Vol. LXXXVIII





DECEMBER i6, 1911





No. 2283





A NEW PHASE OF THE SINGLE-TAX MOVEMENT.

The Support Achieved by the Sullivan-Shortt Bill   Is in Marked   Contrast   With
the Neglect Experienced by the Other Measures of the Congestion   Commission.





THE Sullivan-Shortt Ibill is one of
twenty-nine ibills and ordinances
proposed by the Mayor's Commission on
Congestion of Population for submission
to the Legislature and the Board of Alder¬
men. This series of proposed legislative
measures is contained in the report of the
commission, which was printed in the
■'City Record" for March 7, 1011, The
report is an extremely voluminous docu¬
ment. Spaco is available here only for
the barest outline of its findings and rec¬
ommendations. The report enumerates
fourteen main causes of congestion;

1.    Poverty, which is dehned as inability
to maintain a reasonable standard of liv¬
ing.

2.    Concentration of factories and offices.

3.    Consolidation of the flve boroughs,

4.    Intensive use of land.

5.    High price of land, due to intensive
use.

6.    Lack of control over aliens and citi¬
zens.

7.    Long hours o£ work.

8- Cost of transit and the transit policy
of the city, transit having in the past
been regarded as a matter lo be governed
by commercial and not by social consid¬
erations. Cosl of transportation for large
Classes in the community is a distinct
waste that could be eliminated 'by distn-
'bution of factories, .

!)    Lack of a definitG city plan.

10.    The present system of taxation, un¬
der which, until very recently, the owner
of the land improved with buildings has
beeh penaliaed, while the man who holds
land out of use, so that he may secure
the speculative increase of land value, has
been helped by the tax pohcy.

11.    Failure to prepare land for housing
purposes.                                ..       ■     ,.      i. :.„

12.    Methods of public and private chat--
ities   but especially private chanties.

13 Failure of the city to adoiDt a policy
to  attract  people to   outlying  boroughs.

14. Immigration and failure to distribute
and control immigrants.

The   recommendations   of   the   conimis-  _
«ion    were    summarized    in    this    digest,
given  out by  the commission  in advance
of the publication of its report:

MeuMurcs    Rccommeoilcd.

Lot Occupancy o£ Buildings Other Than
Tenements.—Requiring at the back of fac¬
tories an open yard the width of the lot
and of a. depth equal to one-tenth the
height of the building,  but not less than

ten feet,                                _      .,.        j.,   4.

Height   of   Tenements.—Providing   ^hat

height shall not be greater than the width
of the widest street on which the buildmg
stands; no tenement shall be more than
four stories high, except south of ISlst
street, Manhattan, except that one story
may be added -for every fifteen per cent,
of the lot area left unoccupied less than
the present legal occupancy; requiring
flreproof construction for tenements of
four stories or fifty feet height; limiting
tenements in outlying districts to three
stories and other buildings in proportion;
modifying the tenement house law in re¬
gard to three-family tenements in such a
way as to encourage construction of them.

Room and Apartment Overcrowding.—
Making ninety square feet a minimum
tenement room (it is now seventy), wilh
one room in each apartment of at least
150 square ifeet (now 120); a minimum
per apartment of 000 cubic feet of air
space for each adult and ^00 for each
child under twelve, with a fine of twenty-
five dollars for each violation (it is now
400 and 200, respectively, per room); re¬
quiring the Tenement House and I-Iealth
Departments to placard each apartment
with the number of occupants permitted;
requiring a license to take lodgers; cre¬
ating a burerLu of occupancy in the De¬
partment of Health to enforce the law
against overcrowding,    -

Conditions of Labor. — Appointing , a
Deputy State Commissioner of Labor for
New York City, with more fa'ctory In¬
spectors;   creating a city industrial  cora-





mission of three persons appointed by the
Mayor from nominations by the Employ¬
ers' Associaiion, the labor unions, and one
by the Mayor himself, to investigate con¬
ditions, wages, and disputes; creating a
series of employment offlces through the
State, with a number in New York City,
or a municipal employment bureau, with
at least one oflice in each borough; cre¬
ating a national department of labor to
give wide publicity over the country to
the opportunities for work, and to condi¬
tions, wages, and pcrnianencj; of employ¬
ment in ail .sections.

Distribution of Factories,—Raising the
cubic air space for each employee from
2.50 cubic feet, as at present, to 500 for
each day and 000 for each night worker;
improving the waterfronts of each bor¬
ough for use as factories and warehouses;
building freight lines to connect ail bor¬
oughs; reducing charges lor trucks on
municipal ferries.

Parks, Playgrounds, Schools, Recreation
Centers.—.Acquiring land in advance of
public needs, and in outlying boroughs
dividing the cost among the property ben-
filed, file borough and the city_; limiting
schools outside Manhattan to l.oOO pupils,
and rooms to forty seats; purchasing with
each school yard area adequate to the
needs of the children of the neighborhooo;
increasing instruction in physiology and
hygiene, and teaching children the results
of room overcrowding; increasing school
gardens, parks, playgrounds, and recrea¬
tion centers.

