Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 57, no. 1469: May 9, 1896

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May 9, 1895 Record and Guide. 785 ESTABLISHED-^ MAR.CH SIM.^ 1868, Dev&jeD io f^E^L EsTWE.BulLOl^fc ^.f^ci^'TECTai^E ,Housi:UoLDDEGQF^Anot^, Biisif/Ess Alto Themes ofGEfjEi^iL Ij^tei^esi. PRICE, P£R YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Pitlilished every Satnrdiig. Tblei'Iione, --.--. Cortlandt 1370 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-lG Vesey Street. J. T. LINDSET, Busiuess Manager. "Entered at the Post-offlce at Kew Tork, A'. P., as second-class matter." Vol. LVII. MAY 9, ISOli. No. 1,409 The Rkcord and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports of all building operations, compiled to suit idi'r business spec'ifically,,foi 14 cents a day. You are thns kept inf'orinrd of thr entire market for ijour goods No guess work. Evcvy fact verified. Abnudanl capitnl and the thirty years'experience of The Record and tiuiDE guaraniee the coin- pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send to 14 and 16 Vesey street for information. THE wealvness of the stock market that was a natural actom- paninient of gold exports has been aggravated by the political news of the week. Ttiiiay be a coincidence only, but if it is it is a ver,y remark.able oue; but the an.xiety of the trad¬ ing and banking comiiiuiiity in the Eastern cities increases in proportion as the MeKinley boom expands. .Judging from the elections that have taken place ever since the panic of 1893, it is almost generally conceded that the Republican party will carry its candidate next November unless the campaign is grossly inismaDagetl. Haviug this in niiud Eastern merchants and manufiii'turers do not regard with pleasure the probable success oh' a candidate to whom are pledged delegates from State conventions declaring openly for the free coinage of silver as wel as from those declaring for gold. It was always anticipated that this would be a cuneucy campaign, and what most business men would like to see would be the selection of a candidate who possesses an unqualitied belief iu the absolute necessity of the maintenance of a single gold standard for this country. Mr. MeKinley has given no indication that lie possesses tbis belief now. His previous record does not warrant such an assumption by the public. Hence th j fears and anxieties which his candidature and probable election excite iu the business mind. They may be pure nervousuess. Mr. McKinle.y may have learned the lesson taught by the past five or six years of the dangers of fooling with silver and he may be nominated upon an out and out goUl platform. Hut we have given overtaking such things for granted and the doubt will exist until expelled by assured fact. The intlueuce ot these feelings is greater abro.ad than it is at home, so that the market has to stand the strain of a returning stream of .securities. A Presidential year is proverbially a bad year for business. Judging from recent events it will be particularly so tliis year. Not only will men's minds be diverted from their private to their public occupations, but the issues involved so directly att'ect their prosperity that there cannot fail to be many leaps forward and setbacks be¬ tween this time aud next November depending on whether the chances for the ultimate triumph of sound money are good or bad. At tho same time it is well to remember that the ordinary course of busiuess is towards improvement. We are all the time nib¬ bing on bottom ; there has been no inllation, no over-produc¬ tion or over-trading, and let ahme the course of trade would be one of advance. /CONSOLS seem to have at la.st reached their top prices, aud ^^ the break that they have experienced iu the London mar¬ ket has had a good result, inasmuch as it has sent money into other classes of securities. The shares of home railroads. South Americans and industrials reprcseuting the cycling interests have been the favorites. The stocks and bonds of enterpii-ses in the United States are being left severely alone. London's policy in regard to the latter ivill remain unchanged until sound money sentiment has been vindicated either in the conventions oi' at the polls. It canuot be blamed for this caution, seeing that it is shared by our own people. With the break in Consols we see the close of a very remarkable epoch in fiuiince, endur¬ ing nearly three years, during which money has continuously been a diug on the market, and in which experience has been of very small value in forecasting the course of prices. A year andah.alf ago the governors of the Kank of England publicly announced that they had ceased to buy Consols, fearing a break; the price has since advanced 10 points. If and when foreign politics give more confidence to the investment of capital abroad, not only will Consols break, but [there Iwill also be large shrinkages in the quoted values of m.any other forms of. investmeut. With the example of the governors of the Bank of England, previously referred to, before us, we naturally hesi¬ tate to make prophecies, but it does seem