March 9, 1918





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





291





borne in mind, too, is the fact that the
estimate has been made on a basis
which assumes the use of electric energy
and gas for lighting is spread evenly
over the country, whereas as a matter
of fact fifty-seven million electric lights
out of a total of seventy-six million in
the country are in New England, Middle
Atlantic and Northern Central States,
where the advantages of daylight saving
will be  most  striking.

The saving of coal through substitu¬
tion of a morning hour of moderate
illumination for an evening hour of
maximum use of electricity and gas
illustrates ways in which important sav¬
ings in coal would be obtained.

Supporting the daylight saving meas¬
ure are the President of the United
States, Herbert C. Hoover, the United
States Food Administrator; Dr. Harry
A. Garfield, the United States Fuel Ad¬
ministrator; E. N. Hurley, Chairman of
the Shipping Board; the Council of
National Defense, literally scores of
State and municipal civic bodies and
the more than one thousand chambers
of commerce and commercial organiza¬
tions comprising the membership of the
Chamber of Commerce of the United
States.





Fixing   Building   Responsibility.

Editor of the Record  and Guide:

A review of the building accidents and
collapses that have occurred in New
York calls to mind the insistent cry
following each, that responsibility be
fixed and some one be held accountable.
Almost without exception, however, the
process of what is technically known as
"passing the buck" has completely
frustrated such attempts—no one is to
blame.

It seems high time therefore that
some method should be devised whereby
it may be possible to hold some definite
person criminally responsible for loss
of life and limb. It is quite evident that
the lack of this has encouraged slip¬
shod construction and careless superin¬
tendence or no superintendence at all
in the very buildings where greatest
danger exists. The first requisite of any
provision to this end must be applica¬
bility to any and all kinds of building
construction.

Now there are two distinct stages in
any building operation. First, the
preparation and filing of the plans, and,
second, the actual work of construction.
There can hardly be any question that
responsibility for the adequacy of the
plans should be fixed upon the author
of such plans, be he architect, engineer,
builder or owner. Present laws provide
for this so that practically in every case
the responsibility can be definitely
located and fixed upon a single person.

In the execution of the work, how¬
ever, it would seem that there are three
likely to be connected with the opera¬
tion, upon one or more of whom the
responsibility might rest. In case the
architect (meaning by "architect" the
one who makes and files the plans)
superintends the execution of the build¬
ing, there is opportunity to fix upon him
the responsibility, but in many cases
the architect is not so concerned. The
builder is another who might be held to
accountability, but in many cases there
is no single builder; often there are a
number of subcontractors engaged to do
the work, or frequently the work is
executed largely by individual workmen
employed by the owner. It would then
seem that the owner is practically the
only one connected with building oper¬
ations that surely must be concerned in
all building work.

A difficulty here arises, however, in
attempting to place responsibility on the
owner. He is usually a man of no tech¬
nical knowledge or building experience,
and if it were mandatory that he should
bear criminal responsibility for any or
all accidents that might occur in con¬
nection with his operation, many
"owners" would prefer to invest their
money in some less hazardous enter¬
prise.

Of the three possible interests men¬
tioned—the architect, the builder, the
owner—it would seem that as the owner





is the only one of necessity connected
with every building operation that re¬
sponsibility must in some way be fixed
on him or through him. In case he
employs the architect or the author of
the plans as superintendent for the
execution of the work, which assuredly
is the best procedure, the owner should
be allowed to name such architect who
would bear the responsibility for the
safety of the construction. If the archi¬
tect is not so employed and there is a
general builder, the owner could well
nominate him the responsible party. In
case the architect is not employed to
supervise, nor yet is there a general con¬
tractor or builder, it would seem that
the owner should have means of employ¬
ing some one competent to supervise
and take the responsibility. In case he
himself wishes to assume the responsi¬
bility, to avoid the necessity of an
architect or builder or a supervisor, he
might have the right to make himself
the party of record.

Haying thus located the supervising
function on a single designated party, it
would be important that such party
should be registered with the Building
Department, after having shown that he
has sufficient ability and sufficient ex¬
perience to warrant his assuming such
a function. It would hardly seem neces¬
sary to create a special Board to deter¬
mine the fitness of such persons, for this
could be taken care of by the Building
Department, which could without diffi¬
culty pass upon the facts relative to the
availability of the candidate. It would
be wise to exempt from the above pro¬
visions any work which did not involve
structural changes.

The owner would then have the option
of nominating his architect or his
builder (if a single builder is employed)
or a competent supervisor, as the super¬
intendent or supervisor of record, with
the object of fixing a definite source to
whom the authorities may look in case
of building accident. The other alterna¬
tive would be for him to register with
the Building Department and declare
that he would himself assume all
responsibilitv.

'WILLIAM O. LUDLOW.





QUERY DEPARTMENT





State Supervision of Cities.

Editor of the Record and Guide:

We have in this city become so
accustomed to a popular clamor for
home rule as against any interference
by the State in our municipal affairs
that the recent action by the Provincial
Government of Quebec relative to the
municipalities within that province
comes with something of a shock to us.

