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RECORD   AND   (JUTDE





February 16, 1918





V^sREAL   ESTATE





Devoted to Real Estate

Building Construction and BuildingManagement

in the Metropolitan District

Founded March 21. 1868, by CLINTON W. SWEET

Pubiished Every Saturday
Bjr THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.

F. T. MILLER, Picsident

J. W. FRANK, Secetary A Treasurer

S.  A.   PAXSON, Business Manager

A    K. MACK, Editor

H9 West 40th Street, New York

(Telephone, 4800 Bryant.)

"Bniered at the Fnst  Office at New Tork, N. Y., as
sccuiid-ciuss matter.'''





Copyrifiht, 1917. by The Record and Guide Co.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

\                        (Section  One)

Warehouse   Capacity    Must   be   Increased;

Hon.   Travis   H.   Whitney................  195

Building   Industries   of   New   York   Elects

Officers   and   Directors...................  106

Board   Holds   Election.....................  196

Viaduct Across  Bronx Valley..............  196

E;Tect  of  W'ar  on   Capital  and  Labor;   Dan

'Clifford B. Connelley....................  19T

Measures Affecting Real Estate............  198

Queens a War Industry Center.............  198

The' Evolution of the Office Building; David

E. Dallam..............................199

Editorials.................................  200

Query Department........................201

Tax Rate for 1918 to be Higher............  201

Hearing on Torrens Bill...................  201

Real   Estate   Review.......................  202

Legal Notes Affecting Real Estate..........203

Board  of  Appeals  Resigns.................  204

Building   Zone   Consents...................  204

General  Hospital  for  Elizabeth............212

Building for January......................  213

Hardware Convention.....................213

Building   Material   Market................. 211

Classified  Buyers'  Guide...................  222

Current Building Operations...............  211

Dfparimental   Rulings.....................  221

Leases...................................  207

Personal  and  Trade  Notes.................  214

Private Sales of the Week.................  204

Real   Estate   Notes........................  210

Statistical Table of the Week..............   210

Trade and Technical Society Events........221

Wholesale  Material  Market................  212







Which do you prefer—to buy Liberty
Bonds and War Saving Stamps or to
have the Government obtain the neces¬
sary funds to carry on this war by
direct taxation? The people of this
country must decide either to make gilt-
edged investments in Federal paper or
later to pay an equal, if not greater,
amount in taxes, with no promise of a
tangible return.    Choose!





Recent requirements for properly
housing the vast army of workers in
war activities has focused the attention
of some of the best professional talent
in this country. Nationally prominent
architects, builders, landscape engineers
and housing experts have interested
themselves in this problem. Their co¬
operation is not wholly a selfish desire
to enlarge personal prestige and obtain
substantial profits and commissions, but
is the result of a willingness to render
a patriotic service to the Government
at a time when their abilities are
urgently required. By a thorough co¬
ordination of the excellent ideas that
are being presented through the efforts
of these master minds, the labor forces
of the United States are destined to be
brought up to a higher plane of living
than ever before. This result would
surely justify the time and money that
is being expended upon this problem.





The Coal Situation.

Revolutionary reforms in the handling
of the coal supply of the'city are not
likely to result from the conclusions
reached by the Fuel Administration or
the Tenement House Department as the
result of the experiences during the
recent cold weather. Reeve Schley, Fuel
Administrator, finds that the method of
transportation from the New' Jersey
terminals to Manhattan by barges is
probably more satisfactory than any of
the suggestions so far offered for im¬
proving the service.

There is a constant shrinkage in the
number of barges of about seven per
cent, annually, which has not been made
good owing to the difficulties of getting
new boats built. There has been a
dearth of powerful tugs owing to their
conscription by the Government. New
Jersey terminals are not all adequately
fitted out with steam thawing plants and
other contrivances for handling coal
expeditiously in severe weather.

But if these ordinary facilities were
in proper condition Mr. Schley believes
the daily supply of coal for Manhattan
would be assured, except for mine or
railroad troubles back of the terminals;
also ice jams in the river, for which
there should be provided a powerful ice¬
breaker.

Even the distribution of coal to the
poor through the coal cellars does not
meet with condemnation, and no pro¬
posal of a reform in this direction is
suggested. These small dealers, of which
there are several thousand in the city,
were found to be making only from one
to two dollars a ton. During the extreme
weather they handled only a ton or two
a day. Naturally there were exceptional
cases of extortion. But charity organi¬
zation people and philanthropists in
former years, who have studied the
problem of eliminating the cellar deal¬
ers, and who had ample funds to finance
any equitable plan, have been obliged to
drop the matter, owing to the impossi¬
bility of finding any adequate method
of distribution that did not involve ex¬
pense that was prohibitive, unless put
upon a distinctly charitable basis, which
w^ould have been resented by the con¬
sumers and unwise for many economical
reasons.

