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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 65, no. 1676: April 28, 1900

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RECORD AND GUIDE. ■.-:'v;f 7^7 ''- ^ ESTA y - ESTftBUSHED-^'fiWPHSiy^ieea. Dd6teD io m- ESTWI. BUILDIJ/G ARCHITECTURE .HoUSEHOlD DEOffltplOrf. Busnfess aiJdThehes of GrfiER^l IjHER^ai-j PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturdav- TELEPHONE, CORTLAKDT 1370. Communications should be addressed to C, W. SWEBT, 14-16 Veaey Street, ,A 7"; .UNDSEY, Business Manager. Bhould be living under a new tax law, like that proposed by Sen¬ ator Elsberg, proportioning county contributions for state pur¬ poses on the expenditures of the several counties for local pui"- poses, every rural Jegislator would have an object in granting such requests because he would know that the more he madti New York spend the smaller would be the contribution required from his own county. It is remarkable that while the Legisla¬ ture are continually compelling this city to incur large expen¬ ditures, as by the Davis bill for example, they do not afflict th'3 smaller cities and towns in the sarae way, and this fact streng¬ thens the necessity for an extension of our home rule privileges. 1 "Enterfd at the PoKt-Offlce alNew Ynrk. N. T.. as seeond-class matter. ■VoL L.:xv. APRIL 28, 1900. No. 167lJ. S'ATISFAGTION continues to be expressed with the condition and outlook for general business, with some considerable difference of opinion regarding the maintenance of the present high range of prices. ' Iron manufacturers particularly are very loud in their protestations that quotations will be maintained, but in spite of that the feeling will prevail that they must re¬ duce tbeir figures before the close of the summer, and perhaps still earlier. Recent events support this view, and it would be very remarkable if the boom of last year in the iron trade should not be followed by some reaction this. Sugar has moved with characteristic suddenness and violence, but that is a stock upon which the messenger boy's guess has ever been as good as the broker's. The present movement seems to be one to punisb shorts, and as such is eminently successful. It would be very unusual if the real reason for a movement in this eruptive issue were ever given, so it is natural that reports of a settle¬ ment in the sugar trade war should iiow.be used to secure ali assistance possible in effecting the object of those who engi¬ neered this week's move, rather than the bald fact that certain parties found the stock oversold and saw a chance to turn a pretty big penny out of the circumstance. As was to be ex¬ pected, the railroad list has kept very steady, owing to the faith that has been created in these issues by a long continued in¬ crease in earnings and the consolidations that have put railroad shares into fewer and stronger hands. The whole stock market situation is bettered for the moment by the smallness of the gold exports. The conditions at this time last week pointed to a much larger movement, and its partial failure makes one bear card less. However, the conditions at the European centres, whence the drain is expected to come, are not really improved, although larger cash holdings have come to the surface. The capitalization of industrial ventures goes on at an increasing rate and on a poorer basis, promoters becoming more venture¬ some as they are successful. The way in which industrial stocks are being watered for good will was recently the subject of warning in the London "Economist," and in Berlin domestic industrial issues have increased by about $5,000,000 for the year, in spite of that centre's known weakness in capital holdings. UP at Albany there seems to exist a desire to take away, or nullify the constitutional power of the Mayor to pass upon legislation affecting this city. It would be very unfor- -tunate if this desire, presuming that it exists, should be gratified, because this constitutional provision has a very great value in saving the city from many extravagant expenditures that the Legislature would like to have it incur. This year there was ■considerable feeling in the Legislature over this privilege of the Mayor, doubtless due to party considerations, so that with fev/ exceptions, the bills disapproved by the Mayor before the ad¬ journment were passed over his veto. Since the adjournment, of course, the Mayor's action has decided the fate of the bills be¬ fore him. There will be no trouble about the vetoes of the Mayor of New York whenever that ofiice is held by a man in political affiliation with the party dominant at Albany, but whenever he is not. which judging from the several political sympathies of the city and state, is likely to be often, difficulties are sure to arise. The Charter Revision Commission, who have .. just been appointed, should see to it that this city is continued in its right to pass upon legislation affecting it, no matter what may be the party differences of the Capitol and the City Hall. Without the constitutional provision we are discussing, or a measure of home rule that would make it unnecessary, everyone Who wants to carry through an improvement that is disapproved by the municipal -government will be induced to go to Albany ,and there, obtain what he wants. If, at the same time, we Tenement Reform. THE TENANT MORE IN NEED OF ATTENTION THAN THE HOUSE. . .'■ IT is gratifying to notice that what we have been preaching for flve years, that the tenement-house question rs not so much a question of bricks and mortar or of tenement plans as of individuals, is finding acceptance elsewhere. Our esteemed contemporary "The American Architect," for instance, has this to say in connection with the appointment of the tenement-house commission: "What tenements are and what tenements might be if the tenants chose to have them so is understood by every one who is at all likely to read the report of this new commis¬ sion, and there really seems not much need of adding to the statistical tabulations that abound on every side. So long as the law allows grog-shops on every corner in the tenement-house districts and thus deliberately invites the heads of families, female as well as male, to spend their wages to the end that city and state may get their millions through liquor-licenses, just so long will children sleep in rags on cold floors in countless dirty homes and governors and tenement-house commissions cannot save them from suffering, disease and vice." This expression of opinion is valuable because it indicates a desire to take a broader and juster view of the question than that obtaining hitherto and still too generally prevailing. When the lay press looks at the question fairly and ceases to be carried away by surface impressions and those that make the best "scare" heads, we may expect an honest and dispassionate dis¬ cussion of the whole matter and probably the discovery of the true remedy for tbe evils that are presumed to be created by the tenement house simply because they exist in it. What is chiefiy wanted is something that will make the tenant self-respecting. Neither increased air-space or the removal of grog-shops to a greater distance by legislation will do this. "They would con¬ tribute something to the comfort and well-being of the tenement population, but they cannot be wholly regenerative. It is a very difficult thing to make a man or woman given to drink forgo it, or to make people indolent and dirty in their ways' take on cleanliness as a habit. It would be still harder to make one set of people, landlords for instance, accept the responsibility of keeping another set sober and cleanly, even though there may be pecuniary dealings between them, for the simple reason that there is no power with which the law could endow,them to en¬ able them to meet it in a country in which the principle of in¬ dividual freedom prevails to the extent that it does in this. The law can enforce suitable building requirements, and it may be made so as to reach the tenant of the building and by discipline force him to a sense of decency and a due respect for his sur¬ roundings. How the latter can be done it is the duty of the Tenement Committee to discover. The regeneration of the tene¬ ments awaits this discovery- Where paternalism prevails in government the people may be made to comply with minute regulations formed for their bene¬ fit. For instance, a friend of ours while residing in Switzerland was visited by an official who wanted to see whether h> kept his matches in the place designated by the rules of the local flre department. Will anyone take this as a suggestion for a cod^ of rules regulating cleaning, cooking and other domestic occu¬ pations in tenement houses? Yet it seems almost necessary that something like this should be done, if any speedy and efEectivo reform of tenement-house conditions is to be effected, We do not suggest this, nor have we any hope tbat a Legislature could be got to overlook the popular outcry it would create if they imposed such regulations; yet the frequent presence of officiais to see whether dirt was removed from fioors and wash-tubs and other conveniences kept properly cleansed, and to impose small fines if they were not, would not only be followed by a lessening of the bills of sickness and mortality, but would be, also, a de¬ terrent to that vice that germinates and spreads so rapidly in the tenement districts. The ultimate and benefiirial result would be a reform of the tenement through the reform of the iadivid- ual dwelling therein. 1 I