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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1990: May 5, 1906

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May 5, 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE 815 mm. 1668, DevG-jeD p REA.L Estate,BuiLDiffc ARGH'iTECTari;E .KousnJou)DEKH^notJ, Buaii^Ess AtJoThemes of C'eNer^I !i;tei\est. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published every Saturday Communications ehould bo addressed to C, W. SWEET. 14-10 Vesey Street, New York 1 TelepboQo, Cortlandt S157 "EntPred at the J'ost Office at Kmo York. 17. 3", as second-class inattf-r." advantage of it. The bear combination attacked stocks with strategic skill. Vulnerable accounts collapsed before their sinister assaults, resulting in victory for one of the most successful bear campaigns in Wall Street. Vol. LXXVIL MAY 5, 190G. No. 1990 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertlalflg Section. Pag*. Pag». C«ment ....................xxv Law..........................il Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumher....................xxx Clay Products ...............xkIt Machinery ...................It CoDtractors and Builders.......vi MetaLWork..................xx Electrical Interest ..........viii Quick Job Directory........xxUl Flreprooflng ..................Ill Real Estate..................xiii Granite ....................xxvl RooEers & Roofing Materials.xvii Heating ...................ixl Slone.....................xxviii Iron and Steel..............xvlil Wood Products ............xxix LIQUIDATION on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week was almost without prece¬ dent in its severity. So rapid was the decline that it uncovered the margins of rich men. In some stocks declines of twenty, thirty, and forty points were common, and it certainly would seem as though the bottom had been reached for the present. The extreme declines caused corresponding advances towards the close nf Uie market, reducins the losses so that some stocks when the gong sounded at three o'clock were higher than they were at the opening on Wednesday. Yet Reading at 112, Amal¬ gamated Copper at 97%, Union Pacilic at ISSVa, St. Paul at 155^4 and Pennsylvania at 133^ were certainly in marked and startl¬ ing contrast to the prices of these issues a short time ago. The market could have been easily rallied if it suited the powerful interests who are always In control, but it clearly did not suit them. Fundamental conditions are sound and unchanged, how¬ ever, in spite of insurance investigations, tight money, fire, earth¬ quakes, strikes, Roosevelt manifestos and other distiuieting mat¬ ters of a similar character—not forgetting the ever-threatening railroad rate bill. Some good news would cei'tainly be in order, aud there are indications that it is at hand. Surely nothing could be more favorable and encouraging than the latest Pennsylvania railroad report. It shows increases of gross and net earnings for the three months ended March 31 throughout the whole of its exteusive system. For its lines east of Pittsburgh and Erie directly operated, there is an inciease of upwards of two million dollars in gross, and over a million in net earnings for March, while there are over seven millions in gross and nearly three million, seven hundred thousand iu net for the quarter. Such a remarkable showing is unprecedented, and scarcely a bear argu¬ ment for lower prices for leading railroad stocks. All the railroads are doing relatively well in proportion and their earnings are the best indices of business activity. MORE THAN fifty millions in gold has already arrived or has been arranged for and foreign exchange still remains at the importation point. Money, therefore, should become easy and Secretary Shaw deserves praise at this particular juncture for making it so. This he has done by authorizing an increase of public deposits with any national hank importing gold, on the importing batik putting up bonds that are a legal invest¬ ment for savings banks in New York and Massachusetts—these temporary deposits being returned to the Treasury on the arrival of the gold. While it has been necessary to transfer large amounts of money to the Pacific coast, the New York hanks have gained considerable additions to their reserves in the net result. Another cause for prospective easier money is the great liquidation that has taken place, which practically began a month ago. In reviewing the cataclysm of this week it may he said that its results point to the probability of the weaker holders being shaken out of the market, that the Reading Pool has sold out and that stronger parties have bought the stock. Moreover, the Standard Oil interests are reported to be very large buyers of stocks. These facts are not consoling to those speculators wbo have suffered by the decline, but it must be remembered that it is a long time since the bears have had an inning. They waited for an opportunity. It came and they took THE RECORD AND GUIDE agrees with Controller Metz and the other municipal officials who douht the desira¬ bility of granting a franchise to another telephone company to operate in New York City. We cannot see that the city has anything to gain from such a step, compared to the incon¬ venience which the competing operations of two telephone systems would force upon thousands of business firms. It is true that the uew company offers what appears to be lower rates, but such lower rates would not mean any real saving to the majority of subscribers. All the more prominent busi¬ ness firms would be obliged to install the instruments of both companies—with result that they would pay more in the end for a service which it must be remembered can hardly in any essential particular be improved. The value of a telephone service consists in its promptness, its accuracy, and in the number of people which are accessible by its wires. In all these particulars the service which we now enjoy in New York is one of the best in the world; and the introduction of another system would complicate and confuse it without essentially either econ¬ omizing or improving it. An instrument which would cost less, but which would reach a much fewer number of subscribers would not be worth anything like as much. There is such a thing as letting well enough alone in the matter of a public service corporation. The existing telephone company has spared no expense in its task of enabling the people of New York to talk promptly and freely one to another, and it has shown, unlike certain other public service corporations, a genuine wish to charge reasonable rates and to satisfy real grievances. The introduction of another system would merely mean the invest¬ ment of many million dollars of adciitional capital iu the duplication of plants, and in one way or another the people of New York would have to pay the interest upon this unnecessary investment. THE BUSINESS development of Fifth avenue continues to make slow hut sure progress. Recent sales upon the avenue indicate that prices are not merely retained at the high level formerly established, but are still advancing, inside lots being worth from $120 to $140 a square foot, and corners not far from $200. These prices are so high that a constant tendency exists to supersede the existing buildings with skyscrapers over ten stories in height, and the current season will witness the erection of about half a dozeu such buildings. Their upper stories will te used for the most part as ofHces and stores rather than as lofts. One large loft building is indeed beiug erected on the site of the proposed Hotel Brunswick, but this structure is situated at the southern end of the retail portion of the avenue, and is subject to some of the conditions which prevail south of 23d street. In other instances the upper floors will he used either as retail stores, for tailors and the like, or as offices. They will be inhabited by much the same class of tenants as are the husiness buildings ou the side streets imme¬ diately adjacent to Sth av., that is by business firms who want to participate in 5th ave. trade without being able to pay the rent of a ground floor on the avenue. The former practice of building apartment houses with stores on the street level has been entirely superseded. No new tendencies are observable in the character of the business firms which are seeking space on Sth ave; but there continues to be a steady emigration from the vicinity of Madison Square, and further south to locations near and north of 34th street. The piano trade is beginning to share in this movement more emphatically than ever, and in spite of the high standing of the retail firms, which still cling to loca¬ tions south of 23d street, their removal further north is only a question of time. South of 23d slreet is becoming almost exclusively a wholesale region, in which the vehicular traffic consists of trucks and not of carriages. A CONSIDERATION of important value in the rehabilita¬ tion of San Francisco is the fact that, unlike New York and most other American cities, it is without municipal debt. Its borrowing capacity is not restricted by prior loans or outstanding obligations. It has a clear field for the construction of a "new city." Unlike most large American cities, which incur heavy bonded obligations that are a draft upon the future, San Francisco adopted the policy of "pay as you go," issuing bonds for needed improvements, but liquidating from taxation other bonds to a like or larger amount at maturity. With real estate of the appraised value of $400,000,000, and personal property of $150,000,000, San Francisco at the close of 1903 owed only