The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-02
DEATHBLOW BELMONTPLAN
RAPID TRANSIT BOARD PUTS
OFF ELEVATED EXTENSION.
Commissioner starin Announces His op.
position, and There's No Chance That
the Application VIII be Gran'eu
Vote Not to BE Taken Until ran.

Inc CctiIoh' =,
to add third track to the Second and lhira
avenue elevated lines was practically Kliie''
Yesterday when, after "a public hearing by
the Rapid Transit Commission on the APP
pIication. Commissioner John II. Starin
announced that he would not vote Tor the
elevated extensions.
Comptroller Grout is also orcosed to the
scheme md with Mr.. Starin oLs only five
yotes are left u-iLer the most favorable
conditions for the project and six are
required to pass it. 1t can be announced
also that had q final vote been taken yes
terday at least one other commissioner
would have been found with Mr.. Starm
and Mr.. Grout
At the close of the hearing an executive
session OF the commission was held, and
when the doors were again thrown open
the announcement was made that the board
had decided to defer action on the applica-
ton until fall,
II was explained that the board had
resolved upon this course in order to ascer-
tain II the opening of the Westminster
avenue extension Of the Lenox avenue
branch of the subway would not give the
relief asked for by the residents OF Inc
Bronx. The tunnel under the Harlem
River, which will join the Lenox avenue
line with the elevated extension through
Westchester avenue to the city limits, has
been completed, and it is promised by the
PETERBOROUGH company that when the
station at l49th street has been completed,
about July /, trains will te started run
ming on the upper East Side branch OF
the subway.
1t was learned also that another reason
why the commission postr oned acton
was the knowleo ge that the Board OF Aker-
men intend to test the constitutlonaIty
of the act taking from them their franchise
granting powers. AS this may mean long
delay to the building OF new sub%ays some
of the commissioners thought 1t better
not to reject at once the elevated extern
sion scheme.
It was Immediately after the close Of the
public hearing that Mr.. Starin made his
statement. He said:
In 1891 and 1892 the Manhattan Railway
Company made earnest efo rts to OF tam
fire. m the then Be ard Of Rapid Transit
Railro ad Ccmmissio ners. the predecessor
of the present tc ard, many extensive and
valuable concessions in perpetuity. On
June !. 1898, ty a peculiar coincidence.
exactly twelve years ago to day, the board
voted unanimo usly. with che exceptitn'
to give to the Maj haitian company these
priceless conoessic ms. -
THAT ne exception was myself Il
voted nc !" and the reso lutte MS we're de-
fcated. All the &C nmissit neTs EXCEPT
myself thereupon resigned from the
be ard, hut su sequently were reappc inted.
I refer to these cid transactic Ms merely TO
recall the fact that my attitude was then
structures, and | assumed this attitude
because elieved then in the SUI way as
permanent solution Of cur transit ills:
The pc int l want to make now, is that If
desira' ility Of SUI ways. there, certainly
ought to le NJ ne nc W. when the success
Of the first municipal rapid transit railrc ad
Is still fresh in our minds and when we are
from day to day laying cut ,additit nal
way lines to LIE owned by the city OF
New York
When Mr.. Starin had finished his an
noune ement yesterday Conmissioner C1af-
Lin moved that further consideration OF the
Interoorough applc alton he put off until
action we're not to be taken yesterday, te-
cause President Orr and Morris X. Jesup
sail for Europe next week to stay all sum-
mer-
opposed the motion. Mr.. Ca In then FRO
posed the executive session, and his sug-
gestion was acted on. In the session he
SUI eeded in carrying his point.
The meeting lasted more than three
hours and was attended by rer resentatives
Of almost every important ivic and ON
nler ial organization Of this borough and
The Bronx. The arguments for and aFainst
the granting OF the ample alton were for
the most part a reretition of those which
were heard when the 1nterhorough com
PAW sought the right to make the Second
avenue road double deoked structure
Vice-President E. P. BRYAN of the Inter-
borough company denied the assertions
Avx-A Al al IL.
to block the building of more subwavs.
He insisted that his company was al ting
In good faith and would be bidder for the
PROPOSED new subwavs. William Barclay
Parsons. former chief engineer of the
Rapid Transit Commission. hut who is
now allied with the Belmont interests, said
that while be favored subways the citv
needed every possible in rease in its transit
ia, ilities, and the Franchise asked for y
the, Interborough conn any would give
within a year another eXy ress rC,'te on
the east side Of the city. He aided that
fortv rer cent. of the work Of hui'GinC the
additional IRA ks had a'readv tecn done,
Yes and that work has been done ille-
gally, and to give YOU this franc Nsa would
legalze that work. interrupted Mr. Circuit.
Il am an engineer. not lawyer" Mr..
Parsons replied.
Mr. Putnam, representing the New Haven
Railroad. spoke IN favor Of the elevated
New York Westchester and Boston Rail
road COMPANY and +. W. Boomingdale
of the Retail Dry Goods Association. Mr. |
Bloomingdale said that it would take five
or six years to build the subwavs, and it
was imperative that the East Side should
have quicker relief Representatives of
real estate interests in he Bronx and Of
several organizations of that borough
spoke in the same vein.
Among the opponents OF the project were
representatives Of the City Club, Mer-
chants Association and numerous societies
and organizations of the East Side Fred
eric w tlinrichs warned the commissioners
that II they granted the application on the
terms desired by the company, without ade-
quate compensation and without provision
for limiting the franchises. their action
would be met by some such outburst of
public sentiment as had recently been seen
in Philadelphia
Although President Vreeland Paul d.
Cravath and John B Mcdonald of the
Metropolitan system were at the meeting
none Of them spoke, but Mr.. Mcdonald
banded this letter to the board
My associates and 4 nave urposely re-
Trained from taking part in the discussions
be- ore your board with respect to the varitu;
propositions which have been made from
time TO- time for extensions of the elevated
= railroad lines, becsl So it has seemed to is
that the q estlon whether the streets OF New