Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 50, no. 1274: August 13, 1892

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August IS, 1892 Record and Guide. 203 ^r \ ESTABUSHED^M.ftRí:H21i!^!868.;_ SfvííTfD ĩũ He^L Eswe . BuiIdií/g ARcKiTEcr^ii^t: .^olisCUoid DEeOFiATfiSÍ PRICE, PER fEAR l.\ IDT&NCE, SIX DOLLARS. PiMished eĸery .^aturday, TKLEPnOSK, .... COHTLANIiT 1370. Commuuiealiona should he addressed to C. W, SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 7, LINDSEV, Busĩness Manager. "Eniered aí tke Post-offlce at Nem Vork, N. T., as second-class maííei-." VOL. I. AUGUST 13, 1893. NO. 1,274 NOW that the industriala have liad a good advance it Ís tîme to consider whether a reaction is not in order. There are a good many stories afloat oí' the large proflts made by the propertius represented in this class purporting to come from tliose who are able to epeak the truth on the suhject if they want to. It is not unreasonable to ask the wherefore of this communicativeness where reticence bas beeii ao longthe custom. No one who has had the smallest experience o£ Wall Street and its ways needs to be told that sueh narratious are always used in the marketÍDg 'of stocks which the original holder does not thĩnk it wise to keep, or thinks he can get back again at lower íigures. There is no doubt whatever that eooae of the industrial corporations are makíng a great deal of money, but there is some doubt whether their succcss has been of sufficient duration to warrant their stocksadvancing beyond current figures and to sell on a soundinvestmeut basis. Il'not.itmust beadmitted that many of them look higb, The heaviness of railroad stocks arises from causes which have been stated and explained many times. So far as they are concerned it ÍR evident that the time is not ripe for any more substantîal advance than can be obtained from time to time by marking up prices on the ehorta, Tlie stock market generally is afl'ected by the concurrent decline in silver and in sucb o£ our secm-ities as are dealt in abroad and by the contintied esport of gold at a time when the movement of that melal might reasonahly be expected to be rather toward than from us. These things, taken together, suggest that trouble exists somewhere which may reach this market and, consequently, that caution can- not very well be carried to escess. THE termioation of the Building Trades' slrikea is, no douht, a matler for which everjbody concerned is thankful. Tbe employers have won the fight completely, as for years ■we have declared tliey would aa soon as they should organize as the unions haveand meefc Gympathetio strike with sympathetic lockout. The formation of the Unîted BuiIdingTrades' Association was a strat- egîc movement which, sooner orlater, would have had to be taken, and it3 existence now is distinctly a guarantee that in the future strikes will befewer, more circumscribed and, on the whole, of shorter duration. To say, as some liave said, that there wiU be no more strikes in the New York building trades is nonsense, unless, indeed, it is allegedthatbothemployersandemployeshave received a great accession of grace during the recent contest and are now so ipibued with the spiriC of righteousness that henceforth justice, kindliness aud self-sacrifice wiil prevail in all their dealings one with anotber. It isalso foolish to say tbat the Walking DeJegate wiU die with the frost this year and never be seen agaiu. So long as labor uses a capital " L"' and organizea itself for protection and the advancement of its interests, the mauagement of its affairs will be in part delegated to somebody, These delegates may be called Grand Archons, or High Lovd Paciliers, orBearers of Sublime Intel- ligence, but for all practical puiposes they will be our old friends, tíieWalking Delegates, who will more or less represent in theirper- sons, intelligence and manners, ttie persons, the intelligenCe and manners of Labor. Intberecent figbt the employers were emi- nently in tbe right, the Walking Delegate eminently in the wrong; but tbe recentfight didn't create the Walking Delegate nor does his existence depend upon tiie issues fougbfc for. iugsometime in October to discuas the servant girl " problem," and the newspapers, we are sorry to say, are trying to rob the asso- eiation of the honor of settling this problem and laj ing it away decently as a dead thing by discussing the case before the court meets, The " infcerviewer" is at work, and if the opinions he has gathered are fairly representative of the views which housewives hold of what servants are and what they should be there is very litfcle wonder that our "Helps" bave created a problem nofc easy to solve. It turns oufc that what the housewife wants when .she hires a servanfc isnot a huinan being, but an automatonthat never weai's out or gets out of order. The machine should be manufaetured to act obsequiously, displaying nothíng that could possib'y be regarded as an exhibition of will, It must go and comc and do cheerfully at tbe command o£a pettytyranny, ofteufilfiiI,notíonaI, whÍQisical; it must never relapse from fervid industry; it must have 110 weaknessesor personal desires; must arise e,irly and be under or suhjecttoorders until bedtime, for, practically, SO.'