The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-06
REAL ESTATE SITUATION
NOT QUITE As MUCH THIS
YEAR AS LAST.
An Architect Tells How to Account for
Present Conditions-Trades
of the Week.

mo, there is not as much building in In
d~ianapolis as last year" said an architect
to a Journal representative yesterday. I'm
fact, with the exception of New York, none
of the big cities Of the country show as
high an average this month as for the
corresponding month of last year. The rea-
son for this are twofold. In the first place,
most Of the surplus money OF the country
is going into industrial and other securities
rather than into building enterprises. 1t
will take at least six months to digest these
securities that are now on the market. An
other reason is that the present industrial
boom has made it difficult TO secure such
Of the materials as are used i'm large build
ing enterprises. Nearly all of the struc-
tural steel shops are forced to place their
orders for six months future delivery.
You know. the building business is about
the most susceptible to all conditions. 1t is
a good deal like labor in this respect. 1t
is the first to feel the effects of a time of
depression, and it is invariably the last to
recuperate. OF course the thing that is
affecting a good many small building prof.
ects, such as dwelling houses and little
store buildings around here and there, is
the fact that people have in mind the high
price of material. For my part L don't see
hat the class of material such as is used
in this kind of building will ever be any
cheaper. Take brick, for instance. The
present price of brick, although much high
er than three years ago., yet is no higher
when the present conditions are taken into
consideration. 1t is commensurate with the
increase in freight rates, the increased
price of labor in molding and fuel in burn
ING Then there &c linn har Tho fnnr must
be borne in mind that the forests all the
while are getting farther and farther away
from the modes of cheap transportation
Inc lumDermen nave 10 now resort 10 the
railroads rather than river transportation,
which was the case even a few years ago.
Il hope you will pardon the abrupt d.
gression, but a matter came up here in the
office a few minutes ago which suggests to
me the fact that plumbers are a much
abused class of mechanics. In the minds
of the public they have a worse reputa-
ton than any other class of contractors.
but fifteen years experience has led me to
believe that this is not Justiiable. They
require less watching and do their work
better than any other class Of mechanics
about buildings. The way they happened to
get this reputation in the minds of the pub
lie is on repair work. Owing to the fact
that people originally insisted on 1t they
are compelled TO render an itemized bill,
even TO the most minute detail, and this is
has made the length of the plumb
er's bill a standing joke. One of the big
contracting plumbers here, who also does
a large repair business, has two wagons
out or the street all the time just tending
TO the latter class of work. Whenever they
make a stop they always telephone into the
office to see if there are any other orders
in the neighborhood, just the same as a
beer-wagon driver. In this way they facili-
tate the Objectionable features of a plumber
charging for the time of going from tho
shop to the job and return.
"A good many years ago there used to
be a plumber over here on Pennsylvania
street who always added 20 per cent. to his
bills for 'kickage,' as he called it, for he
said nobody ever paid a plumbing bill in
full. Once there was a couple of plumbers
and their helpers returning from a job on
which they had been at work. which was
somewhere down on the South Side. The
wagon was loaded down with the men,
supplies and equipment, and they were go
ing at a pretty swift pace along some lit
tie quiet street when hey were attracted
by the screams of a woman, running out of
a house and calling to them that her little
girl had fallen I'm the cistern. OF course
all the men jumped out of the wagon at
once with their ladders and other appli-
ances which were Immediately at hand;
the child was soon taken out of the els
tern without injury. When the first of the
next month rolled around the child's father
received a bill which read: To one hours
time of two men and helpers in taking little
girl out of cistern, 81. 40