now that investments have attained their maximum ; that there is a better opening for the speculative issues in Europe than has been seen, for many a long day. V.hether the United States benefits from this return of confidence or nqt dep«inds pn the shaping of the national policy on currency in the next few months. The busi¬ ness situation in Europe remains unchanged, with no lessening of the favorable features, but the bourses are dull and de¬ pressed. A dift'erent reason is given in each case—fears of laws adverse to speculation in Berlin, the failure of Austria aud Hungarv fo renew their compact at Vienna .and indifference of the public iu Paris. More probably the dullness is in each case due to the want of a stimulating movement. There is now little or no prospect of the flotation of large Government loans, and such inducements as come from here and there can only absorb a fractiou of the capital haying idle in all directions. The United States can afford the right incentive, but the question is, will it ? T7^.MPL()YEKS of labor in the building tratles may soon find it J-^ necessary, if there are a few more strikes such as that on the Syndicate Building, to take up in a systematic and organ¬ ized manner the whole matter of their relations toward their help. The point that most particularly .justifies such a move¬ ment is found iu the strike clause of the agreeme::ts made between the bosses and men in the several trades. This clause is the one of most value to the employer. It is because of it that he is willing to agree to pa.y high wages for short hours, double p?y for overtime aud to grant other concessions that he would not otherwise be willing to do. If, notwithstanding them, he has no guarantee that be can turn out his work on lime, there is no reason why he should make such concessions. Theoretically he is insured against strikes ou the part of his men by the agreement, but iiractically he is not. While his men may not have the least cause of cimplaint against him personally, the3' may leave him at any moment and .jeopaidi'^e his contracts be¬ cause some other emplo,vei', over whom he has not the slightest control, has a disagreement with his men. Tliis particular phase ot the relations, or want of relations, between employer and employed was brought out forcibl.y b.v Mr. Frank J. Sprague, president ot the Sprague Electric Elevator Company, in his letter puhli.shed iu our last issue. Tbat the dispute be¬ tween the masters and meu in one trade engaged on a particular work should cause tho mechanics of every other trade to go out on striUe is an obvious injustice to all the other contractors, and is cariyiug the theory of " .sympathy " of one class of labor with another to absurd and intolerable lengths. The dozen contractors who find their work stopped because one cannot accept terms which his men offer him may vei'.y well a.sk them¬ selves whether it is worth their while to have an agreement with their meu at all'f Probably the agreement in each and every trade contains a clau.se stating that no strike will be begun ex¬ cept for violations of the specific terms of that agreement. In all fairness the men ought to consider their employer's interest so long as he lives up to his part of the contract, without regard to wh.at is being done in other trades. In usurping a right to go out on s,ym;iathetic strikes the men make these agreements .simply a matter of " heads I wiu and tails you lose", and create a state of affairs that, if cairied much fartlier, must drive the employers into an oiganiziition to break the powers wielded by such organizations as the Board of Walking Delegates and the Central Labor Uuion, and substitute for the present arrange¬ ments an agreement that will guarantee the due iierformanee ot all work begun under it. If the men want to preserve their organizations they must learn to be reasonable in their demands and conduct. They have only to recall the circum¬ stances surrounding the strikes of the electrical workers, the steam-fitters aud the iron-fitters of the past year and their re¬ sults to perceive the truth of this. WHEN looking at the Forty-second street reservoir one wishes that it could be obliterated and the building which it will be necessary to builil iu order to house the treasures of the Astir-Lenox Tilden foundations could apiiear forthwith with¬ out all the fuss and bother which ivill ensue in creating this transformation. There is no doubt whatever that it will eventu¬ ally transpire ; that there will be here a spring Pierian instead of Crotonian. But the reservoir has alw.ays been so blankly hideous and so palp.abl.y unfit for the situation that now, when a use so admirabl.v better has been found for the site, one's impa¬ tience of its continued existence is increasetl. A bill has been passedby the Legislature to secure to the consolidated librar.y the use of the site for the purpose of its home, and the city govern¬ ment has been iuformally requested to supply the building. No better use for the site can be found; but when the city has tempted its credit so far that it has had ito]'raise itsJinterestJTrate half