Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 59, no. 1517: April 10, 1897

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April IO, 1897. Record and Guide 597 ESTABUSHED-^ MMtpH aV?> 1868. OctM> P ReMLESTATE.BuiLDlffc A,R.C.KlTE(rrURE.H0USEl(0U>DEGaF(MI0Hl; ,Bir5[ifESS wto Themes Of GEjfER^llffTERfsi., ^ PRICE, PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TBLEPHONB, _ . . . . COETLAtJDT 1370 ComiounloatlonB ebould be addressed to • C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager, 'Entered al the Poslr-officeat New York, N'. Y., as seeond-class mailer." Vol. LIX. APRIL 10, 1897. No. 1,517 Over $25,000,000 new buildings have been planned for so far this year. Have you obtained your share of it? Do you know of the many other large jobs now being prepared, and of the hundreds of customers in your line wbu are about to come into market for materials? Tou can obtain this informa¬ tion daily from the F. W. Dodge Co. (Inc.), .310 6th avenue, southeast corner 6th avenue and 20lh street, TRADE and speculation both continue affected by the dulling influence of an unsettled tavitt' and a pre,i«dice against businessorganizatioiistliat are absolutely necessary in operations of such gigantic proportions as our advanced commercial con¬ ditions require. We pointed out .some weeks ago that the fale ot the Tariff bill would not be known until it could be definitely seen how the Senate regarded it. That statement is proved this week, not that we had the real views of the Senate uponthebill, but because we see clearly that the party responsible for it can¬ not insure its passage, and there is no telling what concessions they may have to make to protect it from defeat. Tn reference to trade combinations, there are indications that an open dis¬ cussion will show their necessity and usefulness aud pave the way for a wiser and kindlier public feeling toward them, which will finally influence our law makers to provide a way by which combinations may be controlled and at the same time preserve their good features. The fact fhat the appeal in the Joint Traffic Association's case cannot be heard until next October has its favorable side, inasmuch as the association can be con¬ tinued op tbe strength of tbe decisiou in the lower courts and the present arrangement for hearing the appeal from that decis¬ ion gives a year, probably, in which thought upon this whole matter of trade combinations can mature and a proper remedy found for the very anomalous situation created by the Supreme Court decisiou intheTran8-.\lissonri case. Byholdingthe East¬ ern Association together, a strong influence will exist to minim¬ ize cutting on Western rates and the whole railroad system thereby benefited, TX THEN the Bank of England rate of discount is reduced, Jt V notwithstanding the condition of affairs in Crete and on the Turko-Grecian frontier, that fact may be accepted as a fairly good indication that there will be no war. The decline in the price of wheat, which had its initiative in Liverpool, is also testimony to the same effect. The European markets have never during this crisis given rauch encouragement to the belief that war would lesult from the extraordinary attitude assumed by the King of Greece and the buccaneering expedition now in Crete by his orders. There were and still are dangers to be apprehended in the situation, and for this reason there was and ie a disinclination to trade, but there was uo liquidation, such as a belief in au unfavorable outcome of the difficulty would inev¬ itably have produced had such existed iu official minds. Euro pean business interests are probably far more exorcised over the taritt discussion in Congress than over the trouble in the East. The threatened revival of high dnties upou .so many things supplied from abroad not unnaturally creates disturbance in trade, which is uot compensated by an immediate demand for goods and materials in advance of legislation, nor do threatened custom reprisals quite satisfy the manufacturer or producer, however much they may soothe national pride. It is no real comfort for a maker of woolen goods to know fhat if his trade wif" the United States i;'. killed or curtailed by the uew tariff his friend the farmer will be benefited by a duty on either live or dead meat; nor can it satisfy the people generally, and the working people in particular, to k DOW that their food is to be made dearer because the amount of work oftering is to be lessened to whatever extent their fellow coimtryiuan, the manufacturer, is hurt hy the American farifi'. The American trade, however, is 80 important and so great that the disturbance of the tariff, in creating uncertainty as to the conditions that will have to be met in the near future, has an appreciably deterrent effect upon European business in general, and its outcome must be made known before a new move cau be made. It is for that reason that the Senate will now be watched with as much interest and anxiety