Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 54, no. 1381: September 1, 1894

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fieptembet 1,1894 Record and Guide. 291 1 ESTABLISHED-^ M^RPHSP-;!'^ 1868. DzV&TED to REA.LESTWE,eUlLDl^''G Ap.CHlTEeTUR,E.HciUSEHOlDDESQRJTIOI*, Bi/sir/ESs AifcThemes of Ge^JeraI if/TER.EST ■ PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Telephone,......(^oktlandt 1370 CommnnloatlonB sliould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street. J. 2. LINDSEY. Busineaa Managei: Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street, Opp. Post Office. "Entered al the Post-office at New York. N. Y., as second-class matler." Vol. liv. SEPTEMBER 1, 1894. No. 1,381 For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately followina jVeio Jeraey records [page '3071, The Eecord and Guide edition of the Building Laies and Ordinances of Brooklyn, with illustrations and a conifilete index, by which one is enabled io find at a glance just what he ia looking for, is now ready for delivery at the offices of The Record and Guide, 14 and 16 Fesey street. New York, and 276 Washington street, Brooklyn, at the uniform price of $2. SO far the Treasury seems to have benefited most "by the Gor¬ man Tarift'Aet. That was to be expected because of the immense quantities of v-'^ods that were lying in boud awaiting the consummatioM of that legislation, and the duties on which go iuto tlie Treasury as soon as they are withdrawn. Incident¬ ally, too, the Treasury gold reserve bas increased, which is a very satisfactory feature of the retiu'us appearing from day to day. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the new condi¬ tiou of affairs, after the lirst rush of business it occasioned is over, will confciuue to favor the Treasury sufficiently, not only to meet the requirements of tlie uation, but also to put tbe gold reserve into better ijroportions with the paper it has to sustain, and to keep it there. The position of the Treasmy will continue to have a more tham ordinary bearing on values of securities and on business uncil it has become sti'ong enough to cease to excite attention. General busiuessis on the wbole satisfactory, though it shows uo further improvement thau has been ab'eady reported, but the removal of doubt from tbe situation can¬ not fail to have ultimately a stimulating effect. The leactiou in the stock market was uot uunatiu'al, though the opinions of certain railroad ofBcials in the corn belt are receiving more prominence than they deserve, because they represent the comparatively nanow view presented by the teiTitory they refer to. The disappointment of the Northwestern farmer, botb in the field as regards crops aud iu the markets as regards prices, while having au important bearing on the situation, is very cousiderably offset by conditions in other parts of the country, and by the teudency of other things besides gi'ain to fall iu price. Investors abroad see this and are buying discriminately. Sbi'ewd speculators at home are interesting themselves in the securities of newly reorganized properties and properties about to be reorganized. These buyers, both at home and abroad, are acting on a belief that tbe country as a wbole bas entered on a new period, iu whieh tbe favorable feature will largely predominate, and without regard to the day to day quotations. OUR friends in Europe generally regard the settlement of the taritt' discussion as we do, more as removing an obstacle to the regular course of business than as benefiting them through the lowered duties. If any are unduly sanguine it is the Genuan woolen manufacturers. A typical British view of the situation is that the lower duties will work to the advantage of Great Britain, but tbat they will lead to auy very large permanent expansion of exports to the United States is very doubtful. The woolen aud linen trades, whicli unquestionably suff'ered from the operation of the MeKinley tariff, are expected to bene¬ fit, if any do. The last report on tbe English labor market, being for the raonlb of Jul}"-, showed ou the whole a downward tendency. The Panama Canal scheme is to the fore again, the courts having sustained the coutract by which the Societe Nou- velle du Panama will take over the property aud franchises of the old compauy. It bas secured $^1,000,000 of funds to take up the work, and will apply to the public for ^8,000,000; which latter sum is, however, underwritten. But the estimated total capilal required is fpllO,000,000, au amount that it will be very difficult to raise in view of what has already transpired, the im¬ possibility of earning anythingupon itfor aome years to come, and, most important of all, the roiiiibt of ultimate sacci ssof the work. 