April 7,  igo6





RbOORD    AJND    GUIDE





ST"





607









ESTABUSHED ^ MABpH 21'4^ 1868,





Dented pRe^lEstate.Buildi7.'g j^RcKiTEerjrxE.Ko^isEUoLDDEeQRATiotf.
Bi/sii^ESSAi^D Themes OF Ge^JeraI, IKtei^est.

PRICE   PER   YEAR    TN    ADVANCE    EIGHT   DOLLARS

published   ever 11   Saturdag

Ccmmunlcatlon,'! sIiohIiI bo addressed to

C.  W.   SWEET,   14-16   Vesey  Street.   New  York

Telephone, Corllandt S157

"Eiilered al tlie J'osl Office at K'rw YorZ: JV. Y, as second-class inaUer."





Vol. LXXVIL





APRIL 7, 1006.





No, 1986





INDEX TO  DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.

Page.                                               Pag«.

Cement   ....................xxv   Law..........................il

Consulting Engineers   .........xix   Lumber   .................xsviil

Clay   Products   ...............xxiv   Machinery   ...................iv

Contractora and  Builders   ......v   Metal  Work..................xx

Electrical    Interest    ..........viii   Quick   Job    Directory........xxiii

Fireproofing   ..................iii   Real   Estate.................xxiii

Granite   ....................xxvi   Roofers   Sc  Roofing Materials.. .x

Heating   ...................xxi   Stone  .....................xxvi

Iron  aud  Steel..............xviii   Wood  Products   ............xxix

SEVERA.L weeks ago, when pessimism reigned in Wall
Street, and financial writers were all bearish, we ventured
the prediction in these columns tbat an upward turn was at
hand, and assigned good reasons for the belief. Since then Wall
Street has had. an advance in prices, ranging from 5 to 15 points.
Three speculative leaders, namely. Union Pacific, Amalgamated
Copper and Reading, have advanced 10, 13 and 15 points re¬
spectively, until halted this weelt hy dear money. From now
on it lool^s as though for a while the rate for money will regu¬
late the stock marlcet, and possibly it may be so intended, as
many shrewd observers insist that the money market is beiug
manipulated to bring about a stock market reaction. It is
charged that the same large banks that call loans in the morn¬
ing withhold money from the market, thus malving a scarcity
and causing the very upbidding by frantic brokers in the after¬
noon, whicli makes the high rates, whereupon the money Is
supplied by the same banks which had demanded its return the
same morning. Five or six large banks, with tlieir branches
aud allied institutions, practically control the funds with
which Wall Street must do business or not at all. The men who
control these great institutions are also the controlling spirits
in the corporations whose shares are bought and sold on specu¬
lation by Wall Street commission houses, and it would tilraost
seem a hopeless game to seek a profit by buying their shares
frora them on the one hand, with the necessity of borrowing the
money to pay for these same shares on the other hand.





THESE dominant interests would seem to be better judges
than the public of values, when they sell to the dear
public, which has to borrow from the seller not only to make
payment in the first instance, but to renew the loans from day
to day pending the outcome of the venture. When thus stated,
the marvel is that anybody will buy tbe leading speculative
shares on margin at all, and yet just such a violent upward
swing as that of the past fortnight ia irresistible, and makes
the player indifferent to money rates, and the combined smaller
percentages clairaed to be against his winnings. To these must
be added tbe atafe tax on his operation, which, inconsiderable
as it seems, still in the course of a year must be a pretty large
amount in the account of an active operator. The question now
is, what is immediately ahead of the stock market? Certainly,
if the current high money rates are to continue, the stock mar¬
lvet cannot go on advancing, neither can real estate interests be
indifferent to what is going on, because there cannot be at the
same time a favorable money market for real estate opera¬
tions with an unfavorable money market for stock operations.
When it comes to bidding for money, the stock operator may
be counted upon to outbid all other business interests, and the
Wall Street stringency might conceivably reach a point where
other business interests would be halted.





