December 3, 1910.





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





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CW, SWEET

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

Vlce-Pres, & Gecl. Mgr.. H. W. DESMOND        Secretary, F. T. MILLBB

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Copyrighted.   1010,   by  The   Record   £   Guide   Co.





Vol,  LXXXVli





DECEMBEK 0, 1010.





No,  222!)





SHIFTING CENTERS.

THE final opening of the new Penns.ylvania Railroad
Station passed off quietly enough; but in the long
run it will have a decisive effect upon the distribution of
population and business in New York City. In connection
with the huge development which has taken place of recent
years in the means of communication to Long Island and
Kew Jersey it will tend to concentrate business in tbe
middle part of Manhattan, and consequently to make it
spread eventually from river to river. Its full effect will
only be slo'wly Celt, because it will depend upon the slow
shifting of centers of population. But there can be no
doubt that ultimately the consequence will be as described,
Tbe labor employed in Manhattan business will be drawn
from the east and tbe west raore than from tbe north,
because cheaper land will be made accessible to the east
and the west; and as population gathers along the new
routes it will be bound more closely to Manhattan in every
way. It will use centrally situated Manhattau as restaur¬
ants and places of amusement, and most assuredly such of
these people who regularly use the Pennsylvania Station
will have tbe pleasure of entering New York by the noblest
gateway ever provided by any transit company or municip¬
ality. The Pennsylvania Railroad has not received anything
Hke the credit which it siiould have received for the mag¬
nificent way in which it has planned and built its terminal.
It is the most beautiful and dignified monument of its kind
in the world, and we doubt whether any other railroad com¬
pany will ever build its like in this country. It was the
product and symbol of a large and generous mind and
policy, and in days of drastic public regulation railroad com¬
panies cannot afford  to be  large-minded  and  generous.





MAYOR  GAYNOR'S STAND.

THE absorbing topic of conversation with everybody
interested iu real estate continues to be the con¬
troversy over the construction and the operation of the
Triborough route. There have been no new developments
during the past week, and no final opinion can be expressed
until the new proposals of Mr. McAdoo and the Inter¬
borough Company have been submitted. In the meantime
the opponents of the Triborough route are placed at a dis¬
advantage for two reasons. They can point out very grave
defects in the line of the Broadway, Lexington Avenue Sub¬
way, and in the details of the engineering plans, and they
can show clearly that the city is taking a grave risk in
attempting to finance such an unnecessarily expensive enter¬
prise. But their arguments do not command the considera¬
tion they deserve because opposition to the Triborough
route appears to be in the interest of an unpopular transit
monopoly, and because any alternative plan will necessarily
prolong the already intolerable delay in the construction
of new subways. Under these circumstances the stand
taken by Mayor Gaynor is worthy of the highest praise and
should be supported by all taxpayers who are interested in
the welfare of the whole city rather tban in the interest of
any particular locality. All that the Mayor asks is that
the case be not prejudged until all the evidence has been
submitted. He is prepared to accept the Triborough route,
provided no quicker and more economical method of obtain¬
ing rapid transit can be planned; but he believes that some
such alternative is possible, and he wants public-spirited
citizens   to   support   him   in   giving   patient   and   exhaustive





consideration to these alternatives. In assuming this atti¬
tude he is risking his popularity, for the yellow journals
froth at the merest suggestion of accepting any proposition
from the Interborough Company, no matter how, advan-
tageous'it may be, but for that very reason good citizens
should stand behind him in his attempt to make the best
possible bargain for the whole city. In case all other alter¬
natives prove to be unacceptable, he is prepared, just as
the Record and Guide is prepared, to favor the early con¬
struction of the Triborough route. But until all better
alternatives are excluded, good citizens and prudent tax¬
payers should keep an open mind. That is all the Mayor
asks, and surely the request is not unreasonable.





LOSING   GROUND.

MR. McADOO'S first proposition has undoubtedly lost
ground during the past week. It satisfled nobody,
and its author has been busily conferring with the disap¬
pointed advocates of the subway system, which has been
cut to pieces by the first serious proposal to operate it.
Nothing more need be said about it, until the terms of the
new proposal have been announced; but it is worth while
to consider why it was that the proposition of Mr. McAdoo
was necessarily so unsatisfactory, both from the operative
and the financial standpoint. The reason undoubtedly is
that the Triborough route as a purely business enterprise
cannot command any financial support. No body of cap¬
italists wonld invest the indefinite number of millions which
the whole systera would coat with any expectation of proflt
for many years. The consequence is that any company
which bids for the operation of the route and proposes to
put up the millions necessary for its equipment, is obliged
to ask for a flrst lien upon its earnings. On no other basis
could the capital be raised. Of course, a company like the
Interborough, with assets of enormous value, could pledge
its existing assets as security, but Mr, McAdoo's company
has no assets which have not already been mortgaged for
the largest part o! their valne. That company couid not
borrow $50,000,000 on its own credit any more quickly
than an ordinary business raan could. So it is obliged to
ask the city to pledge an investment of $100,000,000 or
more in order that its tenant may raise half that sum.
Then it becomes easy. Anybody can borrow $50,000,000,
provided soraebody else will put up $100,000,000 as
security. The peculiar aspect of the proposed contract is,
however, that the City of New York would be investing
$100,000,000 or more in a system which would be operated
partly for the purpose of encouraging its inhabitants to live
in New Jersey. New Jersey is entitled to all the present
inhabitants of New York who find it to their interest to
take up their residence across the river; but it does look
a little strange to ask Brooklyn and Manhattan taxpayers
to mortgage their real estate for the construction of a sub¬
way operated by a company whose chief interest lies in the
development of New Jersey. The Record and Guide is
perfectly willing to admit that a contract of this kind may
eventually be forced on the city, but It is certainly advisable
to look sharp and long for some better method. And if
such a contract does become necessary, it stands to reason
that the city which assumes all the risk should appropriate
the major part of any possible future profit.





WHY NOT BE REASONABLE?

WHY in the world the Interborough Company should
not ofter to operate the Triborough route on the
terms proposed by Mr. McAdoo, but with transfers to its
present system, the Record and Guide cannot imagine.
Those terras look good enough to tempt even the skilled
financiers which control the destinies of that corporation.
The failure of the Public Service Commission to obtain
any bids for the construction of the Triborough route from
private capitalists, combined with the extremely bad bar¬
gain which Mr. l\IcAdoo has oifered to the city, has placed
the Interborough Company in an extremely advantageous
position. It really controls the situation—all that it has to
do is to make a proposition which will satisfy some of the
local interests which are working for the Triborough route,
and it can win without any trouble. An offer along the fol¬
lowing lines would almost certainly prove to be acceptable:
The immediate construction of a Lexington Avenue and a
Seventh Avenue subway, operated in connection with the
existing system. The immediate construction of a new tun¬
nel to Brooklyn, and any Brooklyn or Bronx extensions
which the city was willing to pay for, and assume the risk