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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1829: April 4, 1903

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April 4, 1903. RECORD AND GUIDE 641 SeX -^ ESTABUSHED^fjiRCH?l^'^18S8. fiifsnkss AibTHEUES OF GeHeh^. iHt^^sTi PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS published every Saturday Communications aboulii be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK I, T. LINDSEY, Business Manager Teleplione, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at the Fost Office at New York, N. T.. as second-ciass matter." Vol, LXXI. APRIL 4, 1903. No, 1S29 IT is evident that the liquidating movement whioh has heen recently causing a decline of prices on the Stock Market has not yet run its course. Certain interests are under the necessity of selling securities in order to lighten a burden, which, under money market conditions, is proving too heavy to carry, and this cause of weakness still in ,some measure exists, Mr, Morgan's interview on Tuesday was given out manifestly for the purjftse of, if possible, checking the liquidation; and it was followed hy a day of higher prices; hut the effect was not permanent. The truth that the current business prosperity is suffering under so many burdens that it may in the end be tired out hy the weight of its own load. Large earnings are not of much benefit to the security owners of railroads, when the profits are eaten up by higher wages, higher cost of materials, and the difficulty of rais¬ ing money for improvements only at high rates of interest. So it is with other branches of business. The. scarcity of loanable capital hampers mercantile houses, manufacturers, and builders as much as it does the railroads, and, as long as it lasts, will undoubtedly prove to be a check upon business. The general situation is sound enough, and the mass of "undigested securi¬ ties" has good value behind them; but it is only too apparent that the process of digestion will take a long time, and that many more months of the existing high rates for money would in the end undermine, that confldence in the immediate business future, upon which the whole fabric of business prosperity rests. *T*HE ways of Governor Odell and the New York Legislature ■^ in the matter of taxation are past finding out. The Gov¬ ernor in his message of this year recommended that the State tap three new sources of taxation: (1) a tax in real estate con¬ veyances; (2) a tax an the gross receipts of franchise corpora¬ tions, and (3) a tax on mortgages. One after another these leg- isi&tive plans were dropped. The first to be abandoned was the tax on corporation receipts, the second the tax on real estate transfers, and now the tax on mortgages has also been thrown, overboard. But in order to give another exhibition of vacilla¬ tion, a higher tax on rea! estate transfers is to be substituted for the mortgage tax. Surely it would be difflcult to give a more distressing exhibition of legislative incompetency. The New Tork real estate interests do not know where they stand, or at ■what point tbey will he attacked next. As soon as they rally to defend themselves from danger at one point, that particular threat is abandoned, and they find themselves exposed at an¬ other point. There would have been some sense in substituting a recording tax on mortgages, in lieu of all other mortgage tax¬ ation, because, even though the revenue were unnecessary, the ■whole business of borrowing and lending money on real estate would be benefited hy the relief afforded to mortgages through their exemption from the genera! property tax; but apparently that was too sensible and popular a course to pursue. Whatever is done, it must be something that will injure, aud not benefit real estate. So the tax on conveyances is revived instead of the tax on recording mortgages. Moreover, the proposed rate of tax¬ ation is raised, with the effect of making it burdensome and op¬ pressive, for it will mean a charge of ?250 to be paid hy some¬ body when a parcel worth $100,000 is transferred. Such a tax will undoubtedly produce several million dollars of unnecessary revenue at a smaller cost to the real estate interests and the. Republican state administration than the mortgage tax would have done; hut the superfluity and wantonness of the attack on the real estate business is enough to make a New York prop¬ erty-owner lose what patience he may have left. Of course it is the real estate operators and speculators who will be hardest hit, but why should they be singled out for such particular and persistent attack? WE are sure that Mayor Low, before affixing his signature, will give due consideration to the ordinance recently passed by the Board of Aldermen, regarding the projection of ornamental features on buildings. Some measure of the kind may be desirable in the interest of artistic freedom, but it is asserted that this particular ordinance was inspired by private interests to absolve a specific building from liabilities incurred by infraction of the existing law. If this allegation be triie, the ordinance should be signed with some hesitation. Moreover, it needs to receive more careful consideration from architects, buildei-s and real estate owners than has yet been given to it, for apparently there are certain conditions under which adjacent property owners might be injured by the projections contem¬ plated. Clearly a projection of four feet, be it a colonnade, por¬ tico or cornice, might be a very serious damage to contiguous buildings. It will be recalled that in the case of bay windows, it is necessary to obtain the consent of property owners for fifty feet on both sides of the contemplated projection before it may be legally constructed. A safeguard of this character might perhaps be inserted in the ordinance with advantage. Besides the calculations necessitated by this new measure will be a seri¬ ous obstacle to the legal completion of buildings. TT cannot be too strongly and repeatedly insisted that the ■^ Rapid Transit Commission will make a serious mistake in case it accepts Mr, Parsons' route for the lower West Side ex¬ tension. The Record and Guide pointed out the inadequacy of that route, as soon as Mr. Parsons' plans were announced; and both the Evening Post and the Times have taken the same grcund. What is the use of having an express service as far sotith as 42d street along the West Side, and from there on, only a local service? Probably it is proposed to run the West Side expresses through 42d street and down 4th avenue, but the dis¬ advantages of such an arrangement are overwhelming. The 4th avenue express tracks will have to handle tbe East Side express traflic, which will include a large part of the heavy travel de¬ rived from the Bronx, and all the passengers which the Port¬ chester road and the Vanderbilt lines can gather together; and all this trafflc would be a sufficient strain upon its tracks. More¬ over, the necessity of turning in through 42d street would cause, the West Side expresses to lose several minutes. No! the need of four continuous tracks on the West Side is perfectly obvious, aud it is inconceivable that Mr, Parsons should have overlooked it for the two-track Broadway tunnel. The notion of using Broadway as far as possible always seems to possess a peculiar fascination for the projectors of rapid transit routes; but, while a subway that used as much of Broadway, and remained as near to Broadway as it could, has manifest advantages, these advan¬ tages are outweighed hy the larger capacity and the incidental conveniences of the proposed Tth aveuue and West Broadway tunnel. TOURING the past week the officials of the Interborough ■^~^ Rapid Transit Company have taken the actual manage- men of the Manhattan Railway system; aud they made their assumption of their charge noteworthy by immediately raising the wages of the hard-worked employees of that company. It i.? to be hoped that they wil! also bear in mind the desirability of winning at the outset the good opinion of their patrons. The former management of the Manhattan Company alienated pub¬ lic sympathy by always refusing to improve its service until it was forced to, either by competition or by public opinion, and then by doing as little as possible. This did not make so much difference to the company, because, owing to the fact that it was sure of its position and was not bidding for new privileges, it could in a sense afford to disregard the feelings of its patrons. Cut the Interborough Company is, in this respect, in a totally different situation. It controls the first Manhattan and Brook¬ lyn subways; and it will be very much to its interest to control alsf, the proposed suhway extensions. It seeks and needs, that is, a rapid transit monopoly in three most important boroughs of Greater New York, and whether it will be able to get and keer. this monopoly will depend upon the disposition it shows to give its patrons the very best accommodations that it can offer. The city of New York cannot afford to let such a monopoly re¬ main with a company that did not appreciate to the full how vitally the prosperity and growth of the city was dependent upon an adequate train service and station accommodations. On the other hand such a monopoly might be the very best way of handling the vast rapid transit ti'affic, provided the management of the monopoly acted from the point of view that its natural business purpose of earning as large a percentage as possible upon its capitalization was qualified by its position as a great public servant As an earnest desire of its intention to im-