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Record and Guide





187







BlrsD/ESs'Aito Themes'Of Ge^er^, IJftra^T.!

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/. 1. LLNDSEY, B-usiness Manager.





"Entered ut the Post-Offin at New York, N. Y., as setand-elass matter."





Vol. LXII.





AUGUST 6, 1898.





1,586





THERE has been and is still a steady buying going on iu
Wall Street, whlcii has not only kept prices steady, but
has advanced them substantially in some cases. The volume of
buying is not so great in stocks as in bonds, and is investive
rather than speculative. A good investment demand accom-
■panied by moderate speculation is not at all inconsistent and is
explained by the plethora of money and the low rates that it is
only possible to obtain for its use in the ordinary commercial
cb:mnels. The reirarts of the State trust companies and savings
banks, filed at Albany, summaries of which have just been pub¬
lished, show how rapidly money is accumulating in the bands cf
investors. The resources of the trust companies increased in tlie
first h>alf of this year by $43,344,608, and those of the savings
banks by nearly $50,000,000 in this State alone. Doubtless, the
sarae condition of things prevails in other States, and it is,
therefore, not surprising if the markets are scraped over and
over again for secure and paying investments. Under no other
conditions would it be possible for the new railroad four per
cents., which have become such favorites with investors, to oc¬
cupy the position they do. The old Atchison 4s, which were al¬
ways well considered until tbe property lien got into the hands
of bad managers, never' sold higher than 89 in the best of times,
The new 4s on the same property, improved somewhat, it must
be admitted, in the matter of property lien, are now selling above
95, and may go to par. And so it is with others, which are
steadily bought as if there was nothing else in the world to buy
and with the certainty of making only moderate returns on the
invested m'oney. The scarcity of good railroad bonds is due, in
a considerable degree, to the restrictions that were put upon
raiiro'ad extensions for some years past. When quotations were
vt.ry much loiwer than what they are now we pointed out this
fact to our readers, oyer and over again, and drew attention to
lhe excellent position this would give railroad securities when¬
ever business became good. The business has been good for some
time, and tbe results to securities are exactly what we predicted.
Now with prices advanced so much in the well-known issues, it
IS hard to see how they can go much higher, and it would be
better, we think, to watch for favorable developments in the
less known ones and for new issues of promise which the con¬
fidence and enterprise of the country are sure to produce from
time to time, than to continually force up quotations that are al¬
ready unprecedentedly high.





IN the European mariiets the only government bonds in which
there seems to be any special interest, outside of tbe little
fiurry caused by the reports of another clash in China, are
Spanish 4's, which, having advanced considerably, main¬
tain their gains. It is evident from this tha,t Europe,
as a whole, expects the negotiations for peace now afloat
to be carried to a successful conclusion, and without
any serious outbreak of indignation from tbe Spanish
people. Based upon such an opinion the advance in the 4s is
logical, inasmuch as Spain will be financially much better able
to pay the interest on them and meet them at maturity than
while rebeHious colonies were draining away ber life's blood.
The work of promoting new^ enterprises goes on with increasing
pace in London. The total offered for the flrst sevru months o(
the year amounts to about £117,000,000, compared with say
£93,000,000 in the sarae time last year, and £157,299,000 for the
whole of 1897. The Hooley disclosures do not seem to cbe^k
■this business, though they cannot fail to influence the minds of
investors. The report of the foreign trade of Japan for 1897 has
recently been issued and its most remarkable feature is the
enormous growth in the trade it shows with the United States,
imports therefrom having increased from 16,373,419 yen in 1896
to 27,030,E87 yea lA 1897, and exports thereto from 31,532,341 yen





