October 22, 1910.





RECORD  AND   GUIDE





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Copyrlghteia,   1910,   hy   The   Record   &   Guide   Co.





Vol. LXXXVl.





OCTOBER  22,  1910.





No.   2223





WHILE the increase In the voiume aud scope of the
activity in the real estate market is slow, it is steady,
and it is wholesome. Already it has become apparent that
only in one part of tbe iMauhattan business district will
there he any considerable buildiug and operating movement,
aud that part is the whole region west of Broadway and
north of 14th street. This neighborhood differs from the
new Fourth avenue section because it has not as yet beeu
overbuilt. In spite of the large number of new loft build¬
ings recently erected, tenants are being found without any
trouble; and builders are already preparing to continue the
same rate of construction during 1911. A number of large
building operations will be announced during November and
December. There will be one or two on Sixth avenue and
one or two on Seventh avenue, but the majority of the new
lofts will be erected on tbe side streets. During the coming
year the movement will begin to spread west of Seventh
avenue. It has already done so north of '64th street, and it
will soon begin to do so south of 34th street. For the most
part, however, the operations undertaken during 1911 will
be conflned to the streets between 24th and 30th streets,
Broadway and Seventh avenue; and before the end of 1912
these streets will be about as completely covered with new
buildings as 25th street is now. This whole district is
frequently spoken of as "the Pennsylvania Section,"' but it
may be doubted whether as yet the Pennsylvania Terminal
has contributed anything very essential to the peculiar de¬
velopment which this neighborhood has received. Even
without the railroad terminal, mercantile business would
have spread further north and w^est; and hitherto the effect
of the Pennsylvania improvement has been to advertise the
neighborhood rather than increase the actual earning power
of its real estate. The new buildings which have been and
are being erected in the immediate vicinity of the Terminal
street have been a distinct disappointment. They have con¬
sisted for the most part of cheap hotels. A few good retail
stores have been started, but they are not very numerous,
and at present no tendency exists to increase their number.
The railroad company could stimulate improvements by
announcing what it is going to do with its own unoccupied
property on Seventh, avenue; but so far as published its
management has not made up its mind on this point. The
improvements which have recently been made in this neigh¬
borhood are due to general rather than local conditions.
They are the result of the growth of New York as a dis¬
tributing center and of the gradual occupation of this dis¬
trict for mercantile purposes because it is convenient, cen¬
tral and not too expensive.





IN all probability the Pennsylvania improvemeut will have
its full effect upon the neighborhood of the terminal
very gradually. Undoubtedly it will make large parts of
Long Island and New Jersey very much more accessible to
New York than they have ever beeu before; and a consider¬
able amount of trafiic will be either created or diverted from
other routes. But this traffic will be small, compared to the
volume which it will assume eventually. The improved
means of communication will tend to increase the population
of the outlying districts which are reached thereby, and so,
little by little, the traffic will grow. For some years, how¬
ever, this growth will be retarded, because of the lack of
any . subway connections with the Manhattan terminus.
It may be another ten years before this vast and beneficent
improvement will begin to have anything like its full effect
upon the neighborhood.     But in  the meantime the  traffic





developed will be small, compared to that which is attracted
by tbe Grand Central Terminal; and this fact will delay the
anticipated development of the streets leading to the Penn¬
sylvania station for retail purposes. During the next few
years the growth of this whole region wil! apparently de¬
pend chiefly upon the wholesale trade; and, of course, it is
still au open question whether tbis growth will continue at
anything Hke its recent rate of speed. Last week the Record
and Guide gave some reasons for believing that the prevail¬
ing rate of expansion would be maintained, because it w'as
based on a real business advantage in having the wholesale,
retail and amusement districts contiguous one to another;
but whether or not it will be maintained indefinitely, there
is every indication that there will be no diminution of mer¬
cantile building in the region west of Broadway during the
coming year.





INDICATIONS accumulate that the weight of the best engi¬
neering authority is opposed to tbe plans of the Public
Service Commission for the Triborough route. At a recent
meeting of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, Mr. Prank
Sprague, a traction expert, severely criticised the plans of
the Commission for the same reasons that they have been
so frequently criticised in the Record and Guide; but he
made the interesting point that because of the competitive
nature of the Broadway-Lexington avenue route, as much
harm would be done to the business of the new subway as
to the old. For over four miles the new route parallels the
existing subway, and this fact will diminish the value of
both subways. Mr. Sprague evidently believes that this
fact will be sufficient to prevent the construction of the
Broadway-Lexington avenue route by private capital. The
same authority also insists that the proposed enlargement
of the new subway, so tbat regular railroad passenger cars
could be used thereiu—an enlargement involving an extra
expense of $37,000,000, which is almost as much as the
whole cost of the present subway—would serve no practical
purpose, because standard railroad cars could not cross any
of the bridges. In conclusion, Mr. Sprague recommends a
general policy of subway planning similar to that of the old
Rapid Transit Commission—a policy which looks in the di¬
rection of one subway system operated by a single com¬
pany, but which also considers the possibility that compe¬
tition may be temporarily necessary, "Let me assume," he
says, "that whether because of obstinacy, greed or over-
confldence, the Interborough Co. elects to play a waiting
game—dr on the other hand, that the Public Ser¬
viee Commission, zealous as it should be, in behalf of the
public interests, but not viewing with true perspective the
measure of those interests, seeks to drive an impossible bar¬
gain. These two interests having thus come to an i)j!;j«Me,
how can the Commission bring about the ultimate merging
of the Subway system and a new one built under its direct! n
with city funds without sacrifice of the general interests?
The answer seems simple. Select a route which will com¬
mand ample traffic; plan it so that it can be built with mimi-
mum cost, and in the shortest time, and design it so tbat
it can at any time be merged with the present subway sys¬
tem into a composite one, '^uch undoubtedly is the proper
policy for the city to pursue.





THE Record and Guide has always strenuously opposed
the proposal to pay women teachers the same wage
that men received for the same work, not only because of
the huge expense of the change, but because it involved the
payment to women teachers of salaries out of all proportion
to the economic value of tbeir services. But there can be no
doubt that tbe women teachers can fairly claim increased
compensation. The justice of this claim has just been ad¬
mitted by the committee of the Board of Estimate, which
has beeu investigating tbe matter. The committee found
that while salaries here have remained stationary, there
had been a twenty per cent, increase in other cities, and
that in the meantime the cost of living had-increased twenty-
five per cent. It recommends an increase of the initial wage
for women from $600 to .^720 a year, and it also approves
similar increases almost all along the line, but chiefly in favor
of women. The to^al cost of these increases is almost $2,-
000^000 a year, which is a large sum; but if the facts are
as stated by the committee the Board of Estimate should not
hesitate. The city needs a high grade of service, and it
should be willing to pay fair compensation for it. No good
can come from underpaying so responsible and hard-worked
a body of employees as the female school teachers; and if
any more money can be afforded tbe Board would do well
to make the increased compensation even greater than that
proposed hy the Committee.