494





RECORD AND GUIDE





March 14, 1914.





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I BUILDING MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES |







CONSTRUCTION  SEASON   OPENS WITH A STRENGTHENING TONE      |
IN   DEMAND    AND   FIRMER   PRICES — LINSEED   OIL   ADVANCES.      |





Suburban   Dealers  Report   More
Business of Short Order Character.





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ABOUT the only real evidence, from
a contracting viewpoint, of the
opening of the 1914 building season this
week came in from the suburban terri¬
tories for material for comparatively
small operations. But the significant
thing about this characteristic is that
volume seems to be making up for value.
In other words, the small speculator
now holds the center of the stage, doubt- .
less encouraged to come into the mar¬
ket when prices are attractive and terms
favorable. Elizabeth, Newark, Staten
Island, Jersey City and Hoboken, west
of the Hudson, White Plains in particu¬
lar, and Westchester in general, to the
north and outlying parts of Queens to
the east, are moving material freely, ac¬
cording to reports of local wholesalers.

As far as local distributors are con¬
cerned, there was a slight easing in all
lines this week, doubtlessly traceable to
the fact that nearly every construction
job in the city had run out of material
on hand and contractors hounded the
dealers into forcing deliveries. There
was an actual scarcity of new orders,
but the inquiry has been growing
heavier. If indications in this regpect
count for anything at all, the spring
movement of building materials will be
about on a par with that of last fall, ac¬
cording to opinion expressed on the
• floor of the Building Material Exchange,
but everybody expects that the fall will
compare with the volume of business
taken in the spring of 1913.

In the wholesale market there is a re¬
flection of the activity reported from the
suburbs. Therefore, prices are firmer
than they were a week ago, list prices
are not quite so loosely maintained and
some departments continue to stiffen.
Linseed oil moved up one cent this week.
Crushed stone mills prepared to resume
operations at a time when the supply
here in the city was at a comparatively
low ebb. Sand and gravel also moved
more easily, but mining was difficult
and the insistent demand for these com¬
modities which has existed for some
time, has made prices exceedingly stiff.
Lime is steady on a moderate demand,
but a better inquiry is reported by most
of the local agents. Building grades of
lumber are also firmer.

Building stone has a better call, but
nothing exceptional for this time of the
year. Hardware is, perhaps, the most
aggressive of all departments as far as
actual selling is concerned, but a large
part of this demand is dealers' business,
and not building specifications, which
reflects, in a measure, what already has
been said regarding the building move¬
ment in the suburbs.

Structural steel continues to be the
pivot of the building outlook. The busi¬
ness being taken just now for Eastern
deliveries is much more promising than
it was in either January or February,
and it is expected that March will show
a great deal heavier tonnage than any
month so far this year. More capacity
has lately been blown in at the mills,
and prices continue to be firmly held.
It is the constantly increasing^ firmness
of this department that is giving the
greatest encouragement to building ma¬
terial interests in the metropolitan dis¬
trict. With the mills now employing
eighty per cent, of their capacity, where¬
as only a few months a9;o the total ca¬
pacity was something like 60 per cent.,
there seems to be ground for the opin-
1          ion generally expressed that business in

the building material and supply depart¬
ment of the New York real estate mar-
I          ket is improving.





LINSCED  OIL UP A CENT.

Seed  Market   Turns   Strons  As   Demand
ShOT>'s Improvement.

LINSEED oil has moved up one cent. The
quotation is now 53 and 54 cents for city,
raw, American seed and 54 and 55 cents for city
boiled.

There were two causes for this change which
became effective early in the week. One was the
strengthening ot the seed market at Duluth and
the other was the improved demand for the fin¬
ished product in this district. Oil interests say
that paint manufacturers and producers of
fioor dressings bave found the demand so great
that extra capacity has had to be employed at
the mills earlier than was expected. The great
increase in the use of damp and waterprooflng
compounds for use in concrete work is attributed
in part, at least, to the higher prices now ruling.





.¥300,000   FOR   CITV   CONDUITS.
Pennsylvania Takes the Lead In  Protect¬
ing   Signal   and   Telegraph   'Wires
from Storms.