in 1896 to 52,436,404 yen in 1897, a.total increase in one year of
32.000,000 yen. According to the report of the State Mining En¬
gineer, the number of gold and coal mining "companies actually
at work in the Transvaal in 1897 was 218. Of these the total
working capita! was returned at £63,188,000, as compared with
£55,358,000 in 1896, an increase of £7,830,000, or a little over
14 per cent. Of this capital £40,833,000 was paid out to sellers,
vendors, etc. Out of the 218 companies working only 28 gold and
2 coal companines paid dividends during the year. The capital
represented by these companies was £10,856,000, while tbe
amount paid as dividends was £3,001,000, or an average of about
30 per cent. In 1896 the dividends amounted to £1,794,000, so
that the returns in 1897 showed a marked increase. Improved
weather has revived hopes for a good harvest in Austria. In
Hungary harvesting has so far advanced that results can be
fairly well predicted. While the damage clone by the violent
storms of June and the early part of July removed expectation
of a bumper crop, there turns out to be an average yield of ex¬
cellent quality. Owing to the fineness of the grain there will be
a larger amount available for export than for several years
past. The foreign trade reports are somewhat uninteresting read¬
ing, but while they dwell a good deal upon dullness, that term
has a different signification, owing to the volume of the business
being done, than it usually has. Money is plentiful with rates
low, with only a vague possibility that the fall demands for
harvest and revived industry may raise rates.





THE   HEIGHT  FOR    NON~FIREPROOF   APARTMENT HOUSES

THE question as to the maximum height to which a non-fire¬
proof apartment house can be built under the present laws
has for some months past been the subject of considerable dis¬
cussion among architects and builders, owing to the opinion of
the Counsel to the Building Department that such a building
cannot be erected to the height of seventy-five feet on a street
sixty feet wide, but may be erected seventy feet in height, the
height to be talien through tbe center of the facade, and to in¬
clude the cornice. The building law provides that all buildings,
excepting only hotels, theatres, hospitals, asylums, public institu¬
tions and school houses, may be erected non-fireproof to a height
not exceeding seventy-five feet from the curb level at the center
ct the building to the highest point of the roof beams—not in¬
cluding cornices, parapets, etc. That height was established by
the act of 1897. In tbe same year the special law limiting the
height of dwelling houses was so amended as to make up what
was practically a new law. The question as to the height for
apartment houses on the ordinary street turns on the construc¬
tion of the law as so amended.

The law limiting the height of apartment houses was passed in
1885 and stood without a change until 1897. The old act pro¬
hibited the erection of houses to be used as dwellings for more
than one family to a height greater than 70 feet upon all streets
and avenues not exceeding sixty feet in width, and 80 feet upon
wider streets aud avenues, the heights to be measured from the
sidewalk line up "through the center of the facade, including
attics, cornices and mansards." In the Legislature of 1897, As¬
semblyman Husted introduced a bill. No. 166, to allow fireproof
apartment houses to be erected to a height of 150 feet upon all
streets and avenues exceeding seventy-nine feet in width, and
100 feet upon streets and avenues of a lesser width. It also pro¬
vided that the height of such houses, when constructed non-fire¬
proof, should not exceed 70 feet in height, without regard to the
width of a street or avenue. In all cases the height was to in¬
clude attics, cornices and mansards. Mr. Husted's attention was
called to the fact that a bill to change the limit of height for non-
fireproof buildings from 70 to 75 feet in the building law waa
pending in the Legislature with every probability of passage,
and he at once caused a change to be made in his bill to con¬
form with the greater height of 75 feet for non-fireproof houses,
and the bill was reprinted as No. 166, 1049.

It was on this bill that a public hearing was given by the
Cities' Committee of the Assembly. The bill was drawn In the
interest of the owners of the La Rochelle Apartment-Hotel
building for reasons that make up an interesting story but need
not be mentioned here. The bill was unsuccessfully opposed by
tne then attorney to the Building Department. It was supported
by representatives of the building interests, and the changes
which they asked for were granted; the heights for fireproof
apartment houses was left at 150 and IOO feet, these heights to
include attics, cornices and mansards, but all reference to the
height for non-fireproof apartment houses was stricken out, so
that the height provided by the building law proper should con¬
trol—namely, 75 feet for non-fireproof buildings—and so that the
non-fireproof class of apartment houses could have tbe benefit
of not having to include cornices, which almost invariably rise
above the highest point of the roof beams, in the measurement
for height.  The attorney for the Building Department declared