Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXL





NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1878.





No. 534.





Published Weekly by

%h Seal EstateSecarbi^ssonatmn.

TERJIS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....SlO.OU.

Coiuniunications should be addressed to

C.  W.  SWEET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





THE PROSPECTS OF THE BUILDING
TRADE.

Every well-wisher of this city must take a
lively interest in the condition and prospects of
the building trade. Activitj- in building denotes
vigor and growth of the metropolis, whereas
stagnation just as surelj' iudicates decadence and
retrogression. Indications abound on every
hand that the loug wave of adversity which has
rolled over this interest has become thoroughly
exhausted, and that from the present j-ear we
maj- look for more propitious signs if not for sub¬
stantial encouragement for embarkations iu this
line. The conditions which preseut themselves
today bear a marked coutrast to those out of
which Avas germinated the wild aud reckless
activity of the last great speculative era. The
recuperative forces, which ai-e now at work and
which promise to reinvigorate aud reinspiro this
noble calling, are all of the legitimate kind. The
next great era of building activitj' promises to
take its origin in a plane of low values, relatively
if not actually the lowest that the city has known
since it has taken on the dignity of a metropolis.
In all but the most exclusivelj- fashionable locali¬
ties and along the most prosperous busiuess
thoroughfares, the price of land has fallen to
nearly as low a level a.s that which prevailed
twenty years ago.

The establishment of rapid transit aud the pros¬
pect of an early resumption of specie paj-meuts
are the potential factors of the new order of
things which is likely .soon to be inaugurated.
The steadying and pacif j-ing effects of a specie
basis afford a meet reciprocal for the great pros¬
pective demand for dwellings which is likely to
grow out of the successful establishment of rapid
transit.

We have exhausted the benefits and tasted the
bitterest dregs of a scale of high values, and we
come now to test the virtue and efficacy of low
prices. In familiar words high prices invite com¬
petition, and, we may add, destruction; but low
prices defy competition as well as invite a liberal
demand.

An important element iu the calculations of the
building trade must necessarily be the prospective
results of mercantile operations. The fact, how¬
ever, that a moderate degree ot building activity
has been kept up during the past five years of un¬
paralleled mercantile depression, would seem to
indicate that the vigor of building activity is not
strictly or entirely dependent upon commercial
results. There is a forceful vitality in the growth
of our metropolis, which finds its root in sources
which either cannot be traced out or which are
not apparent to the ordinary observer. It is say¬
ing nothing new to aver that the latent wealth of





New York—that which is ordinarily dissociated
from and independent of mercantile revulsions—
is the true gerniiuating force behind mauj' lead¬
ing building improvements. Although the pre¬
dominant sentiment and tone of business circles
are those of gloom, uncertainty and trepidation,
it may be easilj' determined that there are bi^anches
of business in this citj', which are enjoj-iiig and
have been partakers of a large Share of success.
The superlative advantage of a great financial and
mercantile metropolis is that its impulses of pros¬
perity are derived from a multitude of sources,
and while some maj' be stagnant and unfruitful,
others aro sure to be glowing with warmth, and
bristling with a healthful activitj-. If a discrimin¬
ating and periodical census could be taken of the
occupants of our most fa.shiouable mansions, in
probably no waj-could the waves of business pros¬
peritj- und adversitj' be better delineated. "While
unfortunate niembei-s of our New York societj'
withdraw to secluded abodes, the representatives
of business success quickly step for%vard and take
their places in the front ranks.

The two most seriou-s problems which preseut
themselves in connection with the revival of build¬
ing are those of labor and taxes.

