Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 53, no. 1355: March 3, 1894

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March 3, 1S94 Record and Guide. 323 ESTABLISHED-^ KgWPHZlii^ 1868, "Dn&TEfl TO Ra^L EsTWE.BinLDif/o AflcrfiTEciJHE,F(ouseHou)Degof^atioiJ, Bi/sii^ESS A^(D Themes oFGEflER.RL IKteresi. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published everi/ .Saturday. TELEPIIOKE,......CORTLAKfDT 1370 Coniiniinlcations bIiouW lie addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. ,r. 7. LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington .Street, Opp. Post Ofticb. " Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, If. T,, as second-class matter," Vol. LIII. MARCH 3, 189-1. No. 1,355 For additional Brooklyn mattor, see Brooklyn Department immediately foUoioing New Jersey records {page 350). A CONTINUED and increaf3ed improvement in trade and financial circles may be noticed this week, due in a large measure apparently to the liope that the difference existing bet-n-een the Senate and House on the Wilson Bill may lead to the .ab.andomnent of tariff legislation for a time ntleast. The passage of the Bland substitnte.silverinflation bill has not been without effect, although the President is relied upon to veto it as a viol.atiou of the principle under which the purchas¬ ing clause of the Silver Act of 1890 was repealed if ever that measure reaches his hands, which from all accounts there is a considerable prob.abilit}' of its doing. This bill, as it pas.sed the House, not only gives a ridiculous money value to the silver in the Treasury, but also makes the notes issued for its purcnase redeemable by a part only of the bullion they were issued to pay for. In this way it is sought to give the government a profit of over fifty-five millions of dollars. The result has been to expedite if uot cause gold shipments, and to prove what has beeu said before here, th;it if foreigTi capital is to be retained in this country, there will have to be found a way to lessen the opportuniries for irresponsible cur¬ rency theorists coming into tiie great prominence and having the seemiu.g importance that they now do. The outward movement of gold is never favorable to stock exch.ange quotations. Atten¬ tion is attr.acted to tlie radical reductions in the operating cost of the great raiU'oads in J.anuary and people are asking, if they can be operated at such a low percentage of cost, have not stock¬ holders hitherto been defrauded ? The explanation no doubt is that such extensive economies as have been instituted can ouly endure for a short time and are intended only to I'l'idge over a period of poor business, which the railroad m.anagers hope will not last much longer. There is no do doubt whatever that the proportion of cost of operating will increase .and that soon, whether business does or not. In general trade there is the same conservati.sm on the part of buyers as has characterised tlieiu for some time, though mitig.ated enough to lead to the hope that abetter demand is growing up at least in the lines of necessaries. This feeling is noticed in the boot and shoe, the wool and the cotton goods trades. The great fuYnaces have been large buyers of ores recently, though at low prices, and havo thereby created a prospect of renewed activity in the iron trade in the near future. monetary conference seeing no advantage therein. Euglish fin.in- cinl papers aro congratulating the trading community they serve on the results of their analysis of the trade returns for 1803. The differences in prices being t.aken into accountthe importsof for¬ eign goods for home consumption were only 1.42 per cent less than in the previous year and the exports of British goods only 2.10 per cent less. This result, in .spite of the malign influences of the collapse in Australia, the currency troubles on this sideof the Atlantic and the strikes aud other impediments to business at home, is naturally considered very satl.sfactory. Current reports of railroad earnings also show that business is picking up slowly. There is no break in the dullness of financial affairs in Paris, though the arrest of Baron de Soubeyan, the chaii-mau of the collapsed Baiique d'Escorapte, affords an iuteresting topic of conversation. This gentleman was one of those financiers, apparently, who try to carry too man.y concerns at once, or rather try to make several concerns caiTy each other, and has consequently come to the grotind under circumstances sufficiently suspicious to demand his arrest and pkacing under bail. The native population of France diminished by 20,041 in 1892 according to the recent returns ; fhis is the third year in succes¬ sion that there has been a decrease. The demand of Hungary for .a note bank independent of the Austro-Huugarian B.ink is being resisted; a ministerial explanation of the refusal contained the statement that if anything rather too much credit had beeu given to Hungar.y and it might lead to d.angerous speculation. Like their fellows in Germany. Hungarian agriculturists are opposin.L'the conclusion of custom treaties with neighboring