LAST week these columns suggested that the new traction
issues were not dead but sleeping, and they have duly
celebrated the predicted awakening by making a sensational
advance of nearly 5 points, and there can easily be 5 points
more to come, or, say, 10 points in the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company's certificates of deposit.    The fundamental





conditions of the stock market remain unprecedented. Copper
and lead keep on advancing. Iron and steel are strong all the
world over. It is only a short time since we read of the de¬
mand for cars and engines in Germany being so great that a
large order was placed in Italy, Now Italy is here with its
Governnlent Commissioner, Signor Francesco Montefredini, to
place a large order for cars and locomotives. The whole world
is busy, and is getting busier, unvexed for the flrst time in five
years eitlier by wars or rumors of war. Projects of all kinds
that have been held back will now be pushed forward, and it
may be safely said that every country on the globe in propor¬
tion to its means and population is as busy as our own, and
nowadays that means the employment of iron, steel and copper.
Farmer Benner, in his prophecies, builded better than he knew
when four years ago he ventured a prediction covering the de¬
cade from 1901 to 1911, and said that the last flve of the years
of the period ending 1911 would be years of unprecedented Iron
production and consequent prosperity. It is a remarkable fact
that, since the beginning of iron production, the last flve years
of each decade have been the years of marvellous growth, the
flrst five years being generally stationary.





AN extremely good record in number of plans flled and esti¬
mated cost of the buildings projected was made for the
flrst quarter of the year. The flgures printed iu last Saturday's
Issue, in the regular statistical table, gave the total estimated
cost of new buildings and alterations in Manhattan and the
Bronx, for which plans were flled between January 2d and
March SOth (Friday) inclusive, as exceeding $46,000,000, which
mounts above the record of the corresponding quarter of the
year 1905 to the extent of $12,000,000. Last Saturday's fllings
and the slip applications for minor repairs during the quarter
not heing included in the foregoing calculation, it is found from
the records of the Building Bureau that for the full period and
for all operations—including new buildings, alterations and
minor repairs (slip applications)—the grand total for the flrst
three months of the year amounted, in estimated cost, in the
Borough of Manhattan alone, to J40,206,740, and that for the
same period in 1905 the total estimated cost of all operations in
this borough was but $28,131,714. The Bronx has not quite
equaled her 1905 mark for the cost of new buildings, but goes be¬
yond it in the number of structures, while the alteration work in
that borough thus far has amounted to more than three times
what was planned during the corresponding period last year. In
Brooklyn the projected buildings for the flrst quarter equaled in
cost but not in number those planned in the first three months
of 1905, and the estimated cost of alteration work is also ahead
of the previous year's record for the same months. During
the month of March of this year the estimated cost of all
building operations in Manhattan amounted to $14,3G0,6S7; in
February, to $11,465,221; and in January, to $14,381,338. Un¬
questionably the weather had a great influence on the opera¬
tions, for the total for March, 1906, is but little ahead of
the record of March, 1905, while the work planned in the
flrst two months of this year is nearly double what was
done during the same length of time in 1905. Every promise is
that the total amount of general building in Manhattan during
the year 1900 will exceed what was given out last year. OfRce
buildings for which plans have been filed thus far have a total
estimated cost of flfty per cent, of the cost of all buildings in
the same class planned during the whole of last year. In
other words, plans for five million dollars' worth of such work
have been flled this year, with much more to come; and the esti¬
mated total cost of all the office buildings for which plans were
filed last year was $9,938,400. Over three million dollars' worth
of loft and factory buildings have been planned so far, aud
about 225 flat, apartment and tenement buildings. Altogether,
the promise is for continued prosperity in the building trades,
with wages only slightly increased over last year, and building
materials not noticeably higher on the whole.





WE print elsewhere some remarks which Mr. Charles H,
Israels, the architect, made in an address delivered be¬
fore the Evening Real Estate Class of the New York University
in regard to the Building Laws, Mr. Israels, of course, treated
the matter for the benefit of his particular audience, and
necessarily covered some elementary ground. The lecturer,
however, has shown on many occasions the special interest
which he takes in what we may call the legal aspect of profes¬
sional practice in this city. He was, indeed, we believe, the
prime mover recently in directing the attention of architects to
the necessity of interesting themselves in the revision of me
Building Laws now in progress. He was alert to the import¬
ance of the situation, and if the Building Code is to be revised,