August 6, 1910.





RECORD  AKD  GUIDE





-231









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BUsnfeSS^'BlEHlESOFGE^iEI^L IrfTERfSl.,

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   BIGHT   DOLLARS

CommtiDlcatlons should ba addressed t9

C. W. SWEET

Vubtisfied Every Saturday

By THE RECORD AND GTJIDE CO.

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

Vlca-Pres. & Genl. Mgr., H, W. DESMOND         Secretary, F. T. MILLER

N08. 11 to IB East 24«» Street, New York City

CTeleptone,  Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)





"Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.  Y.. ns sccond-elass matter."
Copyrighted.   1910,   by  The   Record   Sc   Guide   Co.





Vol. LXXXVl.





AUGUST 6, 1910.





No. 2212





IT is now stated that the delay in advertising for bids on
the Tri-Borough route has been caused by disagreement
between the engineers of the Public Service Commission
and those of the city over the form of contract. If such
is the case the officials behind these engineers should, imme¬
diately get together and settle the causes of disagreement.
The points involved are of some importance, but they could
be decided one way or another in a few hours hy any body of
well informed and intelligent business men. It is one un¬
fortunate consequence of the existing division of authority
between the Commission and the Board of Estimate that
these disagreements constantly occur and that they are just
as constantly attended by vexatious delays. But it does
seem as if the two bodies of officials should be able to reach
a compromise upon mere questions of detail. What the
public wants is subways, and it wants them quiclc. It is
absolutely the business of the engineers to come to an agree¬
ment, aud if they cannot do so, they should be superseded.
The important point is that all action in relation to
rapid transit is necessarily held up pending the advertise¬
ment for bids on this route. The specifications are already
two months late in appearing, and there seems to be no rea¬
son why another two months should now elapse before any¬
thing is done. In that case almost one-fourth of Mayor
Gayoor's term will have passed before the bids are opened.
There can be no doubt about the Mayor's ardent desire to
have subway construction begin, and he should arrange a
conference between such Public Service Commissioners and
such borougli and city officials as are in town to settle the
points   in   disagreement.





THE "Outlook" is one of the best informed and most public
spirited publications in the country; but in a recent
article upon the subway situation in New York, it goes
completely astray. The purpose of the article is to show
that in all probability the Tri-Borough route and the pro¬
posal of the luterborough Co. are not mutually exclusive,
but if they prove to be mutually exclusive, it considers that
the balance of the argument is decisively in favor of the
Broadway-Lexington avenue route. It sums the matter
up in the following paragraph:

"If the city's money is to be used to carry out one of these
plans, it should be used for the construction of the Tri-Borough
system. First, because it would give the city an entirely new
system, serving new regions, and adding to the city's transit
facilities to the full extent of its capacity. The luterborough
extensions would be merely additions to the present system,
serving comparatively little new territory and heing obliged to
afford relief to the present Subway before it could provide ad¬
ditional facilities. Second, because the Tri-horough subway
would afford greatly needed relief to Brooklyn, an important
section which the proposed Interborougb extensions hardly
touch. Third, because it would introduce competition into the
New Tork suiaway situation, a force which has power to ac¬
complish many things which even the most enlightened and
stringent regulation by Public Service Commissioners, or otherT
wise, cannot bring about. Doubtless it would be ideal to have
all the subways, present and future, in New York City oper¬
ated by a single concern, provided .they were operated ideally;
but there would be a much closer approach to Ideal conditions
of operation if competition were at work than under even a
well-regulated monopoly."

It is not true that the Interborougb extensions would serve
comparatively little new territory compared to the compet¬
ing plan.      No doubt more new territory would be served in





the Bronx and Brooklyn by the commission's project; but iu
Manhattan, where the congestion is most acute, the Inter¬
borougb extension would serve a sectjion of the borough
that is entirely neglected in the alternative project. Fur¬
thermore, it must be remembered that the proposed exten¬
sion to the existing subway would cost only half what the
Tri-Borough Route would cost; you can hardly expect to get
as much for $70,000,000 as you can get for $130,000,000,
or $140,000,000, and the important point is that the City
can afford to raise the $70,000,000, whereas it can¬
not afford to raise double that amount. The great
argument in favor of the luterborough extension is
that it gives the city a greater increase in rapid
transit foV less money than any other plan. What
the "Outlook" expects the city will gain by means of possible
competition between the two routes it is impossible to see-
Competition in municipal rapid transit has long since heen
proved to be disastrous in so far as it is effective, and in
point of fact it is never effective for long. There can he no
competition in fares; and competition in service is not pos¬
sible except within ^narrow limits. The population of tbe
city would gain far more from the ability to travel all over
the whole subway for a five-cent fare than it would from any
possible competition.





THE Record and Guide'has been informed that in a recent
editorial paragraph pn Dock Commissioner Tomkins'
plan for an elevated freight road on the West Side,
connected with warehouses, we failed in at least one respect
to do justice to the commissioner's scheme. The criticism'
we made was that the city could not well find the $100,000,-
000 needed for the work, because even though the bonds were
ultimately self-sustaining, there would be a period of some
years during which they would be reckoned as part of the
net debt of the city. In answer it is pointed out that if the
desired contracts could he made with the railroad companies,
the city would be assured in advance that tbe bonds would
be self-sustaining, aud that consequently the Appellate Di¬
vision would place them in the same class as the bonds
issued to pay for the existing subway. If this were true, it
would undoubtedly remove one of the gravest difficulties
involved by the carrying out of the plan. Everything would
then depend upon the ability of tbe city authorities to con¬
vince the railroads of tbe benefits to them of the plan. Its
possible benefits to the city are both great and unquestion¬
able. There can be uot the slightest doubt that the system
of handling, storing and shipping freight in Manhattan is one
of the most wasteful in the world, and that inevitably, unless
something is done radically to improve it, the port of New
York will gradually decline in relative importance. in the
stress of modern competition 'uo city can afford to give its
rivals such an advantage as that which little by little they
will be able to enjoy over New York, The matter is of so
much importance that both the trade organizations and the
property owners' associations, should take the matter up
without delay, aud should, do all they can to support the
administration in carrying out the plan. The West
Side property owners' associations should be particu¬
larly active in the matter, for the building of an ele¬
vated freight road and warehouses would do a great deal to
increase the vaiue of their property. It would mean that
all of Manhattan west of Broadway and south of 72nd street
would become necessary for business uses of one kind or
another. The very efBcieney of the system of freight hand¬
ling and distribution would enable business men to pay more
for the property they need than they can afford to do at
present. It is emphatically a case, in which thorough or¬
ganization and energetic work on the part of private indi¬
viduals is required in order to carry through an original and
well-conceived public improvement.





THE Record and Guide pointed out last week that the
associations of property owners in New York have
never shown any interest in the principle of excess con¬
demnation and in the benefits which would accrue from its
application, not merely to the city, hut also in many cases
to the individual property owner. Let us take, for instance,
the effect of the application of this principle upon such an
improvement as the extension of Seventh avenue and tbe
widening, of Varick street. Under existing methods what¬
ever benefit contiguous property owners may derive from
the improvement is either cut dowji or wiped out by the way
in which the work is done and the cost assessed. The city
condemns just what land it needs for the improvement and
contiguous   property ownera  are   left   with    mutilated 'lots.