RECORD   AND   GUIDE





249





ESTABUSHED^ It^mV^ 1868.
"Dnfri* p RpAf. EsrTAJl-BuiLoiĩfc %ciírrEeTUR,E ,HcaisE3Jũii» DEGũl^Tiorl,
Btísntess >(to The«es of GeĩIer^I iKitREsi.,

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   EIGHT   DOLLARS

Communications  stioull be  addressed  to

C. W. SWEET

Publisfied ESery Saturãat)

By THE KECORD AND GUĨDE CO.

President,   CLINTON  W.   SWEET                     Treasurer,  F.  W.  DODGE

Vice-Prea.  & Geũl. Mgr., H.  W.  DESMOND        Secretary, F, T. MILLBR

Nos. 11  to  15  East 24tli  Síreeti  Neiv  YorU  Cíty

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"Entcred at the Post Office at Ncw York, N.  T.,  <is sreiiii.'1-flans vialter."
Copyriglited.   1907,   by  The   Record   &   Guifle  Co,





Vol. LXXX.





AUGUST 17, 1907.





No. 2057.





INDEX TO DBPARTMBNTS.   .
Advertising  Section.

Page.                                               Page.

Cement  ........................xiv   Lumtier   .....................ĸx

Clay Products  ................xvii   Machinery   ...................yi

CoQSUltiog Engineers ..........xv   Metal Work..................xvi

Contractors and Builderg .......iv   QuiclcJob  Directory...........xx

Eiectrical Interests ............vii   Reai Estate  ...................ix

Fireprooflng....................ii   Roofers & Rooflng Materiais.,vii

Granite  .....................xviii   Stone ....'..................xviii

Iron and Steei   ........i......vili   Wood Products  ...............xxi





ABOUT three years ago a new phase uC the mortgage
question avose in New York. In its inception it was
most legitimate, faut its development has since daugerously
approached the character oí things and people which flnd
an alias necessai-y. la fact, "subordinaUon agreements" or
"participating agreements" are in the majority of cases the
aliases of second, third and even fourth mortgages. It has
always been the recognized policy of all governments wlio
legislated wisely regarding real estate to give the greatest
possible publicity to all transactions relating to it, and for
that reasou the Suhordination Agreement, which goes far
to conceal the actual transaction, should be viewed wĩth
suspicion. On its face the mortgage whieh will afterwards
admit of a subordinating agreement differs no whit from
any first mortgage, while the "Junior" interest, wliich no
statute requires shall be made a raatter of public record,
contains all the noxious featurrs of a second mortgage. To
begĩn with, the rate of iuterest is higher, there is a large
bonus to he paid, and at expiration an extensiou of time is
as difficult to negotiate as with any second mortgage. Prob-
ably the rate of interest paid on money borrowed uuder a
participating agreement amounts in the majority of. cases
to 10% per aunnm. Por example, a niortgage at 5% is
given Eor $100,000. With a "junĩor" interest of Ĩ10,000
■ it would admit of paying iVz^o on Ĩ90,000 aud 914% on
$10,000. This does not take into consideration the larger
brokerage which a "full" mortgage tlemands, While the
amouut of mortgage wliicli a parcel carries is uever con-
ceded as a basis of appraisal, it is undoubtedly true tliat the
amount of the first mortgage very strongly influences the
purchase price of the property, and many buyers draw
their inferences as to value from the amount loaned by well-
known institutious. Viewed iu this liglit a mortgage with
a subordination agreemeut is manifestîy unfair. Should
the terms of the agreement be recorded and made accessihle
to a prospective purchaser or to a third mortgagee, there
would seem to be no necessity for any metliod of procedure
except that which has held in the past. It is uudoubtedly
true that real estate will proflt by makiug small sums of
money available for mortgages, hut this would probably
be better aeeomplished by issuing bonds of small denomina-
tion against the raortgages held on individual pai-cels oC
property.





