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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 66, no. 1702: October 27, 1900

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October, 27, 1900. KECORD AND GUIDE. 525 Dtifrll!>p'Rp^E:8TAii.BmL[H(fc Aji&KnzCTUREiicwsEHajjDEocufciiai. Bu^iWess Alto Themes Of GeHerA lifits^T. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. PuMished every Satttrday. TELEPHONE. CORTLAND 1.170. Communications sbould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street. /. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. 'Entered at the Post-Office at Ncm Yorh. N. Y., as second-class matter." Vol. L-XVI. OCTOBER 27, 1900, 1702. THURSDAY, November 1, is the last day that 1900's taxes can he paid to secure any rebate. Thereafter until De¬ cember 1 they are net to the city. On the same day unpaid water rates are subject to a charge of ten per cent, in addition to the five per cent, charged August 1. TXT ITH the advance in stock market prices, it comes of ^ ^ course, that the air is filled with reports of new de¬ velopments and combinationa, from among which it is hard for the outsider to pick out the good from the bad, A good rule to follow is to avoid anything that is not based on known good results. There is an ample field for all legitimate operations within this restriction, and lesa danger of being caught by false pretences, which some of the reports put out just now certainly are. As to the market itself, that ought to be quite satisfactory to everyone. It is true that professionals have a trick of realiz¬ ing whenever they have made small profits and so produce reac¬ tions; it is also true that some participants fear that the bull movement will collapse before the election and whose hesita¬ tion and timidity aggravate those reactions, but these are healthy checks to a too rapid advance, and they serve to give the market that trading character which is essential to a whole¬ some movement. There are now indications that other markets, encouraged by the buoyancy in that for securities, are about to wake up and take a move; this is particularly the case in iron, where" some buyers are taking it for granted that, with sub- -stantially higher security values, it is no longer of use to wait for further cuts in the, prices of staples and tbat there may even be a danger of the market's rising upon them before their wants are supplied. There is something in this, because it is a sure thing that if the higher values of the security market are main¬ tained, other markets will take their tone from it. Thia will he not a sympathetic action merely, but one based on economic principles, too complex, however, to explain within the limits of a short paragraph like this. Something of a feature has been made this week of the subscription to the Hamburg bonds in this city, but details are not announced. It is doubtful whether the public have subscribed to any extent and there is very little reason why they should have done so. The insurance companies doing business abroad are likely to be the chief buyers of foreign securities; others will only buy for the premium they expect to get later on, though why they ahould go abroad for that when home securities are offering premiums in rising values every day it is hard to see. IF we were to sum up all the bad features of the European situation—among them stringency in money, idle spindles, closing textile factories, cutting of iron and steel prices, etc. ad. lib.—it would be seen that tbe warnings of trouble to come . given weeks and months ago have now been fully justified. There is no doubt that the business boom is over. What will follow is the inevitable spell of dullness, and if thia is unaccom¬ panied by large failures it will be very fortunate and a testimony to the greater conservatism with which business is now carried on. The situation is materially improved by the Anglo-German agreement, which sounds just that decisive note that was wanted to prevent the Powers from drifting into dangerous positions through want of concerted action to procure the common end that all, at least diplomatically, declare they want to attain. Another matter of great importance is the increasing value of money, as indicated by the higher rates offered on governmental and municipal loans. It was not so very long ago that govern¬ ments and municipalities had the first call on available capi¬ tal at rates varying from two and one-half to three and one-half per cent. The depreciation of these issues and the Impossibility of continuing to supply the public needs at those rates have compelled even as financially strong a power as Great Britain to compete with industry for money by raising the rate of interest. Both Imperial Germany and the ancient and rich city of Ham¬ burg have had to make even greater concessions to capital, and the Kingdom of Saxony, which was the first of the German states toplace loans at three per cent, is said to be contemplating a new issue at four per cent. Unless we are about to see a large re¬ lease of capital from induatrial use, it will follow that there must be an all round advance of interest rates. That is to say, if a three per cent, public rate was accompanied by a five per cent, ordinary rate, the advance of the firat to four per cent, would carry with it an advance of the second to six and one-quarter per cent. This, probably, will not be the actual result, but it illustrates the proceaa at work making money dearer. Six years ago we were wondering what use could be found for the im¬ mense amounts of capital in sight and it was even suggested, and appeared reasonable at the time, that eventually capital would loan for nothing, or for security merely; yet, to-day, so great is the demand to supply tbe multitudinous wants of civil¬ ized man that the bes-t accredited borrowers have practically to beg for the funds they need, where they were solicited to make use of all the capital they could use only a comparatively short time ago. X MONG the many recommendations made by the Chamber of ■^"^ Commerce for the amendment of the charter, that that the work be given more time ia the most important. As the Chamber states, it would be better to live another year under the present charter rather than accept a revised charter that is not completely revised. Property owners will echo this sentiment. They have auffered too much through a hurriedly drawn docu¬ ment, to contemplate the consequencea of a hurried revision with anything but dread. X PUBLIC park, particularly in a tenement-house district, ^^ should be planned primarily for use and only secondarily to present a seemly and effective appearance. The Outdoor Recreation League is right in insisting that, when the Park Board spends the $92,000 which has recently been appropriated to improve Seward Park, due provision ahould be made to pre¬ serve the playground and gymnasium by which the space is now occupied. A certain amount of landscape gardening is indeed extremely desirable, for the present appearance of the park is hopelessly untidy, arid and forlorn; but Seward Park ahould remain, first of all, a play-ground, and one-third of the apace is little enough to reserve for the purpose. The idea of a pubftc park which exists in the minds of moat New York children is that of a place in which you "keep off the grass." If there is going to be any grass in Seward Park we presume that the chil¬ dren must be kept off; but if throughout two-thirds of the park the children are to be sacrificed to the grass, it is fair tbat in the other third the grass should be sacrificed to the children. THE treaty between England and Germany is the flrst busi¬ ness-like document which the long and tedious course of Chinese negotiations has brought forth. It really promises to do something toward the preservation of the Chinese Empire and the maintenance of commercial freedom within its limits. The promises which Secretary Hay obtained from the various European governments could not have stood the test of adverse interests and events. It was with most of the Powers merely a polite concession—a little bit of diplomatic courteay, which could be subsequently evaded as smoothly as any ordinary social fiction. But here are two of tbe most important Powers deliber¬ ately and publicly agreeing to refrain from territorial expansion in China, to keep their own domains open to tbe commerce of the world, and to use their influence in support of such a policy. Thus the dismemberment of China wiil be opposed by the gov¬ ernments controlling the strongest army and the strongest navy in the world, and under present conditions such opposition ought to be effective. The only power which might make trouble is Russia, and it seems to be tacitly understood that Russia is to be placated by being allowed a free hand in Manchuria. When one thinks of it, the significance of the treaty is atartling. It muat mean that Lord Saliabury and the Emperor Wiiiiam, after a full conaideration of the facta, have decided that a policy of territorial expanaion is too dangerous and expensive, and that it will be easier and safer to bolster up the Imperial Chinese government and give the Chinese a good long chance to build up a state that will answer to European requirements. For the