FOLLOWING the slush storm of almost a fort¬
night ago, when about 30,000 miles of tele¬
graph wires were borne to the ground and about
15,000 poles destroyed, railway and telegraph
companies have been considering the matter of
appropriating a sufflcient amount of money to
permit permanent protection of all these wires.
Burned clay conduit interests have been making
an aggressive campaign upon the purchasing de¬
partments of railroads, advocating the inclos-
ure of all telegraphic wires in vitrified conduits
with the result that on Wednesday the Board
ot Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com¬
pany, meeting at Philadelphia, -appropriated
$300,000 to be expended on vitrified clay con¬
duits to be laid along line of the Pennsylvania
Railroad "between New York and Philadelphia
to protect the wires ot a repetition of the storm
ot March 1 and 2.

The work will begin immediately in putting
the overhead wires into clay conduits between
Rahway and Trenton and subsequently the sys¬
tera of conduit protection to wires now employed
between the Pennsylvania Station in New "York
and Manhattan Transfer, will be extended
through Newark and Elizabeth to Rahway. This
is said to be one ot the biggest orders tor clay
conduits   ever  let,





BRICK   SOMEWHAT   EASIER.
■Warmer 'Weather and Better Riding Con¬
ditions  Brings  Optimism.

WITH the Hudson still closed to navigation
and, in consequence, giving the market a
chance to further clear the wholesale supplies of
open and covered cargoes and to reduce the vol¬
ume of dealers' brick lying about the city await¬
ing unloading, this department developed some
strength as tbe building season formally opened.
The buying is still scattered, however, although
inquiry shows improvement. The temperament
of the brick department is still one of hesitation'
tor both Hudsons and Raritans and for that
reason quotations are not yet as firm as manu¬
facturers would like to see them. But the firm¬
ing undertone that is felt throughout the entire
building material market doubtless will begin
to be felt in the brick department ere another
week passes and, indeed, there is every reason
to believe that quotations now being made as
nominal will stiffen perceptibly as the present
local wholesale supply of brick wanes ahd fav¬
orable building weather continues to he the .rule
rather than the exception. Contractors and
architects need not be afraid to specify brick in
fear of a shortage as there is ample to take
care ot the city's needs for some time to come.
Official transactions tor Hudson common brick
covering the week ending Thursday, March 12,
in the wholesale market, with comparisons for
the corresponding period last year and a com¬
parative statement of Hudson brick unloaded
from barges for consumption here, follow:

1914.
Lett over. Mar. 6—63.

Arrived.    Sold.

Friday,  Mar.  6....................  0             0

Saturday,  Mar. 7..................  0             0

Monday,   March   9.................  0             1

Tuesday, Mar.  10..................  0             ^

Wednesday, Mar. 11................  0             1

Thursday,   Mar.   12................  0             2

Total    ........................0             6

Reported enroute Friday A. M.,  March 12—0.
Condition   of   market,   weak.     Prices:    Hud¬
sons,  ------ to $6.50  nominal;   covered, ------ to

$7.50; Raritans, $6 to $6.25 (wholesale dock, N.
Y • for dealers' prices add profit and cartage) ;
Newark, $7 to $7.50 (yard). Dull. Left over,
Friday A. M. March 13—57. Covered barges
sold. 5. Total number covered barges, 11. Total
number in market. 68.

HUDSON   BRICK   UNLOADED.
(Current  and  last week  compared.)





CO.VL    SUPPLY   STILL   TIGHT.

Situation Rapidly Becoming Easier, Hotv-

ever, on Steam Sizes of Anthracite.

VY7HILE early this -R'eek it was still impossible
" for either the railroads or the retailers to
handle tonnage with ordinary dispatch, the sit¬
uation was rapidly becoming easier and no
further danger was apprehended in view of the
lateness   of   the   season.

The greatest pinch has been on the steam sizes
of anthracite. For the past month it has been
slow work unloading this coal from cars, and in
many cases stocks were at low ebb prior to the
most recent storm. A good premium could be
obtained on loaded boats, but, as there was
comparatively little of the steam sizes afloat, the
volume of transactions was not large. P. O. B.
prices were helped, but the high premiums
were offered only on loaded coal.

The bituminous market has been helped ma¬
terially by the events of the past ten days. The
movement of coal to tidewater was virtually
at a standstill for the greater part of last week
on all the roads, and this led to a pretty thor¬
ough cleaning up of demurrage accumulations
at the piers. Most of the demurrage coal was
moved at low prices, but the bulk of it has been
disposed of and as a result the market is in a
healthier condition than  for a long time.

Many producers are quoting five cents more
than a week or two weeks ago on line shipments,
and buyers are paying the higher figures readily
in most cases.





