Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-16
RUSH FOR AN OFFICE
THAT PAYS NOTHING
QUEER SCRAMBLE IN NEW YORK
FOR A sALARY-LEss JOB
Subway Air Is Bad-The "curb" Is
Protected by Police Now-Excur.
sion Steamer Business Killed since
slooum DIsaster-Janitor's Revenue

Special Correspondence Of the Herald.
NEW YORK, July SAN odd con-
test for public Office is now in progress,
the chief oddly being in the fact that
the office carries with it neither sal
airy nor patronage. 1t is the chairman
ship Of the State Racing commission,
giving the incumbent supervision of
the great running race tracks around
the metropolis.
The members Of the racing commits
sion at this time are August Belmont,
Edwin d. Morgan and John Sanford.
Dominating the state commission
Is August Belmont, who has headed
the body since 1t was first appointed
by Governor Levi P. Morton in 1895,
having been resppointed in 1900 by
Governor Roosevelt.
The anti-Belmont movement osten-
sibly is based on political lines, Mr.
Belmont being Democrat, while the
state government is Republican. AS a
matter of fact, however, politics has
nothing to do with the situation. The
persons who are opposing Mr.. Bel
mont's complete supervision of racing
in the east simply have taken his De-
mocracy as an excuse, just as they
have taken up the Republicanism of
2. R. Wadsworth, who they are now
pressing for the place Mr.. Belmont
now holds. Nothing is said against
the reappointment of the other two
commissioners whose terms likewise
have expired.
Ever since the advent of the hot
weather the local newspapers have
been full of comment and criticism of
the atmosphere in the rapid transit
subway which was opened for public
use last October. AS this is the first
summer for the big twelve mile tunnel
from end to end of Manhattan island,
much anxiety was felt by officials and
public alike to see how its ventila-
ton would work in the hot days. The
actual trial has been had and the air
has been found to be sitting.
No one can be blamed for the sit
uation, for the engineers laid out the
subway on the best lines they could
devise, and contractors constructed ac-
cording to specifications. But the air
tunnels provided by the kiosk entrances
and the suction provided by the NOV
ing trains have failed to draw fresh air
into the subway in anything like suf-
ficient quantities, and remedy must
be secured before the subway will be
popular in hot weather. So far the
operating company has been insisting
even more strenuously than the public
for an improvement of the conditions
and has repeatedly asserted it's will
ingness to install any improved sys-
tenn the city's official engineers will
recommend.
Traders in the stock market, no mat
ter whether as investors or as spec
ulators, and equally regardless of the
section of the country in which they
live, know of the"curb market" and
they have heard Of the Curb brokers'"
They are institutions as old as Wall
street as a financial center, because
in the old days the stock exchange it.
self was curb market" the brokers
meeting under tree in the street.
Special attention has been attracted
to the curb during the last few days
stitution, the owners of one of the
great Office buildings at Broad street
and Exchange place have complained
that the curb brokers made too much
noise and also demanded that these
brokers be compelled by the police to
move on like ordinary street peddlers
AS the complaints and the demands
were made to Police Commissioner
McAdoo, an investigation had to be
made, but not with the results the
sour natured complainants anticipated.
Instead of ordering the curb brokers
to move on, the police commissioner
has decided to give them police pro-
lection, and henceforth they will car
ry on their business with detailed MEM
bers of the police traffic squad acting
IN erect just as DO the uniformed at
tendants of the stock exchange at the
entrances to and on the floor of the big
exchange. Furthermore, the curb bro
kers, elated at the good luck which has
befallen them, now are agitating a
movement to have an awning placed
over their inclosure in the street to
afford some protection from the
weather.
Strangers to Wall streets doings Of
ten wonder why the curb brokers never
secured a meeting hall for their bust
ness purposes, for many of the curb
brokers' are attached to important Wall
street banking houses, while many ex-
ceedingly high class stocks are traded
in on the curb, notably Standard Oil.