October 28, 1905





RECORD AND  GUTOE





643









^ ESTAEUSHED ^ (MR.CH £ti^^ 186 8,

"[tofrlED TO fW^EsTAIE.euiLDIffc A,ncKn£CTiiRE,HoiisnloU)DEet?iJiBi^i
BUSIt^ESS AltoTHEIilES Of GEjtR,fcl.ll(TEit,ES1,_.

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   EIGHT   DOLLARS
Published  every  Saturday

CTommunloatlona should ne addreaaed to
C. W. SWEET,   14-16 Vesey Street,  New York
*                                 Telephone, Cortlandt 3157





parcels were, to a very considerable extent, professional opera¬
tors; and the incident shows that the regular professional de¬
mand for property, even in unspeculative neighborhoods, is
sufficient to enable a property-owner to sell his property, It
necessary, -without sacrificing it. It must he a very worthless
piece of real estate, indeed, which, if it can be purchased at a
fair price, will not offer to some operator the opportunity to
make a. good profit.





"Entered at the Post Offlce at New York. N. Y. as second-class matter."





CopyriEht by the Real Estate Raeord and Builders' Guide Company.

No.   1963





Vol.   LXXVI.





OCTOBER 2S,  1003.





INDE5X  TO  DEPARTMENTS,
Advertising Section.

Page                                                       Page

Cement ....................ssv          Law   .....................ix

Clay Products  .............xxiv         Machinery  ..................v

Contractors  and  Builders___vl          Metal Work .................xxi

Fireprooflng...............ii          Stone ....................xxvi

Granite  ..................xxvi          Quick Job Directory.......xxix

Heating ...................xxii          RgliI  Estate................xi

Iron and Steel..............xix          Wood  Products   ........xxviii

THB bullish movement which was started in the stocks of
certain industrial specialties towards the end of last week
has gone the way of all recent movements of the same kind.
It had a few days of success; but beyond a deflnite point it met
with stiff resistance, and during the week now ended the in¬
creases in quotations have been slowly crumbling away. This
is but another indication that the time is not yet; neverthe¬
less, the movement was, to a certain extent, justified. The
railway supply companies have the assurance of a year of active
and profitable business; and before it is over it is probable
that many of them will be able to resume the payment of divi¬
dends upon their common stocks. If such proves to be the case,
there is room for more of an advance in the securities of these
companies than there is in the great mass of railroad securities.
The seven per cent, preferred stock of a well-managed indus-
ti-ial corporation should sell above 110; and it might sell even
as high as 120. In certain cases such stocks already sell as
high as that; and when the dividends on other stocks of the
same class are secured by a further accumulation of profits, so
that they can hardly be interferred with during a period of de¬
pression, they ought to he worth 120 on an investment basis.
But, as we have said, no matter how good this reasoning may
be, the time is not yet. For the present undoubtedly conser¬
vative principles counsel a waiting market; and it is apparent
that the conservative infiuences propose to control the situation.
Every indication, however, continues to look in the direction
of a persistence of good business throughout 1906. The rail¬
roads would not be investing so many million dollars in new
rolling stock did they uot have the best reasons for anticipating
a year in which the freight offered for shipment will assumo
an unprecedented volume.





THE success of the auction sale of the Aldrich Estate, which
took place on Wednesday of the past week, must be ac¬
counted for partly by the good general demand which exists at
the present time for improved real estate in Manhattan and
partly hy the excellence of the arrangements which preceded
the sale and prepared for it. It is rare that satisfactory prices
will be obtained at a sale of this kind unless the fact and the
details of the sale are well advertised; and in this instance the
gentlemen responsible for the sale did not spare expense in
placing and keeping a list of the property to be offered before
the public. The consequence was that on the whole a very
fair level of values was obtained—particularly for the medium-
priced properties. The two large parcels on lower Broadway
sold, indeed, for prices which were low rather than high; and
the purchasers of both of these parcels will he able to realize
In the course of time a handsome profit on their investment.
But while the prices were not high, they would have been con¬
sidered high not so very long ago. The remainder of the prop¬
erty was situated for the most part in the wholesale business
district. This is not a part of the city in which real estate is
ever active in the speculative sense. It is a district in which
property returns a safe and fair income on an investment; but
it is not a part of the city in which any early or large increases
in value can be expected. Nevertheless, the prices obtained
were as high as could be anticipated, and they should be very
satisfactory to the heirs of the estate.    The buyers  of these





