38





RECORD     AND     GUIDE





7r.T January 11, 1919





and Wxfc&-^6e nearly--&ttcce&&£iilly^.in-.4iie-last session^__
the Legislature.

' The decision to lose no time in.tpresenting these bills '»
for the consideration of the lawmakers indicates that
those who were active last year in the interests of New
York City property owners propose to take up the fight
at the point where it was interrupted by the adjourn¬
ment of the legislature. There is justification of this
course in the fact that the bills, in practically their
present form, had passed the Senate by a large majority
and were only prevented from coming to a vote in the
Assembly, which a canvass had shown to be favorable
to them, because the Rules Committee did not report
them out in the closing sessions.

Despatches to the Record and Guide from Albany
indicate that in the new legislature the men who favored
the bills last year are still for them and that among the
new members are a number who may be relied on to
take the places of those who were friendly to the bills
last year but who are not members now.

Criticism of the Real Estate Board for going ahead
wtihuut awaiting the result of the attempt of the
Mayor's Committee on Taxation to frame a compromise
bill upon which the city administration and the vari¬
ous realty organizations could unite is without reason.
No obstacle to the continuation of the conferences has
been raised by the introduction of the bills. If the
conferences, of which there have been a considerable
number, should result in something more than talk,
and a bill should be drawn that manifestly would, if
enacted into law, be more efficacious in protecting the
rights of and affording relief to taxpayers and in secur¬
ing additonal revenue for the city, the Real Estate
Board will assuredly fall in line and use all its influence
to secure the passage of such a measure rather than the
bills it has presented.

The Real Estate Board was first in making an agres-
sive fight to limit the tax on real estate. Its repre¬
sentatives are entitled to the utmost praise and encour¬
agement for what they have done, and for their de¬
termination to go ahead. It is up to those who advocate
other plans of relief for property owners to justify their
claims that their proposals are more advantageous in
the results they will secure, if enacted into law, and
more practical from the political standpoint. It is at
least good politics to continue to urge upon the law¬
makers bills that have been proved to be acceptable
to a majority of the members of the last legislature.

The early start from the point where the fighting
stopped last year is good tactics.





1Q14, and Novprnher, J.918, of ahont 65 p^r cent^ iji the





Statistics Disprove Rent Profiteering

Those who make the charge of rent profiteering will
be able to derive no satisfaction from the report of the
National Industrial Conference Board made public the
other day. This report was based on figures compiled
in representative industrial communities throughout
the country.

The object of the board's investigation was to deter¬
mine what has been the actual increase in the cost of
living since the war started in 1914. The board finds
that there has been an average increase between Ttily^





cost of living. Food, it is stated, costs S3 per cent,
more, clothing 93 per cent, more, fuel and light 55 per
cent, more and sundries 55 per cent. more. While these
important items of living cost have been advancing so
greatly, the board finds that the cost of shelter shows
an increase of only about 20 per cent.

The information upon which the board based its re¬
port was gathered in between forty and fifty cities
throughout the country. The advance in food and
clothing is shown to have been the principal item of
added living cost in the dift'erent cities, although the
cost of sundries showed a heavy increase. As a general
rule the cost of coal showed a greater increase than
that of gas and electricity, while in many localities the
rates for gas and electricity for domestic use remain
the same as in 1914.

Data bearing on the cost of shelter was derived from
chambers of commerce, real estate boards, brokers and
charitable and civic organizations in nearly one hundred
cities. The figures show that in New York City rents
have advanced less than 20 per cent, as compared with
1914, while in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland
the advance has been practically about 20 per cent. In
some cities, it is reported, there has been no appreciable
change.

The Record and Guide in several authoritative articles
has disproved the charge of rent profiteering which has
been made from time to time in this city during the past
year. The statistitcs just issued by the National In¬
dustrial Conference Board sustain this position.





An Incentive to Effort

Elsewhere in this issue are given some of the many
expressions of approval which the changed form and
style of the Record and Guide has elicited.

It is evident that both our readers and advertisers
approve the new form, a fact which is gratifying in it¬
self and an incentive to effort to make the Record and
Guide constantly better and more useful as opportunity
to do so arises.





Substantial enlargement of the site acquired last May
by the Federal Reserve Bank for the purpose ot erect¬
ing a suitable structure for its growing activities was
made yesterday when the twelve-story modern office
structure, known as the Fahys Building, at 29-31
Liberty street, extending through to 52-54 Maiden
Lane, was purchased through the brokerage concerns
of Horace S. Ely & Co, and the Charles F. Noyes Co.

This important acquisition, made from the Fahys
Watch Case Company, increases the area secured for
the new Federal Bank Building from 33.000 to a base
comprising 38,500 square feet, including all of the prop¬
erty known as 28 to 54 Maiden Lane, 42 to 52 Nassau
street and 29 to 52 Liberty street, now occupied by
twenty buildings of various heights, but principally
obsolete structures, aside from the one just purchased
and the former home of the Lawyers' Title & Trust
Company, an eleven-story structure of modern con¬
struction, now partly occupied by various departments
of the Federal Reserve Bank.