Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.

552 [ManbattRm] RECORD AND GUIDE 21, 1903. World of 'Building Material Market. The annual meeting of the Association of Dealers in Masons' Building Materails took plac.e on Thursday of this week at the association rooms, IS Broadway, the polls being open from 3 to 4 o'clock. Promptly at 3 o'clock the Chair announced that the polls were open, and appointed Messrs. Prank L. Holmes and Theodore CWood as tellers. The president, secretary and treas¬ urer delivered their annual reports. The treasurer's report was particularly gratifying, aa it showed a very large balance on hand. To the secretary and treasurer were given a vote of thanks for the able manner in which they had performed the duties as¬ signed to them. Other matters of importance also received the attention of the body. The regular ticket was elected, and is as follows: President, Francis H. Howland; vice-president, John _A. Philbrick; treasurer, Nathan Peck; directors, Francis H. Howland, John J. Bell, Nathan Peck, William H. Schmohl, Wright D. Goss, John A, Philbrick, Nathaniel Wise, William K. Hammond, John B. Rose, William T. Hookey, Aaron E. Aldridge, John G. McNamara, Chas, E. Murtagh, Daniel Darrow and William H, Barnes. BRICK, The requirement for this material during the present week has not been so strong as in former weeks, owing to the suspension of work on a number of buildings because of strikes of work- Ingmen. The arrivals at the same time have been large, due to the natural desire to ship after a long closed season, and also, it may be, to a thought in the minds of some manufacturers that it may be well to have large stocks here to anticipate certain possibilities connected with the labor question. Prices of common brick are lower on the whole than last week, A few sales of the highest grade have been made at $6, but $5.75 is the ruling price for the best, and for others, from $5.12^ to $5,50 are the figures for cargo lots. The meeting of the Association of Brick Manufacturers at Haverstraw, on Wednesday, was unusually well attended. It was one of the most enthusiastic that has ever been held by the organization. Most of the time was taken up in discussing the labor situation, particularly at this city. The Brick Handlers' Union of Haverstraw has given assurance that they will give no trouble to the manufacturers this spring. The men say that the Haverstraw union was formed for their own protection against the stand taken by the New York City handlers. They were obliged to organize. This assurance is given by parties directly interested in the handlers' union. LATH. The season having but just opened for lath, the conditions prevailing during the winter have not materially changed. The stocks which dealers laid in last fall remain in large part to confront wholesalers and supply the immediate demand, which is comparatively small. Shipments are arriving from the East, but prices stand up well in the face of a supply that may be termed absndant. CEMENT. The demand for Portland cement is almost unprecedented for this time of the year, and an unusual number of large contracts will take cement from the local market. Prices are quoted a little higher on the whole. The Association of Portland Cement Manufacturers has just issued, from the president's office, Philadelphia, a report of the committee on new uses of cement, presented by its chairman, Mr. T. H. Dumary. The report enumerates about twenty-five different uses for cement, some of which are novel and others of which are extensions or adaptations of well-known construc¬ tions. Taken in conjunction with the standard use of Portland cement for all kinds of masonry and concrete work, and the growing substitution of concrete for ashlar masonry, it indicates the extent of its practical application and explains why the pro¬ duction of so many large mills 'has of late years often failed to keep pace with the demand. A partial list of the new uses of cement mentioned in this report includes protection of struc¬ tural steel by a Portland cement wash, or by dense stone or cinder concrete mixed wet and applied after the steel is thor¬ oughly cleaned by scraping, pickling, sand blast or equivalent process; concrete piles to replace timber in mining shafts and tunnels; hollow concrete blocks to replace brick work; injected grout to construct foundations and other masonry below the surface in inaccessible quicksand; concrete piles cast in steel shells, driven into the ground; butts for wooden telegraph poles; burial vaults; veneering for dwelling houses; railroad cross ties, which are stated to cost three times as much as oak, and to last twenty-five times as long; reinforced reservoirs for oil, water, etc.; storage tanks with skeleton steel construction to contain dry