Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 55, no. 1409: March 16, 1895

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March ie,lS95 Record and Guide. 409 Dn6^EDT0RE^LEST^^E.@^JlLDIflG %yflTEeTUR,E,Ko"SEHOIJ)DEOffl|fnMt Bt/sitiESS Atb Themes of GEjfeR^l Ij/tzr^t ._, PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. Telephone,......Cortlaniw 1370 ConununloatlonB should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J. 1, LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street, Opp. Post Office, "Entered al the Post-office at New Torle, JV. T., as second-class mailer." YOL. LV. MARCH 16, 1895. No. 1,409 For addilional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediatelv foUoiBing New Jersey records (page 437). i^ONFIDENCE in improving commercial conditions has v^ received a stininlns in the rise in prices, moderate though ithasljoeuin most of the great markets. Perhaps the most important is the advance in wheat, because that means a relief to a part of tbe coinmnnity that has been most sorely tried, the agrienltnral. Given a continuance of this advance the railroads would soon feel the benefits from the increased pui'chasiug powers of the farming'class and business iu many other direc¬ tions be thereby increased; consequently the rise in tbe Granger stocks is a perfectly logical accompaniment of the rise iu the prices of grain. The announcement of the failure ou the Stock Exchangeof an operator on thebear side this week also brought out the fact that receut selling has come uot so much from invest¬ ors au d strong people as from weak speculators who wereuuable to withstand a moderate movement in their disfavor, aud the fact that the market has at last become .active on rising quotations, a tiling not seen for a good while now, will teach caution to opera¬ tors for a fall. It is uo longer the case that auy one cau make money by simply selling tbe market, aud that is a very consider¬ able point gained in the way to better things. The reduction of the St. Paul aud New York Central dividends coming at a time of altered sentiment are not likely to chauge tlie general tone. Had they come thirty daj-s ago their influence on the stocks directly aft'ected, aud ou other things symp.athetically, would have beeu very .serious, but with the new tendency to take a raore cheerful view of the situation, there is no reason to believe that liolders will throw over their stocks, especially as the action of the directors in both these cases has the approval of the conservative elements in the busiuess world. People who tliink New York Central should decline, uow that it is on a 4 per cent basis, temporarily at least, will do well to look tip the record ot tbe stock during the period from 18,S,o to ] 886 wheu it paid 4 per ceut as now aud they v,-ill there (ind little .support for their ^ opiuiou. Another good feature in tbe situation is the .ipparcnt intention of the managers of the coal roads to get dowu to a sensible aud businesslike discussion of the position of the properties in their charge with a view to puttiug tbe trade on which their well- being depends ou a better ba.sis thau it now is. The, improved prospects for the reorganization of Atchison must not be left out of a count of tbe good feattu-es of the .situation. The value of all these things ia that they only come about because good .indges believe it is time to prepare for a return of confidence and business activity. TF anything were still wauted to dispel tiic hopes raised in tbo minds of himetallists on this side of tiie Atiautic by recent proceedings iu the House of Commons it could be found in tbe more extended repoits of Sir WiUiam Harcotirt's remarks which the mail has brought to hand. He said, among other things, it would be almost impossible to fix relative ratios between gold and silver owing to the conflicting interests of tho countries concerned; the objection to political alliances applied with teu times greater force to currency alliaucos; if Fr.auce, Germauy and the United States chose to combiue Eutcland wonld offer no objection, but must be allowed to judge for itself what system of currency it would adopt, and that bis conviction was tbat no responsible government would come forward .and propose a change lu the ba.ds of the currency under which England had, ever since ISIG, reached a point of commercial and finaucial prosperity which uo other nation iu tho world had ever reached. Ihe French agriculturists who secured the issue of a decree prohibiting the importation of American cattle iuto France were alarmed at the rate at which the trade of importing cattle from 1 a Vnr^^- ^'^^"^^ ^"^ gvown, uamely, from 201 head iu 1893 to ia,40G in 1S94. Several sugar mauufacturers iu Moravia, have stopped payment, and it looks as if there was a crisis at hand for .the sugar trade of Austria, which may extend to that of Germany as well, in spite of the prospects for au increase iu the export bounty in both countries. This fact has already had some