crown CU Home > Libraries Home
[x] Close window

Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Use your browser's Print function to print these pages.

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1991: May 12, 1906

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_037_00000933

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
May 12, 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE 879 ESTABUSHED^ iV^RCHeiV.^ 1968. DE^TEBpRfA.LErSTAJI.BuiLDIf/G AFtC^lTECTifflp.hfoUSnJOluDESaRJTKMi. Bl/SIt^ESSA!foT;iE>.'ESorCE:JERM l^/^ERES^, PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS fublisftad eVcrg Saturday Communlcatlona sliould bo addrOHSod to C. W. SWEET. K-IO Vesey Street, New York I Tclophonp, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al lhe J'ost Office al New ] "oj-.V N. T as srcoTtrf' riar ,1 wnttrr." Vol. LXXVII, MAY 12, 190G. No. 1991 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Adverlisiog Section, * Page, Page. Cement .....................xxiii Law ..........................xi Consulting Engineers ..........x Lunibi^r .................xxviii Clay Products ...............xxii Machinery ..................iv Contractors and Builders ......v Metai Work ................xvii Electrical Interests..........viii Quick Joh Directory ........xxvi Fireproofing.................iii Real Estate ................xiii Granite ....................xxiv Roofers Sc Roofing Materials, .vii Heating .....................xx Stone .....................xxiv Iron and Steel .............xviii Wood Products ............xxix FROM last week's crash in prices there has been a sharp re¬ action upward on the New York Stock Exchange. It may be fairly said that the sudden advance has surprised Wall Street, and has caught many shrewd operators short of the market at the lowest figures. The talent was in agreement that a pro¬ tracted decline was ahead of us, that the goose that lays the golden eggs—the public—had heen killed, and that it would be a long time before a bull speculation could be inaugurated. Within a week of these confident conclusions a rise of from five to twenty points—the latter in Reading—has taken place, stocks lilie Brooklyn Rapid Transit, Union Pacific, Amalgamated Cop¬ per, and many otlier of the leaders having advanced ten points each. The goose had not been killed, and never is. Only some goslings die. Such a sharp right-about-face of the market is not unusual. It may be always counted upon as the sequel of a col¬ lapse important enough to become bL^itoric. Wall Street had a like upward movement, and indeed a sustained advance, after the Northern Pacific corner panic of 1901, when the wisest be¬ lieved that the theretofore bull market was over for good. Again, when the New York Stock Exchange reopened after being closed for about ten days in the panic of 1873, an advance began, to everybody's astonishment, which ended only with a bear panic—the whole street having espoused the short side. If the popular notion that the fundamentals underlying the pres¬ ent widespread prosperity continue sound aud healthy, then it may well be that the long-looked-for rise in railroad stocks will be had this summer, following the adjournment of Con¬ gress. SUCH a heartbreaking smash in prices as that of the late crash undoubtedly cripples and puts iut of business a host of speculators. On the other hand, the advertisement of tbe bar¬ gains to be obtained brings in new buyers from everywhere, a percentage of whom remain to speculate. A panic in Wail Street has very much the effect of a special offering of print goods on a given day by a big house like the H, B. Clafiin Company. Buyers appear from all over the country to secure some of the bargains. The entire dry-goods trade is stimulated by general purchases, and better prices than before result. Al¬ ready this week several stocks have sold higher than before, and this may continue. The low-priced railroad issues seem the most promising purchases. They may be said to constitute the only form of improved real estate which can be bought for less than the prices of five to seven years ago. An easy money market is assured for the summer. The Klondike gold, amounting to twenty million dollars, will shortly begin to arrive on the Pacific coast, and will help to bring about the large return-fiow of money from San Francisco that is expected. The San Fran¬ cisco banks are now said to hold in cash seventy-five per cent, of their deposits. There will be no such percentage of with¬ drawals as this, and new and large local deposits will undoubt¬ edly begin to be made as soon as the banks open for business. Other things being equal, the adjournment of Congress and State legislatures throughout the country should have a bene¬ ficial effect on the market. When the lawmakers are in session there is often great anxiety on the part of corporations as to hostile legislation, locally and nationally, and