The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-15

of bond and mortgage. In fact, it
has been said by some of those who
are competent to speak on the subject
that, Notwithstanding the dullness
which has prevailed in the stock mar
kets of the United States for the past
year, there has been larger investment
than ever before of capital in securi-
ties based upon land. While mort
cages are not a quick asset, and for
that reason are not an acceptable Sc
curity for loans made upon call, as
the expression is, yet the ingenuity of
business men has been able to perfect
a plan by means of which mortgages
may be bought and sold over the
counter. The ingenuity which per-
fected this plan was based upon the
principles of guaranteeing the payment
The plan, as it has been worked out,
really makes guaranteed or insured
mortgage practically a quick asset,
and the figures which have been pub
lished since the first of the year make
it plain that much of the sluggishness
of the stock exchange markets led to
the investment Of large amounts of
money in insured or guaranteed mort
cages.
For instance one Of the corporations
in New York whose business is of IS
character only eight years ago sold in
the year mortgages of the aggregate
value of nine million dollars In the
year 1911 this corporation sold guaran-
of $3S, 100000 in round numbers, and it
has outstanding guaranteed mortgages
aggregating a hundred and eighteen
million dollars. This, however, is only
one CT several Incorporated companies.
Many of the larger law firms Of New
York now maintain real estate depart
mentS i'll which the purchase or sale of
mortgages, sometimes on a large scale,
is a daily occurrence. It is estimated
that in New York city alone the incor-
porated companies and the responsible
law firms during the year 1911 invest
ed not far from a hundred million dol
lars in mortgage securities, doing this
for many thousand clients. This is in
addition to the vast business of lending
money upon the security of bond and
mortgage which the insurance COM
panies and savings banks were able to
do in 1911. There may have been, rela-
lively spea king, stagnation in the stock
exchange, but there was no stagnatiOn
in the many Offices in New York city
in which the business of dealing in
mortgages has been carried on
Almost all of these investments i'll
mortgages have behind them the Sc
curity of real estate in the greater city
of New York. One of the peculiarities
of this business illustrates the crafty
ing and striking change which has ia
ken place IN the great agricultural re-
gions of the west. Until about IA years
ago the farmers of the west were seek
ing funds secured by their farms. Now
raents which have been made in Sc
curities based upon real estate mort
cages in New York city have come,
either directly or indirectly, from thu
farmers OF the west
The Great Hotels.
Notwithsta nding the fact that the
managers of some of the latest palatial
hotels, as they are called, in this city
confess in confidential moments that
they are not doing, excepting OCCASION
ally and by fits and starts, good a
business as they did some years ago,
vet the construction of new colossal
and Iuxuriuusly- furnished hotels goes
on unabated. In the heart Of the new
business center at Herald Square a 81
gantic hotel, the foundations for which
were blasted out of solid rock for a
distance o. 60 feet, is now so far COM
pleted that its outlines are visible and
its steel skeleton frame will be enclos-
ed in brick and stone within another
month This hotel would not have been
built had it not been for the estaD-
lishment by the Pennsylvania Railroad
Germany of its terminal in Manhattan
only a block and a half away. The ag-
cregate investment viii be. it is under
stood, about million dollars.
Only three blocks away, In an easter
" direction. another great hotel has
lust been completed. The total invest
ment is understood to have been some
thing in excess of million dollars. The
hotel in its name carries a special
departure IF any member of the Van
derbilt family since Commodore Van
derbflt's day from the policy he SO
earnestly advocated of making no in
vestment in real estate and, in fact. of
buying real estate for the sole purpose
the New Xork Central Railroad COM