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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 70, no. 1804: October 11, 1902

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October ii, 1902. RECORD AXD GUIDE. 515 mm^ ey' ^ ESTABLISHED -^ JA^H-CH 21M^ 1858. DE/cfiBH TO f^E^L EsjKit. Building ^Rofitecture .Househoid DEsaRjJiorl. Business aiJdThemes Of GejJer^ iKrERfsi. PKIC£ PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS Published every Satardag Communications should l.o addressod to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey atreet. New YorR J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Enlered at the Post O.ffice at New York. N. Y.. as second-clans matter." Vol. LXX. OCTOBER 11, 1902. No. iSu4. THE situation in Wall street is practically nnchanged. The easier feeling in the money market is due to the fact that speculation has been knocked on the head for the time being. A revival of speculation, if it was possible, would soon reproduce the conditions from which we have just emerged. There is no danger of that, however, for the banks are too alive to the evils that would follow, and are not only preaching, hut so far as they are able enforcing the lesson of caution. The agricultural and commercial needs of the country will absorb all available funds for sometime to come, and stock speculation must wait. Possibly some exuberance would be irrepressible if a sudilen announcement should come that the strike in the Anthracite coal fields had been settled. It is a curious thing and indicative of the cheerful habit of mind that our people have acquired in the past five or six years, that thought dwells so much upon the happy changes that will ensue if the strike is settled, aud so little upon what will follow if it is prolonged into the winter months. Probably it is because these conse¬ quences would be so very unpleasant that no one cares to dwell upon them. With the hint that may be found in these remarks we will respect the general dislike to discuss this phase of the subject. A few days will disclose whether the operators can maintain their position, that with proper protection, they can supply the public need. If they cannot they will have to meet the miners; if they can, the strike must go to pieces, but in the process there may develop unpleasant incidents, which will not help security values. Altogther the situation continues to be one for conservatism, though not necessarily for anxiety. It is a time that brings out the true regard in which the various se¬ curities in the market are held, and, although the winds of ad¬ versity have blown off a good deal of froth, there is still some that must be dissipated before perfectly satisfactory conditions are reached. —.-—.------------^„—.—— BERLIN followed the action of London in putting up the bars against further accommodations on our securities, the discount rate of the Imperial Bank being raised during tbe week. Yet it is said there is plenty of money, a plethora in fact at both centres. If there is, neither we nor their own commer¬ cial communities are benefiting from it, and the inference is that it is being reserved for Governmental use. There is no doubt a great deal of money is required in this direction. Great Britain must issue a loan, either directly or through the Trans¬ vaal and Orange River colonies, with a guarantee, to ciean up war debts. France is credited with an intention to apply for $250,000,000 with which to cover budget deficiencies; Germany must obtain a large amount for similar purposes; Russia, always in the market as a borrower whenever conditions are favorable, is contemplating another large issue, and the smaller States are ready to follow the example of the big ones whenever they can, Japan successfully floated a loan of $25,000,000 in London this week, a fruit of the new alliance, which is effecting such im¬ portant changes in Manchuria, and it is obvious that there is money to lend if the terms are favorable. These governmental requirements are a direct, though suspended, demand upon the market, and they keep rates stiff and prices for securities de¬ pressed. Among other items of news it is interesting to note that the Rand output of gold continues to increase. For Sep¬ tember, 175,000 ozs. was reported, being the second continuous month in which a gain of 13,000 ozs. was made. Previous to that the monthly increases, since post-bellum resumption of mining, have been smaller with one exception. The miners are still handicapped by a scarcity of labor, and until this is over¬ come, the Rand cannot come up to its ante-bellum record. .Not¬ withstanding an apparent duiness, in industrial and commercial lines, which must be more apparent than real, pricea in Great Britain advanced substantially between August and September, and while they make 'by no means record figures, they show steady increase since the spring. The latest returns of foreign trade, which give increases in both departments, are satisfactory and as.the increase of prices appears prominently in articles used in manufactures, they point to that revival of European business that was anticipated in these columns some time ago. Two Corporations—A Comparison. \X T'H.A.T one admires most in the attitude of the Pennsyl- * * vania R. R. Co toward this city is its business-like character. In the first place the company came forward and said in effect: The time has come when we should have a Man¬ hattan terminal; we have selected such and such a location, and are willing to pay fairly for it, and for the privileges which we ask of the city to run our lines underground, etc. They en- ■ counter equally shrewd business men in the Rapid Transit Com¬ mission and in the great administrative offices of the munici¬ pality, and satisfactory terms are arranged and accepted upon both sides. Then, unfortunately, step in men who are neither business like nor great, and the whole work is set back by de¬ mands that no company, placed as the Pennsylvania R. R. Co. is placed, could accept. But they meet this emergency in the same calm business-like spirit in which they began, and con¬ tinue the negotiations, and point out that conditions as to em¬ ployment of labor and rates of wages cannot he included in the terms of a franchise, a fact that ought to have been evident to the obstructionists, aud stand squarely upon that. Of course the Rapid Transit Commission know the Railroad Com¬ pany are right and that they could not do otherwise than re¬ affirm the bargain they had already made. The question now is will the Board of Aldermen see this, too, and refrain from ob¬ structing a work which it is almost a crime to delay. That the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. is needed here cannot be gainsaid, not merely because of the money they are pre¬ pared to spend, and the facilities of carriage and travel they will supply to our people, but also as an example of what the attitude of a railroad corporation toward our public should be. This lesson is needed by the other railroad company whose boast it has been for many years that they controlled the rail¬ road gateway of Manhattan Island. The policy of the company that desires to come in,and that that has alreadymade hundreds of millions of dollars by being in, affords an interesting con¬ trast. The first is more than ready to meet every physical requirement and accord generous pecuniary terms for what it would take; while the other, the older company, the one that has heen in the receipt of benefits of incalculable direct pecuni¬ ary value, sticks, shuffles and wriggles in order to avoid com¬ pliance with the most reasonable requests. For years they have dodged and avoided their duty of putting the Park Avenue tunnel in a condition that it will not be an offense. Though "brought right up to this necessity, they still avoid doing what they should by offering plans and making conditions impossi¬ ble of acceptance. Ex-Comptrolier Fitch expressed the general sentiment when he said before the Murray Hill Board of Public Improvements, that if what the company promised was made a matter of formal contract it had more chance of being observed than otherwise. This does not indicate either a large or abiding faith in the word of the company. At the moment some prop¬ erty owners are involved in a bitter fight with this company to prevent their property being practically ruined by the adoption of plans for improving the Grand Central Depot, and its ap¬ proaches. On the westerly side of Park ave. the company satisfied the property owners by acquiring all the property wanted at private contract, and there their plan is simply to move the avenue westward a distance of 75 ft. Conditions on the easterly side, however, are quite different. They have acquired considerable of the property in the blocks south of 4&th street, but not all. The balance they could acquire by con¬ demnation. They, however, do not propose to do this, but are simply making application to close the street south of 49th street up to the line of their own property on each street, leaving the remaining property in these streets in blind alleys, which they will probably enclose with brick fences similar to those which now line Ijcxington avenue in this neighborhood, and are a standing cause of nuisance and complaint. In addition to this they propose taking the easterly side of Park avenue, between 4Sth and SOth streets, without paying for it, and without any definite promises as to what sort of improvements they Intend to make. Evidently they need something to teach them respect for the rights of others. There has to be considered then, not only the. justice of the Pennsylvania's proposition, but also the Influence their early advent In Manhattan will have upon the rival company. The