REAL. ESTATE







AND







NEW YORK, MAY 2, 1914





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ADVOCATES FREE PORT FOR NEW YORK





Will Tend To Hold Present Industries And Attract New Ones-
Merchants'  Association   To Hold Meeting To Discuss Problem





BY WILLARD REED MESSENGER

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IIIIIII





OF all municipal improvements, New
York's port development now ap¬
pears most imperative. Viewed relative¬
ly. New York City is today losing
ground industrially. At this time a
strong- effort is being made before the
Federal authorities at Washington by
rival con-imunities to deprive New Yoik
of the lighterage service now provided by
the New Jersey railroads.

None of the other great seaports of
the world suffers from the meagre facil¬
ities and congestion which hampers coin-
merce at this port. We have no ships
of our own, and we offer the most in¬
adequate accornmodations to the ship¬
ping which enters our harbor. We
ought to provide drydocks, but we don't,
while other seaports do. The terminals
for the barge canal, which have been
discussed for two or three years, have
not yet had their locations determined.
Moreover, little thought appears to b,;
given to whether or not it is necessary
to spend several million dollars for spe¬
cial Barge Canal terminals. There is
no radical difference between the Barge
Canal terminals and other terminals for
water-borne traffic. Terminals and
basins may be a very important i-natter
along the line of the canal where there
are no facilities except those provided
for the exclusive use of the canal traffic;
but in New York there is just as much
need for terminals for coastwise traffic,
coming down from New England or up
from the South, as there is for traffic
coining down the Hudson. There are
fifty-seven locks in the Barge Canal sys¬
tem, and thirty-five locks on the Erie
Canal branch. The locks will not per¬
mit the passage of a boat over 311 feet
long, or over 45 feet wide, and with
about 10-foot draft, which would afford
a capacity of about 3,000 tons.

The type of boats most desirable has
not yet been determined, but two or four
boats may be used instead of the one
larger boat, but the aggregate tonnage
which could pass the locks at any one
time would remain about 3,000 tons. If
allowance were made for boats going in
the opposite direction through the lock
channels, then only about half the ton¬
nage, or 1,500 tons, could pass at one time.

Canal Terminals and Public Markets,

.^Iso there seems to be little considera¬
tion given regarding the question of the
location of Barge Canal terminals in
relation to the proposed public market.
Freight brought to New York by the
canal may be for export or coastwise
shipment, and therefore will need td be
transferred to ocean-ffoing vessels, but
little or no attention seems to be given
to this question.

Now it is proposed to establish a free
port district in New York Harbor. For¬
tunately, this has aroused the interest
of the owi-iers of water-front properties,
railroads and steaiiiship companies, the
bonded warehouse interests, importers
and exporters, and manufacturers, whose
product is shipped for export trade. The
term "free port" is often misunderstoofl.
The free port district,  as proposed  for







WILLARD   REED  MESSENGER.

New York, vvould comprise one or two
hundred acres, or as some advocate, pos¬
sibly one or two thousand acres, with
piers, docks and terminal facilities,
where vessels carrying cargoes of im¬
ported goods would be permitted to dis¬
charge their cargoes without customs
inspection or detention, and without pay¬
ment of customs duties by the mer¬
chants, importers and manufacturers re¬
ceiving  the  goods.

Free from  Inspection and Tariff Duty.

Within the area of the free port dis¬
trict, the goods would be free from in¬
spection and free from tariff duty. The
goods could thus be conveniently hand¬
led, repacked, assembled, assorted, or
manufactured for trans-shipment to
South America or Canada or Australia,
or any other foreign point, without any
restriction, or delays, from the customs
authorities. But such goods as were
not trans-shipped to foreign ports, or
to other ports in this country, but enter¬
ed the United States beyond the area
of the free port district, would pay the
usual customs duties.

Four FundEunentals.

The four fundamental requirements of
a free port district at New York should
be:

1st. Adequate water depth and
adequate pier and dock facilities, and
terminal equipment.

2nd. Railroad connections, articulating
with the docks and piers.

3rd. An adjacent labor market for the
manufacturing  industries.

4th. A sufficient area of moderately
priced land.

The establishment of free port dis¬
tricts at New York Harbor has been re¬
cently uPKcd by a large number of promi¬
nent business men, and has in the past
been advocated by government officials.
Hon. Leslie M. Shaw, ex-secretary of the
United   States   Treasury,   several  years





ago publicly advocated the creation of
bonded zones for export, and recom¬
mended their establishment at Atlantic
and Gulf seaports in the United States.
Mr. Austin Corbin, as far back as 1914,
while then president of the Long Island
Railroad, advocated the establishment
of a free port district at Montauk Point.
The Merchants' Association of New
York has indicated an interest in this
subject, and has recently published the
report of an expert who was retained by
the association to investigate the free
ports of Europe. The association has
also recently retained an engineer to
make a study of the physical facilities
of New York Harbor in connection with
the proposed free port district, but this
report is not yet published.
A Meeting Called.

On Tuesday, May 12, the association
will hold a meeting in the Woolworth
Bliilding, 233 Broadway, under the au¬
spices of the Foreign Trade Committee,
Paul Fuller, Jr., chairrnan. The object
of the meeting is to decide whether to
start an active campaign to make New
York a free port, or whether to drop the
entire   subject   definitely.

While investigating commercial and
industrial conditions abroad during the
past year, I made a special visit to the
principal seaports of both northern and
southern Europe, where free port dis¬
tricts exist, and such districts have met
with almost universal favor. I found
that the railroads were not opposed to
such free port districts, and I believe
that the railroads in the United States
would not oppose the creation of free
port districts at seaports here, because
I believe the opinion to be that such
districts would tend to increase the total
volume of business.

Sorne few persons who have given
superficial attention to the subject from
a purely theoretical standpoint, have
been led to feel that free port districts
have not been a success in Europe, but
this results largely from carelessness in
the use of the term "free port" and the
term "free port district." Free ports
have existed in Europe since the six¬
teenth century, and have been created or
abolished from time to time as result
of wars, revolutions and political
changes. Thus, Italy's free ports were
abolished in 1865, soon after the Italian
Unity. The free ports of France were
abolished at the time of the revolution.
Hamburg, Breinen and Lubeck were
originally free ports and also free
cities. Most of the seaports which
were originally free ports have adopt¬
ed a plan of free port districts.
From the economic and commercial,
and also from the industrial stand¬
point, such free port districts have been
quite generally endorsed, .\ttention is
sometimes called to the fact that some
countries, such as England, have no free
port, although Gibraltar is a free port;
but this is accounted for from the fact
that such countries are usually free trade
countries. Although there are no free
port districts in the United States, the
government has done a great deal in
various directions to encourage com¬
merce and industry by the same princi-