The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-07-03
PROSPERITY IN TWO CITIES.
Reports of the Great Progress and
Business Revival in New York
and Chicago.

Matthew Marshall, in his weekly letter in
the New York San, on the markets and con
dition of business on June %, says:
In this upward movement of the stock mar
ket and in the revival of general business
which is beginning to follow it. New York
city real estate does not yet seem to share.
On the contrary, not for many years have
there been so many stores and offices wanting
tenants and so few tenants applying for them.
Broadway and the Fifth avenue are lined with
empty windows bearing ''To Let announce
ments; on the Bowery and on the Third ave
nue. every block has one or more buildings
vacant, aud all over the eastern portion Of the
city deserted stores and factory property
abound. The Sixth and the Eighth avenues
make a much better showing, the premises
offered being not more than one on every
three or four blocks, but downtown ITO Let
bills meet the eye at every turn. The conse-
quent loss to landlords is not to be measured
merely by the amount of the rents of this I'M
rented property. Where old tenants have
been retained or new ones procured it has
been by making considerable concessions on
previous prices, often as much as nethird,
and in some cases one-half Only the very
poorest and cheapest property, which had
already fallen so low that it could not fall any
lower, has kept its former level. With all
this, taxes, insurance and repairs are as high
as ever, so that the net revenue to landlords
suffers more than the gross.
Various causes have combined to bring
about this condition of things, the principal
one being, of course, the general depression
of business throughout the country. New
York is prominently and almost exclusively
a commercial city. 1t is net, like London
and Paris, the seat ola great national govern
ment; it is not even the capital of the state
whose name it bears. As place of resi-
dence for wealthy and unoccuped people it
has few attractions Its citizens are mostly
engaged in making money, and if they are
fortunate enough to amass fortunes here they
go and spend them elsewhere. Many of this
class indeed remain, after their fortunes are
acquired, to take care of them, and while
they are here do the best they can to amuse
themselves. In the effort they make the city
pleasant for money getters from other parts
of the country, but the dominant purpose of
both residents and transient visitors is none
the less pecuniary profit. and when the pros
pect of winning it fails, the inducement to
spend time and money here fails also. The
customers for our shops become fewer in num-
Der, offices in Office buildings are in less de-
mand, the manufacturers of jewelry, clothing,
furniture and similar articles have less work
to do, and the weaker among them give up
titude of clerks, statesmen, workmen and
employees of various kinds who depend for
their support upon the prosperity of their
employers, being also deprived of their in
comes, have either to go away or to live as
economically as they can upon their savings
while waiting for better times. That this
shrinkage both in the number and in the
means of the spenders of money should also
produce a shrinkage in the number of tenants
and in the rents they are able to pay is mat
ter of course.
If company in misery can afford consoa-
ton, the suffering landlords in this city have
it in knowing that their brethren elsewhere
are in no better predicament than they are.
From the great western cities, especially,
comes the same story of lower rents and vacant
property. The supply of buildings is every
where in excess of the demand for them, and
the rents, even of those which are in demand,
have to come down. Owners of other forms
of capital feel the effect of the same law.
The profits of railroads, mines, and factories
are smaller than they were, and the refunding
of railroad bonds now successfully going on
at reduced rate of interest proves that even
those investments are not exempt from the
common fate.