'Whether any part, of this Jno Joey can be raised or not, the revival of the enterprise shows a change in feeling toward new opera¬ tions that must bo good for other and less problematic ones. The cheering reports from the European harvest fields are hav¬ ing their natural effects in better prices for seciu'ities aud more activity in the industiies. The New South Wales official report of its gold production in 1893 values it at $3,306,430, com¬ pared mth $2,845,890 in 1892. The Greek bondholders have very positively rejected M. Tricoupis' proferred compromise, notwithstanding they were threatened with something worse in the event of their doing so; it now remains to be seen bow loug and to what extent Greece will retard her own lecovery by keep¬ ing the question of the settlement of her debt open. ONE of the things that must teU in time on the value of rail¬ road securities and on business is the comparatively small additions that have been made to tbe railroad mileage of the country iu recent years. This fact is strikingly brougbt out by the figiues given in Poor's Jl/a»«a?, showing the extent of our raU ti'ausportation facilities since 1830, when the country commenced developments in this line with a modest twenty- three miles until tbe present time, when they have grown to upwards of one hundred aud seventy-eight thousand miles. As iu so many other cases, our railroad development has been in greatest proportion siuce the war. In 1863 there were in the United States ouly 33,170 miles of road which in 1873 had growu to 70,268 miles; thereafter the gi'owth bas been by leaps and bounds, the total in 1883 being 121,455 and in 1893, 177,753 miles. The increase of 100,000 miles in tweuty years, it will be noticed, is aluiost equally divided between tbe two decades. The yearly contributions to the railroads of the country, how¬ ever, have vailed very cousiderably, accordiug to commercial and financial conditiou of the times, but it isuot since 1887 that we have bad a real boom in railroad building, when 12,878 mUes were constructed, beating the nest best record made in the year 1881 of 11,569 miles. In the other of the past twenty years tbe new mileage bas varied fi-om about 1,700 miles to 7,000 miles. Large as it actually is, our steel roadage is sma I relatively to the exteut of the country it has to serve. The fact that the new mileage of 1893 was less than that of auy year since 1877, the figures being 2,549 miles and 2,280 miles ri spectively, is very significant. Indeed, the whole of tbe last four years have added ouly 16,000 to oar total railroad mileage. It is probable, judging by the coudition of geueral business in its early part and tbe improbability of any exteusive railroad enterprise being doue in the latter pait that the mileage of 1894 will be eveu less tban that of 1893. These facts suggest the extreme probability of tho next few years seeing increased activity among railroad builders and the people who make iheir supplies, such as ties, rails, plates, bolts, bridges, equipment, etc., with all that implies to the general prosperity of tbe country. Meantime, the important consideration is what ii - fluence the disproportion of the growth of the railroads to that of general business will have on tbe securities of tbe companies controlling the transportation of passengers and fi-eight by rail. ''pHE returns of wheat imported into Great Britain in July do ^ not give any more satisfaction lo the North American grower than previous recent reports have doue. This applies to Canada as well as the United States, bnt, of course, propor¬ tionately more to tbe latter by reason of its more extensive wheat industry. The United Kingdom last mouth received from abroad 13,749,878 bushels of wheat at an average price of 63c. per bushel, as compared witb 16,831,928 bushels at 78c. in July, 1893, a decline of 3,082,450 bushels and 15c. in the aver¬ age price. Tbe imports from the United States were 3,394,836, agaiust 8,556,664, a falling of 4,961,828 bushels, accompanied by a decline from 79c. to 65c. or 14c. per bushel in the average price. At the t^ame tune the importatious fiom Russia increased by| 1,498,854 bushels, with a fall in the average price of 14c.—fi'om 75c. to 61c.—aud the Argentina increased their contributious by 714,300 bushels, accompanied by a decline in tbe average price per bushel of 15c.—from 76e. to 61c. The importatious of Indian wheat, which sells in the British mai-ket at about tbe same price as Uuited States, fell off 618,444 bushels. The decline iu importatious of our own and Indian wheat, taken in connection with tbe crop reports for Great Britain itself, makes it probable that, having a good expectation of an inci'eased supply of their owu wheat, which takes precedence io quality, the British millers have less need of the good wheats that come fi-om Nortb America and India for ' mixing with their own and more use for the poorer growths of Russia and Argentine, This theory is not upset by the fact that importations of Australasian wheat, which fetches the highest price of all foreigu grown wheat in the British market, increased in July 849,392 bushels, because the decliue in the-price of North Americau was uot so great as iu the Australasian, which aold at 84c. and 68c., when our own sold at 79c. aud I J