Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: no. 56, no. 1448: December 14, 1895

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t>ocembeT 14, Isdg Record and Guide. 841 rfl ESTABUSHED-^ i^CH SW^ IS68. DEV&iiDToRpA.LEsTAii,BuiLDif/G AR.crfrrECTUR?.KousE«oiDDEoa(fiia( Bifsnfess mJd Themes oFGEffen^l Irfttupsi.. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. - Tsubiphonb; "......Cobtlandt 1370 OommimloatlonB ehould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veeey Street. J. 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager. "Mntered at tke PostroffUx at Kew Yoi'k, If. ¥., as aeco-nd-elass matter." Vol. LVI. DECEMBER 14, 1895. justiiicafcioB for avoiding euch a conflict can readily be found. For these and many other weighty reasons, there will be no division of Tiiikeyuow. Armenia will be pacified, if not per¬ manently, for some time at least, through reforms wrung from the Turk by persistent diplomatic pressure, and the Turk will stay in Europe to staud between Russia and the Mediterranean until the Powers that desire to keep that barrier between Ihe Sclav and the sea south of him are no longer able to buttress it. While there have been so mauy inophecies of the serious out¬ come of political difi'ei'cuces in Europe and Asia, there has been in existence all the time oue argument ou the other side that is conclusive, and that is that the prices of commodities have been falling for some time. This would not have been possible had there been any expectation of war in the official mind. This movement of prices is a reaction from the continuous advances of the spriug aud summer, and therefore perfectly natural and leeitimate. No. 1,448 The Record and Guide will furnisli you with daily detailed reports of all building operations, compiled to suit YOUR business specifically, for li cents a day. You are thus kept informed of the entire marlcet for your gooda. No guesswork. Evei'y fad verified. Abundant capital and the thirty year's' experience of The Record and Guide guarantee the com¬ pleteness and aathentioity of thisiservice. Send to 14 and 16 Vesey street for information. ANOTHER issue of bonds for the protection of the Treasury gold-reserve is a certainty because of the apparent inten¬ tion of Congi'ess to do nothing to amend our currency conditions, and the issue may come sooner tban most people expect. Should this loan also bo for $50,000,000 itwill make $200,- 000,000 borrowed in less than two years, iuvolving an .annual interest charge of between $9,000,000 aud $10,000,000 to in¬ dulge the luxury of a false position. So far as the Treasury as now constituted is concerned, although it has not handled the currency with ability or tact, as its duty requires it to protect the reserve and as it ia doing its best, its want of ability to grasp the situation ought noe to be too severely blamed. But with Congress it IS a different thing; its lapse is deliberate. There cannot be a doubt that, but for paltry party feelings aud differ¬ ences, a measure would be framed to meet the emergency. A mere sign that Congress intended to take up the subject with eomcthing like the seriousness it deserves and iu a spirit .re¬ moved from the petty infliieuce of party brag and strife would go a great way toward reassuriog the public. The refusal of the Republicans in the House to commit themselves to currency reform, is unwise, even as a political expedient. It is ah-eady making busiiess men ask whether their failure in this im¬ portant respect will not ouly compel the renomiuatiou of Mr. Cleveland, but his re-election alao. The busiuess element will demand that there shall uot be the slight¬ est doubt of the intention of the President to maintain the gold standard, and to staud iu the way of financial and cuvreucy heresies, that might otherwise be forced on the country through a change in the personnel of Congress, or by a sudden alteration in its views. The intimations ot a new bond issue, however, are not hurting business—on the contrary, they serve to renew the courage that the last issue created. In the stock market, too, there is a better feeling in expectation that the publication of the Reading plan of reorganization, to be followed at no distant date by one for Northern Pacific, will create au activity favorable to higher prices. Possibly, too, the last sixty days of hesitation and doubt have created a large short iuterest, and this, with the wholesome liquidation that haa been forced in the Industrials, favors higher prices for the immediate future. There is, ou the other hand, a danger of large gold shipments in the coming week, but an active and rising market would do much to check them . ^TAGNATION has followed the excitement of tho "Kaffir" ^ liquidation abroad, because speculation is awaitiug a new incentive. Mines have had their day for a time, and business in them will be more prudent thau it has been; Americans are avoided because of the caneiicy situation affecting them, and the political outlook, while exciting enough, does not encourage operatious in Goveinment bonds. The