Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 66, no. 1687: July 14, 1900

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July 14, 1900, RECORD AND GUTDE. 37 OetM> V> fW- EsTAjE.BmLwfJb Ajjpi(rrECTURp,KousEriMJ>DEB(Hfno^ Busotess jub Theses Of GETieit^ Itftot^l.. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published ever J/ Saturday. Telephone, Costlandt 1370, Communications sliould bs addresBcd to ^-.\ C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veiey Street. J. T.'LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the PoBt-Offloe at JTew Tork. If. 7., aa aecond-clasa matter." Vol. LXVI. JULY 14, ISOO. 1687. The Index to Yohime LXV of Vie Eecord and G^iide, covering the penod between January 1st and June 30(7i. 1900, ivill be ready for delivery July 31st Price. $1. Tliis Index in its enlarged form is noiv recognised as indispensable to every one engaged or interested in- real estate and huilding operations. It covers all transactions—deeds, mortgages, leases, auction sales, building plans filed, etc. Orders for the Index should be sent at once to the office of publication, 14 and 16 Vesey Street. IT cannot be said that the news has favored the stock market this week, yet the latter has been distinctly strong on the ■whole, though the gain has not heen as great as appeared prob¬ able at the time of last writing. During the week a good deal of short covering has heen compelled, and there has been other buying of a better kind, notably in speculative issues of both bonds and stocks that give promise of satisfactory interest or dividend returns in the near future. This looks like the employ¬ ment of July disbursements In the market, and is a satisfactory sign of the confidence of investors. Crop reports keep up anx¬ ieties as to the final results of the harvest all over the country, excepting, of course, in the winter wheat sections, where satis¬ factory crops have already been secured. The Iron trade is still unsettled, hut the agreement on prices of structural steel, an¬ nounced this week, may be taken as a sign that sincere endeavors are being made In that line to arrange a satisfactory base for renewed buying and structural operations in the fall. The South African war has ceased to affect the market, because it is taken to be practically ended, notwithstanding the Boer successes that are occasionally reported and which probably cost the victor more than the vanquished. A lingering struggle after the de¬ cisive movements was anticipated, and it was not expected that in every incident of this struggle the British would come out best. More stress may be laid upon the situation in China, which is the most extraordinary and puzzling ever seen. In a country, whose government appears to he able to communicate with their own ministers abroad, no communication has been possible for weeks between the Western Powers and their repre¬ sentatives. The Chinese Government in their dispatches to their own ministers make no reference to the foreign ministers. The most gloomy auguries are drawn from these facts, and the worst would be accepted if it were not for the impossibility of inter¬ preting official Chinese, and if it were not a fact that every statement that has been made since the outbreak of the Boxers has remained unconfirmed. The Western Powers collectively are as nonplussed by the Chinese incident as the British were by the first results of the Boer war. Not only Is this so, but, unless the Chinese develop a frankness they have never yet shown, the West must continue In suspense until, after careful preparation, the road to Pekin is opened by force of arms and the true facts ocularly revealed. Meantime the Western Powers taking the receipt of recent dispatches as evidence that the Chinese minis¬ ters are able to communicate with their government, ought to endeavor to make them secure news of the fate of the ministers and other foreigners who were in Pekin when communication with the outer world were severed. ON another page a good deal of space is devoted to the ex¬ tensions of the trolley system in the Bronx, which we un¬ derstand are now, or will in a day or two hence be put under con¬ tract for immediate physical execution. The intention of these additions is to straighten out and thereby shorten aud make di¬ rect, what may be called the through lines of the Union Railway Company, reaching Fordham, Yonkers and Mt. Vernon, thereby saving time to through passengers; and, also, to give some cross communications that will benefit outlying sections on either side of the borough, notably Westchester, Unionport and Morris Heights, and give them easy and quick transit to the bridges that connect the Bronx with Manhattan and the systems of sur¬ face and elevated travel that develop the latter borough, while the new lines are in some Instances merely links between others that