New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-12
C. S. SMITH AGAINST ADS.
CONTRACT Violated"
an "Amoosing" Remark from Ar
temas Ward about Tenants.

Froro Charles Stewart Smith. Of the Rapid
Transit Commission. came yesterday additional
disapproval of the specimens OF art WIN
which the operating company mas covered tue
walls of the subway stations. coupled Win the
opinion that the contractors are violating ths
shirt if NOT me letter of the contract with the
Rapid Transit Commission in having these signs
In the subway Mr. Smith Is as much opposed
to the signs as any member OF the Munic'pal
Art Society. but The Tribune has SAID, he
and the ether members OF the contract commit
tee felt that perfogce they must make some IN
ducements to get bidder. Mr.. Smith said to
The Tribune yesterday;
Your journal is taking a credtable position
regarding subway Advertising, with which
fully agree. The public entitled to know the
whole story from the original standpoint of the
Rapid Transit Commission. The following ex-
tract from note addressed to me by Mr.. Shep-
ard, then counsel for the board is pertinent;
The contract was originally drawn with a
prohibition of advertising. 1t then pointed
out to the commission that the elevated rail-
road had received 100000 a year q think that
the amounD for the advertising, and that
to cut off so much of the contractors income
might result in a failure to let the contract.
Then it that the commission changed the
form Of the contract so rs to make It what 1t
now is.
Whatever may be the legal construction of
the contract as to advertising 1 am of the
opinion that the contractors have violated the
provisions and certainly the spirit of the con-
tract.
The Municipal Art Society has the support Of
the American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society in it's fight to abolish the signs. At
meeting of the scenic society Thursday night,
the advertising discussed and condemned
vigorously as the Municipal Art Society had
condemned it, and resolutions were passed that
the society would support the art society in it's
effort to restore to the people the subway sta
tons free from the art works" with which
they so literally despatched.
SOURCE OF DISEASE.
A strong argument against the subway signs
was made yesterday by an advertising of
many years experience. They must be a men
ace to health. he says, sign can be placed
SO close to tho wall that 1t will not collect germs
and dust, which, discharged into air already de-
clarei partly vitiated by many experts. would
be source Of disease and danger to the pas
sengers Although alive to the advantages of
judicious advertising, he said that these sigrs
plastered over the station walls were an abom-
Unable DETACHMENT of the stations. He doubted
that they were of much advertising value even,
as people could not read them from the trains
and were not at the stations long enough TO
bother much with signs.
Regarding the ultimate removal Of these
signs there is no doubt in the minds Of those
who have been making so urgent a protest
against them. That the Rapid Transit Com
mission will voluntarily order them removed
there is the greatest doubt. so the Municipal
Art Society is preparing quietly for long hght
Mr.. Parsons expects before Thursday to receive
a proposal from Vice-President Bryan, of the
Interborough, as to an amended method Of
hanging the signs, which will be submitted to
the commission when it meets next Thursday
Then, if permission is given to hang the signs
after this method, a lawsuit viii undoubtedly
be entered to test the power of the commission
to make any contract which, even by 1mpllca-
ton, permits the signs.
IN the second contract for the work from
City Hall 10 the Battery and the Brooklyn eX-
tension, there is in the clause fOrbidding adver-
Using, with the written permit of the
Rapid Transit Commission the declaration that
it is not public policy to have the stations
marred or defaced by advertising signs Though
this contract was made long before the present
agitation against the variegated signs, the COM
mission must have realized the effect of the
posters, plastered over the clean walls of the
stations. In the face of this declaration, there
has been no application for the advertising priv
ilege in the second edition of the subway.
TENANT REPAIRS WHEN HE MOVES
The firm which holds the advertising privilege
from the operating company in the finished sub
way says it is not worried by the protests from
the public, cor the newspapers-agitators." Ar
temas Ward head of the firm wondered why
any chanse should be made in the signs. He
had his contract with the operating company,
he said. which had its contract with the city,
and if the city had taken to abrogatng
tracts it was not the same old city in which
he was born. II was suggested that the method
of adjoining the walls adopted by his men had
not improved that citys property.
Damaged? Well If the property is dam
aged suppose We're liable, and the courts are
the places to try that out. When it's all boiled
down, you'll find that the question is simply one
of landlord and tenant. When a tenant moves
he repairs what damages he may have done to
the property. and if he holds a lease he can't
be fired out till the expiration Of that lease
I'm not making any plans 10 change these signs
It's not UP to me to do any planning