Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-10-25
Fill
DEMANDS

some of the best proofs that the
cities of northern New Jersey are now
enjoying genuine prosperity is found
in the inability of builders to get
thegbuilding materials as fast as they
want them" said Il building contrac-
tor of Elizabeth today. II have on
my hands now contracts for enough
dwellings, stores, apartment houses
and factories to keep me busy day in
and day ont, and here | am with a
week of enforced leisure on my hands
because / cannot get building mate
rails fast enaugh. Lumber is not to
be had. brick and stone are scarce
because the brick yards and stone
yards are working overtime and can
not fill present orders. Lumber and
sash and blind mills are behind also
because of the unusual demand for
buildings to be erected in a hurry to
meet the present emergency.
In loking about and trying to
pla cehurried orders where l can get
them hlled, / find the same condition
TO exist among practically all indus
tries in northern New Jersey, except
those which supply small articles for
personal and domestic uses TO dis
tant points. A timber dealer in
south Jersey told me the other day
that he was so crowded for orders
for hard wood that many of his "a
irons among the factories have to de-
lay their orders and wait for timber
as well as for castings and other met
al products from the factories and
machine mills. He said that the car
makers in Philadelphia who buy
much of their timber and most of
their castings for their output of troll
ley cars in Newark and Jersey City
are short Of these supplies, and be-
sides are running their factories ov-
ertime to fill orders. The conduit
companies which supply me with fiue
Innings and f%ire-proof brick and make
the clay conduits in which trolley
feed wires and telephone wires are
carried, are flooded with orders and
most of them at Perth Amboy and
South River are doubling their ca
pacity this year. d
"An increase of 100 per cent. in
the amount of lumber and timber de-
livered at points on Raritan bay,
Newark bay, the Passaic and Hud-
son rivers in the last three months
as against the amount unloaded dur
ing the same three months of last
year shows how the tide is setting.
81 notice that in the case of COM
plants from citizens of Hoboken
against the trolley company because
it did not supply new cars fast
enough to keep the service up to
date, the trolley company explained
that 1t could not get cars fast enough
because the demand for cars from
all over the country exceeded the ca
paeity of the builders. A committee
investigated the statement and found
that the car makers of st. Louis,
Philadelphia and the several others
in Ohio, were crowded with orders
and were from six months to a year
behind in delivery. The foundries
to my knowledge are behind in max
ing castings wheels and machinery.
If a big concern like a trolley com.
pany with orders one hundred times
bigger than mine has to wait it's turn,
| shall have to wait mine. / believe
that there is going to be a big boom
in the cement block business of north
ern New Jersey next year.. The de-
mand for this material is growing and
If the producing plants now at work
were able to fill orders l would use
these blocks for Easements and foun-
dations in preference to brick and
stone. The day of the cement block
has come and New Jersey with it's
mountains of trap rock adjacent to it's
many freight lines is in a position to
supply a large proportion of the de-
mand."