Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: no. 56, no. 1428: July 27, 1895

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Jaly 27,1895 Record and Guide. Ill .Dn^TEDToRf^LEsTWH.BuiLDij/o AR.cilrTEeTi)i^j{ousafou>DEanjnDi(i .Bifsnfess Aifo Themes oFGEtJevA' iKioif*!.^ PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Telephone,......Coktlandt 1370 Communloatlons should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, J. 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager. Bbooelyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street, Opp. Post Opfiob. " Entered al the Post-office at New Tork, If. T., as second-class matter." Vol. LVI. JULY 27, 1895. No. 1,428 A N IMFOliTA NT JNNO UNCEMENT. The RiccOHD and OviDR will furnish you with daily detailed reports of allhuilding operations, compiled to suit yovr business specifically, for 14 cents a day. You are thus kept informed of tlie entire market for your goods. No guesswork. Every fact verified. Abundant capital and the tliirtyyears'experience of Tun Record and GviiyE guarantee the com¬ pleteness and authenticity of this service.. Send to 14: and 16 Vesey street for information. GLOWING crop reporis, assLstetl iu some cases by other special developments, hare given an impulse to specula¬ tion iu the granger stocks. So active has thia been that it almost conceals the weakness in Chicago Gas aud the Industrials. Wheu the roavket is carefully examiued it will be found that a great deal of iliscriuiiDation is shown in the buying, indicating tliat the crowd that clamors for stocks without any consideration whatever of merits has not yet arrived in Wall street. It may be taken, then, that the advance, so far as it has gone, is justified by the outlook. The crops are partly assured, and the chances favor a successful harvesting ot the rest, rather than auy in.jury to it. AA'"hen the crops have arii^^ed at this period of the year, as a rule itis only frost that can injure them, and as frost does not come early enough to do that once iu a decade, the couutry is justified iu looking forward to great results as the outcome of the agricultural operations of the year. The splendid showing for corn is especially fortunate. A good corn crop carries with it, not only the ability to export great quantities of valuable human food, but it also means the raising of larger stocks of cattle and hogs to be converted into money hereafter. If this year finally fulfils its promises of larger crops and better prices for grain, as theie is every reasou now to believe it will, the posi¬ tion of the farmer will be better than it hs'is been for some years, and the probable benefit to be lelt by general business from this changed condition of the ag'iiculturalist is inestimable. While the crop outlook is the gieat favorable feature of the situation, the condition of the exchange market is the unfavorable oue, and until there is a break in the rates it cannot be considered as wholly satisfactory, particularly for stock market operations. The time is nearly at hand, however, when this will be decided, meautime the public opinion of those who should kuow is that there is no danger whatever to be feared from that quarter. GOLD production iu the Witwatersrand district continues its progressive course. The output for June was the largest monthly output (valued roughly at i|i4,000,000) known to the history of this district. For the half-year it was $22,200,000 against $18,800,000, au inci'ease of $3,400,000. If the propor¬ tion of increase continues unabated for the rest of the year the total production for this region will be from $48,000,000 to $50- 000,000, an amount that the whole of the United States has never yet produced in any one yoar. For two years we have been writing- about the glut of money, and there is positivelv no sigu of an immediate cure of this evil, if evil it be. All the great bauks stay gorged with the unrcmuuerative balances of their depositors. It is uot that^capitalists waut to keep their money iu this eoudil ion of idleness, but they will not take any risks. Purchases of securities are readily made if they otter security, uomatter how small the returns. This is proved by the sub¬ stantial advance in English railroad dividend shares, while tho rate of return has boon almost generally and mccssarilly re¬ duced, because of the falling off in earnings 'or the first half of the year. Nothing could better illustrate the lessened value of motley than this reversal of the usual movement of quotations, and nothing better than the occurrences of the times could prove that we haw attained a uew scale of iuterest rates which will remain in force until a similar period of capital redundance brings about a still lower basis of return. These changes of in¬ terest rates alwnys date from panics. They are the legitimate outcome of the fright and consequent timidity of the capitalists. who, uuder ono impulse, bring their money into enormous piles at certain centres to let it go begging, so that the borroyper who can .satisfy the lender in the matter of coUatcml can exact his own terms. While this state of things !a.