IT is an encouraging sign that, in spite of the enormous busi¬
ness which is being transacted in the various branches of
the iron and steel trades, the prices of the most important
forms of iron and steel manufacture have not soared anything
like as high as they did either in 1899 or in 1902. According
to the Iron Age, Bessemer pig iron sold in Pittsburg for $22.05
in 1902 and $25 in 1S99, whereas its present price is only $16.60.
In 1S99 the highest monthly average price for Bessmeer billets
was $39; in 1902 it was $35,20, while at present it is $26. Beams
are selling now at $1.70, against $2,35 in 1902 and $2.25 in 1899.
These figures show plainly that the steel trade is under very
much better control than it was during the last two periods
of great prosperity; and there can be no doubt that this con¬
trol is in somo measure consciously and intentionally exBr-
cised. Leading interests have refused to advance prices, when
such advances were economically possible, because they wanted
to prevent a runaway market; and the success of these con¬
servative interests in preventing prices from passing the danger
point indicates that the reaction when it comes is cot likely,
to be either so severe or so sudden as it was in 1903. Indeed,
there is no reason why the American steel trade should not
hereafter be spared the terrific and dangerous fluctuations be¬
tween opulence and starvation, which have marked its past.
Of course, there will he periods of comparatively good and
periods of comparatively poor business; but if prices can be pre¬
vented from becoming excessively high at one time, it should
also be possible to prevent them from becoming excessively low
at another time. Moreover, the prospect that the great ma¬
jority of the important American steel roads have been placed
permanently on the list of dividend-payers will in tbe long run
make a considerable difference to the steel industry. The rail¬
roads are tho great consumers of steel; and, in case their
finances are permanently improved, their purchases from the
steel manufacturers should not vary in different years as largely
as they have done heretofore. It will, consequently, be ex¬
tremely interesting to see whether the conservatism which is
characterizing the existing prosperity of the steel trade will
serve to prolong the period of good business as well as to
break the fall—when it comes.





THE action that the Fire. Underwriters have taken recently in
regard to "fireproof" wood is set forth in another column
of this issue. The individual who can stand up in the face of
this action and still assert the value of treated wood as fire¬
proof material must either have some pecuniary interest to
serve or be possessed of a mental apparatus that works natu¬
rally on the "bias." If the Underwriters do not value fireproot
wood, to whom is it valuable? We are speaking, of course, of
fireproof wood in connection with the construction of our "sky¬
scrapers" wherein it is ludicrously unnecessary. There may
well be a place ^for it elsewhere as a fire retardant or fire stop
in a structure of high combustability where wood and wood only
can be used. Even in these cases, however, concrete is now
offered at a cost only slightly in excess of the cost of plain un¬
treated lumber. Tbis, however, is beside the immediate
matter, which is that the legal requirement regarding fireproof
wood should be expunged promptly from the Building Code.





THE "Evening Mail" takes the title insuranee companies to
task, because they charge for examining the title to a par¬
cel of real estate which they refuse to guarantee; and itcompares
the title insurance companiea unfavorably in tbis respect with
fire or life insurance companies, which when they refuse to in¬
sure charge nothing for the examination. But surely this com¬
parison is based upon an absurd misunderstanding of the func¬
tion of title insurauce, as contrasted to that of life insurance.
When a company insures a man's life, it assumes the risk of
contracting to pay a certain sum of money in return for a com¬
paratively small annual premium; and it takes this risk he-
cause it is a matter of experience that if a man enjoys
ordinary good health, he will probably live an average number
of years. He may not do so in any particular case; but in a
large number of cases the company can count upon the main¬
tenance of the average. The only purpose of the examination
is to obtain some assurance that a particular case haa the
average chance of life for a man of his age, and the expense
of the examination ia exceedingly small compared to one year's