FEBRUARY FIRE LOSSES.

About $2,000,000 Less Than January's Loss
Reported for U.  S. and Canada.

T" HE losses by fire in the United States and
* Canada during the month of February, as
compiled by The Journal of Commerce and
Commercial Bulletin, aggregate $21,744,200. as
compared with $23,204,700 in January and $22.-
084.(500 in Pebruary last year. The losses thus
far this year reach a total of $44,948,000, as
against $42,277,850 credited against the same
time last year.

There were during the short month of Febru¬
ary no less than 353 fires credited with causing
an estimated property damage of $10,000 or
over in each instance. The following brief
classification according to their destructiveness
will  afford  interesting study :

Estimated  Loss—                               No. of Fires.

$10,000   to     $20.000................        118

$20,000   to     $30,000................          71

$30,000   to     .$.50.000................          ,51

,«.50,0no   to     $75,000................          41

,'i;7s.ooo to $100,000................       is

$100,090  to   $200,000................         36

$200,000  and   over..................          18

Total    .........................        353





Feb. 27..____   108,000

Peb. 28......    143,000

Mar.   2......    ---------

Mar.   3......       6,000

Mar.   4......   103.000

Mar.   5......    184,000





Mar.    6......     14,500

Mar.    7......     22,500

Mar.    0.......249,500

Mar.  10......   170,000

Mar. 11......   189,500

Mar.  12......   231,500





Total......   544,000             Total......   877,500

1913.
Left over, Friday A. M., Mar. 7—51.

Arrived.    Sold.

Friday,   Mar.  7....................10             4

Saturday,  Mar.  8.................. 0             2

Monday,   Mar.   19.................. 0             4

Tuesday,   Mar.   11................. 0             1

Wednesday,   Mar.   12.............. 0             4

Thursday,   Mar.   13................4             6

Total    ........................14           21

Condition of market, dull. Prices: Hudsons,
$7 to $7.25; covered, $7.50; Raritans, $6.87% to
$7. Newark, $8.25. Left over Friday A. M.,
March 14—145. Total covered, 0. Total cov¬
ered barges sold, 3. Total covered left in mar¬
ket,  8.    Total  in  market, March 6,  1913—74.

OFFICIAL SUMMARY.

Lett over,  Jan. 1,  1914....................    87

Total No.  bargeloads arrived, including left

over bargeloads, Jan. 1 to Mar. 12, 1914. 119
Total No. bargeloads sold Jan. 1 to Mar. 12,

1914...................................    02

Total No. bargeloads left over Mar. 13,1914 57
Total No. bargeloads left over Jan. 1, 1913. 113
Total No.  bargeloads arrived, including left

over Jan. 1 to Mar. 13,  1913............ 207

Total   No.   bargeloads   sold  Jan.   1   to  Mar.

13, 1913   ................................162

Total No. bargeloads left over Mar. 14,1913.   45





THE  STEEL MARKET.
Rolled - Products   Totaled   About   1,060,000
Tons.

ACCORDING to report issued by the U. S.
Steel Corporation and subsidiary companies
the orders tor rolled steel products in Pebruary
exceeded shipments by 18,751 tons per day as
indicated by an increase of 412,760 tons in
unfilled orders, which aggregated 5,026,440 tons
at the end of February. Viewing the steel
market as a bormeter upon which to gauge fu¬
ture business in other lines of building ma¬
terial this showing gives more promise of activ¬
ity, for the reason that structural steel is not an
exaggerated feature of the report. Most of the
increase is directly attributable to pipe and
plate construction, although it should not
by any means be understood that structural
business showed no important gain. As a mat¬
ter of fact, structural steel showed considerable
activity and the tonnage was sligtly in excess
of that reported for January. March, .how¬
ever, is the month of real structural steel ac¬
tivity and the tonnage being taken at present
from the metropolitan district indicates a de¬
cided improvement in building contditions but
nothing   sensational.

The indication is that new orders were booked
during the 22 active business days in February
at the rate of about 48.000 tons per day. Out¬
side of large pipe and plate orders, however,
the average daily bookings were less than in
January; that is, general business was smaller,
but the aggregate tonnage larger than in Janu¬
ary.

It is understood that the production of steel
Ingots in February was approximately 1.041.000
tons, furnace operations averaging a little less
than 80 per cent, of total capacity. It is thus
indicated that rolled products were produced at.
the rate of a little over 33,000 tons per day, or
approximately 740,000 tons.