Í days intheyear. It must bave no yearnings for a personality less restricted and repressed by other people and iim.'if be satîsfied with wbatever wages it begins with. No wonder ihere is a " servant . problem;" no wonder there is resentment and rebellion against the dull drudgery of domestic slavery. The "problem" shonld exist. nnd no doubt witl exist until the conditions, particularly the pet- sonal conditions, of domestic service are generally improved. No wonder young women prefer to work in shops and stores, where their duties are prescribed and svhere, hard as the daijy toil may be, ils duraiionis flxed and terminates in an evening of freedom, real freedom, and a seventh day of rest. Theservanfc problem i& largely the employer problem. THIS is an age of " problems;" there are niore of them than any one cares to count. There is the labor " problem," and the land '■ probiem," and the tenement house "problem," and so on, and with all of thesa " problems,'' if wé examine them, the problem is really the same—how to make people deal deceutly, kindly. honestly with one anotber. The Columbian Housekeepers' Associa- tion, wbioh haile frooî Chicago, ha^ ^franged ío ho)d a paaee ffieet' BOTH Vi ĩnna and Paris are about to emhark in a most exten- sive system of public works. Bills to provide for the raising of the money and the other delaile have recently been promulgated in both countrie?. In Vienna, particularly, thework will bepushed for the purpose o£ providing v, ork for the great many unemployed laborerfi in that ciiy during the coming winter, thus preventing tlie terrible uiisery which was witnessed during the past winter. The works coiilemplatedare magnificent in scope. A completcand most substantial rapid transit syslem ia to be constrieted; the Vienna Biver i9 to be canalized; the Danube Canal is to be con- verted intoa winter harbor; and six large barracks which consti- tuted au enormous hindrance to traflic are fco be displaced; ali these iraprovements are expected enormously to incrense the commercial prosperity of the cîty. The extent o£ the improvementí; contem- plated in Paris may be gathered from the fact that §40,000,000 are to be laised for the purpose—a sum very nearly iwo- tifths of tlie whole present debt of New York City: and Paiis already possesses a more magnificeut eet of public improvements than any other city in the world. The rate of interest at which the loanis to be fioated cannot exceed 4 per cent, including thesinkingfundforredemptioninseventy-five years and lottery prizi^s amounting to 800,000 francs annually. With the attractîon of the drawings it is expected tbat the loan ■will be subseribed at a fixed rate of 2^ per cent. Tbe City o£ Paris has always acted in good faitb with the public with regard to the lottery prĩzes, which are with the small mvestors tbe înducement to accept a low rate of interest. In ascheme submitted to the munici- pal council for the conversion of all its outstanding^loane it was pro- posed to draw all tbe prizes down to the end o£ the period fixed for thegradualredemption, paying tbem, however, only at tbe dates afc which thpy would have been drawn according to the laUe of redemption. THE Cliairman of the House Committee that set out to invosLi- gate the Homestpad strike and its disastrous consequecccs, Mr. Oates, bas Íneluded in bis reporfc sonie remarks on the inade- quacy of State arbîtration as a satisfactory method of bringing iiidustrial dispuies to a qtiick and equitable eonclusion. The piin- cipal fault whicb be finds with any compulsory system of State arbitration is the impossibility of inforcitig the decrees of the Board, and this is, doubtless, a true indictment. No State could compel an employer to keep on paying a rate of wages which would notpermit hîm to run his husiness at a proflt; neither conld any Slate compel a fchousand workingmen to accepfc wages witb whicb they were dissatisfied. Furthermore, many disputes at the present time are simply not arbitrable. Tha issues at stake are too iojpor- tant for either the employer or the employe to nermil the taking of their detprmination out of his own hande, and the itoportanoe of the issues leads to a degree of passion and excitement which render a fighttheonlypossiblemethodof temporary ĸettlement. Finally, the claimsmadeon bofchsidesare frequeutly unjuat, while at tbe same time the rights of hoih parties to the dispute have noí as yet been defined in such a way as to obtain tbe acquiescence oí a coiisensus of competect opinion. Uuder suob circumstances, a Board of Arbi- tration, evenif it desired to be impartial, would find diíEcuIty in fulSlIing thafc indispensable condition of its utility, while tbe present unfprtunat§ minglipg of " ppUticB" witíj labqr clisputey