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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 87, no. 2244: March 18, 1911

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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—■ 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.