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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1948: July 15, 1905

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ivECORD AND GUIDE TOI ESTABUSHEB'^rijmCH£l'^^I368. DE%D id RfATESTWE.BUILDING %Cl^,rECTURE HoUSOiOlDDEflfflti™!,, Busnfess M»Themf„s of GeiiER&V.lH'reR.E*!..; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Publis/ied eVerg Saturday Communications should oe addreasod to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "K^io^^d a.t. fhP. Post Omce at New York, if. Y.. as second-class matter." this kind of building is still chiefly between 14th and 23d streets; but there is a tendency to push north of 23d and to push as far east as Fourth avenue -aod as far west as Seventh avenue. The construction of so mai-v department stores in the vicinity of 34th street has a decided tendency to take the wholesale trade still farther north. Within flve years the popu- I'ar section for-the consti:uction of loft buildings will be the dis¬ trict between 23d and 34th streets. Copyright by the Real Estate Record and Bailders' Guide Company, JULY lo,,1905. Vol. LXXVI. No. 1948. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. (Advertising Section.) Page Page Cement ............... xxv Law................... viil Clay Products .......... x\ii Machinery .............. v Contractors and Builders. vi Stone .................. xxlii Fireproofing........... ii Metal Work ............. xxi Granite............... xiv Real Instate ............. xl Heating...............xtiv Wood Products .......... xxvi Iron and Steel ..........:xviii______________________~^^-^^—^^—= IT IS WELL, that a break in the Stock Market has occurred. The pace was becoming too rapid. A continuation of the bullish speculation, wi-thout any substantial set-backs, could only have resulted in a still severer break towards the end of the summer. The set-back -was occasioned wholly by tech¬ nical causes. The news of the week was practically all of it to the good. It looks as if the American farmer, who a few years ago was becoming a ferocious radical ^vA "v/as calling upon the government to help him out of his troubles, was des¬ tined to enjoy a long period of prosperity. He is tolerably sure throughout the current year of being able to sell a good deal of grain at high prices; and tbe conditions which are making for high prices seems to be eomparatively permanent. At all events the Western farmer is accuraulaiting money, and is consuming a much larger variety of products than formerly. A fact which serves to explain the great diversity of traffic on the Western railroads, and the extraordinary elacticity of their revenues. It was the continued prosperity of the farmer, which pulled the country through the crisis of 1903, and it still con¬ stitutes the chief impulse to the prevailing rate of industrial expansion. It has already placed the farmer in an excellent condition to stand a couple cf bad years. Such years will come some 'time, but if their coming is postponed much longer, their effect will be comparatively small. -----------*.----------- A GREAT deal has been written about the enormous amount of tenement house building now underway in Manhattan and the Bronx; but the volume of new construction which will be used for business purposes is in its way quite as remai'kable. During the first six months of last year plans were filed for 113 new business buildings to be erected at an estimated cost of $11,428,000, whereas during the first six months of 1905 plans have been filed for 137 new edifices of this class, to be erected at an estimated cost of $19,280,000. This is equivalent to an increase of 16 per cent, in the number of these buildings projected and an increase of 35 per cent, in the amount of money which will he spent upon them. The ligures are not as large as they were durin'g the period of years 1901 and 1902; but they may become so before the end of the year, because there are a number of large building projects, be¬ longing to this' class which have not yet reached the stage of filing plans. This building is very well distributed throughout Manhattan, It includes a number of new office buildings and banking houses on the margin of the financial district, a great many loft buildings on or adjacent to Fifth avenue, and a still larger number of small factories situated in the tenement house districts of the middle East and West sides. Two huge depart¬ ment stores, one for Claflin and one for Altman, should also be mentioned. It is the product of a normal and wholesome business expansion—affecting alike all classes of trade, and without any symptoms of speculative excess. No new tendency of any importance is to he observed in this 'business build¬ ing, but it is noticeable that the construction of new lofts now takes