this anxiety is reflected in acute sensitiveness in Wall Street. With the ad¬ journment of legislatures a fruitful source of disquietude is thus, for the time being, removed. As for the railroad rate bill, there are those who maintain that, should it become a law, tbe proflts of the railroads will be largely increased. /^NLY a question of time it was when New York would have ^—' an all-night bank, and now it is here, and will probably beconie a regular institution. For many decades New York lagged behind other great cities in the conveniences of a metropolis, and there are still some things lacking, among them a cheap cab service. But, wlien New York awakens to its shortcomings, it institutes very thorough reforms. In New York, for instance, one can travel at any hour of the night on the surface, subway or elevated railroads. In London one can¬ not. The belated citizen has to fall back on cabs after mid¬ night, for all underground railroad stations are ciosed at that, hour. Neither can one get anything to eat in a restaurant in the mighty British metropolis after midnight, which is a distinct hardship for the tens of thousands of foreigners who make London an objective point. To enter your hotel either in London or the provinces late at night, one almost has to resort to burglar's methods. A sleepy night porter will let a guest in unwillingly. It does not seem to enter the cranium of the British inn or hotel keeper that a suest should be as free to come and go at any hour of the day or night as if in his own house- Nothing of this sort to complain of in New York. As hotels and many restaurants are open all uighl, and money has thus to be actively in circulation, an all-night bank became a neces¬ sity. Its aim and purpose are to consult the wishes and ac¬ commodate the convenience of the public. Personal necessities anci conveniences'call for banking facilities as urgently in other hours of the day or night as the heretofore rigidly conventional hours of between ten and three. As the Night and Day Bank very properly says: "Hours and requirements of business have been extended, household and individual needs for money move¬ ment have multiplied regardless of clock time, yet the hours of banking have remained the same," MR. FRANK VANDERLIF'S recent address on the credit of New York Cits' should be printed in pamphlet form and circulated by the Finance Department of this city. Many of the newspapers have been arguing that the city must stop its policy of liberal expenditures for improvements, because of the increasingly high percentage at which its obligations are being sold; but any curtailment of these improvements for such a reason would in the long run cost the city a much larger sum than the additional millions which it will be obliged to pay in interest. The policy of liberal improve¬ ments for public purposes must be continued, because it is essential to the economic growth of the city; but these improve¬ ments should be paid for, as Mr. Vanderlip suggests, by bonds which have only a few years to run. That is the course which railway companies pursue when they cannot sell to advantage comparatively permanent obligations, and New York City should pursue a similar policy. There can be no doubt that in the course of time tlie city will again be able to borrow on much better terms. Practically ever since 1901 money has been so scarce that high-grade securities bearing a low rate of interest have been sold at a disadvantage. There was; of course, a period of cheap money in 1903-4, but it dirt not last long enough really to affect the situation. During all this era of business expansion, when capital could be so advantageously employed in general trade, New York has been obliged to borrow largely, and she has undoubtedly been selling more of her stock than the immediate demand warranted. The time will soon be coming, bow- ever, when money will again be cheap, and when general business will be less active. Then New York will be able to sell her securities on much better terms, and she should so far as possible postpone the sale of permanent obligations until that time comes. SO FAR as can be judged from the fragmentary reports which appear in the daily papers, San Francisco is taking up tbe problem of reconstruction in a sufficiently serious and responsible spirit, Tbe leaders among its citizens appreciate the fact that to I'ebuild the city according to ordinary methods would be merely to invite calamity and to undermine the confldence in the city's future without which it cannot retain its existing position. Extraordinary precautions must be taken hereafter against tbe possibility of severe earthquakes, and of subsequent conflagrations; and the city must take care both that an unusually good quality of building is erected, and that in case any similar disaster should occur in the future its effect will be localjze'3, To this entj it is proposed in the