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April II, 1903.
RECORD AND GUIDE
697
JUb/o]^ io REA.L ESTAJi;. BuiLDTf/c ApcKrTECTORE ,h{oUS£:WOLD DEGOR^t;.
.Bus;i/ESSAiiDTHE«ESOFGEita^ !K"t^^3x.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
Puhiisfjed every Saturdap
Cotomnnlcatlons should too nfldressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorR
f, T. LINDSET, Business JTanagt/ Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered al ihe Fost O.0ice at New Tork. N. Y.. as second-class matter."
Which the other suit hinged, and Justice Truax dismissed the
suit on the ground that the covenant is to he construed in its
"plain ordinary popular sense," and not according to the act of
1SG7. This case was appealed, but considering the judgment in
the case first mentioned there can be no doubt that the Appellate
Division will confirm the opinion of Justice Truax. It may be
considered settled consequently that in law an apartment house
is to be distinguished from a tenement, and the settlement of
the definition will have important effect upon the improvement
of large areas of West Side property, which have been restricted
against tenements.
Vol. LXXI.
APRIL 11, 1903.
No. 1830
THE tone of the Stock i\!arket during the past week, until
the decision in the Northern Securities case was handed
down, was on the whole better than it has been recently. Prices
did not advance to any particular extent, but on the other hand
they did not recede, and as the money situation, which is the
cause of the liquidation, was apparently somewhat improved,
it was natural to expect that the business week would have
ended with the prevalence of a healthier general tone. The
decision, however, in the Northern Securities case naturally
caused a selling movement, which broke prices for a while. It
should be added that the market took the decision with much
more firmness than was to he anticipated, and that although
the decision introduces many complications into the present
situation, its immediate effects'will not be as bad as might have
been supposed. The general fact remains that the prices of many
of the best securities are cheap, compared to what they were
and are, indeed, absolutely cheap, when the prospects for rail¬
road traffic and general business throughout the current year
are considered. At the same time it is also apparent that
capitalists generally are not in a position to take advantage of
this cheapness. Their engagements are so heavy, and are such
a tax upon their resources that they are not ahle to buy largely
and persistently. Hence the general conclusion would be, that
while prices ought to be higher for a long pull, it is entirely
possible that they may go lower before auy sustained upward
investment sets in. As to the ultimate effects o£ the decision
in the Northern Securities case, that is a matter which not even
the corporation atorneys can at present very well predict. The
public will naturally hold fast to the opinion that the judgment
of the Circuit Court will be sustained by that of the Supreme
Court, and it will fight shy of all securities, whose value in any
way depends upon the kind of combination which has been de¬
clared illegal. The financial public will also tend to the opinion
that a law, which can obstruct the normal and necessary de¬
velopment of American railway combination is a law which
in the end will somehow be evaded, in case it cannot be re¬
pealed.
AVERY important decision in relation to the legal dis¬
tinction between a tenement and an apartment house has
just been handed down by the Appellate Division of the Supreme
Court in the case of White et al. vs. the Collins Building &.
Construction Company. The defendant refused to take title to
a parcel of land which he had contracted to buy, claiming that
he could not erect an apartment house upon the premises, be¬
cause of a restriction contained in a deed of 1S78, forbidding
the erection of a "tenement house," and because the contract
between the parties expressly states that the defendant proposed
to erect an apartment house. The defendant contended that
there are only two classes of residential property, tenements and
private residences, and that consequently any house not a
private dwelling was prohibited by the restriction. The plaintiff
claimed that the words teuenient house must tfe taken in their
ordinary popular sense, and not as defined in the Tenement
House Act of 1867, and that the restrictions oniy prohibited
tenements in the ordinary meaning of that word. Judgment
was ordered for the plaintiff, Justice Van Brunt dissenting. It
will be seen that this is an extremely definite case, for the
Collins Building & Construction Company is compelled to take
title to the property, on the ground that it is perfectly free to
proceed with the erection of an apartment house as proposed.
