The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-11
BlACKMAIL IN THE DITCH
, OF THE PROBABILITIES, III
nBOaDW AY rs RIPPED JP.
.,,.,oD,rac,ors Have Done II with other
trenches would They Forbear In Rich
,ppcr Rroadwa,"--Sim Ford Adj
dresses some Advice TO Hotel Men.

bppssps some .NVNhVv W HhUtea NhGW.
,,eotinr of the Committee Of Fifty,
.h,ob Is IN fight a ditch or dust fumes
4, Broadway bet ween Forty-secOnd street
,rd Fourteenth street. will be held at 2:3O
.,.loo, on Thursday afternoon at the Fifth
,.orue Hotel The date was fixed yester-
dav morning after a conference between
Al uaynan, chairman of The last informal
rse,ing Of the business men, and Alex
ender Shaw, secretary,
All dav property owners and tenants
,.red an Mr. Havman and Secretary Shaw
IN assure them of their support of the move
mon, and Of their willingness to contribute
money 10 nav the expense of it. Secretary
Shaw said
THE evident purpose of the Rapid Tran
eli Commission : engineer to Use the same
rlan here that the contractor has figured
ar, for lower Broadway Ia not in the least
satisfactory 10 us,
Lower Broadway and the part between
rorty.seCond and Fourteenth streets are
entirely different. 1t is true that many
business houses in this part of Broadway
cIoss at q O'Clock and do not reopen until
O'Clock the next morning. but while they
are closed the hotels and cafes use the
street from to &. the theatres Use it from
sto II and the hotels and restaurants again
llse il from II to 2
at is section Of the town that all New
York needs and must have at night The
carriage traffic is larger then than in the
DAYTIME, and any proposition that entails
openng M the street AT nightfal and
boarding it up at 8 o'clock in the morning
invites the opposition of the merchants,
As il il were not enough to tear up the
street, We are threatened with shafts in
the sidewalks from which all the dirt must
he removed necessarily showering Broad
uav with dust. We mean to fight that to
the end
The first call sent ont for a meeting Of
the property owners and tenants said that
our PURPOSE was 10 have the street tun-
neled with openings in the side streets. OK
cept where the stations are to be located.
That ia our position now. Openings
on the side streets may work some injustice
to business houses on the corners thereof,
hut nothing like the injury which would
he accomplished by fumes in the side
walks | would not have one in front of
d
10 Suggest that it be located in front of my
neighbours place Of business
If the Rapid Transit Commission makes
sl:ch a contract for this section of Broad
way as it has made for lower Broadway We
must either suffer damages or pay black
mail We will then all be in the hands of
the contract or, to make or to destroy. He
may favor an individual or he may do his
best to ruin him The temptation to the
contractor o make a profit out of the power
put into his hands may prove to be ire
sistible.
Il have heard of as much as 5000 being
demanded from a property owner by
sub-contractOr as a tribute for making his
plans so as not to interfere with the man s
business That is a form of blackmail
that We have not heard much about but
il has been practised by sub-Contractors
in districts where he open ditch system
was used in building the subway.
we mean to stand together in fighting
the ditch and fighting any plan that will
law us open to that sort of assessment
Suppose a man has a theatre on Broad way
and the contractor has a job on the same
terms that have figured in other subway
contracts or in the contract or lower
Broadway
That theatre manager would hesitate a
long time before rejecting an offer from
The contractor to leave his frontage I'M
touched and TO put the shaft and the dirt
dump and the annoyance half block
away--for a consideration
Simeon Ford, fresh from the Atlantic,
said:
Il can't understand why my brethren
Of the Broadway hotels are fighting the
ditch in that embarrassing thoroughfare.
II have met the ditch digger in his most
Violent form and his companion the man
with the dynamite stick, and | am able to
sit up I have peered into the depths of
Forty-second street and | am not afraid
not any more
TO have Mount Pelee at your doorstep
instead of an oceans breadth away, to be-
wakened by the resonance of the blast in
stead of the monotone of the electric bell
to experience the emotion of picking up the
fragments Of the dead without going to
latle-these are the things granted to
those who dwell beside the subway.
~ have only one bit of advice to offer
hotel men on Broadway. If the open ditch
is ordered put your hotels on the American
plan and get the money in advance. Then
YOU don't have TO worry whether your guest
eats or faints away If you don't, many
an a la carte customer may escape in acloud
of dust or be borne away in an ambulance
before he has cashed in. My experience
with coroners teaches me- that thew are