than 60 feet across is from their point of view a danger to
public health and safety. It means a congestion, which is
inconveuieut in normal times, aud which would be abso-
lutely fatal iu case of a serious aceident. Opiuions of this
kind are very generally held, but we doubt whether they
will be sufiiciently influential to effect a legal limitation in
the height of ofhce buildings. The interests favoring the
existing lack oE restriction are very powerful, and are much
more aggressive than their opponents. They have on their
side the advantage o£ a long-established precedent, the idea
that tail buildings teud to economic eíficieney, and a species
of publie pride in the speetacle they create. It may be
doobted, consequently, whether auy limitation will be ad-
mitted in the revised code. Indeed, it is probable that the
interests l)ehind skyscraper construction will be able to
alter the buildiug law in a way which will help rather than
hinder the construction of skyscrapers. It Is unquestiona-
bly an extremely dangerous and foolish thing to erect build-
ings ũíteen stories or more high in a part of the city where
they are and will continue to be surrounded by inflammabĩe
structures, and if skyscrapers are to be permitted it cer-
tainly follows that business buildings of all heights should
also be thoroughly flreproofed. But if business buildings
six stories high have to be fireproofed, there will be very
much smaller inducement to erect structures of this class
than there is at preseut. It will be more eeonomîcal to
build ten or twelve stories and in this way get back in space
and rentals some of the increased cost of fireproofed con-
struction. It is extremely probable consequently that here-
after there wiU be an increase rather than a diminution in
the average height of business buildings and that struc-
tures twenty stories high with towers running up twenty
itories more will be of frequent occurrence. Such ■will
terlaiuly be the ease if no restrictions are placed in the
buiiding code; and up to the preseut time there is no suffl-
cient iudication that such a restriction will be introduced.





IT nOBS not appear tliat the demand for a limitation of
the height of skyscrapers is tlie kiud ol: demand wliich
cannot be denied. There are uudoubtedly a great many
property-owners who feel vaguely that the time has come
for some such limitation, and there are also a great many
engiueers and architects wlio regard the unrestricted con-
struction of skyscrapers as in tlie loug run dangerous to the
públic welfare. The skyscraper in their opinion might be
permissible in case the streets on which it was built were'
'wide,   but   to   erect   thirty-stoiy   buildings   on  a   street  less





FOR the third time since the panic oE last March, the
believers in higher prices for stocks have failed in
an attempt to raise prĩces to a higher level, and the exteut
of the failure has, in each case, been proportioned to its
earlier success. There can be no doubt that from the
merely technical point of view this last attempt in partic-
ular was ill-advised eonsidering the existing coudition of
the money market and the probable iuereaseiĩ stringency
in the fall. Any campaign for higher prices which went
beyond narrow limíts was bound to be unsuccessful. Im-
portant, however, as technícal conditions were iu bringins
about the recent break, they are not alope sufRcient to ex-
plain the fact that the reaetion carried prices below the
level of ĩast March. If these teehnica! couditions had not
been assisted by such incideuts as the euormous fine im-
posed on the Staudard Oil Co., and the difflculties which
several different railroads had wîth the authorities of vari-
ous Southern States, it is probable that the decliue would
not have reached as much as half of its recent proportions.
It was the renewal of radical anti-corporation activity on
the part oE the authorities of different Southern States,
which has been responsible for mnch of the speculative dis-
couragement; and it is this aspect of the matter which is
of much more than temporary interest. The owners oE
railroad securities may well asl&, themselves how far a pol-
icy inimical to their interests will be carried by the various
state governments, and what will be the eEEect of such a
policy upon the earnings of their properties. They may
weil ask themselves, also, whether they have more to íear
from State or from Federal regulation, and what system of
regulatiou they should favor in their own interest and in
that of the general economic and political well-being of the
country.





IN considering the answer to these questions, the experi-
ence of the past year has surely beeu very illumiuat-
ing. Both the State and the Federa! governraents have
been passing legislation in respect to corporations, and
while this legislation has been in both instances designed
to restrict corporate activities, the aetion oE Congress has
been much more carefuUy considered and much more fairly
conceived than the action of the State Legislatures and
State executive offlcials. It looks, cousequeutly, at the out-
set as if the owners of corporate, and particularly of rail-
road securities, could depend upon fairer treatment from
fhe uational than from the State authorities, and that con-
sequently they should exert tlieir influence on behalE of
strengthening the hands oE the national as compared to the
state   governments,     Such  a  conclusion   would  not,   indeed,





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