from across the Atlantic as here at home. OUR attention has been called to some figui-es prepared by E.,R. L. Gonid, aud ptiblished iu tbe "Yale Review" of iVIay, 1896, to show that improved tenements can be built to pay. These figures were sent to us by a correspondent who took exception to a recent article in this paper, referring to the London County Council iodustrial dwellings experiment at Bethnal Green, iu which it was stated that such experiments were impossible to private enterprise iu New York City, where the cost of land, material and labor are greater than in London. The cost of the Bethnal Green buildiugs was $320 per head of population housed. We did not say that any enterprise in the way of improved tenements was impossible in New York City, uorcoald we consistently say it, in tbe face of what we have several times pointed out, that some have already been success¬ ful here. It follows infevcniially that others carried out with the like .judgment may and will be successes. There have been conspicuous failures in this line as in all other lines^ and in view of the elemi nt of UDcertainty that prevails in all human affairs, it is not unreasonable to believe that there are still failures to come. However, Dr. Gould's reputation and study of the sub¬ ject of the housing of the poor entitles anything he says thereon to the greatest consideration, and we .submit his table for the consideration of our readers. It is : MAXIMUM OUTLAY PEK ROOM THAT AT A GIVEN RENT WILL YIELD A GIVEN RATE PER CENT. PER ANNUM. (In all cases 30% has been deducted from the gross rental for laxes, re¬ pairs, unoccupied dwellings, etc., to arrive at the net rent upon which the percentage has been calculated.) Gross rent per room Maximum Outlay Per Room That Will Yield Each Year per week. 6^% QVi% 6% 5%% &'A% 5%% 5% 4%% 25 cents........S140 1^145 $150 $155 $165 $170 $180 $190 31 " ........175 180 185 195 205 215 225 235 37 " ........210 215 225 235 245 255 270 285 43 " ........ 245 255 265 275 285 300 315 335 50 " ........280 290 300 315 330 345 360 380 4^^% 4W% 4% S%% ZW7o 3M,% 3% 2!> cents..............$200 $215 $225 $240 $260 $280 $300 31 " ..............250 265 280 300 325 350 375 37 " ..............300 320 340 360 390 420 450 43 " .............. 350 370 395 420 455 485 530 '50 " ..............400 425 455 475 520 560 605 There are other conditions besides expenditures at a given rate per room necessary to produce a given percentage of in¬ come. Some of these are pointed ont in the article from which the foregoing table was taken. Good judgment must be exer¬ cised in the selection of location; land must be acquired at a moderate price. $5 per square foot is stated by Dr. Gould as the probable outside limit, "and this sum can only be paid where a good-sized plot is built over. It is essential to get land much cheaper if possible." Convenience of access and moderation iu building cost are both necessary to be considered, besides special aud intimate knowledge of the economic conditions of the people in fhe section in which it is proposed to build. Where these aud other important facts are recognized the larg¬ est amount of success in improved housing of the poor ought to be attained, if success can anywhere be attained. AMONG the many peculiar measures that are now in the Legislature that of Senator Featherson to amend the tenement and lodging house laws (if this city deserves a place. This bill proposes to prohibit the erection of a building for tenement or lodging hcmse purposes upon any lot containing another building, or the use of the rear bnilding as a tenement or lodging house, and finally requires all rear buildings used as tenements, lodging houses, stables and workshops to be re¬ moved within sLx mouths of the passage of the bill, failing which they are to be rcntoved by the Superintendent of the Department of Buildings. In effect this is a bill to remove every rear building in the city. The title of the bill .suggests that it has the countenance of the Department of Health, but hy direct inquiry of the presidentot that body, we find tbat that is not the case. The Department of llpalth has all fhe powers it desires to deal with either rear buildings or lodging houses. The act of 1895, uuder which so many rear tenements have been condemned, ha.? been sustained by the courts and is worli- iiig to the entire satisfaction of the Department. Who, then, suggested the necessity for the bill under discussion !f The bill is very clumsily drawn, inasmuch as it first says rear buildiuj-'s shall uot be used as tenements or lodging house.s and afterward requires the removal of all rear buildings. The last provision most effectually disposes of the first and renders them ehtirel,y unnecessary. Supposing the bill passed, whiit would be the re¬ sult % From twenty-three to twenty-four hundred rear buildings, many of them substantial aud in good condition, used for other purposes besides those of tenement houses and lodging houses.