Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 62, no. 1595: October 8, 1898

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Octobers, 189S. Record and Guide 487 BasDtess mIdIhehes of CcHovlJi'rotF^T^ PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. T^ibUsh^d every Saturday. TKLEI'HONE, CORTLANOT 1370. Communications should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. /. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager, "Entered at Ihe Post-O.ff'ice at Xew Tork, N. T., as seeond-class matter." Vol. LXII. OCTOBER 8, 1898. 1,595 NOTHING lias arisen in the past week to disturb confldenee In a prosperous business future. We are approaching the season when activity in many directions has of necessity to he curtailed, and It may later appear to some that our present optimism was misplaced. If it should, they will only have to discover a contrast with previous similar seasons to see that they are wrong. The coming elections may impede for a moment the progress that is being made, but that will be due, we think, only to the distraction they will give to men's minds. So far as they influence currency and business conditions, the results are more likely to confirm the policy that has made com¬ mercial and industrial improvement possible in the past two years than to create danger to either. In Wall Street there is considerable activity, but it is very speculative indeed. Cautious people keep away when quotations fluctuate as widely as some have recently done, because they suspect, with ample justifica¬ tion from precedents, manipulation that makes ordinary calcula¬ tions useless. The course of prices is justified by the immediate situation, as it relates to corporate securities, the extent of the recent advance being borne in mind. FOR some time itast the speculation in industrial shares in Berlin has threatened trouble, and, according to late cable dispatches, the trouble has come and is approaching the acute stage. Money is becoming scarcer at that point, and foreign financial centres are discriminating against German bills. There is a general tendency of money to tighten and a conse¬ quent nervousness in speculation on the various European stock exchanges or bourses. Various reasons are assigned for this: The declines in Americans, the Fashoda affair, the Chinese diffi¬ culty, etc., but it is a natural result of a protracted speculation and the growth of the commercial demand for funds. The fail¬ ing supply of cheap money has recently, also, had a limiting effect upon the new industrial enterprises put upon the London market. Activity in this iine continued with but little interrup¬ tion throughout the current year until shortly after the end of July, since when it has been very small indeed. The total amount ottered for public subscription during last quarter was however, considerably larger than in the corresponding period of 1897, as it included several Government, corporation and rail¬ way issues of large amount, and though th© three months' ag¬ gregate is more than £10,000,000 below that for the previous three months, it exceeds the sum reached in the third quarter of the year for a long period, with the single exception of 1896— that year having been exceptionally productive in new capital issues. The amount is £37,705,000, comparing with £31,874,000 in 1897, and £41,287,000 in 1896. Por the nine months of the current year the total reached no less than £123,910,000, being £15,780,000 more than the aggregate for the same period last year, and exceeding the total for the record year of 1896 by £3,944,000. Recent calculations put the French wheat crop at a figure equal to estimated consumption. Among the reports that tend to make improbable any rupture between France and Germany, is one that large Parisian institutions have lately been investing their surpluses for which they could find nO' use at home, in the German market, where a growing industrial demand gave them profitable employment. If this is true, it may be taken for granted that the political situation was care¬ fully weighed before the money was transferred. Some dis¬ appointment is expressed at Vienna that the foreign demand does uot absorb the results of the good harvest and so bring needed gold into the country. A MERICAN competition in iron and steel continues a lively *^ subject for discussion abroad, and in reverting to the matter recently, one of the English financial journals claimed that the British limit of production had been reached, and that it was the growth of the demand of the world that was met of late by supplies from America. This is an original and interest¬ ing view, and the conclusions regarding future trade made there¬ from are iuteresting. The paper in question says: "During the past ten years the production of pig-dron in this country has been comparatively stationary, never exceeding seven to nine million tons during the periods of greatest activity, whereas in the United States during the same time the production fluctuated between 3,000,000 tons in 1879, and 10,000,000 tons in 1897, and to¬ day the production is at the rate of about 11,000,000 tons per annum. It is manifest, therefore, that it would have been very difficult to supply the growing wants of the world unless the United States had entered the field in the way she has done. It may be that in future we may have to take the second, in¬ stead of the first place, in the iron and steel trade of the world; but if, as is just possible, the expansion of trade continues in the same, or even a larger ratio, than during the past 20 or 30 years, we may before long find the large production of the United States insufficient to meet all the requirements of the world. Taking the subjoined figures as the production of the world, during the following years, we may fairly estimate that the requirements of 1901 wiil not be less than 34,000,000 tons. The production of pig-iron throughout the world was, in 1897, 31,000,000 tons; in 1891, 26,000,000 tons; in 1881, 20,000,000 tons, and in 1871, 13,000,000 tons. As the production of Great Britain cannot be very readily extended, owing to the difficulty of ob¬ taining ore, it seems probable that the United States will have to supply the bulk of the additional 3,000,000 tons of pig-iron which are likely to be required during the next three years; Germany is the only other country which has been increasing its output to any extent, but this has only been at the rate of 300,- 000 to 400,000 tons per annum on the average." VESTIMG TITLE BEFORE PAVMENT. TT is curi>ently reported that the city administration will obtain ^ the introduction, and push the passage through the next Leg- islature,of a bill to repeal those portions of the existing lawwhicb give tbe city title to lands required for distinctly public im¬ provements in advance of the ascertainment and payment of damages. Mayor Van Wyck recently condemned this practice very strongly, and said it would bankrupt any government in the world if persisted in. He quoted the Eim street case, in which large sums will have to be paid for interest on awards, while awaiting the issue of bonds necessary to carry out the im¬ provement. As a matter of fact, the provisions of law referred to have worked badly and ought to be modified, at least, in order to avoid injury either to one side or the other. The late admin¬ istration, under a popular demand, decided to push certain im¬ provements to a more rapid conclusion than then seemed likely, and, as the difUcuIty lay in obtaining title to the necessary land, they secured the passage of bills which gave the city title in certain specified cases on certain specified dates. For instance, title to the laud required for the Third Avenue bridge approach was obtained on very short notice, and the property has been taken, although not only has not a penny of compensation been paid to the late owners of the property, but the amount of that compensation has not even been determined. We allude to this as a matter of fact, and not imputing blame to anyone for the delay. But when allowing the city to take this property, the Legislature, to compensate the person thus arbitrarily deprived of his property, decided that the awards when made should hear interest at the legal rate from the date when title passed. Last year, actuated by a desire to extend this principle wher¬ ever possible, the Strong administration secured the passage of two acts of more general application. One of these, now Chapter li7(! of the Laws of 1897, amended Chapter 293 of the Laws of 1895, more popnlai-ly known as the Small Parks Act. The amendments conferred on the city additional powers for taking title to land embraced within the boundaries of parks established under the earlier act. In the case of parks already selected, it provided that title should vest in the city in thirty days after its passage. In the cases of parks laid out after the passage cf tbe amendatory act, the Board of Street Opening and Improve¬ ments may, by resolution, fix a date when title to the property required shall vest in the city. The second aot referred to was Chapter 630 of the Laws of 1897. This applied the procedure laid down in the charter for the Greater New York to condemnation proceedings instituted by the then existing corporation, known as the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New York. It provided for a uniform system in proceedings to con¬ demn property required by the municipality, except for street openings, parks, aqueducts and docks, but affected sites for school houses, station houses, armories, court houses and every¬ thing not specifically excepted as stated. One of its most import¬ ant provisions is that the board or department directing con-