June 15, 1918





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





759





fare between New York and Newark, however, was
placed at twenty-five cents to correspond with the rate
of three cents a mile which prevails on the Pennsyl¬
vania Railroad.

Newark lies nine miles distant from New York City,
If the Newark rate now prevailing on the Hudson
tubes should be applied to passengers using the sub¬
way, elevated or surface lines of Manhattan and the
Bronx a very great increase in fares would result. For
five cents a passenger may now ride 17y2 miles in the
Broadway subway and 23 miles in the Bronx Park sub¬
way. A nickel fare carries a passenger nearly 14 miles
on the Second and Third Avenue "L" and 10 miles on
either the Sixth or Ninth Avenue "L." Passengers on
the surface lines may ride 9^ miles for a nickel.





If it is necessary to charge twenty-seven cents to
haul a passenger between Newark and New York City
on the Hudson tubes, as has been decided officially in
Washington, then it certainly is necessary to charge
more than five cents for a ride on either the subway,
the elevated or the surface lines in this city. Whereas
the Hudson tubes now charge three cents a mile for
Newark passengers hundreds of thousands of people
in the metropolis are riding on the city transportation
lines for a fraction of a cent a mile.

It is no wonder there is a rapidly increasing subway
deficit for the owners of real estate to pay in the form
of taxes. The people who ride, instead of real estate
owners, should pay for the transportation advantages
the public enjoys.





Readers'   Comment   on   Current   Subjects





June 13, 1918.
Editor of the Record and Guide:

It is always a pleasure to record the advent of a man
who, overcoming all obstacles, rises to an emergency
in the well-known American way, and this is a par¬
ticularly pleasant duty when the man is a New Yorker,
We pride ourselves, we New Yorkers, in always having
the man to deal with a crisis.

And so it is with real enthusiasm that attention is
called to Jonathan C. Day, Commissioner of Markets—
the man of the hour, of the twenty-four hours; even,
if you like, of the added hour which we gained by
setting the clocks ahead—twenty-five-hour Day.

He it is who is going to arrange things so that,
instead of suffering in cold storage, as we did last
winter, we shall have a comfortable, luke-warm
existence until next spring, whatever happens.

By a few strokes of his pen Day has made sure that
we shall have abundant coal supplies for the chill and
frosty period from November until March. This morn¬
ing he contracts for 300,000 tons; this afternon for
another 200,000 tons, and tomorrow—well, he can sign
up, he says, for as much as he wills to do, and he wills
to have us all nice and comfy next Christmas and
so on.

This is the kind of a man Day is—the kind that
appeals strongly to Americans—who goes right on
unterrified and undeterred from his praiseworthy object
by the consideration of any of the stumbling blocks
which got in the way of fuel providers last year—goes
right on making contracts for coal, and more coal and
still more coal.

For Day has dropped, temporarily only, let us hope,
his other favorite plans for filling the refrigerators
cheaply and supplying eggs and butter, fresh and with¬
out profit, to overburdened New Yorkers to devote his
whole time and energy to pushing through to success
this coaHng project; and so we know he will get there.

For Day is a man who inspires confidence in himself.
He is the sort of man who, if he appeared in Picardy
and told the marines he wanted to go out and smash
the Hohenzollern hordes single-handed, they would
side-step and wave him on: "Go ahead, you Day! Oh,
Boy!" And when a grateful people, in after time,
should try to heap high honors on the marines they'd
point to him and say:    "Day did it!"

That is the spirit that actuates us all in these trying
times—to do our bit and let each other one do what
he thinks he best can do. And so no one has ventured
to raise any objection to Day's plans. Neither have
the Wall street powers suggested calling a halt, nor
has the Real Estate Board protested on the score of
increased taxation, nor does any citizen of this fair town





point out any of the difficulties and the drawbacks that
may be in the way of Day. Keep us warm, say we, no
matter what it costs.

Even that good old scout, Reeve Schley, Federal Fuel
Administrator, who, with battered tugs and half sea¬
worthy barges and railroads suffering from locomotor
ataxia all last winter, while we stood round blowing
on our frost-bitten fingers to get them thawed out,
battled with the ice floes in the raging Hudson in the
eff'ort to reheve beleagured Manhattan, stands nobly
aside and says of Day: "I am wiUing that the com¬
missioner shall contract for the coal—if he can get it
away from the mines."

Meanwhile Day goes on his way contracting for coal
until the experts, cool calculators, who figure that a
ton of coal takes up thirty-five cubic feet of space, say
that there is only one plot of ground in Greater New
York centrally located, as it must be, with sufficient
area on which to heap up the stores of coal which
Day has got.

This plot is called Central Park; but in the very
nature of things nobody, certainly not the park com¬
missioners, nor the Municipal Art Commission, nor
even the New York Times, the vigilant watch-dog of
the people's big playground, can take exception to the
use of its broad surface for any purpose that Day
proposes.

Already we may see Day coating the park with a
stratum of carbon, into which each one of us may dip,
at the rate of $6.50 for Broken to $4.90 for Pea, for our
much needed relief.

And so when this cruel war is over and we have all
settled down in a world made safe for democracy;
when we draw up around the good old base burner
and watch through the panes of isinglass the fusing
carbon throw off the gaseous glow that means warmth
and comfort for all within the old heater's radius of
action, we will think kindly and gratefully of Day—
well named Jonathan C.—who labored and brought
forth the heaven and the h-ylan of municipal owner¬
ship when this great city was in dire need.

ICC





ONE of the most interesting developments in the
labor situation is the plan of the Department of
Labor to inaugurate a series of drives for various
classes of skilled and unskilled workmen to supply the
needs of war industry. This has already been done to
some extent as is illustrated by the drive for shipyard
builders last fall and winter, and recently by the move to
take over the labor on docks. Whenever conditions de¬
mand an increased supply of a certain class of labor, a
"drive" will be started for that class of workers.