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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1826: March 14, 1903

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March 14, 1303. RECORD AND GUIDE 481 ■4^ . ESTABUSHED ■S0/i\ARpH2lii^ 1868. i)Bt)pOpRfA,LEsTAJZ.BuiLDIfJG A^RCKm:GTURE,HoiISE:i(01DDEQC!R^ll, .BUsit/Ess Alto Themes of GEriei^. iKT^flfsp PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS FubUshed eVery Saturday Commun feat ions should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 = 16 Vesey Street. New YorH J, T. LINDSEY, Business Manaser Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered ai the Post Office at New York. N, Y., as second-class matter." "Vol. LXXL MARCH 14, 1903. No. 1826. liEA FOB BELIVEliY. Hie annual mimher of tlie Record and Guide Quarterly eontain ing all ihe real estate records for the year 1002, annotated and al- phabeticaUy and numerically arranr/ed, is now ready for delivery. Published by the Record and Guide, II andlG Vesey St. T T looks at last as if the long-needed organization of the •■ property owners of New York City would become an actual fact. A call has been issued to property owners to meet at the Knickerbocker Trust Co., No. 66 Broadway, on Wednesday, March ISth, at 3.30 P. M., aud signed by such influential men as Mr. C- T. Barney, Chas. A. Peabody, Clarence H. Kelsey, Henry Morganthau, E. W. Coggeshall, Robert E. Dowling, W. F. Have¬ meyer, D. B. Ogden, W. H. Chesebrough, John D. Crimmins, and Edgar J. Levey. These gentlemen represent the largest in¬ terest and the progressive ideas that exist in the real estate field—tbe very element that is absent in existing organizations— and their support of the movement practically ensures it effi¬ cient management and a large measure of success. The need of such an organization, which has been so fretiuently insis-ted on by the Record and Guide, was never more patent than at the present time. The interests of property owners are more than ever menaced by the proposed legislation at Albany, and the real estate owners will need all the influence, all the command¬ ing authority, and all the large resources of a thoroughly repre¬ sentative organization to save themselves from the grave dan¬ gers of the present situation. Property owners should and will rally to the support of the new movement. SO t0.r as the movements of money this week are known they point to another bad bank statement to-day, but there are circumstances which indicate that the loss of funds will not be as great as they appear by crude reckoning. There is the offsetting influence of liquidation of loans, the accommodations extended by foreign houses and an attitude of representative hankers and of officials that invite patience with and confidence in the situation. Under these circumstances the market strengthened toward the end of the week, and money became somewhat easier. It should also be stated tbat some loans were made by out of town parties and this, though the terms were attractive, contains an early promise of a return eastward move¬ ment. This should come in the ordinary course of things in a week or two, and high rates may expedite it. Be these matters as they may, it must not be forgotten that from this on all business and speculation will be tempered by the thoughts of what may occur in the fall, if the market is again subjected to a simultaneous commercial and agricultural demand as it was last year. This thousht will keep loaners cautious, and make accommodations more or less dear, and, while temporary abun¬ dance of money may at intervals bring down call rates to much lower figures, its effect upon time rates will be very much less pronounced. There are no signs of a contraction of general business, and it is, of course, too soon to be figuring upon crops, but these are the two things upon which all calculations regard¬ ing the course of the money market for tJie next six months must be based. There is no fault to find with the immediate business outlook; the course of prices, particularly those of metals, shows this to be satisfactory. Business has to pass through the labor test usual to the spring of the ye.ir, and un- .fortunately in this respect the season does not open any too ATEST advices from Europe record an improvement in the security markets. This is due to causes similar to those that are favorablyaffectingour own. There is an increasing activ¬ ity in the great lines of manufactures and the stringency in money is abating. There was a drop in consols to figures cor¬ responding to those made at the outbreak of the Fi-anco-Prussian war and this break was closely connected with sensational re¬ ports of the approach of something like a crisis in the affairs of Great Britain and Russia in Persia. Reports were that the Vice¬ roy of India and tbe Commander-in-chief of the Indian forces had protested against any curtailment of defensive allowances, and it is not improbable that Lord Cranborne's statement re¬ garding the advisability of an agreement with Russia as .to their respective positions, may not have been intended to prevent the mischief that such reports were intended to create. The state¬ ment of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs may too have had the object of preparing the public for an admission as to Russia's claims which may be unpalatable, but as inevitable as were the movements of the latter in Northern China. Whatever their ob¬ ject, it is obvious that the adjustment of positious as related to Persia by these two powers is to be the next phase of the Eastern Question to bother folks' minds and move tbe security markets. Of immediate affairs, the most important is the clos¬ ing of the British Government's fiscal year, and the bringing nearer budget propositions and the new loan. In the former it is expected there will be found a reduction of the income tax and that should improve the price of consols somewhat. It would be quite appropriate that the reduction of interest, which takes place next month, should be accompanied by relief from taxation, especially as the Government cannot but be concerned at the shrinking of the quotation while they have new demands to make upon the market The revival of business will be as¬ sisted by the large appropriations for new naval construction, which will be additionally welcome, owing to the depressed state of the shipyards generally. Railroad and bank dividends both in Great Britain and on the Continent afford further evi¬ dence of the improvemeut that has been growing up in business for some little time past, and its continuation is guaranteed by advances in the prices of staple goods. Of interest to our readers is also a movement that has been inaugurated to effect an understanding as to prices and output among German manu- facturei-s of Portland cement. This has been tried off and on for two years, but recently it was possible for the first time to get a representative meeting of producers. At this meeting the suggestion of fixing uniform prices was favorably received, but a proposition to limit the output of each concern raised opposi¬ tion, finally a committee was appointed to go over the whole ground and find an acceptable basis for co-operation. T N another column will be found a very complete summary ■* of the changes in the tenement-house law, which are sanc¬ tioned by the DepartmenL and embodied in the bill introduced into the Senate by Mr. Marshall. These changes represent the utmost concession which the Department believes that it can safely grant to the builders in the outlying boroughs; and It may be safely said that since the Governor and the Mayor agree with Mr. De Forest in this matter, this bill is the only remedial legislation which has a fair chance of passing. These proposed concessions, while falling a good deal short of what the Brook¬ lyn builders have demanded, still represent a very real purpose to meet, so far as possible, any genuine grievances. The more important ones are concerned chiefiy with the three and four story tenements, containing two families on a floor, the apart¬ ments running through from front to rear. The 8x14 court, which last winter was legalized for the three-story tenements, is under the proposed amendments authorized for the four-story tenements also. The court required for a single three-story tene¬ ment is not reduced, but, where two three-story tenements ad¬ join, the 8x14 court is deemed sufflcient to ventilate them both, provided the houses do not occupy more than 65 per cent, of the lot. Furthermore three-story three-family frame buildings are permitted outside the fire limits. All these concessions may be approved, in that they enable builders to erect these classes of houses with more profit to themselves and yet without any threat to wholesome conditions of residence within the houses. But the Department goes further and makes even more liberal concessions with respect to fireproofing provisions. Bulkheads in new tenement houses less than five stories in height may be constructed of wood, if covered with metal on both sides. New four-story houses, which do not contain more than two families on a floor, may have wooden stairs, provided the backs or soffits of the stairs are covered with metal, and the floors of the stair halls are filled with deafening to a depth of five inches, and that such stair halls are inclosed with flreproof partitions, con¬ structed on four-Inch terra,, cijtta blocks with angle Irbn.fl^m-