Into the Legislature of that province
a bill has been introduced, and has
every prospect of becoming a law, under
which a department, to be known as the
Department of Municipal Affairs, is
being created, with a wide field of
operations. The plan and scope of the
new department is well stated in the
Monetary Times of Canada (March 1,
1918) :

"As the new system of controlling munici¬
palities is found to meet with success the ulti¬
mate result, according to what has been said in
the Quebec Legislative Assembly, will mean
that it will no longer be possible for a munici¬
pality, civic or scholastic, to commit acts that
affect it badly in the money market. An almost
complete control of civic finance is provided in
the new bill, or rather series of bills on the
same subject, that were taken up in the course
of a protracted sitting. The manner in which
municipalities are to issue their loans, obliga¬
tions on the municipalities to provide sinking
funds each year, and a number of other matters
very directly affecting all matters of municipal
finance, even to the control of the bookkeeping,
are included in the new legislation.

"It will be tbe aim of the Government to see
that the municipalities issue serial bonds for
obligations. Each year the coupons, when paid,
will pay not only the interest, but also the year's
proportion of the capital, so that at the end of
the term on which the bonds are issued the
principal and interest will both be extinguished."

The general purpose of the new legis¬
lation is to prevent municipalities from
entering into adventures which will
harm their credit in the money markets
of  the world.

The power of the "Minister of Munici¬
pal Affairs" seems to be limited to an
approval or disapproval of proposed
municipal activities that involve the
financial credit of the localities in ques-





This department is intended to be of serv¬
ice to all interested in the real estate market,
whether as broker, agent or property owner.
The readers of the Record and Guide are in¬
vited to send in questions on matters per¬
taining to real estate, building and builaing
management, though legal questions will not
be answered in this column. Questions should
be stated as fully but as briefly as possible
so as to allow intelligent answers. Arrange¬
ments have been made through which the
questions will be answered by a Committee
of the Real Estate Board, including I'ae
following

E. A. Tredwell, real estate broker.

Frederick  D.  Kalley,  real estate broker,

Robert R. Rainey, real estate broker.

B.  E. Martin.

WiUiam   Douglas  Kilpatrick,  builder,

H. H. Murdock, architect.





Question No. oOG.—.-1 places in B's hands, the
latter being a real estate broker^ a piece of
pT'Operty, and fixes a price at which the prop¬
erty is to be sold. B sells the property, and A
refuses to pay the commission, alleging that he
had negotiated with the buyer ten years before,
but was finable to close with him. The buyer
made affidavit that it was through the per¬
sistency of B that he was finally induced to buy.
Can B legally compel A to pay him his com¬
mission?                                               F. K.

Answer No. 306.—Yes.





Question No. 307.—A lease was made some
time ago which called for the lessee paying all
taxes, etc., imposed by the city, county, state or
natiojial authorities. It was the intention of
the lessor that he receive a stipulated amount
net. At that tiine there was no thought of the
tax on excess profits. Who should pay this tax?
Is the lessee obligated to pay the surtaxes as
tcell as the iiormaX taxes?                     A. B.

Answer No. 307.—Very hard to answer
without reading the lease, but respond¬
ing duly to the inquiry just as it is:
Lessee should pay.

tion. He will possess largely the power
to veto any matter that involves an
expansion of the municipal credit, and
he may dictate the terms as to sinking
funds, etc., necessarily to be created as
a condition precedent to the operation.
He will act substantially as a check
upon the ambitions of municipal admin¬
istrations who seek favor with the multi¬
tude as distinguished from those who
pay the bills. Such a check seems to be
essential in communities where there is
a dominating desire on the part of many
to spend the money of others.

A department with the powers of that
now being created in Quebec would have
been a saving grace in this State so far
as this city is concerned.

WILLIAM B. ELLISON.





American Business  to Confer.

Business readjustment to war will be
the dominant note of the Sixth Annual
Meeting of the United States Chamber
of Commerce, it was announced at the
conclusion of the meeting of the Board
of Directors of that body.

The four critical questions of the day
—■financing the war, railroads, central¬
ized control of industry, and shipping-
will be considered from the twofold
point of view of filling the Government's
requirements, but with the minimum dis¬
turbance  to  private  industry.

More than 500,000 business men will
be represented at the meeting in Chi¬
cago, April 10, 11 and 12. Delegations
will be there from every State in the
Union, from large cities and from small.
There are more than one thousand local
chambers of commerce and commercial
organizations comprising the member¬
ship of the National Chamber of Com¬
merce, which includes even such distant
bodies as the American Chambers of
Commerce at Shanghai, the Philippines,
Alaska, Hawaii, Buenos Ayres, Rio de
Janeiro, London, Paris and some half-
dozen other cities abroad, and each of
the 1,000 local members will be repre¬
sented at Chicago by duly authorized
delegates. The resolutions of the meet¬
ing may truly be said to be an accurate
and authoritative expression from
American business, and the fullest pos¬
sible measure of cooperation between
business and the Government may be
expected to result. As in the past, the
speakers will be men of National
prominence.





RECORD   AND   GUIDE   IS   IN   ITS   FIFTIETH    YEAR    OP    CONTINUOUS    PUBLICATION.