material; slow-setting concrete to exclude water from mines; ballast tanks on board ship; fuel bricks made with coal dust; wheel tracks on concrete beams proposed for an automobile track between New Tork and Chicago, The Labor Situation. ^ Builders are inclined to take a more hopeful view in regard to labor matters. Less is heard now than a fortnight ago about a general strike on the first of May. By that time, it is thought, the ironworkers will have given in to the American Bridge Com¬ pany, and then the employers of other firms handling iron will not be in favor of breaking the peace. It is now understood that the bricklayers, reconsidering their former intention, are disposed to permit matters to rest. No demand as yet has come from them, BklCK-HANDLERS MAKE TROUBLE. Upon the opening of navigation to Haverstraw some weeks ago the men who load bricks on the barges which bring them to this city struck for new terms, they having been organized by delegates from the brick-handlers' union of this city. Some of the manufacturers acquiesced for the time being. Since naviga¬ tion has been open to the upper Hudson brick boats have been arriving with crews that are working under the old arrange¬ ment. On Thursday a body of walking delegates waited on manu¬ facturers and representatives here and notified them that the re¬ quirements of the local or metropolitan union would be enforced. One of the rules is that there must be at least one of the local handlers working on each boat wnile it is being discharged. Some of the boat-owners who refused to accede to this, as their boats are fully manned and need no local assistance in discharging the cargo, were informed by the board of walking delegates representing allied trades, at the behest of the brick- handlers, that unless they submitted to the demands all opera¬ tions would be stopped at any buiiding at which their bricks were delivered. This threat has been made good in a number of instances; in fact, wherever boycotted brick has been laid dowrt It is immaterial to the local brick-handlers' union whether their men are employed on the boats or not; but each boat must pay wages to one of their men whether he works or not, Tvhile the unloading is going on. One builder, whose work had been stopped, came down to the pier where his bricks were being un¬ loaded and said to the captain: "I cannot have my business in¬ terfered with. I want you to hire one of the strikers at my ex¬ pense. Pay him whether he works or not, so that work can pro¬ ceed at the building," On Thursday the walking delegates drove away the trucks that were being used in discharging a cargo, the truckmen seemingly being in sympathy with the handlers. Most of the manufacturers who are sending cargoes to this market at present yield to the demands, but only temporarily. It is believed that at the meet¬ ing of manufacturers of the Hudson River Association on Wed¬ nesday a course of defensive action was resolved on, the nature of which will become apparent in about a fortnight. It is charitable to suppose ihat reasons publicly assigned are not the reasons actually existing for some things that trade unions do. Glaziers at work on the Brooklyn Institute of Art and Sciences were ordered to quit this week by their walking delegate rather than unscrew and remove the iron mouldings in the frames of the large windows, so as to insert the glass. The delegate said it was the ironworkers' business to unscrew the mouldings, and the glaziers' to fit in the glass, when the Ironworkers should put the mouldings back in place. Thus are sharp distinctions made in mechanics as well as in society, Sub- rosa, it is said that somebody clothed with variegated authority used it in this manner to score one to the account of revenge. The plasterers working on Public School No. 5 in Astoria struck this week because the employer discharged one of their number for doing what the walking delegate told him to do, and refusing to do what the employer required. The contractor, John Lang¬ ley, has appealed to the Central Board of Education. The most serious effect of the strikes of the structural iron¬ workers is the delay of subway work by holding up operations on the power house at 5Sth st and llth av. John B. McDonald says that the strike is in direct violation of an agreement which he made with the leader of the Ironworkers last November, The International Committee doubtless overruled the local union, for it is well known that the members of the latter are not in sympathy witlvthe movement. The sub-contractors at the power house are Terry & Tench. The recently-organized National As¬ sociation of Manufacturers and Erectors of Structural Steel and Iron Work are to investigate the strike against the American Bridge Company and endeavor, probably, to bring the men te terms.