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March i8, 1911.
RECORD AND GUIDE
477
ESTABUSHED'W ft\MVCH Sl^^ 1868.
DeVoTED F F^L Est/JI . ©UILDiKg A^RClf ITECTORE .KflUSEriom DEQQI^T10^f,
Biisit^Ess AtioThemes OF GEita^RllKTEP^EsV
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Communications should be addressed lo
C. W. SWEET
Published Every Saturday
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, P. W. DODGE
Vlce-Pres. fi: Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER
Nos. 11 to IS East 84tli Street, New "lork City
(Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered
at the Post
Off
ice at New
York
. ^'. Y.,
as
second-class matter."
Copyrighted,
1911, by
The
Rouord
&
Guide
Co.
Vol
LXXXVI,
MARCH
IS,
1911.
No.
2244
THE SPRING OUTLOOK.
AFAR better prospect lies beCore the business men of the
city and nation at the opening of Spring than a year
ago. Great force for doing things seems to have accumu¬
lated during the winter season, great power to absorb and
resist shocks, and large capita] to carry operations forward.
Recent "adverse" decisions from high tribunals, one decision
concerning railroad rates and another affirming the corpora¬
tion tax law, both of which had long been the subject of
dark apprehensions, were received with equanimity and even
with satisfaction by financial interests. It is now probable
that certain other long-expected decisions from Washington
will be met in the same firm and calm manner, if they
should not have the effect of raising public spirits decidedly.
Even the military demonstration on the Mexican border has
caused no excitement. The country is getting too strong
in every way to be alarmed about anything. Here in New
York real estate circles the technical position has improved
very much of late. Vacancies in tenements, lofts aud stores
have been reduced by a large percentage since last spring-
Reports of sales are becoming more numerous, and at the
headquarters of the building trades it is said that just as
soon as the weather moderates there will be much woi'k
going ahead, with the further prospect that the city will not
see again in a long period of years a winter in which so little
was doing as in the one Just ended. A considerable number
of large operations in hand will be ready for interior workers
next winter—operations that will reauire the services of hun¬
dreds of mechanics on each structure- As for the money
market, there is an abundance for general business and the
terms for which it may be obtained for real estate loans are
gradually softening. An unusual number of large building
loans have been made during the past winter. A large
number of plans have accumulated during the winter, par¬
ticularly noticeable among which are the large proportion of
projects for business buildiugs. Instead of being concen¬
trated in but two principal sections of the city, business con¬
struction will be well distributed during the coming year—â–
in the financial districts, ou the lower West Side and in the
theatre section, as well as in the loft centers between llth
and 34th streets. A better feeling is observable everywhere
among real estate brokers, architects, builders, contractors,
manufacturers and agents in building materials and in all
the varied branches of the foremost of all industries—real
estate development.
This, the tliird week in March, is the forty-third anni¬
versary of Tlie Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide.
DOES NEW YORK NEED INDUSTRIAL
PROTECTION?
AN economic crisis has arisen in the building trades of
New York because of an attempt that is being made
to break down the policy of the city mechanics iu protecting
their labor and products from outside competition by means
of trade agreements. The United States District Court is
being asked not only to declare such agreements unlawful
but also to rule that the closed shop itself is unlawful. The
whole system of union societies, on the part of employees,
and the corresponding associations among employers, with
the Arbitration Plan in between, is virtually attacked. With¬
out considering the consequences to the building trades of
a possible universal ruling that the union shop and even
mild forms of boycotting are unlawful, the wonder is what
is to become of industrial New York if metropolitan costs
compared witTi costs in small towns are to be so high that
a constantly growing number of industries will find it Im¬
possible to get along here? Shall the process of elimination
be allowed to continue, or shall some governmental steps be
taken to protect those lines of business which cannot com¬
pete successfully with the West, nor with the South, nor even
with the East? We protect New York City labor from the
cheaper labor of Europe, but not from the cheaper labor of
Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine and other States. The question
then is, shall we do something of that kind, in like manner
as Paris, laying a tax upon everything that comes in, or
sliall we let things run along "naturally" and see one line
of manufacturing after another eliminated from the tax rolls
and rent rolls of the city, those occupying the most space and
employing the most skilled men to go first, and those able to
get along with Jess space per head and employing the cheap¬
est labor, surviving? Under the latter process, the production
of a city building might conceivably be reduced to a mere
assembling of parts manufactured at a distance; for the pos¬
sibilities of the "knock-down" frame, the "lock joint" and the
"poured-house" principle are infinite. Who can say what
would be the nature of the mechanical residuum left in
New York should the battering rams of outside competition
break through all her historic trade defenses? Is wood¬
working, stone-cutting and all the mechanical arts which
were once disposed proportionately throughout the country
to be concentrated at a comparatively few places where such
work can be most economically carried on? Or shall some
preference be given in this great market to the industries
which give employment to New York City working people
and help to pay New York City taxes?
SITES FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
EVERY time an effort is made to obtain a site for an
important public building in New York, the selection of
the site presents insuperable difficulties. Tbe purchase of
enough private property in a sufficiently central location
always calls for more money than can be afforded, while
public opinion, at least as expressed in the newspapers,
shuts off the chance of using any existing public property.
We all know how commission after commission has recom¬
mended one site after another for the new Court House;
and every proposed site was discovered to be either too
costly, or too inaccessible, or too unpopular an appropriation
of the public parks. Similar obstacles are making it im¬
possible to obtain a site for a Fine Arts Building. The
proposal to use the Arsenal and its surroundings for that
purpose almost succeeded, but it was finally defeated by
one or two newspapers; and its defeat was very much to be
regretted, because the site was a good one aud could have
been used without any appreciable diminution of existing
park space. The plan of placing this building in Bryant
Park was then proposed and met with a similar fate^—-in
this case deservedly, because the site was an indifferent one
for that purpose and was really needed as a park. More
recently it has been proposed to situate the building on
Fifth, avenue opposite the Public Library, but this idea has
a smaller chance of adoption than has either of the other
two. The private property needed would cost many million
dollars; and the city, which cannot afford to buy a site for
a new Court House, obviously cannot afford to purchase
one of the most expensive pieces of property in this country
for a fine arts building. It is possible that the city might
help in case a large part of the money should be raised by
private subscription; but apart from the extreme doubt
whether enough money could ever be subscribed, it would
be foolish to use it for the purchase of property which is
much more valuable for business than for exhibition pur¬
poses. If private property has to be used it Would be far
better to select a less central and expensive site, and apply
the available money in promoting the usefulness of the in¬
stitution. But in any event, the first thing for the gentle¬
men interested in a Fine Arts Building to do is, to raise
some money. For years the prediction has confidently been
made that money would be forthcoming when necessary;
and yet not a single definite announcement has been made
that any public spirited millionaire was ready to give a
dollar for the purpose. As long as that condition lasts, it
is absurd to propose the appropriation for a Fine Arts build¬
ing of property so expensive that the city could not afford
to buy it for an imperative public purpose.