iuilueuce iu dcin-essing prices onthe Berliu and Vienna Bourses and may bave more. In other direc¬ tions prices hold good aud mouey continues as cheap as ever, 1.30 per cent in Loudon and 1.00 iu Paris. The only new fiaau- cial enterprise uow on tbe carpet is the conversion of a Russian railway loan from 4 to 31-2 percent, wbich will be eflected in Paris atthe eud of this mouth. If there is any truth inthe news that Japan and China have reached a basis for the settlement of their differences, it will mean a new Chinese loan very soou and some very large expenditures ou tbe part of both powers. A valuable record of prices, kept iu London, shows that (here was a drop of a little under one per cent, from January 1st to Marcli 1st, extending geuerally over a long list of typical articles; this is a slackening iu the rate of decline and thereby affords a cmmb of comfort to the business commuuity. Tbe Orchard Street Disaster. IT is possible now to sum up the chief facts attending the fatal collapse of tho Orchard street buildings, which has beeu the subject of a judicial investigation just terminated before a Coroner's iury. It appears tbat i^laus were filed iu the Buildiug Department in November last, for four five-.story aud basement tenemeuts of the class common ou the lower East Side. The plans showed that the basements were arranged for stores, tbe ceilings of whieh were to be some three or four feet below the sidewalk level, lu plau, construction, equipment, there was uo departure from tbe ordinary practice, and apparently there was uo reason whatsoever why tbe plans should not have received the official sanction which they did, as a matter of fact, receive. A few weeks later, however, an amendment was filed to the plans and speciflcations in the departmeut, aud with these began the sad obliquity wbich ended so disastrously. In order to obtain an unbroken area of the greatest possible widthiu thebasemeut.s, the scheme of construction was varied so that the walls of the ceutral ligbt-sbafts instead of beiu"- carried down to a foundation ou the grouud were borue ou irou gii'ders placed at the level of the basement ceiljng__tbe.se girders being supported at their ends ou longitudinal walls one story high, running through the centre of the space that would have beeu occupied by the light-shafts bad they beeu carried down through the basement ficoiy as originally intended. This airangement in itself is quite permissible; but clearly it is oue that ueeds to be adopted with proper calculation aud adequate constructiou. Unfortunately, neither iu the plaus, as drawn by the architects, nor iu tbe criticism they received, or failed to receive, at the Building Department by the sub-oflicials there, were these calculations rigidly made. EiTors, oversight or worse were committed. Thus the buildings in their inception were positively unstable. But however dangerous the buildings were in design, they were (according to the evidence giveu before the Coroner's jtuy) made immensely more so by bad workmanship. Then, to make matters worse, the buildings were radically and dangerously altered in the course of erection from what the plaus called for. It was bad enough that old bricks were used aud that work was carried on uuder unfavorable climatic conditions which usually make responsible masons halt, but these shortcomings were as nothing compared witb the recklessness which prompted the un¬ authorized addition of a cellar beneath the basement and the lifting of the basement floor to the level of the sidewalk. This converted the buildings iuto six-story and cellar tenemeuts, aud it is required, as our readers kuow, by the Building Law that edifices with tbis uumber of stories shall have the halls aud stairs inclosed with brick walls and made entirely fire-proof. It is scarcely necessary to add that iu increasing the height of the buildings, as specified above, without a permit, neither the architects, builders nor owners troubled themselves about the legal requirements concerning the balls and stairways. Tbus we have three sets of errors : (1) Structional miscalcula¬ tion as to the capacity of tbe longitudinal walls to cany the ends of the irou girders placed upou them with the superiueumbeufc weight of light-shaft wall; (2) the use of poor material, with hasty and slipshod construction ; (3) unwarranted departure on the part of the architects, builders aud owners from the plans filed at the Building Departmeut. In all this, it seems, persons iu the Building Departmeut are involved, as well as the buildiug inspector whose particular duty it was to see that the offieially-certified plans were carried out and the architects aud owuers for proceeding to alter thoir buildiug without due aud proper warrant. It is uot our intention here to fix or apportion blame. Clearly in this case there was a diffused wrong-doiog aud carelessness whieh should be placed upou the shoulders of those entitled to bear it. It is the business of the authorities to make this aonor-