serve already well built up sections. It has been stated by Mr. James L. Wells, whose interest and knowledge of the BVOnx are quite paternal in their character and thorough¬ ness, the building of the trolley lines in the borough has always been followed by development and there is no reason for suppos¬ ing that this will not he the case in the instance under discus¬ sion. If, as is stated, the main line of travel will by these changes be diverted from Third avenue to Webster avenue, then it will give an importance to the latter thoroughfare that it has never possessed before. One of the needs of the Bronx trolley system Is that the line that now ends at the northerly approach to Cen¬ tral Bridge should be carried over that structure to connect with the lines on the Manhattan side. Why this is not done is not quite clear, and the public is left with the idea that the bridge may be perhaps profaned by contact with the poor man's car¬ riage, I. e., the surface car, and that the latter, his wife and chil¬ dren must, as a consequence, walk across the bridge, even in the snow of winter and the equally distressing heat of summer. While speaking of the Bronx trolley system it may not be amiss to call attention to the complaints that are made regarding Its equipment and to add that a school for conductors would not be a bad idea. In order to instruct them In manners and In the In¬ formation likely to be useful to travelers on their lines, as to locations and routes for reaching places of interest within the borough, such as the great parks, and the Botanical and Zoolog¬ ical gardens. At present the gentlemen, euphemistically called "Turks," in order to avoid direct offense to a certain influential vote, from whose ranks conductors are mainly selected, are not only in the Bronx but elsewhere sadly lacking in knowledge of the proper forms of address for public use and of localities and Institutions. THE announcement is made that the Insurance companies have raised the rates for Insurance in this city: On brick dwelling, from 6 to 10 cents; on frame dwellings, from 10 to 16 cents: on furniture In brick dwellings, from 12 to 16 cents; in frame dwellings, from 16 to 20 cents; on brick store and dwelling buildings, from 10 to 20 cents; on frame ditto, from 24 to 40 cents: on household effects In brick store and dwelling buildings, from 15 to 24 cents; and. In frame buildings of the same class, from 24 to 40 cents. The reason given for these advances Is that the companies have lost money of late, hut It does not appear that this loss has been In the class of risks upon which these sensational advances, amounting In one Instance to a hundred per cent, have been made. Consequently, there does not appear to be any :fustlce in the action of the companies, which Is likely to be resisted and to bring In again that competition from which fire underwriters have suffered so much In the past. T ▼ TE3 are hearing a good deal now of appeals to the courts i^» against tax valuations, particularly those made on franchises and on corporate property. What the results In the courts will be, of course, no one has a right to guess. The fact that lecral interpretation Is asked of a new law creating a new form of property for ta.xation, makes all these cases of the ut¬ most Interest and any decision is received with attention. Jus¬ tice O'Gorman of the Supreme Court this week denied the motion of the New York and Hudson River Railroad Company for a mandamus to compel the Tax Board to strike an assessment of $7,666,000 on real estate and rolling stock of the New York and Harlem Railroad from the rolls. The Tax Board, In opposing the motion, set up the fact that the rolls had been delivered to the Municipal Assembly and were, therefore, out of their control. Justice O'Gorman said: "The application comes too late. The members of the Board of Taxes are now without the power to perform the act which the relator seeks to compel them to per¬ form. The rolls are not now In their possession, and they are now functus officio, except as to a limited power not broad enough to cover the performances of the act in question. The re¬ lator can obtain full and appropriate relief by certiorari or by section 897 of the charter. The motion should be denied." Sec¬ tion 897 of the charter invests the Board of Taxes and Assess¬ ments with power to remit "where in the opinion of the corpora¬ tion counsel lawful cause is shown therefor." It may also reduce if found excessive a tax imposed upon real or personal property. The applicant must satisfy the board of his Inability to file com¬ plaint within the time allowed by law for the correction of taxes, and "any remission or reduction of taxes upon the real estate of individuals or corporations must be made within six months after the delivery of the books to the receiver of taxes for the collection of such tax."