October i, 1910.





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





519







BiTsotess AttoThemes Of GeiJer^IIKtcrpsi.j

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   BIGHT   DOLLARS

Communications  should ba nMxeSKA tSt
C. W. S-WEET
Pabtlshed Everg Saturdag   '
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.

PresWenl, CLINTON W. SWEET                     Treasurer, F. W. DODGB

Vloe-Pres. & Qenl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND        Secretary, F. T. MILLBB

Nos. 11 to 15 Kast S4tli Street, New York City

(Telephone,  Madison  Equare, 4430 to 4433.)

"Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.  Y., as sccond-eiass matter."
Copyrighted.   1010,   by  The  Record  &  Guide   Co,





Vol. LXXXVl.





OCTOBER 1, 1910.





No. 2220.





THE recent rise in price of the Interborough-Metropolitaii
securities is now explained by the announcement that
the Public Service Commission and the Company have prac¬
tically reached an agreement in respect to the Stein-way Tun¬
nel, the Queensboro Bridge and third tracks for three of
the elevated roads. During many years the management
of the company has been laboring to secure some, if not all.
of these concessions. It has shown much more interest in
obtaining third tracks for the elevated roads than it has in
building additional subways, doubtless because in this way
it will increase the value of certain perpetual franchises and
because it will secure by these means a considerable increase
of traffic at a relatively small capital expense. No wonder,
conseciuently, that its stock has jumped up In price. "While
there is no reason to be particularly enthusiastic over the
kind of service improvement which will result, neither Is
there any reason for finding fault with the Commission for
granting the concessions. By means of these third tracks
and the other proposed improvements to the elevated system,
the convenience of the millions of people who now depend
upon the elevated'roads will be very much increased; and
the improved means of communication will be effected in
a comparatively short time, and substantially without any
expense to the city. Moreover, the proposed increases in
elevated trackage will not serve to diminish to any consider¬
able extent the value of those subway concessions which
are now being seriously considered; and by the time com¬
petitive subways are constructed there will be enough traffic
for all. In view of the fact, consequently, of tho present
congestion and of the probable increase of congestion before
any additional subways can be constructed, the Public Service
Commission has done well to reach an agreement with the
Interborough Company in respect to additional tracks on the
Second, Third and Ninth avenue elevated lines.





AS to the arrangements made for using the Steinway
Tunnel and the Queensboro Bridge, their desirability is
obvious. The bridge has been completed for about two
years, and has not been used anywhere near as much as it
should be. It was intended in the beginning that there
should be a connection with the Second avenue elevated;
and after such a connection is made residents of Queens,
who have reached the vicinity of the Bridge terminus, will
be able for five cents to travel to the lower end of Man¬
hattan in a comparatively short time. Of course such a
connection still leaves a good deal to be desired. The
travelers on the Bridge are still cut off from a large part
of the business district of Manhattan, from its retail stores,
from its theatres and from its restaurants. There would
be only one way in which they could reach practically all
these points of interest. A connection with the proposed
Lexington avenue subway would not serve the purpose, be¬
cause that subway does not touch the shopping and amuse¬
ment district. On the other hand, if the Interborough
ever builds a Madison avenue extension and one along
Seventh avenue, a connection with the Madison avenue line
at 59th street would enable the travelers from-Queens by
the Bridge to reach almost any part of the central ridge of
Manhattan. Another extremely useful connection would
be the extension ol! the McAdoo system from the Grand
Central Station to 59th street and Second avenue. Travelers
in the Steinway tunnel will under the proposed new arrange¬
ment be very much better oft than travelers on the Queens¬
boro Bridge.      They will, in the first place, be able to reach





any point on the existing subway or on any future subway
controlled hy the Interborough Company hy paying five cents.
In the second place they will connect at '12d. street with the
Grand Central Station, the McAdoo system and eventually
with the Broadway-Lexington avenue route, and in making
their subway connections they will have the beneflt of an
express'station at 42d street. These are great advantages,
even in case some of them do have to be purchased by the
payment of additional fares. If the arrangement goes
through, the Grand Central Station will become the greatest
traffic center in New York City; and the pity is that the dif¬
ferent subway and tunnel systems which will exchange traf¬
fic at this point will uot all be under a single management.





THB most interesting part of the report on water termi¬
nals in the United. States, issued by the Commissioner
on Corporations, Mr. Herbert Knox Smith, deals with the
situation at the port of New York. The Commissioner
draws up a severe arraignment of the policy pursued hy the
municipal government iu this respect, and he exposes at
length the waste and inefficiency involved by the existing
arrangements for getting freight to and from Manhattan
and handling it while there. He says, "There is nothing
like a comprehensive belt railroad system. This absence
of any general rail-water co-ordination and the present lack
of organization of tlie harbor with respect to its important
functions undoubtedly exert a deterrent effect upon the
commerce of the port." He also points out that much of
the $100,000,000 which the State is spending on the Barge
Canal will be wasted, unless better water terminals are
secured for this port. It has always been incomprehen¬
sible to the Record and Guide that this subject has not
aroused more interest on the part of local trade and real
estate organizations. The whole future of the port of New
York and particularly the future of the Manhattan water¬
front hangs upon the construction of a warehouse system
and a freight railway in Manhattan; and yet the subject
apparently excites no interest either on the part of general
public opinion or of bodies like the Chamber of Commerce
and the Board of Trade and Transportation. Surely some
committee of representative business men should be organ¬
ized, who could report upon the practicability of Commis¬
sioner Tomkins' apparently excellent plan for a marginal ele¬
vated railway and a group of municipal docks. The mat¬
ter is just as important as is that of increased rapid transit.
If some plan of the kind is not adopted within a compara¬
tively short time, it will undoubtedly mean the eventual use
of the Manhattan water-front merely for the purpose of
receiving freight actually consumed in Manhattan, Iu the
end the South Brooklyn and the Jamaica water-front will
absorb practically everything except the local trade. There
is only one big corporation which is vitally interested in pre¬
venting this result and that is the New York Central. It
may be hoped that it will co-operate with the city govern¬
ment in keeping the Manhattan water-front really alive.





CERTAIN parts of Mayor Gaynor's letter, expressing his
unwillingness to have the Democratic nomination for
Governor forced on him, make curious reading, "I am well
aware," he says, "as has been pointed out to me, that there
are some large things which a Governor could readily do
for the city of New York by oversight and legitimate inter¬
ference, which the Mayor of that city cannot do without
much time and difficulty, if at all. Among them I may
mention the planning and construction of a comprehensive
system of subways with a single fare over the whole system,
which in the discordance, or duality of government, or both,
now existing iu that city is a difficult and protracted matter."
The Record and Guide would like to know what the Gov¬
ernor of the State of New York has to do with the planning
and construction of a comprehensive system of subways, and
how the Governor can in any way alleviate tlie effects of the
"discordancy, or duality of government" now in existence
in the city. He could, it is true, dismiss the existing Pub¬
lic Service Commission, and appoint men in their place who
were pledged to a comprehensive system of subways with
a single fare, but that would be the limit of his power and
he could not secure the proposed object by any such means.
Before the new Governor could act, the contracts for the
Broadway-Lexington avenue subway, which is planned as
an essentially independent route, will probably be signed;
and even after a new commission were appointed, the
"duality" and "discordance," would remain. There would
be no assurance that the Board of Estimate would agree
with the plans of the new Commission; and the Governor
would be powerless in the face of such a disagreement.
The passage is interesting, however, because it indicates that