New-York tribune., 1902-09-27
ASSESSMENTS AND RAPID TRANSIT.

II
| Whatever may be the abstract merits Of the
| proposition to make q large and, it Is to be
feared, arbitrary increase Of the real estate as
| sessments In this city. 1t is certainly possible
to continue the development of the rapid transit
| system without resort to that method of swell
| ing the city's borrowing power. To get the sub
way started at q time when capital was timid
| about investing, the people voted 10 loan the
| city's credit to the contractors. The bonds is
sued for that purpose are purely a loan. The
| contractor ultimately pays them, principal and
interest and after operating the road for a term
of years hands it over to the city freely and alb
| solutely. The only reason for the loan that
| the city could borrow the large sums necessary
| for the work on favorable terms, while the CON
| tractor could not at a time when conservative
| financiers were sceptical about the feasibility
| of the tunnel. That scepticsm has passed
| away, and the city can now secure the con-
| struction OF all the tunnels 1t wants by con-
| tractors who will furnish their own capital at
| the start and turn the finished work over to
| the city just as they are to turn over the pres
ent subway, the cost of which is met by city
advances
Last February Mr.. Belmont made a formal
offer to build extensions without any loan Of
the city's credit, He has since undertaken to
than half what 1t will cost and he has
offered to put a road under Broadway for
merely nominal sum. AS the law stands.
1t was impossible for the Rapid Transit
Commission to accept that offer but there
should be no difficulty in securing legisla-
ton at the next session which would enable
the commission to lay out routes and let them
to Mr.. Belmont or other contractors without
any loan OF the citys credit to aid construc-
ton Indeed, while the broadway offer could
| not be accepted under cover Of the Brooklyn
advertisement, when no such route had heen
previously adopted, it is not clear why the com
mission cannot under existing law nronose
such a line and ask how little of the citv,s
credit a contractor will want TO build # rp
Mr.. Belmont will again offer to do the work for
100000 or other trifing sum. the tunnel could
be secured without any practical impairment
of the city's borrowing power
Times have changed since the first ranid
transit contract was made. It was then neces-
sary for the city to do the borrowing Now any
competent bidder can get all the canitol he
wants at a low rate of interest and there IS no
reason why bonds for rapid transit subway ex
tensions should continue to be issued in the
name OF the city, thereby limiting the citv's ex-
pendltures in other directions whom in eitbar
case the principal and interest of the bonds will
be met by the contractors The debt limit does
not stand in the way of the largest rapid fran
slt extensions and the demand for rapid transit
is not an adequate reason for jacking I'D real
estate assessments. The two are NOT necas
sarily interdependent They were made so tenn
porariy owing to the novelty of subways and
'hei "iicei 'aih success, but there is absolutely
nothing to be gained now by continuing to issua
Guy oonuS.hot even municipal control Of sub
ways, for which certain "advancedr soc,oloo,s+s
are so much concerned: for subways built hv
private capital would belong TO the citv and
would be controlled by it exactly as much as
those Tor which it issues bonds. The necessitv
OF increased assessments should therefore he
considered quite apart from rapid transit oues-