March 14, 1303.





RECORD AND  GUIDE





481









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ESTABUSHED ■S0/i\ARpH2lii^ 1868.
i)Bt)pOpRfA,LEsTAJZ.BuiLDIfJG A^RCKm:GTURE,HoiISE:i(01DDEQC!R^ll,

.BUsit/Ess Alto Themes of GEriei^. iKT^flfsp
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS

FubUshed eVery Saturday

Commun feat ions should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET,  14 = 16 Vesey  Street.   New YorH

J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manaser                         Telephone, Cortlandt 3157

"Entered ai the Post Office at New York. N, Y., as second-class matter."





"Vol.  LXXL





MARCH 14,  1903.





No.  1826.





liEA





FOB BELIVEliY.





Hie annual mimher of tlie Record and Guide Quarterly eontain
ing all ihe real estate records for the year 1002, annotated and al-
phabeticaUy and numerically arranr/ed, is now  ready for delivery.
Published by the Record and Guide, II andlG  Vesey St.

T T looks at last as if the long-needed organization of the
•■ property owners of New York City would become an actual
fact. A call has been issued to property owners to meet at the
Knickerbocker Trust Co., No. 66 Broadway, on Wednesday,
March ISth, at 3.30 P. M., aud signed by such influential men as
Mr. C- T. Barney, Chas. A. Peabody, Clarence H. Kelsey, Henry
Morganthau, E. W. Coggeshall, Robert E. Dowling, W. F. Have¬
meyer, D. B. Ogden, W. H. Chesebrough, John D. Crimmins,
and Edgar J. Levey. These gentlemen represent the largest in¬
terest and the progressive ideas that exist in the real estate
field—tbe very element that is absent in existing organizations—
and their support of the movement practically ensures it effi¬
cient management and a large measure of success. The need of
such an organization, which has been so fretiuently insis-ted on
by the Record and Guide, was never more patent than at the
present time. The interests of property owners are more than
ever menaced by the proposed legislation at Albany, and the
real estate owners will need all the influence, all the command¬
ing authority, and all the large resources of a thoroughly repre¬
sentative organization to save themselves from the grave dan¬
gers of the present situation. Property owners should and will
rally to the support of the new movement.





SO t0.r as the movements of money this week are known they
point to another bad bank statement to-day, but there are
circumstances which indicate that the loss of funds will not
be as great as they appear by crude reckoning. There is the
offsetting influence of liquidation of loans, the accommodations
extended by foreign houses and an attitude of representative
hankers and of officials that invite patience with and confidence
in the situation. Under these circumstances the market
strengthened toward the end of the week, and money became
somewhat easier. It should also be stated tbat some loans were
made by out of town parties and this, though the terms were
attractive, contains an early promise of a return eastward move¬
ment. This should come in the ordinary course of things in a
week or two, and high rates may expedite it. Be these matters
as they may, it must not be forgotten that from this on all
business and speculation will be tempered by the thoughts of
what may occur in the fall, if the market is again subjected to a
simultaneous commercial and agricultural demand as it was
last year. This thousht will keep loaners cautious, and make
accommodations more or less dear, and, while temporary abun¬
dance of money may at intervals bring down call rates to much
lower figures, its effect upon time rates will be very much less
pronounced. There are no signs of a contraction of general
business, and it is, of course, too soon to be figuring upon crops,
but these are the two things upon which all calculations regard¬
ing the course of the money market for tJie next six months
must be based. There is no fault to find with the immediate
business outlook; the course of prices, particularly those of
metals, shows this to be satisfactory. Business has to pass
through the labor test usual to the spring of the ye.ir, and un-
.fortunately in this respect the season  does not open any too





