Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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38 RECORD AND GUIDE 7r.T January 11, 1919 and Wxfc&-^6e nearly--&ttcce&&£iilly^.in-.4iie-last session^__ the Legislature. ' The decision to lose no time in.tpresenting these bills '» for the consideration of the lawmakers indicates that those who were active last year in the interests of New York City property owners propose to take up the fight at the point where it was interrupted by the adjourn¬ ment of the legislature. There is justification of this course in the fact that the bills, in practically their present form, had passed the Senate by a large majority and were only prevented from coming to a vote in the Assembly, which a canvass had shown to be favorable to them, because the Rules Committee did not report them out in the closing sessions. Despatches to the Record and Guide from Albany indicate that in the new legislature the men who favored the bills last year are still for them and that among the new members are a number who may be relied on to take the places of those who were friendly to the bills last year but who are not members now. Criticism of the Real Estate Board for going ahead wtihuut awaiting the result of the attempt of the Mayor's Committee on Taxation to frame a compromise bill upon which the city administration and the vari¬ ous realty organizations could unite is without reason. No obstacle to the continuation of the conferences has been raised by the introduction of the bills. If the conferences, of which there have been a considerable number, should result in something more than talk, and a bill should be drawn that manifestly would, if enacted into law, be more efficacious in protecting the rights of and affording relief to taxpayers and in secur¬ ing additonal revenue for the city, the Real Estate Board will assuredly fall in line and use all its influence to secure the passage of such a measure rather than the bills it has presented. The Real Estate Board was first in making an agres- sive fight to limit the tax on real estate. Its repre¬ sentatives are entitled to the utmost praise and encour¬ agement for what they have done, and for their de¬ termination to go ahead. It is up to those who advocate other plans of relief for property owners to justify their claims that their proposals are more advantageous in the results they will secure, if enacted into law, and more practical from the political standpoint. It is at least good politics to continue to urge upon the law¬ makers bills that have been proved to be acceptable to a majority of the members of the last legislature. The early start from the point where the fighting stopped last year is good tactics. 1Q14, and Novprnher, J.918, of ahont 65 p^r cent^ iji the Statistics Disprove Rent Profiteering Those who make the charge of rent profiteering will be able to derive no satisfaction from the report of the National Industrial Conference Board made public the other day. This report was based on figures compiled in representative industrial communities throughout the country. The object of the board's investigation was to deter¬ mine what has been the actual increase in the cost of living since the war started in 1914. The board finds that there has been an average increase between Ttily^ cost of living. Food, it is stated, costs S3 per cent, more, clothing 93 per cent, more, fuel and light 55 per cent, more and sundries 55 per cent. more. While these important items of living cost have been advancing so greatly, the board finds that the cost of shelter shows an increase of only about 20 per cent. The information upon which the board based its re¬ port was gathered in between forty and fifty cities throughout the country. The advance in food and clothing is shown to have been the principal item of added living cost in the dift'erent cities, although the cost of sundries showed a heavy increase. As a general rule the cost of coal showed a greater increase than that of gas and electricity, while in many localities the rates for gas and electricity for domestic use remain the same as in 1914. Data bearing on the cost of shelter was derived from chambers of commerce, real estate boards, brokers and charitable and civic organizations in nearly one hundred cities. The figures show that in New York City rents have advanced less than 20 per cent, as compared with 1914, while in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland the advance has been practically about 20 per cent. In some cities, it is reported, there has been no appreciable change. The Record and Guide in several authoritative articles has disproved the charge of rent profiteering which has been made from time to time in this city during the past year. The statistitcs just issued by the National In¬ dustrial Conference Board sustain this position. An Incentive to Effort Elsewhere in this issue are given some of the many expressions of approval which the changed form and style of the Record and Guide has elicited. It is evident that both our readers and advertisers approve the new form, a fact which is gratifying in it¬ self and an incentive to effort to make the Record and Guide constantly better and more useful as opportunity to do so arises. Substantial enlargement of the site acquired last May by the Federal Reserve Bank for the purpose ot erect¬ ing a suitable structure for its growing activities was made yesterday when the twelve-story modern office structure, known as the Fahys Building, at 29-31 Liberty street, extending through to 52-54 Maiden Lane, was purchased through the brokerage concerns of Horace S. Ely & Co, and the Charles F. Noyes Co. This important acquisition, made from the Fahys Watch Case Company, increases the area secured for the new Federal Bank Building from 33.000 to a base comprising 38,500 square feet, including all of the prop¬ erty known as 28 to 54 Maiden Lane, 42 to 52 Nassau street and 29 to 52 Liberty street, now occupied by twenty buildings of various heights, but principally obsolete structures, aside from the one just purchased and the former home of the Lawyers' Title & Trust Company, an eleven-story structure of modern con¬ struction, now partly occupied by various departments of the Federal Reserve Bank.