powers still sit awaiting the pleasure of the Porte in what appears to be ridiculous iuac- tion, but a liltle consideration will show that they could do little else. When people talk about coercing the Turk they seem to forget his brilliant fighting abilities and his inability to be awed by the power aud strength of his opponents. If there can be ever such a thiug a= au agreement of the Powers ou the dle- meniberment of tho Turkish empire iu Europe—which, so obvi¬ ously seems to be thp right thiug—tho Turk will still light uot only for his home but for his religion, which he would consider attacked the momert troops were landed in Constantinople. Any attempt at coercion without an agreement of the Powers means a war of such proportions as would for horrors put the ■w hoie Armenian troublo into the utterest insignificance. Ample IN forming an association of builders for the State of New York, as was done this week at a convention whose pro¬ ceedings are recorded in another column, the hope may be permitted that a beginning was made in consolidating certain forces now scattered, aud in large part wasted, which can be employed in the profitable and beneficial work of raising the standard of the building trade throughout the State, There are a great many ways iu which such an association, properly directed, can be useful. Seciuing united effort in promoting necessary measures before the legislature is one of them. Giving encouragement in the various trying emergencies that onlv too frequently and unfortunately beset this trade is another. The iutei'change of important suggestions for expe¬ diting business is a third, and there are mauy others. One to which we have not yet referred, is perhaps the most important of all, and that is the elevation of the moral tone of the trade. Owing to facts that are ouly too notorious, the mere description, a builder, does not carry with it the significance it ought to do, and unless the hearer has acquaintance with the bearer of the title, he may conceive it to mean something not very compli¬ mentary. As a matter of personal pride as well as of busiuess prudence the newly formed association ought to keep con¬ tinually before it; the duty of removing this stigma upon the trade. There is no doubt it will do so, because the gen¬ tlemen who bave identified themselves with it most pro¬ minently, are those who have for years, with much labor and self-sacrifice, given the trade whatever outward signs of prosperity and respectability that it now possesses in the way of exchanges, clubs and kindred institutions. Moreover, the new State Association is affiliated with the National Builders' Asso¬ ciation, whose objects are worthy of all support and wliich has uudertakeu to see that the State Associations, ueither in the manner of their organizatiou, nor in the composition of theii' membership, shall retard or embarrass its own work. New York has the credit of being the first State to avail itself of the amendment of the Constitution of the National Association enabling the formation of affiliated State associations. Massa¬ chusetts, we understand, is to be a close secoud, aud Pennsylva¬ nia aud Illinois are taking steps to follow their example. These are encouraging facts, especially in view of the avowed object, equally of the ofispriug as of the parent association, to directly promote the moral as much as the material progress of the trade. WHILE the foolish strike of the housesmiths and bridge- men in New York City was beiug prolonged iu the face of a certain defeat, there was an appropriateness, even though it was accidental, in the publication of the twelfth annual report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor of this State. A table contained in this report epitomizes the financial results of the strikes that took place in New York from 1885 to 1893, both iuclusive, and it is these results we would recommend to the thoughtful consideratiou of the men who have been out of a good living uow for about four weeks, and many of whom, owing to their places having beeu tilled by skilled substitutes and the passing of the season of building activity, must suffer further pecuniary loss, with its attendant discomforts, for some time to come. Theae tigures show that in the yoars mentioned the loss by strikes in wages alone wa8$ll,081,376.78, to which must be added the cost of the strikes to the labor organizations, amounting to $1,890,1(35.04, or a gross loss of $13,577,54ii.42. From this there has to be deducted an estimated gain iu wages of $10,334,588.76, leaving a net loss of $3,252,554.06. It is true that the estimated loss to the employers is about twice that sum, $6,490,410.08, but any workman who cau find satis¬ factiou, or compensation for the lose he personally endured from knowledge of that fact can hardly be capable of logical reasoning, TheBureau of Labor Statistics was created in the interest of the working people, and may be said to sympathize with them. Its opinion on the wisdom of strikes may be gathered from the prominence it gives to the figures, previously