HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 
1914 
Building and Depression 
I N discussing the prices of building ma¬ 
terials and the cost of labor, a writer 
in a recent issue of the “Manufacturers’ 
Record" points out that, as architects and 
contractors have more time just now to 
plan and carry out contracts than in 
periods of activity, the present is the time 
to build. The man who wants a home and 
has money with which to build it can do it 
now to better advantage than when pros¬ 
perity comes and at a much lower cost and 
with more care and attention on the part of 
contractors and mechanics. 
Thousands and tens of thousands of men 
in this country are intending to build 
homes for themselves, but are waiting for 
what they think will be a more propitious 
moment, when everybody is an optimist 
rather than a pessimist. When they do un¬ 
dertake to build every item will cost them 
more, and they will find great difficulty in 
securing as much attention in construction 
work and in the equipment of their homes 
as could be had now. 
This is pre-eminently the time when 
every man who expects to build a home, a 
store, or an office building, if he has 
money, should do it. This is the time when 
every manufacturing enterprise which 
knows that it needs new machinery or the 
enlargement of its plant,and has the money 
available, should do the work now. This 
is the time when our municipalities should 
press as vigorously as possible all of their 
improvements, in order to get the benefit 
of the lower prices of materials now pre¬ 
vailing as compared with boom periods. 
Almost over night a change in business 
could be brought about, if people who are 
able to do this building and construction 
work would undertake it now. 
Commenting on this matter, “The 
American Architect" makes an illuminat¬ 
ing comparison: 
The reports of building inspectors in¬ 
dicate a gain in contemplated building, as 
shown by plans filed in the corresponding 
month of this year. In the East, where 
the depression has been most felt, a re¬ 
corded gain of nearly $5,000,000, or 19 
per cent in twenty-one cities, is especially 
encouraging. In twenty-one cities of the 
Middle West the gain for July amounted 
to $1,600,000, or 7.7 per cent. On the 
Pacific Coast the loss of 7.3 per cent for 
the first seven months of the year, as com¬ 
pared with the same period of 1913. is in 
part compensated by a slight but encour¬ 
aging gain in the month of July. But it 
is in the Southern States that the most 
phenomenal percentage of gain has been 
realized, for, while the increase for the 
first seven months as a whole was trifling, 
the gain for July alone amounted to 56 per 
cent. 
Just how the European war may affect 
the intentions of builders who have filed 
From Waterloo to the Present European War 
From Madison to Wilson in the White House 
From the Introduction of the Steamboat to the 
Perfection of the Aeroplane 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS 
Fivescore years ago our fathers saw brought forth on this continent a new 
monthly review, conceived in public spiritedness and dedicated to the new 
country, as a forum for the suitable discussion of political, religious, literary 
and artistic matters. Therefore, there will be a fitting celebration next 
year of the centennial of The North American Review — the one-hundredth 
year of its uninterrupted publication. 
The purpose of this announcement is to make known, thus far in advance, 
the general scope of the anniversary, its interest to every intelligent reading 
man and woman in the country. Nineteen Fifteen is to be a year-long 
observance of the one-hundredth birthday of America’s oldest magazine. 
Not one, but twelve anniversary numbers are to be issued. Their size and 
contents are already partly determined, because of the uninterrupted 
flow of acceptances received from men and women of the first rank, the 
world over, who have written for The Review in the past, who will make 
specially fitting contributions to the numbers for 1915 . 
The details of these twelve special numbers will be made public from time 
to time. It is possible now to announce articles by over one hundred 
prominent Americans and over one hundred prominent foreigners. From 
among them have been taken the two lists of ten names each, printed below. 
The 
North American 
Review 
SOME OF THE CENTENNIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
WILLIAM H. TAFT 
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 
JOHN BURROUGHS 
CHILDE HASSAM 
CHAMP CLARK 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE 
GEORGE WOODBERRY 
ARTHUR T. HADLEY 
ELIHU ROOT 
A. T. MAHAN 
TAMES BRYCE 
MONS. ROBERT HUGH BENSON 
GUSTAV LANSON 
ALFRED NOYES 
HAVELOCK ELLIS 
DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH 
LADY HENRY SOMERSET 
ARTHUR SYMONS 
H. G. WELLS 
FREDERIC HARRISON 
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DARWIN TULIPS 
A collection of 250 choice bulbs in 10 
standard varieties will be sent, on receipt 
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J. A. deVEER, 
100 WILLIAM ST. (Suite 200), NEW YORK 
DO YOU WANT TO BUY A DOG 
and are you in doubt about the best breed for 
your purpose? If so, write to us for advice. 
It will cost you nothing and is cheerfully given 
Manager KENNEL DEPARTMENT 
House & Garden, 31 E. 17th St., New York 
The Children’s Gift Shop 
Unusual and Original Toy Craft of real play worth and 
educational value. 
Unique Construction Materials in miniature. 
Books and Pictures for Children. 
Play-rooin equipments. 
A complete assortment of beautiful baskets, imported and 
domestic, for every utilitarian purpose. 
Quaint and beautiful pictures and verses for children and 
grown-ups, in our hand-wrought metal frames and our 
CHRISTMAS ROOM 
make of our sunny quarters a veritable Children's Gift Shop. 
Send 25c for our set of illustrated catalogues and your choice of 
a frisking fish, a weatherproof animal, or a quaint framed picture. 
HUIje S>trpuclpnc &ljop, Hlnc. 
Entire 
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