Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 66, no. 1706 [i.e. 1707]: December 1, 1900

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December i, 1900. KECORD AND GUIDE. 737 DE^r\eSi 10 Rf*,LE:sTAjr.BuiLDi7/G ^RpifrrEeTURE,HobSEtfoiJ)Ite8ci;jiiciii BlfSOiESS AIIdThEHIES OF GEflEIVkl iNltfifSl. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLIiARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, CORTLANDT I37O. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. /. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. 'Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class inatter." Vol. LXVI. DECEMBER 1, 1900. No. 1706. IN the Stock Market the flame of bull enthusiasm that burst out three weeks ago is now reduced to a flicker. The daily total of transactions is only about half what it was, and it is now necessary to do something more than shut one's eyes and open one's mouth in order to be rewarded by the gods. A. 0. T. (any old thing), as the wits of the street put it, is no longer good to buy for a sure proflt, but discrimination must be used, and a failure to secure facts beforehand may lead to disaster. If it were not tbat developments of an encouraging nature were be¬ ing revealed every day, the market would react at once, and in the main will probably do so materially before the advent of spring. Such a movement is checked now and will be modified in its intensity later by the hopeful outlook for general business and a succession of developments similar to those that have heen of effect this week. For instance, tbe earning capacity of the railroads in the Southern States, from the Atlantic to tbe Pacific, has been forced on the minds of the public like a revela¬ tion. These States have had comparatively little notice for some years, the colossal advances of the North having absorbed at¬ tention, but it is now obvious that though backward they are stepping into the line of general progress and are also securing those combinations both in manufactures and in carrying facili¬ ties that have resulted in such enormous increases to wealth north of the historic line dividing the two sections. The in¬ fluence of facts like these on classes of securities or on indi¬ vidual securities serve to keep up the strength of the market, but it is only by a direct use of them that money is now to be made speculatively. Of course, the business prospects for a future of considej'abie duration give an increased investment value to the leading issues in both stocks and bonds, but buying gen¬ erally must now be done with indifference to a probability of a lower range of quotations as a whole between now and the next season of commercial activity. THE British Government has now unexercised little or none of the $275,000,000 borrowing power bestowed by Par¬ liament, and, as the Boer war alone has cost probably $500,- 000,000, must borrow again as soon a.'' additional powers are received, and there is every likelihood that part at least of the needed funds will be sought in this market. The idea of a guar¬ anteed Transvaal loan receives strength as time goes on. Ger¬ man coal and iron shares have rallied substantially from the depression of September, but are nowhere near the point from which they started downward in April. There is, however, a local feeling that industrially the worst is over. Discount rates remain high throughout Europe, and from this distance it ap¬ pears that the cause of the improved feeling is only one of those reactions that come to make the inevitable descent easier, or less mischievous. Europe has just had an industrial boom more extensive and prolonged than any other in her experience, and it is hardly possible that another such can now supervene on the one that reached its height last spring. If such an idea had any existence it would be met by the simple inquiry: "Where is the necessary capital to come from? In Germany, at any rate, this quostion would be difficult to answer. If there is capital to spare for further industrial development, why is there none to raise the Imperial credit, whose three per cents, though stronger than they were, are still about 86, while French 3s sell at 101 and British 2%3 somewhat higher. It is lack of home capital, too, that sends German cities, hitherto able to get all the money they wanted at home at low rates, abroad to borrow on a par with railroads, and even at a disadvantage with the best of these. It would seem, then, that the capacity of German capital has been strained to the utmost, and that instead of committing itself further requires relief. If this is true of Germany, it is also true of Austria and the lesser countries. A combination that has just been perfected in London may interest many of our readers. It takes in about thirty concerns, or about 90 per cent of the Portland cement manufacturers doing businesss on the Thames and Medway and having an annual output of 1,570,- 000 tons. The reasons that brought about this combination were that a small combination formed for the purchase of fuel was followed by good results, while the independence of thirty con¬ cerns in matters of policy, production and prices worked injury to all. Of course, the cost of production varied with each firm, and a slackening in demand, even to a moderate extent, pro¬ duced a disproportionate fall in the selling value, often when the prices of fuel and labor, the chief items of variation in the cost of production, were at their highest point. A S the investigation of the Tenement Commission proceeds ^^* it becomes more and more apparent that the evils regard¬ ing which the greatest complaints are made do not arise from the house, but from its improper use. A stricter execution of the Factory and the Health laws would produce a great and bene¬ ficial change; the teaching of morality and cleanliness would do the rest. So far the suggestions brought out by the present discussion show that their makers overlook the real question; which, instead of being one of lessening the density of the population, as they seem to think, is really one of pro¬ viding decently for the denser population that time will bring, in spite of all means devised to prevent it, such as rapid transit and suburban building, for the reason that the reduction through these means is not equal to the increase from natality and im¬ migration. /^ NE aspect of the proposed new Police Bill is of peculiar in- ^^ terest. Here is a proposition to include large parts of West¬ chester and Queens Counties within the metropolitan limits for certain purposes, and as it is the first proposition of that kind which has been seriously made, towns such as Yonkers and Mount Vernon will do well to look sharp, or before they know it they will flnd themselves part of the metropolitan district for other purposes as well. In the course of time, the absorption of these towns will doubtless be a natural and inevitable event; but for the present they will do well to insist in every particular upon their local independence. The Borough of Richmond has been injured rather than benefited by consolidation, and so it will be with any more or less detached and growing place, un¬ less the charter revision provides for some effective measure of home rule. ~r- HE State Constabulary Bill has to all appearances died of i sheer fright. Its authors did not dare to face the storm of objection which would be aroused, in case its brief newspaper existence had been converted into a full-bodied legislative pro¬ posal; but they are cautiously putting forward a substitute, which, in its way, is quite as objectionable. The plan now is for a bill providing for a single-headed Police Department, and covering, not only the present Greater New York, but also cer¬ tain adjoining parts of Westchester and Queens Counties. The important point is that the commissioner will be appointed from Albany, and that he will be a State offlcer, responsible to State and not to the municipal government. The plan is ingeniously devised apparently to meet some of the criticisms which were fatal to the State Constabulary Bill, but its effects would be every bit as mischievous as that of a general State commission. Parts of Westchester and Queens Counties are to be put under the jurisdiction of the new commissioner in order to make him something more than a municipal officer, and hence responsible to the State authorities. But this responsibility to the Governor, instead of to the Mayor, is precisely the dangerous and objection¬ able feature of any such proposal. It would make the police department an organization which is necessarily and fatal¬ ly partisan. Its administration would be snatched out of the region of city politics, where it does belong, into the region of State politics, where it does not belong; and State politics are in the long run just as likely to be controlled by the Democratic as by the Republican machine. If the Democrats should con¬ trol the Governorship, and it was only Roosevelt's personal pop¬ ularity which prevented it two years ago. New York would have as now a Tammany police witb tbis difference, that this Tam¬ many police would feel less responsibility to local opinion than it does at present. Hence it would be a movement entirely in the wrong direction. The good or bad management of the New York police is entirely a matter for New Yorkers. It was indig¬ nation with the Police Department which brought about the election of Mayor Strong, and it is the indignation which the present situation has aroused which gives a non-partizan candi-