The decision confirms one. rendered by Justice Truax, in a
special term of the Supreme Court last year, and p'ublished in
the Record and Guide on March 15, 1902. CerUin property
owners in Seventy-first Street, west of West End Avenue, had
endeavored to restrain a builder from erecting an apartment
bouse on the blpck, because of tbe game covenant as that upon
^p HERE have been alarmist statements published in the
*â– newspapers during the past week respecting tbe prospect
of a general strike in the building trades this spring, but it can
be stated emphatically that these rumors are apparently with¬
out foundation. There are several labor controversies still to be
settled, and in these days of sympathetic strikes, there is always
danger of disputes of this kind spreading, hut there is no evi¬
dence that the Building Trades Council proposes to bring on a
general strike for higher wages. And it would be extremely bad
tactics for it to do so. Workingmen are much more likely to
have their demands granted in case tbey bring pressure to bear
upon particular trades, one at a time, than if they disorganized
tbe whole building industry hy a general strike, for in tbat case
they give their employers a good motive for sticking together,
and fighting hard. The labor leaders know this as well as any¬
body, and have every reason to continue their policy; which has
been so successful during the past few years, of fighting one
demand at a time. Certainly if the unions did insist upon an
advance all along the Hue, the contractors could not help put
up a stout resistance. Since the current prosperity began, the
cost of every thing, but particularly of the labor whicb contri¬
butes to tbe construction of a modern city building, has advanced
so considerably that any further large increase in expenses
would undoubtedly be attended by a considerable diminution in
the amount of huilding undertaken. The unions would be doing
themselves and their employers a poor service by making and
insisting on such a demand. Tbe strike of the Brotherhood
carpenters is particularly annoying just at present, because
it delays work on a number of office buildings, which should
be made ready for tenants on May 1; but annoying as such a
strike is, it is occasioned by a condition which tbe con¬
tractors can face with comparative equanimity. Two unions
in the same trade, divided against each otber, is from the em¬
ployers poiut of view a much more desirable form of organ¬
ization than one all-powerful union, and it is obviously to tbe in¬
terest of the contractors to stand by the Amalgamated carpen¬
ters, even at some loss to themselves.
-^ HE mortgage tax muddle at Albany is more muddled than
â– ^ ever. The senate wants nothing hut the proposed four
mills tax bill; the assembly does not know what it wants; and
the Governor apparently wants anything he can get in the way
of mortgage tax legislation. He prefers, that is, either a four
mills tax, or a recording tax, or total exemption to the anoma¬
lous position of mortgages under our present tax laws. Out of
such a mixture of contradictory opinions, it seems hardly possi¬
ble tbat any legislation will result; and it looks as if the whole
question, with all its disturbipg effects on the real estate would
go over until another session. Governor Odell's message to the
Legislature on the subject, while it does not clear the situation
at all, certainly helps to explain and justify his personal posi¬
tions. It is the natural desire ot his political opponents to rep¬
resent him as a man, who is wantonly stirring up discussion and
suggesting tax changes, merely because be is, as the phrase is,
"Lax-crazy." He certainly does show himself over-eager to abol¬
ish the general state tax levy at any cost, both to his party and
to real estate; but his message indicates that in continually
agitating the matter l)f mortgage taxation, he believes firmly
that he is simply seeking some practicable remedy for the very
real injustice of the tax laws towards tbis form of property.
Moreover, his conviction that a tax of four mills would he pre¬
ferable, even from the point of view of the majority of mort¬
gagors, to the inequalities of the existing situation, while er¬
roneous, is nevertheless perfectly intelligible. Tbe weakness of
his message consists (1) in the fact that be does not attempt to
reply to the destructive criticism, which has been levelled
against the details of the proposed mortgage tax bill, and (2)
that he throws the settlement of the whole question back upon
a Legislature that is wholly incompetent to deal witb It. Such
a body as that sitting at Albany needs a master that will give
it a strong lead in the right' direction, not a counsellor tbat
timidly advises it to take one of three alternative courses. It
is a thousand times a pity that Governor Odell did not explicitly