powers where any concessions from the present regulations for the import of cereals iind live stock are contemplated. Vienna seems to be full of unemployed poor, .among whom there are said to be daily suicides. One of Ihe works of relief conteiu- pliited is the removal of the great barracks standing in the centre of the city, a relic of the time when the monarch feared tho population of the capital. Itnl.y's endeavors to relie^'^e itself from bankruptcy do not meet with much success. The only resource seems fo lie in additional t;ixation, and that naturally meets with opposition on all sides. The mere attempt, how¬ ever, to bring order into its finances has put up the ]irice of Italian rente in the foreign markets. Tn India natives aud Indian born Europeans join in condemning the financial policy of the Engli h (Toverament towards India, but in Calcutta and Bengal opinions have been expressed adverse to the reopening fhe mints to .silver. The solution of the Indian part of the silver difficulty is still far away. While there is a .great deal of pro¬ test, there appears to be no su.sgestion of the way in which the government can remove the evi's complained of. The govern¬ ment proposes to meet the deficit by imposing a new ij per cent tax on imports, except cottons, besides doubling the tax on petroleum. Whether this includes silver is not statail, bnt from the wording of the dispatch bringiug this news it may be pre¬ sumed that it does. UNDOUBTEDLY the question of greatest commercial importance discussed in Europe to-day is the treaty Between Germ.any and Rus.sia. Notwichst.anding the announce¬ ment by the Emperor William that "he treaty is a political necessity, the agrarian party is fighting its confirmation in the Reichstag tooth and nail. Outside, trading and commercial bodies all over the Empire have taken the matter up, the manu¬ facturer being on one .side and the farmer on the other. There is a belief that should the treaty be rejected by the Reichstag adissolntion would follow and the appeal to the country would result in a triumph for the government, just as the same pro¬ cedure did in the matter of t he Army Bill a year or more ago. The failure of the treat.y, taken in connection with the imperial statement, would probably be very mischievous. The proba¬ bilities favoring confirmn tion of the treaty, however, the busi¬ ness of Germany has improved .somewhat and the shares of banks and maiiiifacturing coinp.anies, pnrficularly those of tho latter connected with the iron trade have gone up. The com- missiou appointed to consider the w.ays and means to rehabilitate silver is not expected to produce much good, the opinion being so general that an effective solution of the silver question is only possible through international agreement, the impossi- bilify of -phich is elcwn hy the recent official anncunctmentthat Ecslnnd Jind DO int«ptioi) of propcsinK the reneEcnahlins'of the EFFECTIVE work has been done at Washin.eton on beh.alf of West Side property-owners in securing amendments to the New York and New .Jersey Bridge bill, uow undergoing examination by the Committee on Interst.ate and Foreign Com¬ merce of the House of Representatives. In the first pl.ace, instead of the Bridge Company being free to locate Iheir eastern approach on a wide line reaching as far np as 71st street, as was contemplated b.y the bill as introduced, Ihe cimimittee has decided th.at this approach .shall not be higher than ROIh street nor lower than .50th street but at some suitable place between those two points, to be decided upon by the Secretary of War after examin.ation. Should the bill become a law au endeavor will be made ou the p.art of interested property-owners to h.ave the choice fixed on GOth .street, and failing that, on B.'rth street, as that would throw the approaches into the tenement district, where the least amount of damage can bo done. The bill provided that two hundred and fifty thousand doll.ars should be .spent the first year and a million dollars each year thereafter. This provision has been amended in one very iniport.antparticular, namely, by the insertion of the words "in money " after the statement of e.ach sum. This is better than the original provision, though not all that can be wished as a proof of the good faith of the people acquiring the charter. At the first view it does appear that a sufficient guarantee for the performance of the work would be obtained if a quarter of a million of dollars were spent ou it 'with a forfeiture following if a million dollars arc not expended each year theie- after, yet if the comparatively small sum required to be sjient in tho first year is put info the woik it would probably be ea.sy for the p:omofcrs to gain nn extension of time if they were not able to raise the next irqnired sum for a year or two. Moreover, once any considerable sum were spent in actual work Congress would be loth and perh.nps would find it difflcult to confiscate the woi'k eo created. No doubt people could be found who would snppl.V the money for the first year's requiriements in order lo h,o),d sp vnluflblea franchisp os a sperw