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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1830: April 11, 1903

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April II, 1903. RECORD AND GUIDE 697 JUb/o]^ io REA.L ESTAJi;. BuiLDTf/c ApcKrTECTORE ,h{oUS£:WOLD DEGOR^t;. .Bus;i/ESSAiiDTHE«ESOFGEita^ !K"t^^3x. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Puhiisfjed every Saturdap Cotomnnlcatlons should too nfldressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorR f, T. LINDSET, Business JTanagt/ Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al ihe Fost O.0ice at New Tork. N. Y.. as second-class matter." Which the other suit hinged, and Justice Truax dismissed the suit on the ground that the covenant is to he construed in its "plain ordinary popular sense," and not according to the act of 1SG7. This case was appealed, but considering the judgment in the case first mentioned there can be no doubt that the Appellate Division will confirm the opinion of Justice Truax. It may be considered settled consequently that in law an apartment house is to be distinguished from a tenement, and the settlement of the definition will have important effect upon the improvement of large areas of West Side property, which have been restricted against tenements. Vol. LXXI. APRIL 11, 1903. No. 1830 THE tone of the Stock i\!arket during the past week, until the decision in the Northern Securities case was handed down, was on the whole better than it has been recently. Prices did not advance to any particular extent, but on the other hand they did not recede, and as the money situation, which is the cause of the liquidation, was apparently somewhat improved, it was natural to expect that the business week would have ended with the prevalence of a healthier general tone. The decision, however, in the Northern Securities case naturally caused a selling movement, which broke prices for a while. It should be added that the market took the decision with much more firmness than was to he anticipated, and that although the decision introduces many complications into the present situation, its immediate effects'will not be as bad as might have been supposed. The general fact remains that the prices of many of the best securities are cheap, compared to what they were and are, indeed, absolutely cheap, when the prospects for rail¬ road traffic and general business throughout the current year are considered. At the same time it is also apparent that capitalists generally are not in a position to take advantage of this cheapness. Their engagements are so heavy, and are such a tax upon their resources that they are not ahle to buy largely and persistently. Hence the general conclusion would be, that while prices ought to be higher for a long pull, it is entirely possible that they may go lower before auy sustained upward investment sets in. As to the ultimate effects o£ the decision in the Northern Securities case, that is a matter which not even the corporation atorneys can at present very well predict. The public will naturally hold fast to the opinion that the judgment of the Circuit Court will be sustained by that of the Supreme Court, and it will fight shy of all securities, whose value in any way depends upon the kind of combination which has been de¬ clared illegal. The financial public will also tend to the opinion that a law, which can obstruct the normal and necessary de¬ velopment of American railway combination is a law which in the end will somehow be evaded, in case it cannot be re¬ pealed. AVERY important decision in relation to the legal dis¬ tinction between a tenement and an apartment house has just been handed down by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the case of White et al. vs. the Collins Building &. Construction Company. The defendant refused to take title to a parcel of land which he had contracted to buy, claiming that he could not erect an apartment house upon the premises, be¬ cause of a restriction contained in a deed of 1S78, forbidding the erection of a "tenement house," and because the contract between the parties expressly states that the defendant proposed to erect an apartment house. The defendant contended that there are only two classes of residential property, tenements and private residences, and that consequently any house not a private dwelling was prohibited by the restriction. The plaintiff claimed that the words teuenient house must tfe taken in their ordinary popular sense, and not as defined in the Tenement House Act of 1867, and that the restrictions oniy prohibited tenements in the ordinary meaning of that word. Judgment was ordered for the plaintiff, Justice Van Brunt dissenting. It will be seen that this is an extremely definite case, for the Collins Building & Construction Company is compelled to take title to the property, on the ground that it is perfectly free to proceed with the erection of an apartment house as proposed. The decision confirms one. rendered by Justice Truax, in a special term of the Supreme Court last year, and p'ublished in the Record and Guide on March 15, 1902. CerUin property owners in Seventy-first Street, west of West End Avenue, had endeavored to restrain a builder from erecting an apartment bouse on the blpck, because of tbe game covenant as that upon ^p HERE have been alarmist statements published in the *■ newspapers during the past week respecting tbe prospect of a general strike in the building trades this spring, but it can be stated emphatically that these rumors are apparently with¬ out foundation. There are several labor controversies still to be settled, and in these days of sympathetic strikes, there is always danger of disputes of this kind spreading, hut there is no evi¬ dence that the Building Trades Council proposes to bring on a general strike for higher wages. And it would be extremely bad tactics for it to do so. Workingmen are much more likely to have their demands granted in case tbey bring pressure to bear upon particular trades, one at a time, than if they disorganized tbe whole building industry hy a general strike, for in tbat case they give their employers a good motive for sticking together, and fighting hard. The labor leaders know this as well as any¬ body, and have every reason to continue their policy; which has been so successful during the past few years, of fighting one demand at a time. Certainly if the unions did insist upon an advance all along the Hue, the contractors could not help put up a stout resistance. Since the current prosperity began, the cost of every thing, but particularly of the labor whicb contri¬ butes to tbe construction of a modern city building, has advanced so considerably that any further large increase in expenses would undoubtedly be attended by a considerable diminution in the amount of huilding undertaken. The unions would be doing themselves and their employers a poor service by making and insisting on such a demand. Tbe strike of the Brotherhood carpenters is particularly annoying just at present, because it delays work on a number of office buildings, which should be made ready for tenants on May 1; but annoying as such a strike is, it is occasioned by a condition which tbe con¬ tractors can face with comparative equanimity. Two unions in the same trade, divided against each otber, is from the em¬ ployers poiut of view a much more desirable form of organ¬ ization than one all-powerful union, and it is obviously to tbe in¬ terest of the contractors to stand by the Amalgamated carpen¬ ters, even at some loss to themselves. -^ HE mortgage tax muddle at Albany is more muddled than ■^ ever. The senate wants nothing hut the proposed four mills tax bill; the assembly does not know what it wants; and the Governor apparently wants anything he can get in the way of mortgage tax legislation. He prefers, that is, either a four mills tax, or a recording tax, or total exemption to the anoma¬ lous position of mortgages under our present tax laws. Out of such a mixture of contradictory opinions, it seems hardly possi¬ ble tbat any legislation will result; and it looks as if the whole question, with all its disturbipg effects on the real estate would go over until another session. Governor Odell's message to the Legislature on the subject, while it does not clear the situation at all, certainly helps to explain and justify his personal posi¬ tions. It is the natural desire ot his political opponents to rep¬ resent him as a man, who is wantonly stirring up discussion and suggesting tax changes, merely because be is, as the phrase is, "Lax-crazy." He certainly does show himself over-eager to abol¬ ish the general state tax levy at any cost, both to his party and to real estate; but his message indicates that in continually agitating the matter l)f mortgage taxation, he believes firmly that he is simply seeking some practicable remedy for the very real injustice of the tax laws towards tbis form of property. Moreover, his conviction that a tax of four mills would he pre¬ ferable, even from the point of view of the majority of mort¬ gagors, to the inequalities of the existing situation, while er¬ roneous, is nevertheless perfectly intelligible. Tbe weakness of his message consists (1) in the fact that be does not attempt to reply to the destructive criticism, which has been levelled against the details of the proposed mortgage tax bill, and (2) that he throws the settlement of the whole question back upon a Legislature that is wholly incompetent to deal witb It. Such a body as that sitting at Albany needs a master that will give it a strong lead in the right' direction, not a counsellor tbat timidly advises it to take one of three alternative courses. It is a thousand times a pity that Governor Odell did not explicitly