Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1835: May 16, 1903

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May i6, 1903. KECORD AND (JXJIDE 973 finirx^ p ReaJ- Estate . Building-ARjcifrTECTURE .t(ausniou) DEotH^jnoij, Btlsofess aiJdThehes Cif '^^tistfi. iKtERfs-j. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS Published eVerg Saiurdag Communications should be addreaaed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorH i. T. LINDSET, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered ai the Posi OMce at 2Teio York, N, Y.. as second-class malter." Vol. LXXI. MAT 16, 1903. No. 1S35. ONE ceriaiuly gets the impression from the current business news that the tide of business prosperity is not slowly but surely ebbing. In many respects the situation is still very strong. Such typical railway systems as the New York Central aud the Baltimore &. Ohio continue to show extraordinary in¬ creases in earnings. The enormous demand for iron and steel continues almost unabated. General business is very prosper¬ ous. It is not easy to find unequivocal facts pointing toward a smaller volume of business or a lower range of prices. At the same time, we repeat, one gets the impression that the 'business of the country has come to a turn in the curve. At the preseat moment iron and steel are in good demand and are scarce. The recent concessions in prices seem to be the result of foreign competition. Nevertheless production is rapidly overtaking con¬ sumption, and it is probable that further concessions will fol- lew. This will not be altogether a bad thing because the high prices of all iron and ateel products have been a great strain upon business, and are now leading to a suspension or abandon¬ ment of many improvement plans. Whether these projects will he resumed after the lowering of prices, will depend a good deal upon the state of the public confldence at that time—which in turn will depend upon the course of business between now and then. The immediate dangers to business prosperity consist chiefly of labor troubles, and the uncertain position of the crops. A serious lengthy disturbance in the New York building trades wculd. have a grave reaction upon business everywhere, and would tend to make many business men contract their opera¬ tions. As to crops, the wintex wheat is, of course, all right; but the later crops are endangered by late planting. Moreover the effect of the present drought all over the East will be to make the hay crop small and poor in quality. The Stock Market has distinctly lost tone of late. More liquidation is undoubtedly in progress and that by very strong interests. Should the crop news continue to he bad it is very probable that the present sag¬ ging market would continue throughout the rest of the year. It by no means follows, however, that a smaller volume of gen¬ eral business aud lower prices will be accompanied by a steady decline in security values. The flnancial position of the more impcrtant railroads, and of many of the industrial corporations is very strong. They have been making large expenditures out of income for permanent improvements, and in most cases they are earning handsome surpluses over dividends declared. They could consequently staud very severe losses in gross earnings without diminishing their distributions to stockholders. The underlying business situation is consequently very strong; and it would take a very severe fit of business depression to affect the income producing power of this class of securities. More¬ over, while the present speculative temper continues, values are likely to be diminished more than there is any real justification for, so [hat under some really favorable piece of news, such for instance, as better summer crop prospects, the market might well recover with a bound. For the present, however, things look the other way. T X 7 HILE it would be useless to deny the seriousness of the * * issue now being raised between the skilled union la¬ borers of this city and their employers in the bnilding trades, it would on the other hand, be mischievous to exaggerate the tiouble. At the present time, apart from strikes or lockouts in certain of the special trades, the center of disturbance is the lockout of the building material drivers. In this fight the con¬ tractors are standing behind the building material dealers, be¬ cause they realize tbat their interests are as vitally engaged in the issue which has heen raised, as are the interests of the building material men. The consequence is that lumber and bricks are not being delivered, and a large part of the construc¬ tion work in the city is shut down. The effect of the loclMut is widespread and most emlMirrassing; hut the losses and delay that it entails must be suffered patiently, because the unionizing of the drivers would enable the Building Trades Council to bring about a similar condition of things whenever it pleased. The very extent of the existing embarrassment, that is, is a measure of the seriousness cf the issue which has been raised. But this issue, while serious, is also perfectly deflnite. The building ma¬ terial dealers want to preserve the freedom which they now possess, to employ non-union men; the union leaders wish to deprive them of that freedom. While the effect of the disagree¬ ment is felt on almost every job in the city, no general question has as yet been faced. It is possible that the whole dispute will be ended at any time by the return of the men and the abandon¬ ment of the attempt to unionize them, and if the labor leaders are wise they will withdraw from a flght, which from their point of view, has the disastrous effect of uniting their employers. The unions have heen increasing constantly in power and influence, because they are more completely organized than their employ¬ ers, and could enforce their demands hy means of sympathetic strikes, but if tbey compel the material dealers and contractors to adopt au equally comprehensive organization, they will lose much of the present advantage of their position. UNFORTUNATELY, however, men who are unaccustomed to the use of power, generally abuse it. In the first half of this century, the employers certainly abused the power, which they had over their workmen; and of late years, the unions, ex¬ cellent as their effects have been in some respects, have been worrying the contractor and builder almost to distrac- tiou. In the long run the latter will be obliged to organize as effectually as the men they employ have orga¬ nized. Whether the meeting held Friday night will lay the foundations of such an organization remains to be seen; and It also remains to be seen whether a compact local association will not prove to be a more effective form of organization than an unwieldly national one; but, however and whenever the proper and adequate kind of association comes, come it must. In order to understand the actiou of the contractors and building ma- i:erial dealers, it must be remembered that for years past they have been putting up with an exasperating set of petty exac¬ tions. It is uot increases in wages and reductions in the hours of work that the builders complain about, because the burden of these increases fall upon the owners and cccup-iers of tbe new buildings, not upon the contractors, or except at times, upon the speculative operators. Everybody admits that the laboring men are justified in improving their position as much as they can, and no one will grudge the increases of from 10 to 30 per cent, in wages which they have obtained in recent years. The intolerable grievances of the employers lie in two directions: (1) that they are gradually losing that authority over their men, upon which efficient and economical work depends, and (2) they are continually exasperated by small "hold-ups" due to disa¬ greements among the men themselves. The first of these griev¬ ances is the most serious of all, for, should it become worse, it would be depriving the employers of any proper control of their own business, and tend to drive responsible men out of the building trades; and the great object of any employer's orga¬ nization should he to lay down a series of fair rules, to which all members of the association should be bound, and which would effectually serve to maintain standards of good work, aud the empioyer's authority over the man he pays. The other main grievance, while it is most exasperating, should be more easily settled. The unions have not yet reached any agreement among themseives as to the equitable division of various parts of com¬ plicated jobs among the different unions; and small disputes are conscantly arising among them as to what trade any particular piece oi work belongs. Thus a contractor is frequently delayed and embarrassed, as iu the case of the present carpenters' strike, by disputes over which he has no control. In numberless other ways, also, he is continually harassed by the walking delegates, who, so it is stated, are frequently not above making use of their large power for the purpose of extorting blackmail from ap¬ prehensive contractors and builders. It is these conditions which the employers must be strong enough to remedy, and which necessitate effective aud comprehensive organization. THE municipal campaign next fall promises to be exception- ably interesting and educational. The fusiouists will be unable, as was the case in the fall bf 1901, to fix the attention of the public on moral questions, such as the reform of the Police Department, and the enforcement of the laws, because whatever the record of the administration in these matters, it has made its chief point by the manner in which it has conducted the city's business, and not upon the extent to which it has reformed the city's morals. Mayor Low's administration has been, that