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Vol.  LXXXV.





MAY   14,   1910.





No, 2200





THERE is much to be said on behalf of the position as¬
sumed by Grosvenor Atterbury in his discussion with
Mr. Benjamin C. Marsh about urban congestion in the
National Coulerence for City Planning recently lield at
Rochester, In his paper on tlie "Causes of Congestion,"
Mr. Marsh had argued iu favor of the plan proposed by the
"Committee on Congestion of Population," of dividing New
York into certain districts determined by the local scale of
land values and of preventing in those sections iu which
prices are still comparatively low, the erection of buildings
of more than a certain height and covering more than a
certain percentage of the lot. Mr, Atterbury protested on
the ground that there is a difference between congestion and
centralization. Great density of population within a given
area did not necessarily mean congestion, because the whole
population within that area might be living in apartments,
which were not overcrowded. Population may be dense,
but so long as people are properly housed, there is no objec¬
tion to be raised. On the other hand it frequently happens
that in an English village there is no considerable density
of population, and yet the inhabitants are actually crowded
into a few badly ventilated rooms. Unwholesome congestion
depends chiefiy upon the combination of poverty with a low
standard of living; and the attempt to check it by restricting
the amount of tlie lot to be occupied is as fallacious when
applied to the Bronx as it would be to Manhattan, Such a
policy would inevitably tend to increase rents, because it
would necessarily increase the pressure of population upon
space, and the increase in rents would, of course, merely
tend to lower the standard of living of those who would be
obliged to pay them. The whole policy of the city govern¬
ment should be directed to the result of keeping rents as
low as possible; and this policy is but realized by encourag¬
ing the erection of the largest practicable amount of living
accommodation within a given area. That the height of
tenements should be restricted and that every room in every
building sliould be required to possess a certain minimum
amount of light and air. must be not only admitted, but
vigorously asserted, hecause such restrictions merely pre¬
scribe certain necessary sanitary conditions. But that is as
far as the police powers of the state can be effectively used
to prevent congestion. For the rest, other and more funda¬
mental means must be adopted of which the most important
are cheap and abundant rapid transit, and the Increasing
distribution of centres of employment. The Bush Terminal
Co., for instance, by means of its well considered enterprise
of building up a manufacturing, warehousing and shipping
centre in South Broolvlyn, is doing more to relieve congestion
of population in Manhattan than any other single agency in
the city and yet if the policy of the committee on congestion
were adopted, that company would gradually be hampered
in its work by heing prevented from erecting the most eco¬
nomical and efficient class of factory buildings, ■ There is a
certain amount of congestion which is irremediable at the
present time, because it is really merely one symptom of the
fundamental fact of poverty: aud insofar as congestion is
remediable by state or municipal action, the remedy must
take the form chiefly of enabling wage-earners to reach
cheap land without getting too far away from their place of
employment.





OBJECTIONS have been raised hy possible bidders to the
form of contract prescribed hy the Public Service Com¬
mission for the Broadway-Lexington avenue route; and such
objections suggest an inquiry as to the situation, in ■which
the city would be placed if private capitalists refuse to ac¬
cept the prescribed terms. How far can the city go towards
the constructiou of new subways on its own credit? Some
$13,000,000 has already been set aside by the Board of
Estimate out of the existing borrowing capacity tor subway
construction and within a few weeks about $47,000,000. will
become available as the result of the recent legislation at
Albany. This $60,000,000, would not be more than about
half enough to construct the Broadway-Lexington avenue
route but, by means of cutting down other improvements
and increasing the assessed valuation of real estate wherever
possible, additional means might he found iu the course of
five years to complete this particular line. Iu order to do
so, however, an additional $10,000,000 would have to be
found every year; and this necessity would impose a terrific
strain upon the borrowing capacity of the city. During those
five years no other subway construction could be begun, ex¬
cept by means of assessment bonds. After the Broadway-
Lexiugton avenue route was in operation, the money spent
upon the Manhattan section of the subway would become
available for ne'w construction, because that part of the route
would be remunerative almost from the first day in which it
was operated. But this means that under the necessary
conditions of construction with the city's money, no other
Manhattan subway could be started until the Broadway-
Lexington avenue route was completed, and that the lower
West Side, for instance, would have to wait for eight or nine
years before obtaining any relief. Such a delay would be
intolerable. It is obvious that unless the city can offer
private capitalists acceptable terms its development will be
retarded, congestion will be indefinitely increased, and its
citizens subjected to insufferable inconveniences. Much de¬
pends, consequently, on the negotiations of the next few
months, and still more upon the attitude to be assumed by
the management of the Interborough company. Its directors
have remained obdurately silent; and the public is as much
as ever in the darlv about the nature of the new plans which
are presumably being prepared in the offices of that corpor¬
ation. Every New Yorlver must devoutly hope that these
plans when announced will prove to be adequate. If the
managemeut of the company makes another bull, there is
danger that public opinion will become completely disgusted.





ANYBODY who will scrutinize the map, published in the
last issue of the Record and Guide, of the Broadway-
Lexington avenue route as compared with that of the existing
subway, will be able to draw sorae interesting conclusions.
In the first place the sections of the new route in Manhattan
run along a much straighter line than do the corresponding
sections of the existing subway. Prom the Harlem River to
14th street there is not a single curve, and the diagonal
taken to reach Broadway does not make a bad angle. There¬
after the route again takes a practically straight course
until it turns east at "Vesey street. The new subway should,
consequently be able to make better running time from the
Harlem to the Battery, than does the old one; and the dis¬
tribution of the stations should contribute effectively to the
same result. The new route saves, as compared to the old,
two or three local and one express station. It is probable
that several minutes will be economized between the Harlem
River and the Battery—an economy which, will he very much
increased, in case the crowds at the express stations can he
embarked and disembarked more quickly. Another conclu¬
sion which may be inferred from an examination of the map
is that a great waste in time for a great many people will
be the result of different operating companies for the new
and the old lines. In an economical system of rapid transit
the Bronx line of the existing subway would be connected
with the Broadway-Lexington avenue system, and thus avoid
the long circuitous route by way of Lenox avenue and the
West Side, which its patrons are now obliged to pursue. In
that case a connection could be made between the Jerome
avenue line and the Lenox avenue subway, which would in¬
volve a much smaller waste of time. The Record and Guide
is still wholly unable to understand why the Interborough
Co. does not bid upon this new route and operate it in con¬
nection with its present system. The only possible ex¬
planation is that the company has been warned off the prem¬
ises by a superior power in the Kingdom of Finance,





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