RECORD AND  GUIDE





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PiUCE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS

Tublished eVerp J'atardap

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14.16 Vesey Street, New Yorfc

i, V. LINDSAY, BueinesB Manager                          Telephone, Cortlandt SIST





lull has taken place in tenement house trading, owing. perhSpg;
to the anti-hight-rent-agitation; but this lull is probably only
"temporary. We expect hereafter that the general demand for
private dwelling and for business property by business firms
will increase rather than decrease.





T^







-JWered at the I'ost Offic




■e at New Tork, W. Y., i




la seconcl-claia matter."





Vol. LXXIII.




APRIL 9, 1904.




No. 1882.





■^pHAT the advance in prices of the past week in Wall
•^ Street shows is that the speculative, the investment
and financial community is beginning to recover its usual power
of reaction. For months good dividend-paying stocks, the best
on the market, have been selling less than a five per cent, basis;
while good industrial stocks have been paying as much as ten
per cent. Everybody knew that they were really worth more
than selling prices; but people lacked either courage or the
capital to buy. Many wealthy men and others had lost a great
deal of money and felt poor. The future was uncertain. Bus¬
iness might become worse. Confidence was unsettled. Capi¬
talists who could buy were probably quite willing that the
uncertainty should continue, so that they could accumulate
good stocks at low prices. The turn in the tide came when
it began to be realized that the steel business which had felt
the depression most acutely was showing unmistakable signs of
revival. This turn of the tide was convincingly exhibited by
the report of the Steel Corporation of its trade during the first
three months of the year, which indicated a progressive in¬
crease of business and profits, and just as the steel stocks led
the decline so they have led the recovery. There is no reason
to suppose that this recovery will not continue, because the
staple products of the country will be sold at good prices, and
because the prosperity of the farmers will make the prosperity
of the railroads. It is a significant fact that the manufactur¬
ers of agricultural machinery, who, a few months ago were
shutting down their works, are now anticipating one of the
best years in the history of the trade.





*HE week has heen prolific of news encouraging to prop¬
erty owners:  but among the most  encouraging announce¬
ments is the apparently certainty that the Legislature will really
act on the rapid transit bills.    The two bills originating in the
commission  have passed the  Senate  and  have been  favorably-
reported in the Assembly.    The Elsberg bill has also passed the
Senate, but at this  writing is being held  up in the Assembly.
The fate of the Elsberg bill is consequently doubtful, and there
is also room for doubt about the advisability of making it into-
a law.    Some   of   its   provisions   are   excellent,   such   as   the-
bestowal of power on the Rapid Transit Commission to operate-
a tunnel service,  if necessary,  but the general  effect of the
amendments   would   be   to   sacrifice the  quality and  quantity-
of the transit service, which could be obtained from private-
capitalists to the consummation of very lucrative contracts ou
the part of the city.    But the people of New> York will profit
more from  an  immediate  but  considerable increase of tunnel
construction   under  the  terms  of  the  Brookiyn  contract  than
it will from a less considerable increase of tunnel construction
under a more profitable contract.    If the Rapid Transit Com-,
mission can get the New York City Railway Company and the
Interborough Company  both to bid against each other and to
agree to huild certain additions to the subway system, the city
would benefit so enormously by the early construction of these:
tunnels that it could afford to grant comparatively liberal terms.
The Elsberg bill, by the restrictions it puts upon the construc¬
ting and operating contract, would correspondingly restrict the
disposition  of  private  capitalists   to   invest  their  money,   and
while the commission would have the power to go ahead 'inde¬
pendent  of the co-operation  of these capitalists,  that  is  an-
alternative  which  should   not   be   accepted,    except as  a  last
resort.    New subways operated in connection either with the
surface  railroads  or  the  existing  subway  would   be  infinitely
more serviceable than an independent tunnel.    Consequently it
is a good thing that the Legislature will probably leave the
hands  of the  Rapid   Transit Commission  comparatively   free
and allow that body to make its own terms with the railroad
companies.    The situation  is all  in  the  city's  favor—provided
only it is properly managed.





THERE seems to be no prospective obstacle to an amount of
activitiy in the real estate and building market during the
rest of 1904 which will be unprecedented. The bricklayer's strike
lias been settled. The scare which it gave to intending build¬
ers will doubtless Unger for some weeks until the dispute has
been arbitrated; but the pressure of economic causes making
for a substantial and very general activity will be so great that
the ill effects of the strike will soon weai- off. General condi¬
tions are better than they have been at any time since last
summer, and the prospects for a good business year are ex¬
cellent. The stock market is recovering its tone; money is
being loaned more freely than ever; local conditions are all in
favor of an exceptionally large amount of residential building
and a fair amount of business building. The demand for house-
room in Manhattan is sufficient to take up just as many tene¬
ments and flats as builders can possibly erect. The Ffth Avenue
movement has not yet run its course and further important
developments are impending both on that avenue and other
parts of the city. We pointed out last week that the list of
new office buildings to be erected during 1904 is already con¬
siderable, and during the past year the list has been Increased
by the sky-scraper, which the United States Express Com¬
pany wil erect on Trinity Place. This new building is un-
doubtedly one of the many which will be built during the
next few years west of lower Broadway-a district which is at
present more available than any other for this class of im¬
provement. Nearly all of these new sky-scrapers will be built
on the margin rather than near the centi-e of the financial dis¬
trict, for the sufficient reason that there is practically no avail¬
able space left within a certain radius of the Stock Exchange
There will be a decided decrease from the average of the past
three years in the number of apartment hotels erected but still
a good many million dollars will be invested between 23d
and 36th Sts, in this elass of building. Then there will be a
large amount of new construction by the city and by institu¬
tions of one kind or another. As to the real estate market
there is more property now being transferred than during any
previous period in its history.    During the week a noticeable





ASSEMBLYMAN NEWCOMB has introduced a bill, provid¬
ing for an amendment to the tenement-house law which
is of the utmost importance to Manhattan builders. Previous
to the passage of the new law the most popular type of apart¬
ment house in New York City was a seven-story building, which
was being erected in large numbers on the more expensive
land throughout the West Side and Harlem. The new law
prohibited this class of apartment house, and the prohibition
had an unfortunate effect upon building in the better parts of
the West Side and Harlem. On land of a certain price, such as
that upon upper Broadway, the difference between a six and
seven story elevator flat-house corresponds to the diiference
between a profitable and an unprofitable building operation;
and the consequence is that during the past several years, this
important class of land and improvement has been neglected.
A good many cheap tenements have been erected and a good
many fire-proof apartment houses and hotels; but there have'
been comparatively few elevator apartment houses built ap¬
pealing to tenants paying from $900 to $1,500 a year. The
amendment proposed by Assemblyman Newcomh, which is
identical with a bill drawn last year for a similar purpose, per¬
mits the erection of a seven story apartment house provided
the floors are fire-proofed and the beams are of iron. It
constitutes a new type of semi-fireproof fiat-house, which is
satisfactory to the builders, and in which the friends of the
tenement house law acquiesce. The amendment failed to pass
last year, but it should certainly be forced through before the
close of the present session. It is a desirable and even a neces¬
sary amendment to the law. and will mean the early improve¬
ment of many pieces of property now vacant and the consequent
invigoration of the building and real estate business.





THE bricklayers' strike has been settled on the only feasible
and equitable basis. As the Record and Guide has repeat¬
edly advised, an agreement has been reached whereby all the
strikers return to work pending the arbitration of differences;
and that strikers have consented to do this is really a triumph
for the arbitration agreement.   The enormous advantage of this