The only suggestion for improvement
in the service of coal, outside of building
a bridge or tunnel, which meets with
any favor, is the one of authorizing large
private coal dealers to rent vacant land
on which to store coal and allowing
them to charge consumers a sum addi¬
tional to the price fixed by the Fuel
Administration, estimated at one dollar
a ton, with which to cover the carrying
cost. As a corollary of this plan, which
has been put up to Mr. Garfield for de¬
cision, the local administrator favors the
accumulation of a reserve supply by the
city for its own use, following the sug¬
gestion recently made in the Record and
Guide.

Nearly 6,000 complaints, due to the
severity of the weather, were received
by the Tenement Department during
January, and Tenement House Commis¬
sioner Mann expects that the February
record will be as great. He estimates
that the damage to buildings for the
two months will run into millions of
dollars. As one result of the extraor¬
dinary number of complaints, there has
been a thorough overhauling and clean¬
ing up of the tenements.

From the experiences of this winter
the Tenement House Department will
push the matter of bringing water, gas,
sewer and other service pipes up
through the house in all new construc¬
tion, instead of on the outside walls, as
is the general practice at the present
time. This projected improvement the
master plumbers and architects are
interested in forwarding.

One of the interesting developments
of the season has been that the com¬
plaints about lack of heat came almost
wholly from the tenants of the better
class of steam-heated buildings. There
were only three or four demands for
assistance made upon the department
by tenants of the "walk-ups." They car¬
ried their troubles to the Fuel Adminis¬





trator or tucked them away in their own

kit bags.

Owners and agents report that they
had comparatively little trouble with
tenants over the heat question. The law
makes it incumbent on the tenant to
pay his rent. If he refuses to pay, be¬
cause he feels that the contract amount
of heat has not been furnished, then the
landlord can dispossess or sue. If he
takes the first course the tenant has no
recourse; he must get out. But the
landlord is out of pocket while his house
stands vacant. If the landlord sues for
the rent and the tenant can prove dam¬
age occasioned by low temperature, then
he can, and usually does, recover a part
of the rent.

Both of these methods have been
adopted during the trying cold days,
with varying degrees of unpleasantness.
Many landlords adjudicated the matter
themselves by making voluntary reduc¬
tions in rent.

It is interesting and gratifying to have
the Fuel Administrator, the Tenement
Department and landlords and agents
generally testify to the almost universal
acceptance on the part of the tenants
of the fact that the circumstances were
extraordinary, to acknowledge the will¬
ingness of everybody concerned to do
everything possible to alleviate the dis¬
tress and to make the best of a very
bad business in the stoical and good-
natured American way.





Recruits for Shipbuilding.

During the past week the Federal
Shipping Board has conducted a nation¬
wide campaign for the enrollment of an
immense force of workmen in order
that the shipbuilding program may be
promptly and effectually carried out. An
estimate of the requirements for this
purpose calls for a minimum of 250,000
workmen, both skilled and unskilled, and
undoubtedly a large number in addition
will be needed as the construction of
ships proceeds.

The major portion of these workmen
will of necessity have to be recruited
from the ranks of those at present in
the employ of private interests. The
building trades of the country are being
called upon to furnish a large quota of
the total. This is altogether natural, as
the construction of vessels is in many
points closely allied to the construction
of buildings and for many phases of
shipbuilding practically the same class
of labor can be utilized to advantage.

The present recruiting drive calls for
workmen from a large number of skilled
trades. Those lines allied to the con¬
struction of buildings are especially
prominent. The list includes asbestos
workers, carpenters, boiler makers,
plumbers and steam fitters, painters,
structural iron workers, riveters, sheet
metal workers, coppersmiths and other
trades that are essentially a part of the
structural life of the nation.

In addition to the skilled trades a
large force of unskilled laborers will be
required for the handling of materials
and supplies. Thus, it is readily seen that
a large percentage of both the skilled
and unskilled labor required by the
Shipping Board will have to come to the
shipyards direct from the building field.
Fortunately at the present time there is
but a slight amount of activity in build¬
ing construction work, otherwise con¬
siderable hardship to the structural in¬
terests might have resulted from taking
thousands of trained men out of this
field of endeavor. However, as the build¬
ing trades have not been especially busy
for some months, and the immediate
future is in many respects clouded with
doubt and uncertainty, the shipbuilding
requirements will provide lucrative em¬
ployment for a large number of men that
might have remained in idleness for a
long time or have been forced to take
work outside of their regular trades.

Every possible facility should be
placed at the disposal of the Shipping
Board for assistance in its effort to
man the shipyards with workmen of
high calibre. The assembly of this large
body of workmen will entail distinct
hardships in certain instances; some
industrial staffs will be depleted, if not





RCCORD   AND   GUIDB   IS   IN   ITS   FIFTIETH   YEAR    OF    CQNTINUaUS    PUBLICATIOX.