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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 55, no. 1408: March 9, 1895

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March 9,1S95 Record and Guide. S65 Dieted to fHL Estme . gunoiKo %crfiTEeTui^E .HousEUoui DEeanfii< Bi/siifess Afi)Themes of GejIer^I IKtehe&i. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONB,......COailANDT 1370 Oommtmlcatlons should be ai^dressed to ..... C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 1, LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Stkbet, Off. Post Offios. "Entered at the Post-office al New Tork. N. T., as second-class matter." Vol. LV. MARCH 9, 1895. No. 1,408 For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn D^artment immediateli' following New Jeraey records {page 393). EXTREMES meet. Russia has abolished the use of the knout at the very moment when New York State is re-erccting the ■vrhipping-post. ----------•---------- LARGE amounts of c.^pital ai'e seeking an outlet in real estate at present, not only from the accumulations in the hands of fidnriary institutions, but from the idle savings of private individuals. Brokers are receiving many calls from petty capi¬ talists desiring to invest sums of teu or fifteen thousand dollars in gnoil real esiate security. This ia another of the encouraging signs of the times. ----------■---------- IN spite of some prominent features that suggest extreme caution in expressing belief io an improved industrial eitnation. there can be no doubt that the situation is improving. Some of the very things that throw people into doubt are amoug tho signs of that general disturbance which means a revival of business. Low piices are always a necessity. The talk of the establishment of new plants which can profitably produce goods at eveu less thau the low rates that they are sell¬ ing at now, shows that people want to be at work again and to bave their capitil active, feeling confident that the time has come when tliey can do so safely. Many of the enterprises so foreshailoM od will never come into existence, and those that do mature will take time to do it. But it is sufficient it the pre- liniinaiies are being drafted out and arranged. If some of the great railroads, especially the Grangers, continue to report losses of earnings, the number that are .'showing incieases is greater from week to week. If the Noithwestis left out of the count the results on the railroads of the rest of the country in February will be found to be satisfactory. Some of the companies are eveu so far encouraged as to place ordera for materials and equipment. The unsettled condition of the stork market is due to events Ihat have passed aud to the liquidation that always comes at the end of a loug decline as a result of uncovering the conditions that have prevailed. Taken all round prices of the week have maintained themselves fairly well. The exceptions, such as Baltimore and Ohio, are due to special circumstances peculiar to the particular securites in question. The property mentioued, as an illustration of the fact, has never regained the favor of conservative people since it lost it ten years ago by the unwisdom ot its management. The resumption of dividends has always been regarded with suspicion. Hence, when liquida¬ tion comes it finds no buying to prevent a sensational drop in prices. The sentiment of the street is so bearish that the gen¬ eral strength of prices, previously alluded too, must reflect outside confidence, even if the genuine buying demand is very small. /^NE of the subjects that is of especial interest to economists ^-' atthe preseut moment is the growth of public expendi ture.s in Europe while private incomes are shrinking. 'What re¬ lation the one bears to the other is not very clearly defined, if the discussion can be said to have reached the poiut of defini¬ tions. The comparison is made with incomes from investments, but-they-only bear part (if the expenditures. -What needs to be provedbefore the matter attracts any attention fi'om practical quarters, is that public expenditures are a burden and a draw¬ back upon the trade and commerce of the nation, which has not been attempted yet. It does seem anomalous, however, that when every other part of a body politic is retrenching that the head, or directing part should be increasing its outlays. The vote in the Reichstag which caused the slir in silver, apparently will not have any very early influence upon that metal or its uses. If there was a prospect of a speedy movement of the practical sort to better its positiou the quotations would show it, but there is nothing in them to favor such a suggestion. Judging from official utterance there is in Europp a silver party strong enough to require soothing with soft words and that is the most that can be said in favor of silver at the present moment. It has been pointed out that the utterances of the German Chancellerie to-day are in substance precisely what they were in 1892, and of not more force or effect in