Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 61, no. 1578: June 11, 1898

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June II, i8g8. Kecora ana Ljuiae 1025 _ ESTABIJSHED^ftWPHfil»;^ia68. Bi/s(f/Ess AitoTHEHES OF GEiteiyi Iffrcupi, PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday TBLBFHOin, CORTLiNDT 1370' Communication9 should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14r-16 Veaey Street. J. 1. LINBSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the Post Offlo« at New YorX, JV. P., as second-class matter." Vol. LXI. JUNE 11,1898. 1,578 ACCORDING- to foreign dispatches it may soon be necessary to consider the fortunes of the stock market, with the war, compelling Large expenditures by the government, omitted from the bull factors. In doing tbis it must be borne in mind that the present advance was not based so much on the war and tbe governmental disbursements as upon the widespread benefits resulting from higher grain prices and a general improvement in the business of the country reflected by railroad earnings and dividend announcements. If peace comes witbrn any reasonably near period it will not only find the business of the country good as a whole, but it will give occasion for resumptions in such lines as have been adversely afEected by tbe war, and there¬ by add to the total of activity. The large disbursements for ac¬ count of the army and navy have undoubtedly helped the ad¬ vance, and their sudden cessation would, of course, withdraw that help. But would they cease? If there is one fact more patent than another in the present situation it is, that we cannot simply go back to the position we occupied before the war. Short as that has been as yet, we have made obligations for our¬ selves that we cannot shint, and to discharge which requires a large military and naval force. Should Spain plead for peace to¬ morrow and should our policy require that we make no terri¬ torial additions as a result of the conflict, we would still have deprived bpain of what little ability she had to control her West Indies and the Philippine Islands, and would have to step into her place until they are pacifled and have governments that at least promise to be stable, even if we do not flnd it necessary to administer them permanently. There is no need to dwel! upon what this means. It is obvious that it involves large military expenditures,and it ia verydoubtlful indeed, nay, impossible, that the Federal defensive and police forces can resume the simple character they possessed only two months ago. We may antici¬ pate then larger war department expenditures each year from now on, and have always an improved industrial position to work upon. The temper of the public too favors higher prices in the long run and is now not such as to warrant expectation of a big break. This is proved by the movement of quotations this week. Tbe irregularity they displayed is due to a conflict be¬ tween professional and unprofessional elements, in which the latter, as is always the case in large movements, are proi Ing the stronger. . OUR. trade with the Philippine Islands has been somewhat of a diminishing quantity, according to figures contained in the last government report on Finance and Commerce, to which the Treasury Department calls special attention by a circular letter accompanying the report. The report covers flve years— 1S93 to 1897, inclusive—and is from the nature of the case quite brief. The articles imported from the island consist of sugar, textile grasses, manila, etc., free of duty, and sugar, etc., duti¬ able; their imports from the United States, cotton goods, oils, varnish, etc. The trade coming this way was valued at 59,159,- 857 in 1893 and at only ?4,3S3,740 in 1897. We sent to the Islands $154,378 worth of goods in 1893 and only $94,597 worth In 1897. Sugar and textile grasses and manila made up the great bulk .if our imports, and cotton and oils were the only important ex¬ ports. This an-d succeeding years may give a new turn to this trade quite to our advantage. Our exports to Canada, which have grown continuously, and in the period of 1S93 to 1S97, inclusive, were valued at $286,000,000, compared with British exports of $175,000,000, may be affected by the 25% preference which British goods will receive after July 31st, though even British technical journals do not anticipate that the benefit they, or the injury we will receive will be very large. There are indications that the "dying power" next to receive treatment will be Morocco. The position taken by Spain toward Morocco has hitherto had pro¬ tective value, but, taking advantage of the trouble that has fal¬ len upon the protector. It ia said, France has opened negotlatloaa for a "rectification" of the Algerian frontier that may brldg others into the field. Germany would like to get a footing ia the Mediterranean and Great Britain would not tolerate the occupation of the shore opposite Gibraltar by any other powar: A Berlin correspondent to a London paper, commenting on the present financial conditions there, says: "Comparisons with the Krach of the year 1893 present themselves. There ia now pre¬ cisely the same heedless speculating on the part of the public, the same blind rush for premiums. It is also evident that a great many reports circulated in newspaper columns referring to trade and to politics are destined to Impress and to direct the public, without regard for their foundation. This utter regard- lessness for facts has always been a feature preceding some sort of catastrophe. " The Hungarian Board of Agriculture, which Is always disposed to pessimism, has given out an estimate ac¬ cording to which tbe harvest that may be expected in Hungary this year wiil be t-n million douhle cwts. larger than that of iast year. Regarding Australia, the head of a large bank operat¬ ing there, stated recently that last year was the third hard one in succession that Australia has h'ad to encounter; but when it was considered that the country was still oppressed by the stagna¬ tion and depression consequent upon the crisis of 1893, the bur¬ den it had to carry could be more fully realized. Gold mining. however, had shown greatly increased productiveness. The ;'e- turns for 1897 exceed those for 1896 by value of about £2,000,- 000; 1S9S—judging from the results of the flrst quarter in four of the Australian colonies—promises to surpass 1897 in this re¬ spect, and to show a greater return over that year than 1897 did over 1896. RAINES LAW HOTEL BUILDINGS. IN the case of the Building Department against Engel, in¬ volving a question of alterations to building No. 226 Broome street—an old four-story brick building, northeast corner of Essex street—for use as a "Raines law hotel," recently tried at a Special Term of the Sup-reme Court, the decision rendered by Judge Lawrence is as follows: ■■I am of tlie opinion that Section 480 of the Consolidation Act, as amended by Section 1« of Chapter 275 of the Laws of IS92, requires that every build¬ ing thereafter altered to be occupied as a hotel, or erected or aliered to be oc¬ cupied as a. lodging-house 'shall bave the first floor above the cellar or lowest story constructed fireproof, with iron or steel beams and brick arches.' It seems to me that thsprovlslon la the statute respecting buildings flve stories in height relates only to buildings erected or altered to be occupied as tene¬ ment-houses, apartment-houses and dwelllug-houses. The action ot the De¬ partment of Buildings in approving tbe plans and specifications for leave to alter this buiiding according to the speciflcations does not aid the defendant, as no public officer has the right to waive an express provision o£ law con¬ tained in the charter or a special statute relating to the city government. The plaintiff is entitled to the injunction for which it asks." This decision is in the line of a final determination of what kind of a building can be used for a Raines law hctel, but a common-sense solution of the whole question has not yet been reached, nor is one likely to be reached until, in the coming re¬ vision of the building laws into a new code, provision is made to put New York on some reasonable equality of rights with the other cities in this State. The Raines liquor law applies to the entire State. Under that law a license to sell liquor on Sunday is granted to hotels, and a definition of what is considered a "hotel" is given in that law. Briefly stated, t-en bedrooms, a reading-room, a kitchen and a dining-room make up a hotel. Any kind of a building can be used for a hotel in any part of the State, except in New York and Brooklyn. Here building laws are brought into play to set up a different requirement as re¬ gards hotel buildings than applies elsewhere. The New York building law, enacted April 9, 1892, requires that every building erected after that date, to be used as a hotel, exceeding thirty-five feet in height, shall be constructed entirely flreproof. It also requires that every building altered after that date, to be occupied as a hotel, flve stories or more in height, or having a basement and four stories in belght above a cellar, shall have the first floor above the cellar or lowest stary constructed flreproof. Following the Raines Act of 1896 a great number of liquor saloons converted themselves Into "hotels" by adding as adjuncts to the saloons the required number of bad- rooms, etc. As the larger proportion of such saloons was occu¬ pying tbe ground floor of tenement houses, the additional rooms were in the main obtained by turning out the families on the floor imniediaiely over the saloon, and then by certain slight changes in the position of partitions, stairways, etc, a "Raines law hotel" was evolved. In some of these cases plans for suc-h alterations were filed in the Building Department; in other cas-?s the work was done without notification to the Building De¬ partment, but discovered by the district inspector. Later the Building Department obtained a list bf the licenses Issued for' Raines hotels, and so smoked out all the places where altera¬ tions had bsen made, or attempted to be made. Soon after the