ATEST advices from Europe record an improvement in the
security markets. This is due to causes similar to those
that are favorablyaffectingour own. There is an increasing activ¬
ity in the great lines of manufactures and the stringency in
money is abating. There was a drop in consols to figures cor¬
responding to those made at the outbreak of the Fi-anco-Prussian
war and this break was closely connected with sensational re¬
ports of the approach of something like a crisis in the affairs of
Great Britain and Russia in Persia. Reports were that the Vice¬
roy of India and tbe Commander-in-chief of the Indian forces
had protested against any curtailment of defensive allowances,
and it is not improbable that Lord Cranborne's statement re¬
garding the advisability of an agreement with Russia as .to their
respective positions, may not have been intended to prevent the
mischief that such reports were intended to create. The state¬
ment of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs may too have had the
object of preparing the public for an admission as to Russia's
claims which may be unpalatable, but as inevitable as were the
movements of the latter in Northern China. Whatever their ob¬
ject, it is obvious that the adjustment of positious as related
to Persia by these two powers is to be the next phase of the
Eastern Question to bother folks' minds and move tbe security
markets. Of immediate affairs, the most important is the clos¬
ing of the British Government's fiscal year, and the bringing
nearer budget propositions and the new loan. In the former
it is expected there will be found a reduction of the income tax
and that should improve the price of consols somewhat. It
would be quite appropriate that the reduction of interest, which
takes place next month, should be accompanied by relief from
taxation, especially as the Government cannot but be concerned
at the shrinking of the quotation while they have new demands
to make upon the market The revival of business will be as¬
sisted by the large appropriations for new naval construction,
which will be additionally welcome, owing to the depressed
state of the shipyards generally. Railroad and bank dividends
both in Great Britain and on the Continent afford further evi¬
dence of the improvemeut that has been growing up in business
for some little time past, and its continuation is guaranteed by
advances in the prices of staple goods. Of interest to our
readers is also a movement that has been inaugurated to effect
an understanding as to prices and output among German manu-
facturei-s of Portland cement. This has been tried off and on for
two years, but recently it was possible for the first time to get
a representative meeting of producers. At this meeting the
suggestion of fixing uniform prices was favorably received, but
a proposition to limit the output of each concern raised opposi¬
tion, finally a committee was appointed to go over the whole
ground and find an acceptable basis for co-operation.





T  N another column will be found a very complete summary
■*      of the changes in the tenement-house law, which are sanc¬
tioned by the DepartmenL and embodied in the bill introduced
into the Senate by Mr. Marshall.    These changes represent the
utmost concession which the Department believes that it can
safely grant to the builders in the outlying boroughs;   and  It
may be safely said that since the Governor and the Mayor agree
with Mr. De Forest in this matter, this bill is the only remedial
legislation which has a fair chance of passing.   These proposed
concessions, while falling a good deal short of what the Brook¬
lyn builders have demanded, still represent a very real purpose
to meet, so far as possible, any genuine grievances.    The more
important ones are concerned chiefiy with the three and four
story tenements, containing two families on a floor, the apart¬
ments  running  through  from  front to  rear.    The  8x14  court,
which last winter was legalized for the three-story tenements,
is under the proposed amendments authorized for the four-story
tenements also.  The court required for a single three-story tene¬
ment is not reduced, but, where two three-story tenements ad¬
join, the 8x14 court is deemed sufflcient to ventilate them both,
provided the houses do not occupy more than 65 per cent, of the
lot.    Furthermore three-story three-family frame buildings are
permitted outside the fire limits.    All these concessions may be
approved, in that they enable builders to erect these classes of
houses   with  more  profit  to  themselves  and  yet  without  any
threat to wholesome conditions of residence within the houses.
But the Department goes further and makes even more liberal
concessions with respect to fireproofing provisions.    Bulkheads
in new tenement houses less than five stories in height may be
constructed of wood, if covered with metal on both sides.   New
four-story houses, which do not contain more than two families
on a floor, may have wooden stairs, provided the backs or soffits
of the stairs are covered with metal, and the floors of the stair
halls are filled with deafening to a depth of five inches, and that
such   stair  halls  are  inclosed  with   flreproof partitions,   con¬
structed on four-Inch terra,, cijtta blocks with angle Irbn.fl^m-