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August 15, 190S
RECORD AND GUIDE
331
mm.
^H£iy^lB68.
Devoted to Rej^LEstate.SuiLoijJb A,^iTE:eTURE,HousEHoiDDEeciiijTK)tf.
Busit^Ess ai/dThemes ofCetJer^I IKtei^est.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Publisfied Every Saturdap
By THE RECORI> AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, P. W. DODGB
Vice-Pres. Sc Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T, MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 Bast 24tl> Street. Neir York City
(Telephone. Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered al Ihe Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-cla.'is matter."
Copyrighted. 190S, by The Record & Guide Co.
Vol. LXXXII.
AUGUST lo, 1908.
No. 2109
EVIDENTLY no powers possessed by the Public Ser¬
vice Commission will be sufficient to settle the
vexed question of transfers to and from tlie 59th street cars.
The Commission can order transfers to be giveo. but the exe¬
cution of the order can be postponed indefinitely by litiga¬
tion; and in the mean time the business men and the travel¬
ing public will suffer from the effects of the withdrawal of
customary means of travel. The business of Manhattan and
the ways of living of its inhabitants have become adapted
to the free issue of transfers. Their withdrawal from the
59th street service is serious enough in its consequences;
and if similar withdrawals should follow In the case of other
cross-town streets the whole retail business of the city would
be disorganized, and many people could no longer live where
and as they do. The situation is serious enough to warrant
the interference of any public authority which has power to
Interfere effectively, but where does such power reside? The
legal settlement of the question as to whether the Belt Line
Co. and the receivers of the Metropolitan Street Railway can
afford to grant them will take so long that before it is
settled all the unfortunate effects of the withdrawal will have
been fully experienced. In fact, there is every reason to be¬
lieve that before any legal decision can be reached the ques¬
tion will settle itself by or through some kind of an agree¬
ment between the receivers and the Belt Line Company. If
the present condition is contrary to the interest of the public
it is no less contrary to the interest of the two railway cor¬
porations. The inconvenience suffered by the public means
a loss of traffic to the two corporations larger than'their
benefit from the greater fare. The Belt Line Company will
find that it cannot earn, as an Independent railway, as much
money as it received under its old iease; and the stock¬
holders will probably be persuaded in the end to accept a
smaller rental. If such a result can be secured, it may con¬
stitute a step to the one adequate solution of the whole diffi¬
culty—that is, the reorganization of the Metropolitan system
on a basis that will permit it to be operated with efficiency
and without insolvency. Every interest concerned will be
beneflted by such a result. Probably tbe time for such a
reorganization has not yet come; but when the time does
come the work of reorganization should be encouraged by
the public authorities. The public interest will be best
served by one street railway company operating all the sur¬
face lines in Manhattan, and an agreement should be reached
whereby such a company would not be obliged to grant
universal transfers. The question as to how the transfer
privilege could be limited with least Inconvenience to the-
puhlic and with most gain to the railroads should be care¬
fully studied by a group of traffic experts, representing both
the Commission and the railways; and a system should be
worked out as the result of this investigation.
THERE is one important point connected with this ques¬
tion of transfers which does not receive enough atten¬
tion. It can, we believe, be demonstrated that the City Rail¬
way Company did not fail exclusively Decause of the trans¬
fers it was obliged to grant, or even because it was saddled
with excessive fixed charges and rentals. It failed partly be¬
cause it couid no longer carry economically the enormous
traffic which it was obliged to carry. The congestion on its
cars became such that many passengers were enabled to ride
free while the congestion in the streets was such that it
could not get the full benefit of its equipment. If the com¬
pany could have continued to carry its passengers as economi¬
cally as formerly the reduction of the average fare to a little
over 3 cents would not have been disastrous, because the
smaller average fare would have been balanesd by the smaller
average ride. The Metropolitan Street Railway system simply
broke down of its own weight. It had been financed in the
expectation that the earnings would continue to increase at
the rate with which they had increased up to 1899, and such
an expectation would have been justified, provided the outfit
of the company had been competent to carry the trafRc eco¬
nomically. But the congestion in the streets was such that
the operating department of the corporation was seriously
and increasingly embarrassed. Of course, this embarrass¬
ment would have been less serious in case the company had
not been obliged to issue so many transfers; but the in¬
creased number of transfers was fatal only because the pas¬
sengers who transferred crowded out others who might have
paid. Had the company been able to handle the traffic eco¬
nomically, its income would have continued to increase in
spite of the transfers. The point is of importance, because
of its bearing upon the future rehabiliatiou of the company.
In order to convert its service into a profitable business, and
its organization into an efficient public servant, three tasks
must be accomfilished. Its fixed charges must be scaled down
and its earnings must be increased by a judicious abridg¬
ment of transfer privileges. Finally, some means must be
obtained of developing and handling a larger volume of traffic.
Something can be done in this respect by improved equip¬
ment and a better service during the middle of the day;
hut the only way in which to carry a largely increased vol¬
ume of traffic will be iDy means of increased trackage. The
fundamental difficulty with the street car system of Man¬
hattan turns upon the plan of the city, which fails to provide
a sufficient number of thoroughfares along which traffic can
easily and conveniently move. Not until some successful
attempt is made to improve the street plan of Manhattan
will there be any diminution of the congestion on the surface
railways.
IN connection with the improvement of the street plan of
Manhattan, a recent scheme, submitted by Mr. Charles
R. Lamb, deserves attention. This sclicme, while it is only a
collection of ideas that have often been submitted, is pecul¬
iarly interesting because it combines more advantages, with
fewer objections on the side of expense, than any similar
plan yet suggested. Its object is to provide thoroughfares
across Manhattan which will afford means of travel for the
new traffic originating in the increasing population of Long
Island and New Jersey. He proposes, consequently, to widen
Christopher street and extend it to Union Square, to cut a
diagonal avenue through from the terminus of the Williams¬
burgh Bridge to Astor Place, and to open up another new
avenue to the south from the same terminus to the inter¬
section of Canal and Chrystie streets, where it would join
with a direct outlet from the Manhattan Bridge. The Man¬
hattan Bridge would also obtain another outlet by the widen¬
ing and prolongation of Franklin street. The intersection
of Franklin street and Broadway would become an extremely
important point, because at this place a widened and length¬
ened back street would start northward and be connected
both with Sixth and Seventh avenues. If the reader will
consult a map published in a recent Sunday issue of the
"Times" his eye will tell him at a glance the enormous ad¬
vantages of these new avenues. They would provide not
only new and useful routes of travel for teams and motor
cars, but they would enormously simplify the laying out of
new subways. The traffic of Manhattan would be relieved of
half of the existing congestion as soon as the plan was car¬
ried out. Many parts of Manhattan, wiiich are now neglected,
would be made available for business, and the increase in
the assessed value of real estate would be an abundant com¬
pensation for the cost of the improvements. The .plan has
the advantage, as already mentioned, of being comparatively
economical. None of the avenues which are widened or cut
through is improved with fall modern buildings or is lined
with very high-priced rea! estate; and we have no doubt that
when the local government is obliged to deal with this ques¬
tion of street improvement it will be obliged to adopt some
such scheme as this. Of course, the expense, even of these
economical streets, would run up into the hundreds of mil¬
lions, and the city has no way of raising the money under
existing laws. But the work must be taken up eventuaily,
or else the economic development of the Greater New York
will be gravely compromised.