place almost exclusively north of llth S'treet. There is room for some ftirther improvement of University place and its neighborhcod; but North Washington Square, lower Fifth avenue and the streets near by will apparently be passed by in the process of business expansion. Tbe area of activity in THERE are some indications that the different corporations interested in New York rapid transit are no longer as eager to compete with one another for the franchises of the new subways as they used to be. These indications are uot as yet either very palpable or very numerous. They d.o not amount to much more than that the Interborough Company and the Penn¬ sylvania R. R. Co., which were supposed to bo in opposite camps, have reached a working agreement as to thie division of traffic in Long Island City. But we imagine that thi":s is one of those straws which shows the way in which the wind is blow¬ ing. The truth is that the local transit companies have eviiy reason to combine in order to divide the spoils rather i 'ia^a to spend their money in what must be, from their point of view, ineffectual and costly competition. If either the Interborou^a Company or the New York City Railway Company coultf "i^r^'d"'. to obtain a monopoly of the new subways, it might pay to fight, but it is evidently the policy of the Rapid Transit Commission both to stimulate competition, and after getting the best possi¬ ble terms from the two companies to divide the new routes between them. Under such circumstances it will surely oc¬ cur to the managers of those companies that it would be well to agree upon some division of the routes in advance, and so reach the same result without paying tbe price of competition. Such an agreement is entirely practicable and could be reached without any merging of the different corpora^'ona. The result wG'aUI '.r t!lS,t-the city would obtain '. certain number of new subways,' but that these su'^'.-i^ys would be built and operated on much the same terms as the existing subway, SXC?.!?.*: ^^^^ *"^ city would not have to lend the credit which it cannot afforu. But however much tbe Rapid Transit Commission might relish such an arrangement, it would not satisfy New York public opinion. There is a widespread conviction that the new sub¬ ways should be leased both for a shorter term and at a larger rental than the present subway, and that if better terms cannot be obtained, the city should be prepared to build and operate wholly independent routes. There are many grave difficulties in the way of carrying out such a programme, but it is a con¬ tingency for which the Rapid Transit Commission should be prepared. The fact that no preparations have been made is simply an indication that the Commission, excellent as its work has been in certain respects, is not fully alive to all the con¬ ditions, of the rapid transit problem in this city, and is in some respects behind the march of public opinion. WHETHER or not the current negotiations end in a definitive peace between Japan and Russia, it is evident that noth¬ ing that can happen hereafter will essentially modify the sit¬ uation, which must determine the conditions of that peace. Rus¬ sia is beaten. The only way in wbich she can hope to do any further harm lo Japan would be by prolonging a hopeless war and thereby seeking to exhaust her enemy's financial re¬ sources. But such a course'would also exhaust her own finan¬ cial resources, and would simply make tbe price of defeat in¬ creasing burdensome when that price came to be paid. Ruf»:ia would be foolish not to wind up a bad business as soon as possible and pay whatever bills she has to pay. Her best chance is to make peace before the exhaustion hi her national resources improves the opportunity of the revolutionary party. She is in a position analogous to that of France after the Franco-Prussian war. Her defeat has been due in part to the efficiency of her opponent, but it has been due still more to her own palpable deficiencies. It is evident that the Russian bu¬ reaucratic government has been entirely inadequate to the taslt of reorganizing Russian people for the military, naval and economic competition of the modern Europe, No nation can use properly the machinery of modern warfare unless certain oi its people have received a thorough mechanical training, and unless these people are sincerely and disinterestedly devoted lo their professional tasks. But Russia is a nation of peas¬ ants, governed by a corrupt and self-seeking clique of officials. The peasantry have neither the ambition nor tbe opportunity to prepare themselves for the use of modern, machinery, and the whole official class has proved itself not only to be ineffi¬ cient, hut to be blind to their own faults and deficiencies. It remains to be seeu whether tb.^ Rugsian despotic monarchy 3421 1(1