The gi-eatest hardship that was ever inflicted
on the building trade of this city was the enact¬
ment of the eight hour law, which so seriously
disturbed the relations of employer and employed
and which led directly and swiftly to a reaction
in the condition of the mechanical classes, from
the effects of which they are just beginning to re¬
cover. "Wages hke capital must ever be left under
the controlling influence of the law of supply and
demand. Probably no human device, and cer¬
tainly no legal enactment can be framed for regu¬
lating the value of wages, or for establishing them
upon anj- arbitrary level. During the dulness of
the past few j'ears, wages have become unduly
depressed, sinking even in the case of first-class
skilled mechanics to levels lower than those
that prevailed before the war. Mason's and car¬
penter's wages at one dollar and seventy-five
cents per day of ten houi-s, and laborers wages of
from sixty cents to one dollar per daj', cannot be
taken as representing any normal standard. Al¬
ready slight reactions have set in which have en¬
abled mechanics to obtain a small increase of
wages. "Whether wisely or not, we would hardly
venture to say, the leading mechanics have iaaug
erated a strike during the present season for a
still greater advance, masons and carpentere
claiming two dollars and a half, and other
skilled mechanics claiming a proportionate ad¬
vance. This movement is undoubtedly responsive
to the outcropping of an enlarged demand for
such sei-vices.

The steadying influence of the gold standard is
no where more required for the interest of all
parties than in the regulation of wages. A fluc¬
tuating standard of currency, and consequently
of wages, introduces the element of tmcertainty
into all the calculations of the master builder.
Unexpected and excessive advances in wages
work a serious hardship to a contractor, as an im-
duly depressed standard of wages does to a me-
cha^c. The interest and well being of the two
classes (employer and employee) are so directly
connected that it becomes most desirable that a
fixed and uniform level of wages, at least for a





given J-ear or sejison, should be established. There
is a possibility that the agitation of this question
of wages may deter timid capitalists from embark¬
ing in building enterprises, aud the forcing of anj-
such condition would be certain to react upon the
mechanic by lessening the demand for his ser¬
vices.

As the disposition seems to exist among employ¬
ers to concede the rate of wages now demanded,
to wit—two dollars and a half per day for the
highest grade of mechanics, it is more than likelj-
that this will be adopted as the prevailing stand¬
ard for the coming season, and]contracts will be
gauged according to it.

With the adjustment -of the labor (luestion,
there remains a solitary obstacle to a full and
healthy revival of building, to wit—the mat; er of
taxation. If one-half or two-thirds of the present
taxation could be removed from real estate, bj- a
reduction of citj- expenditures and bj' a distribu¬
tion of some such share of it upon other objects,
we would venture to prophesj' a startling revival
in the building trade that would extend promis-
cuouslj' from the Battery to Harlem River, em¬
bracing the substitution of new and imposing
edifices for old and dilapidated ones, and the cov¬
ering of the immense area of vacant land that
now disfigures the upper end of the island with
new and comfortable homes. As it is, the im-
equal and oppressive burden of taxation that now
rests on real estate acts as a powerfid deterrent
in the revival of this interest.

The building trade naturally divides itself into
two branches, and we propose to consider the
prospect of each of these separatelj*.

Legitimate Builders.—The rank and file of
the legitimate builders, those who execute work
upou contract, have been lying in enforced idle¬
ness for manj' months awaiting the revival of
business and a renewed demand for their services.
This vast bodj- of master and minor mechanics
resembles a great army marshaled and equipped
for duty and awaiting the word of command to
advance into active service. There is no lack of
mechanical genius in this city for executing the
most varied and dillicult tasks. That ability,
however, waits patiently to be called into action
by the inspiring invitation of the capitalist.
Aside from the rumore which are floating about,
of tho projection of elaborate and costly private
works, and aside from the numerous outcroppings
of private orders which are already in course of
execution,there are certain conditions which favor
the hope of widespread and early employment
for legitimate builders. The cheapness and
plethora of money, which have become the
chronic symptoms of this great money centre,
cannot fail in time to have an effect in inducing
capitalists to seek permanent investments in real
estate. As the hope recedes of procuring high
rates for monej' ou call, or of obtaining solid se¬
curities that will pay a satisfactory rate of in¬
terest, the capitalist will be driven through sheer
desperation to seek investments in real estate
which will pay him a reasonable annual interest.

The scarcity of good mortgages and the dis¬
couraging prospect that this class of investment
may be made the object of invidious and blight¬
ing legislation mtist in time have an effect in de¬
termining capitalists to give their preference to
investments in improved property as the best