October 5, 1907





RECORD   AND  GUIDE





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Vol. LXXX.





OCTOBBR .'3, 1907.





No. 20G4.





INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising  Section,

Page.                                              Page.

Cement   .......................xvi Lumber......................xx

Glay    Products................xvii Machinery....................xiv

Coasulting   Engineers..........vii  Metal   Work....................xiii

Contractors and  Buĩlders.......Iv  Quick Job Directory............."ix

Electrical   Interests............xv  Real   Estate.....................'ix.

Fireprooflng....................li Roolers aud Rooflng Materiala.xv

Granite......................xviii Stone........................xviii

Iron   and   Steel................viii Wood   Products................xxi





PRESIDENT JAMBS J. HILL., ,ot the Gréat Northern
Railroact, and President Roosevelt disagree about
inany questions of public policy, but it is by no means an
accident that they also have points of agreement. The
former gave oitt an înterview early în the week, iu which
he predicted the eventtial breakdown of the railway systeins
of the country as a means of transportation, and the abso-
iiite necessity of developing the inland water-ways. The
chief burden of Mr. Roosevelt's speeches in the Mississippi
Valley has been the second of these ideas. He has been poiiit-
ing out the absolute iiecessity of supplementing the railway^
by means of the larger use o£ canaĩs and rivers, and tiiere
oan be no doubt that ia emphasizing the necessity for im-
proved waterways he is performing a public service as ĩm-
portant as that which he performed when he advocated a
system of national irrigation. In this, as in certain other
respects, the îndustrial practice of the United States is far
behind that of Germany. Germany has sedulously devel-
oped hér iuterna! waterways as a siipplement to her railway
system, and the comparativeiy cheap means of transporta-
tion thereby afforded have had much to do with the indus-
trial expansion of the German Enipire, Ámerican indus-
tries, on the other, hand, have been biiilt up under conditions
which, the Great Lakes apart, makes them almost exclu-
sively .dependent on the railways, and the railways them-
selves, in their desire for tralĩic, have adopted a rate policy
which prevented, wherever possible, the transportation of
freight by water. If Mr. HiII's statements are well founded,
this policy cannot be continued. The railways are unable
to earry aĩl the traffic ofEered to them, because of the lack
of sufflcient terminals, and they cannot afford to buy the
iiecessary terrainals at prevaíling prices. In all this there
is, we heĩieve, a certain amount of exaggeration. Mr. James
J. Hill seeras to be in an over-wrought state of mind which
prevents him from seeing things in a normal perspective,
nevertheless there is much truth in his contentions, The
industrial development of the country will suffer severely,
unless a greater use is made of the waterways, and no time
should be lost in planning a system of internal ĩmprove-
'ments for this purpose. New York took the lead in thi.s re-
spect several year,ĩ ago by beginning the eulargement of
the Brie Canal, but the National Government should adopt
a similar, but a much more elahorate and comprehensĩve
policy.





enforcement of the tenement-house law.    He proposes also,
the reorganization of the Department of Charities and Cor-
rection  for  the  purpose  of  transferring  the  control  of  the
city  prisons  to  the  Police  Department.     This,  again,  is  an
extremely  desirabĩe change,  for the  association  of  the  care
of the poor and the sick with that of crimiuals is not based
upon any rule of propriety or efficiency.    What is still more
important, he  proposes  the  constitution of a  Public Works
Department,   which   shall   include  the   existing   departments
of   Building  and   of   Bridges,   and  which  will  have   control
over much of the  work now  in  the hands  of borough  ofĩĩ-
cials.    This should he one of the most useful of all the ad-
ministrative   reorganizations   proposed   by   the   Mayor,   and
with   the   assistance   of   a   proper   system   of   municipal   ac-
counting, it should conduce both to  efficiency and economy
in the expeuditure of the city's money.    The usual objec-
tion to these proposed changes is made on the score that
no  genuine  contribution  to  good  government  can  be  made
by means of tinkering with the Charter;  but the whole hîs-
tory of the municipal reform movement both in the city and
throughout the country proves the superficiality of this ob-
jection.     Municipal   niisgovernment  has  been  due  to  many
causes;  but not the least among them has been an admin-
istrative   organization   which   denied   the   executive   offlcĩals
any efficient authority, and so relieved them of any real re-
sponsibility.    New York is now being better governed than
it was ten or flfteen years ago, not only because the people
are electing better officials, but because these officials after
they are elected have more power than formerly and can be
held   to  stricter  accountability.     The   changes   proposed   by
Mayor McCIelĩan all tend to carry a step farther this impor-
tant   process   of   simplifying   the   organization,   and   concen-
trating  both  authority  and   responsibility,  and  the   Charter
Revision   Commission  should  certainly   adopt  this   prineiple
as    their    dominant    constructive    idea.     The    commission
should  get to  work very soon,  and  should  ask  for all  the
time it needs to complete its arduous and difflcuĩt task.





MAYOR McCLELLAN has permitted the puhlicatîon of
certain of his ideas in respect to charter revision.
and' it ĩs much to be hoped that they will find favor with
the Commission. Áll the changes he proposes look in the
direction of a simplification of the administrative machinery
of the city, the reduction in the number of the departmental
■ chiefs, and the concentration of their powers. He proposes.
for ĩnstance, the organization of a Health Department which
shall be responsible for the sanitary regulation and inspec-
tion of the city in every respect—including, of course, the





THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION has made a grave
mistake in authorizing the construction of the Fourth
Aveuue subway to South Brooklyn. In the course of time
this subway, among others, should be built, but to spend
as much money as will he needed for this improveraent at
the existing Juncture is nothing less than a betrayal of the
interests of the whole city for the benefit of a very small
proportion of its inhabitants. The reasons which counsel
ihe postponement of the construction of this subway are so
numerous and so conclusive that we hope the Board of Es-
timate will at the last moment refuse to assume all the
risks which are implied thereby, and propertied interests in
other parts of the city should bring the utmost pressure to
bear upon the Board for the purpose of preventing the com-
mission oĩ this grave mistake. As we all know, the city has a
margin of less than $40,000,000 whĩch, during the next flve
years, can possibly be devotedto subway construction, and why
should the partially developed territory ofSonth Brooklyn
be selected as the cemetery in which the larger part of this
sum is to be buried. It must be remerabered that the appro-
priation of $25,000,000 lor a tunnel to South Brookĩyn pro-
hibits any other subway construetion, unless the debt mar-
gin can be increased; and it raust be remembered also that
there are other parts of the city which are in much greater
need of genuine rapid transit than is South Brooklyn, The
whole East Side of Mauhattan îs unprovided with subways.
and its population is four-fold the population whîch will be
aided by the Fourth Avenue subway. No doubt the East
Side of Manhattan has its elevated railroads, but so has
South Brooklyn. The action of the commission is equiva-
lent to spending almost all the raoney available for rapĩd
transit for the benefit of a few hundred thousand peoplo
where it should and could be spent for the benefit of almost
two millions. What could be mgre absurd than the con-
struetion of a subway, whlch will run for miles by vacant
lots, instead of constructing a subway through a part of the
city whieh is congested with population and which Is equally
in need of improved means of transit, New York is cer-
tainly paying a high price for the purpose of preventing the
collapse of the real estate boom in South Brooklyn.





ONE TROUBLE IS that no one kuows how high the price
will be. It may he assumed without hesitation that
no bids wilĩ be received for operating the proposed subway.
If the Interborough Company could see no profit in operat-
ing under existing conditions subway extensions on the East
and West sides of ManhattaP, it cau be imagined how roany