Cheap Land and Good Cheap Housing.—
Making   the    rate   of    taxation    upon   all
buildings "half the rate of taxation upon
all   land,   and   that   this   reduction  ibe   se¬
cured by an equal change in each of five
"consecutive   years";    recommending   thai
the   city  -government   consider   a   tax   on
unearned  increment;   terminating the ex¬
isting perpetual franchises of transit lines
"as opportunity offers by forfeiture";  ex-
. tending transit systems to utilize lo their
full   capacity   the   subways,    bridges   and
.elevated lines;  running lines" into ail sec¬
tions  of   the   city,   whether   or   not   they
would pay  at   first,   because  they   will  be
profitable in "conserving the general -wel¬
fare and  prosperity of  the  citizens";  ex¬
tending the city lines lo the Queens side
of the Queensborough Eiidge, and through
the Steinway Tunnel into the Borough of
Queens;   providing   in   all   -franchises   for
transfers;   constructing  a subway  to  the
Borough    of    Richmond   (Staten    Island),
and pending that lo sell forty tickets lor
one     dollar     on     the    municipal     ferries;
amending   the   rapid   transit   law   to   give
the  Public   Service   Commission   and  city
authorities     powers     o.ver    surface    lines
equal   to   those  over   rapid   transit  lines;
preparing   a   city   plan   by   the   Board   of
Estiniate,   incluciing   the   following   items:
restricting   lactories   to   certain   districts,
providing transit and freight lines,  deter¬
mining the main lines and secondary lines
of streets, as suggested by Chief Engineer
Nelson   P.   Lewis,   of   the   Board   of   Esti¬
mate  and  Apportionment,   providing sew¬
ers and substructures for pipes, providing
adequate sites for parks, playgrounds, rec¬
reation   centers   and   municipal   -buildings,
acquisition   of  adequate  land by   the   city
for   all   public   purposes;   reducing  streets
in   outlying   districts   tu   thirty   feet,   with
houses   set   back   fifteen    to   twenty   feet
from   the  curb,   Jn  the  hope  of reducing
rents;   providing   excess   condemnation   of
land,   so   that  the  city  may  acquire  more
than is needed for a specific improvement
and resell or rent the surplus.

Health and Safety. — Empowering the
Tenement House Department to vacate
insanitary and dark rooms pending struc¬
tural changes, and making the Tenement
House Com'missioner a memiber of tbe
Boar.d of- Health; organizing a staff of
medical inspectors to be assigned hy the
Department, of Health to the Tenement
House Department to pass upon cases of
vacating Insanitai-y tenements or rooms
in which there has .been contagious dis¬
ease; requiring that tenement walls be
whitewashed   every   year;   prohibiting   or





adequately regulating manufacture in ten¬
emenl houses.

Chanties and Public Outdoor Relief,—
Creating a board of trustees of public
outdoor relief to dispense such relief to
the dependent members of families of con¬
sumptives, and to widows with children,
provided they will move into wards with
a density not over 800 to the acre, and
live under conditions approved toy the
board; giving the Comptroller supervision
over all charitable institutions exempt
from taxation; encouraging the removal
from congested districts of charitable in¬
stitutions, exc&pt emergency hospitals amJ
similar institutions; acquirig tracts of
land for- extending the work of the City
Farm Colony and for teaching adults ag¬
riculture and gardening; urging private,
charities so to dispense their relief as to
encourage distribution of population from
congested districts and lo encourage re¬
cipients to learn trades other than those
of congested city life.

Immigration, — Legislation abolishing
time limit on the government's right to
deport aliens for cause; progressive meas¬
ures looking toward the effective control
over aliens b.y the federal government;
encouraging immigrants to become farm
laborers, and disoouraging their segrega¬
tion in congested sections; preventing
artiflcial stimulation-of immigration; es¬
tablishing city and State farms; publish¬
ing information as to opportunities lo
learn the English language; providing for
immediate deportation of convicted aliens,
in order to relieve overcrowding in State
penal institutions.

Delinquency.-Closing streets in congest¬
ed districts during certain hours, so that
children  may use them for playgrounds.

Public Square and Buildings.^Providing
each borough with at least one large area
for public administration buildings and a
series of civic centers,

Personael   ot   the    Comniiaslon.

Before committing one's self to legisla¬
tive changes of so sweeping a character
as these, one naturally wishes to know
something of the origin and personnel 'o£
the commission. The commission was ap¬
pointed by Mayor Gaynor on May 17,
1910, jn pursuance of a resolution passed
by the Aldermen. It consisted of ten Al¬
dermen and nine other members, includ¬
ing Jacob A. Canton, chairman, John
Adikes. Russell Bleecker, Clement J. Dris¬
coll, Gilbert Elliott, John J. Flynn, Frank
J. Goodnow, Allan Robinson and Charies
Schaefer, Jr. Its secretary was Benja¬
min   C.   Marsh.

With one or two exceptions, the raemi-
bers of the commission were unknown
to the community at large—unknown,
that is, so far as their qualifications for
the work expected of them was concerned.
In view ol the complicated and import¬
ant nature of the task imposed upon the
commission, the selection of its members
was indeed a remarkable one. Its per¬
sonnel furnished no assurance that its
findings would be in harmony with ac¬
cepted opinions of competent authorities
in special lines ol research affecting con¬
gestion. The layman, therefore, has no
means of estimating the competence ol
the report except through such comments
as specialists of recognized standing may
have' seen fit lo make upon it.

Among the special subjects dealt with
in the report is, for example, that ol char¬
ities. Are the recommendations of the
commission acceptable to scientific stu¬
dents of this subject? Our best source ol
inlorniatiozi on this point is the "The Sur¬
vey," edited by Prof. Edward T. Dfivine..
Prof. Devine is in sympathy with the
aims of -the commission, whose report he
discusses editorially in "The Survey" for
March IS, 1911. He calls the report an
epoch-making- document, because- it
means that a "deliberate and Well-con¬
sidered- attack on the evils of congestion
has begun";  but he adds:

"Unfortunately the ■ comm-ission has
made a great many starts at once, and
some   of   them   are   false   starts.     We   be-