=ts the growth of busi¬ neas is slow, a fact uot at all to be deplored, except by tho re¬ porter, who is thereby permitted very little variety to his period¬ ical reports and comments. Por a Eevisiou of the Laws Relating to Buildinga, A T a meeting of the Board of Examiners in tho Buildiug De- -^^ partment ou Tuesday of last week a preamble and resolu¬ tion were ott'ered to the effect that, as there is a desire on tbe part of architects, builders, real estate owners and others that the laws relating to buildings, including the subject of light aud ventilation and plumbing and drainage, should be revised and amended, that each member of the Board of Exauiiners be requested to invite the Society, Organization or Department which ho represents to each appoint a committee of three per¬ sons to meet conjointly together, comnienciug with the evening of the first Wednesday iu October, to prepare a bill or bills to bo presented to the next Legislature revising tho present laws relat¬ ing to buildings, nnd to take actiou in all other matters relating to the building interests. The resolution extended the invita¬ tion to several Societies not represented in the Board of Exam¬ iners, and tbe Superintendent of Buildings was especially in¬ vited to co-operate iu the work of the revision, and to submit to the Revisiou Committee such amendments to the laws as he deems should be made thereto ; and also an invitation was ex¬ tended to the Attorney to the Department of Buildings to act as advisory couusel to the Revision Committee. At the request of the Superintendent, the resolution was laid over ime week to give him time to consider the matter. At the meeting on Tues¬ day of this week he refused to allow the resolutions to be acted upon or made part of the record on the ground that it was not a subject that should emanate from the Board, but should come, if at all, from him. In some shape action will be taken before long, aud to include the following associations: The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Archi¬ tects, the Board of Fire Underwriters, the Mechanics' and Traders' Exchauge, the Society of Architectural Iron Manufac¬ turers, the Real Estate Owners' and Builders' Association, the Real Estate Exchange, the Fire Departmeut, the Architectural League, the Building Trades' Club, the Mason Builders' Associ¬ ation and the Employer's' and Builders' League. Betweeit the two meetings of the Board of Examiners the Superintendent of Buildings gave to the daily press a notice requesting all architects, buildera, real estate owners, societies and associations interested in the subject of a revision of the building laws to correspond with him and make suggestions, but leaving to him to decide what alterations and additions to the law shall be embodied in a legislative bill. The propriety of an actiou of this kind, uuder all the circumstances of the case, has been questioned and therefor may prove futile. The Superin- teudent of Buildings, it is .said, is an administrative officer; not a law maker any more than any otlicr private citizen, and his province is to carry out the laws that the people enact. If a general desire for a revision of tho laws really does exist, such desire must have arisen during the past few mouths. Architects aud builders were fairly well satisfied with tlie laws as they were and were not agitating for revisiou. TJie recent unprecedented delays in passing plans and the dis¬ covery by architects that after many weeks of waiting from tho time of filing their plans a series of uew questions had to be answered—questions not included in the printed blanks and unnecessary iu fact to ask, as the usual affirmative answer to the genernl question whether the law will be complied with in every particular is sufficient—the effect of requiriug such additional iuformation being to occasion more weeks of delay before obtaining peiTuits has exasperated many persons uiid probably created a feeling that the laws ueed romodeling. Unquestion¬ ably the buildiug law cau bf bettered iu many particulars, as the result of the past three or four years experience with it. It is conceded that the light and ventilation .lud plumbing laws and regulations need a thorough ovorliauling, and tlteii there is the new Tenement House Act, which greatly needs to be put iu practical shape. The work of revision should bo undertaken by representatives from tho several important Building Trades' Societies to insure tlie work being well and properly done. Past experience has shown that the new laws should be so worded that their execution shall be iu iiccovdance with the intent of the law makers. The pre,seut building laws are thickly sprinkled with requirements 'hat are not exactly dead letter provisions, for all parts are actively oiierative, but many are particularly intended to be useful in themselves as guides to t^afe building, and as warnings, or as reserved iiower for infrequent contingencies. Many of these small require¬ ments are not contained in auy buildiug law of auy other city iu the world, aud have not been deemed of sufficient import¬ ance to be added to the buikUng laws of other cities. A rigid