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September 3, 1904
RECORD AND GUIDE
477
Dev&teD to RpA,L Estate , BuiLDiffc AftcKiTECTURE .}{ousnioiD"DEefflifTiDt(.
.Bi/sniEss Alio Themes Of GeHer^I 1K7er,est.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
PabUshed eVery Satrtrday
Communications should bo addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14=16 Vesey Street, New YorR
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Mana^-er Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
••Enleeed at the Post Office at Nem Torlc. N. Y.. i
ind-class matter."
September 3. 1904.
IT is becoming more and more apparent that nothing stands
in the way of a good real estate and building season, but the
continuance of the lockout in the building trades, and the me¬
chanics by the attitude they have assumed have already taken
a good- deal of prospective, as well as ready, money out of their
own pockets. Conditions become constantly more favorable.
In spite of the large emigration irom Manhattan into Brook¬
lyn, the Bronx and New Jersey, owing to the higher rents, the
excellent demand for tenements and fiats, which still continues,
shows that the emigration only disposed of a surplus. Brokers
repeat that this demand is felt in every part of the city and in
every grade of property. The Bast Side is solidly filled, Harlem,
except on a few blocks, is almost as full, and both the upper and
lower West Sides are filling up rapidly. Neither is this state
of things confined to residential property. As the Record an'd
Guide showed in its news columns last week, loft buildings are
also very well occupied, and the renting of this important
class of property so far from feeling the pinch of hard times
is in a very excellent condition, which means, of course, that
builders will continue to erect them in large numbers during
the coming year. Offices in the financial district are not in
such good demand, but if the recovery in the stock market" con¬
tinues they are likely to be in much better demand next spring.
General conditions are plainly improving, and the real estate
market will not suffer from stringency of money rates as it has
during late years. In spite of all these favorable conditions
we do not believe, even if there.is little danger of labor troubles
next spring, that any very remarkable activity will supervSne,
just because confidence in the chances of successful speculation
is so profoundly disturbed by the lockout. But there should
be a sufficiency of wholesome and well-distributed activity, and
something more than that in certain parts of Washington
Heights and the Bronx. The great public works which are being
undertaken by the railroads and the city will not only keep
labor well employed for years to come, but will produce so
many alterations in real estate values and the distribution of'
population that the mere necessities of readjustment alone will
effect a great deal of activity.
THE new developments in respect to the lockout in the
building trades during Lhe past week hive all looked
towards an early and favorable settlement of the trouble. The
resignation of Weinseimer removes the man who bas been re¬
sponsible more than any other single person for the existing
lockout, and it is probable that he wili disappear as a factor
in the situation as completely as Sam Parks did. His successor
is talking a settlement, in,3te3d of warfare, and can even find
some good things about the arbitration agi-eement. It is conse-
.cjuently probable that the unions will reach the conclusion he-
lore long that a w*'ll-employed winter plus the arbitration
agreement will be more to thoir interests than a. winter minus
the arbitration agreement. The loyal acceptance ot the agree¬
ment means, steady work for the mechanics, just as it means
steady basiness conditions for their employers. The delegates
of the plasterers' union, who complained that in spite of the
high wages, a plasterer earned on the average only $11 a week
throughout the year, simply proves that the existing conditions
prevent the mechanics from earning anything like as much as
they are entitled to earn. The man -who earns only $11 a week,
but who ought to earn between $20 and $25, is in a worse way
than the unskilled workman who does not look for more than
IR cents an hour. Probably it will bo found that the difference
between the $24 which the plasterer ought to earn and the ?11
which he does earn is accounted for chiefly hy the time lost,
because of strikes and lockouts so that the loyal acceptance of
the arbitration agreement would do more to raise his wages
than twenty-five years of aggressive striking and warfare. It
is one of the absurd results of the present situation that al¬
though the skilled mechanic does not actually earn very much
more than the unskilled laborer, the cost of building is as high
as if he obtained his full wages, so that nobody, and least of
all the consumer obtains any advantage from the poor pay
which the mechanic receives.
â– ^ HE New Haven Railroad has announced juct what it In-
â– *- tends to do in order to improve the character of its local
service. The plans are very elaborate, and include the laying
of six tracks between the Harlem River and New Rochelle, and
possibly a branch from West Farms to Woodlawn, Four of the
tracks will be equipped for electrical service, two for express
and two for local trains, and the roadbed and equipment will be
as good as money can buy and engineering skill can devise. It
is the purpose of the company in case the traffic proves suffi¬
cient to run their oars without stop over the tracks of the
Interborough Co. to lower Manhattan. These plans have been
made most undoubtedly for the purpose of affording as ex¬
cellent service as possible, one which will place th^ New Haven
Company in a position to compete effiectually with either the
Port Chester or the Westchester Railroad Company, or both,
and together with the proposed improvements on the Central
lines the tracks of the competing companies mentioned above,
and the plans of the Rapid Transit Commission for elevated
roads on Boston, and Jerome Avenues, a rapid transit system
will be provided for the Bronx and Westchester county, which
will open up the whole of that beautiful and healthy region.
Large as are the present boundaries of the Greater New York,
the city will outgrow them within a few years after.these rapid
transit improvements are completed. Of course, the population
will be much mors widely distributed than it is at present,
because accessible land will be very much cheaper, but it will
tU be essentially one city. There is no reason why a radius
of fifty miles from the City Hall in every direction should not
be inhabitated easily by peciple who work in Manhattan. The
chief defect in the arrangements now being made is the lack
of express tracks, whicli will carry long distance passengers
to lower Manhattan. The efficiency of the whole service de¬
pends upon its ability to land passengers in and near the finan¬
cial district without change of cars, and no sufilcieut prepara¬
tions have yet been made to accomplish this result. In addition
to thft two express tracks already built, only one additional
track has as yet been planned by the commission, whereas
there will be needed within a few years at least four additional
tracks for the express service alone.
IN a recent number of McClure's Magazine, Mr. Lionel Stef¬
fens, whose characterizations of municipal corruption in
the different cities of the country, have recently attracted so
much attention, insists vigorously on the idea that municipal
corruption cannot be divorced from corruption in State politics.
He shows, for instance, that the municipal reformers both in
Chicago and Illinois could not accomplish their designs until
they managed to exert an effective infiuence in the State capitol
as well as in the City Hall, the consequence being that reform
candidates are now running for the governorship both of Illi¬
nois and Missouri. In the same way, of course, the municipal
corruption in Philadelphia and Pittsburg is ineradicable so long .
as the present Republican machine prevails in Harrisburg, The
interest, however, of Mr. Steffens' remarks consists in. their
tearing upon the conditions iu this State, "fhe organization
which stands for reform ir New York Citv, the Citizen's Union,
is an exclusively local organization. It has abjured State poli¬
tics, because it,claimed to be a non-partizan body and conse¬
quently wished to keep clear of all questions which involved party
distinctions and loyalty. Yet it is almost as true in New York
as it is in Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania, that the problem
of good local government is essentially connected with State
politics. The chief dilemma which helps to make every reform
administration unpopular is of course, whether it will or will
not enfoi-ce the State excise laws, and it is not to be questioned
that as long as liquor selling is illegal on Sunday, except in
'â– Raines Law" hotels, the cause of municipal reform in New
York will have no chance of more than temporary success. At
the same time, however, it must be admitted that the Republi¬
cans at Albany are allowing the city an increasing amount of
local self-government, and do not interfere as much a^ they-
once did in purely local matters. Governor Odell has not given
the city as much control over its local business as the city is
entitled to, but he has at least prevented the perpetration of
such an outrage on the principle of local self-government as
(hat contained In the proposed State Police Department. And