December i8, 1909





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





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President,   CLINTON  W.   SWEET                        Treasurer,  F.  W.  DODGE

Vlce-Prea. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND         Secretary. P. T. MILLER

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"Entered at the Post Office at New York, N,   Y., as second-class matter."
Copyrighted,   IflOO,   by   The   Record   &   Guide   Co.

Vol.  LXXXIV.         DECEMBER  IS,  1909.                 No.  2179

JUDGE GAYNOR'S ASSURANCES.

As someone has said, it is so mucli easier to see, after
the procession has passed. Pacts then begin to
fit into their proper places, and the piecemeal mosaic pre-
"sents a well-defined picture. This, perhaps, explains why
New York is only beginning to appreciate how much was
gained for tbe cause of good government by the recent elec¬
tion. Almost the incredible happened, and the extraordi¬
nary thing is that every contending element of the contest,
without exception, contributed in some measure to the fortu¬
nate outcome. Some of the contributions may not have
been intentional, but in the end they constituted a part of
the result. If everything had been carefully planned, all
could not have come out better. People are beginning to
see that although there may have been more thrilling elec¬
tions and far more rhetorical contests, a completer victory
for good government has not been secured anywhere for
many years.

The new turn for hope given to public thought is un¬
doubtedly due to the recent utterances of Mayor-elect Gay¬
uor. Every speech he has made since election has been i
very positive contribution to public assurance. Peopk
are saying "the judge is back to the bench again." Cer-
tainfy nothing could he better than the spirit aud tone of
every one of bis post-election speeches. The moral assur¬
ance which they give as to his attitude in regard to the
city government is not only indubitable, but of the highest
order. Not even the most fearful can spell "politics" out
of any of his words. He has restored, within the last few
weeks, the almost defunct hope for good government, and
the better forces of the city are visibly encouraged. Tbe
encouragement lies not in the words, but in the character
of the man and the bent of the mind that is revealed behind
the words.

Real estate, which is so very intimately related to all that
is meant by good government, is beginning to feel the bene¬
flcial flnancial effects of the personal guarantee which the
Mayor-elect is extending to the solid interests of the city.
The great body of taxpayers whom this paper serves, per¬
sonally contribute the major part of the taxes collected. They
come directly out of their pockets. Real Estate Owners are the
unofficial tax collectors of the city. They underwrite the total
tax bill. Conseciuently the honest, efficient and economical
use of tbe city's revenue directly affects every square foot
of realty, and unquestionably some of the perplexities that
to-day disturb the real estate situation at large have arisen
from what some one has called the "defalcations of mal¬
administration," meaning thereby not outright dishonesty
so much as the less criminal but more costly, effects of
geaeral inefficiency. Moreover, the conditions of New York
city to-day are such that they impose upon the government an
extensive and intricate program for betterments of all sorts.
Many nations have nothing like the problems that con¬
front New York City. The housing, under sanitary condi¬
tions, of our growing population, the providing of adequate
transit facilities of all sorts, the regulation of fully a score
of administrative functions that must some day be put upon
the fundamental basis of equity and efflciency, are matters
that must sooner or later be dealt with, and must then be
governed by something higher than the principles and meth¬
ods of impure politics. The permanent and profltable value
of   real   estate  depends  ultimately   upon   how   wisely  these





matters are handled. And the first condition to their ade¬
quate solution is the impartial honesty of the municipal gov¬
ernment itself. After that, or rather, linked with it, is the
question of administrative efficiency. So it happens that
every thorough student of the real estate situation recog¬
nizes h'ow intimately to-day real estate values are involved in
the nature of the personality that rules in the City Hall. As
Judge Gaynor has pointed out, we are living under a one-
man government. We have, wisely or not, centralized our
interests within the hands of a single individual. He and
he alone is responsible for the tone and character, if not
the detail effects, of our government. It is his influence
that dominates. It is easy to see, therefore, how deeply the
real estate men of this city are concerned in the results of
the last election, aud why the more they study the situation,
the more satisfled they are becoming, to flnd a man of Judge
Gaynor's standard in the seat of power.





THE Record and Guide publishes a carefully prepared
account of the meaning, condition and probable scope
of the existing movement in Manhattan real estate. There
is every reason to believe that the speculative aud invest¬
ment operations that are now being undertaken in the Mid¬
dle District of Manhattan will prove to be the forerunners
of one of the most extraordinary transformations that bave
ever taken place in the business section of a great city. Aud
a consideration of the reasons for the activity which are
fully set forth in the accompanying article should convince
even the most skeptical that the movement is justified by
the changes that will take place during the next few years
in the condition determining the value of this section for
legitimate business purposes. But it should be added that
there is one serious impediment, from which for some years
at least the business development of this district wiil suffer.
The local authorities have as yet done absolutely nothing
lo aid this development by providing any sufficient means of
transit. The existing subway does, of course, run along
its eastern boundary, but that subway is too far removed
from the centre of the district at Broadway and 34th street
to meet its needs for proper meaus of communicaion with
the rest of Manhattan and the Bronx. The other subway,
which the Public Service Commission is trying to have built
at an early date, viz.: The Broadway-Lexington avenue route
will add little or uoLbiug to the transit conveniences of those
firms, who are transacting business along the central line of
the middle district, because it is designed particularly for
the purpose of paralleling the existing subway from 4 2d to
14th street; but along an avenue which is still further
removed from the central liue of traffic. It is certainl;
time that the Public Service Commission aud the Board oi
Estimate should begin to understand how little their plans
are assisting the most profound alteration in business con¬
ditions, which has ever taken place in Manhattan in so short
a time. What the Middle District needs above all is ;
direct local and express subway connecting it with lower
Manhattan and with upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and
the only way, in which such a conuection can be obtained is
by means of the proposed extension of the existing subway
south from 42d street aud Broadway along Seventh aveuue.
To delay the construction of such a subway, until arrange¬
ments can be made for additional subways in Brooklyn is
deliberately and flagrantly to sacriflce the essential interests
of Manbattan to the far less immediately important interests
of another borough. There is only one consoling aspect to
the existing situation. In March the Pennsylvania Termi¬
nal will be opened, aud the failure of the city to provide
for the collection and distribution of the traffic, centering in
that neighborhood will raise such a storm of protest that
something will have to be done very soon. By that time
the Broadway-Lexington avenue line, to which the Commis¬
sion has sacriflced the normal and wholesome development of
the Manhattan transit system will be out of the way; and
perhaps then the Commission will feel free to take some
active steps to improve the transit service of the rest ol
the borough.





Some of Judge Gaynor's recent remarks stir us to reprint,
elsewhere in this paper, an ' article that appeared in our
columns more than twenty years ago. It deals with prob¬
lems which have evidently occupied the mind of the Mayor-
elect, and is worth reading as a theoretical speculation and
practical criticism regarding problems that are just as alive
to-day as they were almost a generation back.





The eye reads what the eye brings the means of reading,

(There is much in these pstees: Read.)