encour¬ aging silver men in the hope that Germany will consider any modification whatever of its currency system. The lom- pleted returns of Fiench foreign trade for January show ex¬ traordinary activity in the exports of all textile—silks, woollens, cottons, linens and iutcs. The bill now before the German Parliament for increasing the export bounty on sugar has created a movement in France lor a similar measure to aid the sugar growers aud refiners there. Where other states are re¬ porting stagnation if not shrinkage in manufacturing industry Bohemia and Hungary report progress ; new establish ments are being founded for making cloth, phish, and cheu'lle, Eur manu- facluringthc indispensable beer, steel, gla'^s and a number of other things including refined sugar, and this is very remark¬ able in view of the alleged condition of the trade. Capital ap¬ plications in London for the first two months of the year were larger than in auy similar period since 1891, to the extent of four times what they were for the peiiods of 1894 and 1893, and 30 per cent larger than those for 1892, and only 12 per cent short of those for 1891, when they were very large indeed. TheBank of England has now maintained a 2 per cent rate for a year; the proporlion of the bank's reserve to liability when the drop was mwde to that figure was 6OI4 per cent; it is now 67.68 per cent. There are volumes on the trade nf the inter¬ vening period in these few words and figures. British trade returns for February are unfavorable, recording large decreases in both imports and exports. ——»---------- COMPTROLLER FITCH is singing dolefully. The tax rate in New York City is to be higher next year. Eeal estate valuations have been screwed up to ti.e last tnrn,inthe political game of fooling the people with a fictitious appearance of cheap government. Tax collections uext year are not likely to be larger thau hitherto " so we must be careful about expenses," says the Comptroller, and his as-sociatea on the Board of Esti¬ mate and Apportionment echo the cry for economy. Nobody cau object to economy in times like these, but no rightminded person c uld advocate stinting the Slreet Cleaning Department of necessary funds while the Police force is permitted to draw over $600,000 "extra pay" yearly from the pockets of tax¬ payers. This outrageous steal should he instantly stopped. The Police force were well paid with the old salaries. They have been proved to be au utterly corrupt and unreliable body. No good reason has ever been given why, particularly inhai'd times like these, their pay should have been increased. Wo wonder why a " reform" administration does not rive some attention to the mptter, aud it is strange, also, why the Real Estate Exchange should remain passive when au extortion of this kind incieases the existing burden upou real estate. Each $200,000 added to the city's tax bill advauces the tax rate one poiut. If real estate men are willing to stand and be plundered in this way without protest, they mark themselvea as fat birds for plucking. LEGISLATION at Albany ia mainly of two kinds: the "strike" kind, in the iuterest of politicians, and the "con- fiacatiou" kind, in the interest of the Lord knows who. The State Legislature is rapidly becoming au infinitely more danger¬ ous body than any group of anarchists. It is almost impossible, eveu by intent searching, to discover what real public service it performs. A good example of the " bil I confiscatory,"^is the meas¬ ure introduced hy Mr. GalLigher of Kings. This gentleman has evidently experienced a vague feeling somewhere about his person that sometbiug should be done to make elevator shafts less dangerous to life in case of flre than they are at present. This feeling, no matter how vague, is in itself not bad. Cer¬ tainly, there are mauy elevator shalt>* in this city well calculated to make the sensitive aud fearful shiver. Reform is undoubt¬ edly necessary. But the way to bring about reformation is not to snatch up the first piece of paper handy and draw up a sweeping bill which takes cognizance of nothing but the wish that public danger shall somehow be lessened. In seeking the end desired, knowledge is necessary. If thia element be lacking, law-makingmay be a sort of plowiiigup of other people'a interest. Mr. Gallagher, for instance, proposes that elevator shafts here¬ after constructed in all buildings of thiee stories or more in height, shall be solidly built in aud constructed of iron, steel or brick without openings except for egress or ingress on each floor and where actually necessary for light and air. There ie uo doubt that iu many buildings, open elevator shafts are a menace to life iu case of fire. They act as flues that carry smoko aud flames throughout the bnildiug. But, because some shafts should bo inclosed with solid consiruction, why should it be required that all shafts should be so constructed ? Fur instance, is it quite necessary to burden the owuers of our large modem fire-proof buUdiugs with this requii'ement If But this I3 not tho