Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 61, no. 1560: February 5, 1898

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lieDruary 5, 1095. ivci^uiu ciiiu. vjruiuc 233 Be/siWess Alto Themes Of GEjto^l li^rti^Esi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Tblephone, Published every Saturday Cortlandt 1370. ConimunicaHons siioulo he addressed to C. "W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 1. LINBSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at ttie Post-Offlce at Xcw York, N. P., as second-class mutter." Vol. LXI. FEBRUARY 5, 1898. No. 1,560 IF it were not that the stock market has proved itself so in¬ different to ordinary influences during the past year, the movemeni of prices this week and the large realizings of proflts that have been effected would indicate a period to the hull move¬ ment. But the supply of money is so great and the opportuni¬ ties for its profitable use so few comparatively that there is no knowing how long the movement will be sustained by a confi¬ dent public. Notwithstanding the extent of the advance already seen in them, marketable securities still offer attractions to in¬ vestors in the rate of return they pay, as compared with savings banks and other sources of safe guarding surplus wealth, that the heavy bond buying daily reported need not surprise anyom.'. If there was any idea that the business of the country would de¬ cline from this on, this confidence would not be seen; its raison d'etre is the assurance in the public mind that there is a long term of commercial prosperity ahead in which the wealth of the country will go on accumulating and the value of investment se¬ curities increase, A large bond buying movement has always been reflected in stocks hitherto, and there is no reason for sup¬ posing the rule will not work now. If the present movement is open to criticism at all, it is on the ground that it clings around a too limited list. A broadening of the market is much to be desired; such a movement would be healthier and safer. THOSE who fear an outbreak of hostilities in the far East should take courage from the actions of the various Eu¬ ropean markets of both the financial and commercial classes. Britain about to engage three other great powers with consols at a premium of nearly 13 per cent, and the prices of the bond.5 of the opposing countries also unaffected, would be something in the way of anomalies very surprising indeed. As a matter of fact, while serious diplomatic negotiations are going on, thn various markets are moved one way or the other only by ordin¬ ary influences—temporary changes in the supply and demand — while politics have not at all come into play as factors either one way or the other. We pointed out when the China question was opened up in a violent way by the seizure of Kiao-Chou bay by Germany, and j.aissia"s occcupation of Port Arthur, that tiie newspapers would create a good many scares before it waa closed; it must be admitted that they have done their best, and are still doing it, to make our words come true. The fact thai securities especially take these alarms so coolly shows good sense on the part of the public, and that it has a very proper estimate of the value of the ordinary news item from abroad. It should be borne in mind that, except the declaration of policy by re¬ sponsible ministers that Britain was determined and prepared to maintain her treaty rights in China, nothing official has been presented to the public. The terms of the offered loan were pub¬ lished by a provincial paper, and from the same source it is an¬ nounced that one item of those terms, the opening of Ta-lien- wan, has been abandoned in deference to objections raised by Russia. This may be the case, and it may be that it involves a diplomatic defeat for Britain; but we do not know positivelj that it is the case, or, as a matter of official information, what the actual offer was. AU we are allowed to believe from the in¬ formation afforded us is that Britain has made a positive dec¬ laration of her policy toward China, and has threatened war in the event of any attempt to thwart that policy. In order lo strengthen her position she has further made China an offer of a loan under spme conditions which doubtless were meant to form a basis of negotiations rather than an ulttmatum with war the alternative of their rejection. But the two things, her treaty rights and the offer of the loan are distinct and separate. China may refuse the loan and thereby avoid complying with the con¬ ditions: but China cannot avoid her treaty obligations unless Britain is a consenting party or unable to compel their observ¬ ance. If China, availing herself of her undoubted rights, re¬ fuses the British loan and accepts another instead, no one would have any right to complain. We may be sure that the refusal in the one case would not be direct, but by objections to one or more of the vital conditions accompanying the offer; at the same time the terms of acceptance in the other would have to avoid offence to Britain unless there was a desire to force a conflict, which apparently is far from the case. We do not expect to see Britain receive everything she is credited by the newspapers with having asked for; but we do expect to see the principle she has laid down—which is the point Americans are mostly inter¬ ested in—that the Chinese market shall be kept open for all the world, finally triumphant, and that without war. War is some¬ what out of fashion, there would not be so many jingos if it was not. T3 ROADWAY property owners, who may feel discouraged by J—' present conditions, may be gratified to learn that that thoroughfare has endured and recovered from other and previ¬ ous vicissitudes. The very flrst number of the Record and Guide, published on March 21, 1868, contained an article en¬ titled "Lofts to Let," which said: "The above sign is uncom¬ monly frequent in Broadway just now. Last year neither love nor money could procure a store or loft on that great thorough¬ fare after the 1st of April; but now at least one-quarter of the stores below Union Square are empty—one-third of them are to let, while nearly half the lofts in the street are in the market, and win probably be empty all summer, if not for the rest of the year. The frequency of this sign of stores and lofts to let on lower Broadway shows two things: (1). That business has been ruinous for the last two years, and (2), that the best of the retail business is going uptown or on the side streets." Last week we stated the causes that have brought about the present depressed conditions of renting property on Broadway. They are somewhat different from those given in the article quoted, but they will gradually fail of effect, as did those of 1868, in due time. This parallel between present conditions and those pre¬ vailing thirty years ago ought to be a hint to those who can see nothing favorable in New York realty investments at this mo¬ ment, that it is the average results over a long term of years that make the value of real estate, and not the features of the moment. THE fifty-fourth annual report of the Association for Im¬ proving the Condition of the Poor, recently'issued, is something more than a statement of the relief work of a philan¬ thropic organization. It is at the same time an exponent of the most progress'ive ideas current in the science of charity. The association, indeed, interprets its functions in a liberal spirit, and aims not only to furnish the necessaries of life to the desti¬ tute, but to assist the laboring man to achieve a cleaner and more wholesome physical and moral existence. In the pursuit of this object it has, partly by the suggestive power of practical experiment, partly by the participation of its officers in public affairs, impressed its ideas on the social policy of the city, notably in the matter of vacation schools, public baths and comfort sta¬ tions, small parks, improved tenements, and enlarged opportuni¬ ties for popular recreation. The Hartley House, at No. 413 West 46th street, opened in January of the past year, is a social settle¬ ment where women of education and leisure establish friendly relations with the people of the neighborhood by visits to moth¬ ers of families, and teas for them at the settlement, as well as by classes and clubs for the children. The vacation schools, in¬ troduced several years ago by the association, have met with so much popular support as to induce the Board of Education to appropriate $10,000 for their incorporation with the public school system of the city. The general character of the work of the Department of Hygiene, the Labor Bureau, and the vacant lot farms is too well known to require explanation, and for details we must refer to the report itself. But we wish to emphasize the fact that these philanthropic, as opposed to the charitable, ac¬ tivities of the association have a tendency to make the poor and people in narrow circumsiances better tenants, as well as better citizens, and by so doing to enhance the value of an important class of real estate. THE application of the Manhattan Co., submitted this week to the Rapid Transit Commission, indicates as clearly as black and white can indicate anything that it is not the purpose of the managers of the elevated roads to satisfy the real rapid transit requirements of New Yoi'k. Even if they would like to do it as a species of civic duty or as a recompense to the city for the immensely valuable franchises obtained for nothing they could not. Tbe cost would be prohibitive. To reconstruct the elevated roads—which would be an absolutely necessary step to make them adequate to the requirements of the city—would prac¬ tically bankrupt the Manhattan Co. and wreck one ot the moat