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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1942: June 3, 1905

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June 3, 1905 RECORD AND GTHDE 1217 Dented P RfArES7AJE'.BuiLD!f/G %cKlTEeTJI\E,HoUSEriOU)DESafiA'nMl,i Bi/sr/ess Affo Themes of GEjlERftl IjiiEftes-i., PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVery ■Saturdatf Communications should ne addroaeed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New York Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 usually large share ot the great tide of Jioreigu immigration has remained m New iork, auti has created that imperative need of U-nement house aecommoaatiou, which is rapimy iranstorming Manhattan into a city of tenements. Owing to all these condi¬ tions, iL would not tie at aii surprising in ease the increase of papulation since 1900 proves to be as much as bOO.OoO. and in L-p..si liy the end ol the present decade the greater iNew Vorli couid boast of 4,700,000 inhabitants. As long as this rate of in¬ crease continues it v/ill strain the building machinery, even of New Yorli Lo construct living accommodations for aii these peo¬ ple. It means that every three years a city as large as Cleve¬ land must be built, and at the same time a city as large as Rochester must be torn down and thrown iato the scrap heap. "Entered at the Post Offit ce a( If^ew York, if. r"-, as second-class mailer." Copyrieht by tha Re,-i I Eslate Record and Builderi i' Gnide Company. Vol. LXXV. JUNE 3, 1905. No. 1942. Cement .............. Clay Products .......... Contractors and Builders, , Firepioohng ..........., Gra nil INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. (.Advertising Section.) Page Machinery ............. ii Metal Work ............ xvii Real Estate ............ xll ;ind Sleel. Wood Produl AS the weeks pass by it becomes increasingly evident thai the recent reaction in the Stock Market is not the fore¬ runner of .a change for the worse in the general business situa¬ tion. It was occasioned b-y the extent to which speculators had advanced prices, with the result that there was little or no generai demand at the prevailing level, A decline was necessary iu order to renew any general public interest in the Stock Mar¬ ket. Alter the flrst break occurred, a recovery was delayed, because of the lear of a reaction in business that was suddenly occasioned by the lessened demand for pig iron and certain forms of finished steel. But this fear has been pretty well dis- ipated by subsequent events. The iron and steel manufactur¬ ing business will not continue to be as prosperous in the near future as it has been in the near past; but there is every rea¬ son to believe that a fair volume of business will continue to be transacted throughout Lhe curreut year. There is no danger of a marked reaction, because there has been no boom,and no inflation of prices, as there was early in 1903. Moreover, the railroad and building industries will continue to need a re¬ spectable volume of flnished products. Consequently, inasmuch as the iron and steel trades were the only ones which showed any weakness, and as there is uo cause for anticipating any serious depression in that quarter, it is a lair assumption that general business in 1905 wil afford no pretext for lower stock values. Whether the situation will aitord any pretext for higher values remains to be seen; but it looks at worst like a steady slock market for the next month or two. Good crops, plus higher rates of dividend distribution might occasion and justify a bull campaign somewhat later; and even a comparative crop failure could, considering the volume of general business, seriously injure the values of good railroad securities. IT is being confidently predicted that the State census taken during the present year will show a population in the Greater New York of not less than 4,000,000 people; aud there is every reason to believe that such will be the case. Even during the last decade the annual increase was not far from 100,000 in¬ habitants; and since 1900, it is demonstrable that the yearly addition has been still larger, Tbese flve years have witnessed an unusual expansion in the amount of business transacted in this city. It has reaped the advantage accruing from the fact that New York is the commercial and flnancial metropolis of a country whose business interests are constantly undergoing a process of centralization and consolidation. Almost every large bus-ness enterprise started in any part of the country, sooner or later, pays its larger or its smaller tribute to New York; and this circumstance is chiefly responsible for the ever growing mass of "sky-scrapers" which cut the sky-line south of Cortlandt St. At the same time the local industries have been undergoing rapid expansion. The clothing manufacturers have largely in¬ creased their output; and that great body of business known in general as the wholesale trade has symbolized its growth by occupying with great rapidity a new district north of 14Ui St. At the same tirae the great public works undertaken by the city, and by the railroad companies has considerably augmented the demand for unskilled labor. Indeed the demand for all kinds of labor has been so insistent and so elastic that an un- TiiE report of the united biates ttealty and Improvement Company, issued during the past week, shows what ex¬ cellent results have loilowed Irom me new poucy adopted by that corporation. Alter paying all e.-^penses, intertst ou bonus, taxes aad the like, the company has a surplus, applicable to diviuenUs on Lhe stock, amounting to about $l,ll>0.00o, aud there is ei'ery prospect that during the coming year the surplus will be still larger, because the properties of the company will have been still further developed. This excellent result has been reached by Lhe change in the policy of the company, a change which Look the company out 01 speculative real estate trausac- tious and connned its business tor the time being to Lhe im- piovement ot valuable property already acquired, AL the end of another year the company will have still further increased the earning power of its present holdings, and will be in a position to purchase additional property for development. The securities of Lhe company should by that tipae be selling at a price which would enable it to obtain fresh supplies of capital at com¬ paratively low rates of interest; and iu this way it can provide economically for the expansion of its operations. The company is becoming what it should be, a real estate investment corpora¬ tion; and it is admirably equipped for this purpose. WHEN it was flrst proposed to add three or four tracks to the East Side elevated roads, the Record and Guide was inclined to favor the pi-oposal, because the improvement of the tievated structure seemed to be the quickest aud cheapest method of giving the East Side of Manhatlan and Lhe Broux Lhe addi¬ tional transit facilities, W'hich the population of that territory needed so very badly. But since Lhe proposal was flrst made, the siluation has entirely changed. At that time it looked as if the most we could expect in the way of new Subways was upper East Side and lower West Side extensions. Nov/, however, Lhe prospects are that New York can count upon at least three new four-track tunnels running from the Battery up to the Bronx; and this outlook is so very advantageous, that to do anything Lo damage it would be very had business. The addition of third tracks to the Third and Second ave. structures would manifestly impair the city's chances of obtaining bidders for the Subways mentioned above, because the new tracks would diminish the traffic, ou which the new tunnels would depend for subsistence. IL is better to wait for the infinitely better means of transporta¬ tion which these tunnels would afford than to endanger the chance of obtaining genuine rapid transit by constructing a mere temporary makeshift- The third elevated tracks would be only makeshifts. They would not provide the kind of ex¬ press service which the growth of the city really demands. Public; opinion of New York will demand that the Rapid Transit Commission achieves at least t-wo results in malt¬ ing terms with the bidders for the new rapid transit routes. It will not be satisfied unless arrangements can be made for at least three longitudinal and three lateral tunnels and it will expect that the city share more largely in the proflts obtained by operating these tunnels than it does in those of Llie existing Subway. It will expect leas^ for shorter lerms of years, and a division cf profits after Lhe net receipts reach a certain amount. The income of the present Subway shows that Mr. Belmont made an extremely good bargain when he assumed a lease for seventy-five years at a rental of 4J/. per cent, on Lhe cost of con¬ struction. It looks as if Lhe stock of the Interborough Com¬ pany would pay eight per cent, almost from Lhe sLart. It is true that part of the income out of which tbis eight per eent. will be paid is derived from the advantageous lease of the elevated roads; but it is also true that the Subway has not as yeL begun to demonsLrate its full earning power. In a few years several hundred thousand people will be living on l/vasningLon Heights, on the Dyckman tract, and in the Bronx, who will have selecLed these locations because of the Subway, and who w-ill depend al¬ most exclusively upon the Subway for their transit service. A large proportion of the existing traffic is competitive; hut the