Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE NEW SYSTEM OF TRANSACTING THE BUILD- ING BUSINESS COMPARED WITH THE OLD. The building business is of such great importance, and involves such large sums of money, that the System of transacting this business cannot be too precise and definite for the protection and safety of the owners, architects, mechanics and the public in general; and such an important business should be transacted in all the architects' offices, with the same care and accuracy as that of a counting-house or banking-house. Nobody can deny, when considering this New System, that it is far superior to the old one, especially in these two most essential points required: Practicability, and the ways and means of safety which it affords. It is well proved that the old system is not always reliable from the beginning, as il offers all possible chances for frauds and plunder, leads to difficulties and ruinous lawsuits; while with the New System, fair competition will take place, correct and reliable estimates will be submitted, the owners can rely on valid and legitimate contracts with the mechanics—the mechanics will know at any time the full extent of their duties, and the architects will not be losing time in adjusting difficulties between the contracting parties. And moreover, it should be acknowledged by all, that it offers the owners the best possible guarantee that in all cases their contracts with the mechanics will be faithfully carried out. Therefore, do I claim that the New System of Transacting the Building Business, as stated above and in the synopsis below, should be considered as the only practical and reliable for all parties, and should be carried out into practice until another is suggested and found to be of a better nature. SYNOPSIS OP THE NEW SYSTEM. 1. The architects to draw the...