was largely due to the refusal of the banks to continue their loans even upon the choicest securities. They forced Hguidation and assumed an attitude of antagoniam to every solvent interest in the "street.", The final action was a determination to stand by one another at the sacrifice of every interest but their own. But when a question comes up in Congress affecting the banks, the press and the business public are expected to do all they can to forward the intereata of the insti¬ tutions which always fail them in times of trouble. The operations of Grant & Ward and the events of laat Wednea- day will alter vitally the relations of brokera to the banks and will lead to an entire change in the method of doing business. The certifying of checks with no funds in bank, wbich haa been the practice for so many years, can no longer be considered safe. The practice is contrary to law, but the necessities of the deal¬ ings of the street have made the enactment a dead letter. What Con¬ gress could not effect, however, Ferdinand Ward bas brought about —a stoppage of the certifying of chsjcks before the fundu they rep¬ resented were actually in the vaults of the bank, Thia may lead in time to the establishment of a clearing houee for stocks. Sev¬ eral futile attempta have been made to establish, such a system, but it now seems to have become a neceasity. A national bank would have been a useful institution in such a crisis as that which we have just passed through. It would have kept the rate of interest at a reasonable point, and would have averted the failure of firms which were really solvent. The powers of a national bank are now exercised partly by the Treasury Department, but in a greater measure by the associated banks of New York. These latter come together after the mischief ia done, but their action is entirely selfish, for tbey unite to protect them¬ selves at the expense of their clients. Tbe 900 per cent, per annum paid for carrying stocks from Wednesday to Thursday tells the story of the utter uselessness of our national banks to help the community in sucb a crisis as we have just passed through. They use the pri\ ate money entrusted to them to ruin their own deposi¬ tors and customers. The name of a national bank is very unpopu¬ lar in this country, but it is a very mucb needed institution not¬ withstanding, .-----------------» ■ The Committee on Legislation of the Real Estate Exchange met on Thursday. Tho announcement was made by tho secretary that the law had passed authorizing the Governor to appoint a commis¬ sion to prepare laws reforming our system of land transfer. It was decided that it might be proper for the Real, Estate Exchange to send a liat of names to the Governor of lawyers who might make useful members of that commission, Ifc is understood that a list will be prepared to be sent to the Governor containing names from which be may select a commission to prepare the necesaary bills to be acted upon by the next Legislature. This Committee on LegiBla- tion bas proved a very useful body, as it utilizes the most influential members of the Exchange, so that their infiuence can be brought to bear in Albany and in the City Hall. It is not probable that it will have many more sessions tbis year, in view of the adjournment of tbe Legislature, but next year tbe committee ought to be a powerful infiuence in forwarding good and opposing injurious legis¬ lation affecting real estate. 'A building movement seems to have commenced in tbe Seventh and Thirteenth Wards. It has been found that down-town east side property bas been growing largely in value, due to its conven¬ ience for workingmen and the growth of large industries in the cen¬ tral and eastern parts of the city. The daily car fare may seem a small matter to persons witb incomes of $1,500 a year and over, but it becomes a serious matter to heads of families with incomes of from $10 to $16 per week, and hence the demand for cheap tenements on the eastern side of the city below Grand street. They have been found to pay much better than in Harlem, There are several large estates in this section of the city wbich have been forced to sell recently, and the prices under the liammer are quite high as compared witb property in tbe other poorer parts of the city. There are still other regions downtown, tbat is, below Forty- second street, which will enhance in value for thesame reason. In¬ deed builders think it is unwise to build large tenement or apart¬ ment houses for fither rich or poor above Fifty-ninth street. One excellent symptom for real estate in New York is the growth of its manufacturing industries. Although the cost of land aud living is high in New York yet the manufacture of goods is found to pay in the saving of freight and the ability to deal directly with customers. --------*------~ Will Chicago Overtake New York? There is no parallel in the history of nations where cities have grown so rapidly in population, commerce and wealth as in the United States, New York has advanced with gigantic strides during the past decade or two. At the last census there were twenty cities in the Union wifch populations of over 100,000 eacb whose rise and progress has been equally phenomenal. A glance at the following table, which includes some of the smaller citiea recently sprung into prominence, showa that there has been an increase of 44 to 3,130 per cent, in the different populations from 1860 to 1880 : Inc. IBSn, iFen. increase, p. c. Philadelphia........................ . 848,984 585,5i9 201,455 44 Pittsburg................................ 156,331 4\),-il7 107,l-.4 217 Cleveland ............................... 160,143 4;i,417 118,725 291 San Francisco........................... 33.^,958 Bli.fi03 177,15* 311 Jersey City............................ 120,728 29,336 91,602 313 Hiuneapolis .......................... 46.887 6,833 41.055 705 Kansas City............................ 65,813 4,418 61,395 1,183 Omaha................................. 3it,5l8 1.S83 28,685 ],S30 Oakland, Cal........................... 34,556 1,549 83,01)7 a,130 But of all the large cities, those, for instance, having above 100,000 inhabitants, Chicago has made the moat headway. A local authority states that in ifcs first decade, from 1833 to 1843, that city increased thirty-seven times its population, and in its second decade gained more than 800 per cenfc. In the tliird decade the population increased over 200 per cent,, aad iq the ten years from 1863 to 1873 more than doubled itself. In the lasl decade the increase has been about 50 per cent. When Chicago waa a village just incorporated as a town of SOO inhabitants, New York was a city of 350,000, and Philadelphia aud Boston each had 100.000 people. Even St. Louis claimed to have 8,000 people on the banks of fche Mississippi, aod Cincinnati boasted of 30,000 as the metrop¬ olis of the West. But Chicago has outstripped ali these in half a century's growth. While in that fifty years New York quadrupled her population, Philadelphia iucreased eight times, Boston nearly four tiaies, Cincinnati eight times, and St. Louis forty times, Chicago has increased about three thousand times. In the last decade, from 1870 to 1880, New York's gain in popu- laition was 28 per cent., Philadelphia's 25 per cent., Boston's 44 per cent., Cmcinnati's 18 per cent., and St. Louia' but 9 per cent. Chicago's gain was 258 per cent, Much has haen said and written about I he poaaibility of Chicago some day overtaking New York in population. Should the future increase be in the same latio as during the paat ten yeara that will eventually take place. A comparison between the fcwo cities, from 1860 to 1880, sheds some light upon the matter : Popu- Iqc. Population Inc, lation. Increase, p, c. 1880, Increaee, p. c. w..« v«,.v j 1S60 805,611 New iorK...... -jjg^o 94,)_3Qo ]3B,639 16.96 1,206,590 264,3C0 28 0* ™, f 1860 109.360 unicago........ -jjgjQ 233^977 189,717 173.63 503.301 204,837 53.31 It would, of course, be impossible to base any estimates of tbe future population of either city on the ratio of increase from 1860 to 1870, which in the" case of Chicago was abnormal, the increase during that period being about 200 per cent, more than during tba succeeding decade, A comparison between the populations of the two citiea shows that tbo average yearly increase during the twenty years was nearly the same in both instances, while the average annual increase per cent, was, of course, mucb larger in the case