Durango semi-weekly herald. (Durango, Colo.) 1899-1907, 1905-05-29
s,a sooM IN GOTHAM.
End Of Labor War erinss Building
operasiena Involving
e25o, 0oo, 900.
William f. Curtis Correspondence OF
the ChicagoRecord-H Herald


NEW York; Will not be long
before every inch OF Manhattan Is
land will be covered with buildings
except the parks and the streets. II
you will go up into any OF the high
places of today and look over the
city YOU will see nothing but roofs
from Harlem river to Battery Park,
with green spot in the center where
Central Parke lies. Beyond the Har-
lem and the Bronx, the two rivers
which make the City Of New York an
island, building is going on almost as
rapidly as within the old limits, and
when you arrive by the New York
Central or the New Haven road 1t is
difficult for stranger to tell when
he has reached the city.
Just now there is a great boom in
building-tlIe greatest on record.
Never in any other city on the earth
was so mncn money put into brick
and mortar. marble and granite, steel
and tile construction as will he eN-
pended this season in New York.
This is largely due 10 the termination
of long strike in the building
trades. 1t lasted nearly year ana
cost the members of the Carpenters
Union alone more than million dol
lars in loss of wages. A settlement
has just been made after prolonged
negotiations between the board OF
governors of the Building Trades as
ISOLATION. which is composed Of con
tractors. and officials of the Brother
hood of Carpenters, which is part
of the American Federation of Labor.
This settlement affects not less than
10000 skilled mechanics and arts
ans. directly and indirectly, and prom
ises a peaceful and prosperous year
in building circles. The result ap-
pears in the application for permits
for new buildings, which during the
month of May nave been unprecedeDt
ed, and 1t Is estimated that not less
than $3.50, GOT, 600 will be expended
this season. While the strike has
not been general, and mas involved
only portion of the building trades.
II has. nevertheless, been the cause
OF continual apprehension and uneasi-
ness; has frightened timid capitalists
and has compelled many architects
10 tuck plans for new buildings into
the pigeon holes of their desks, which
they are not sending to the contract
ors for estimates.
Under the agreement the nonunion
carpenters wno have been employed
by members of the Building Trades as
sociation have been organized under
national charter into the Greater
New York Carpenters Union, and are
10 have the same representation In
In the New York district council as
the old carpenters unions. All car
penters are to receive $3.50 for an
eight-hour days work, and double
pay for overtime until Jan. l. when
the wage scale is to be revised, and
revision is to be made annually
after tnat. All questions hereafter
arising are to be submitted to arbi-
tration. walking delegates are to be
admitted to all buildings. and non
union labor is not prohibited when
the same wages must be paid. This
agreement, am told. is unique In the
history Of labor organizations. but it
has been assented to by the thirty
two different trades unions. The day
after 1t was signed plans were filed
with the building department for
more than 100000 worth of new
buildings. mostly small ones, and at
the present rate permits to the
amount OF s56,O0O,O00 viii be issued
during the month of May. The most
OF this goes into apartment hotels
and tenement houses, but does not
include the new PENNSYLVANIA sta
ton.
That, as you know. is TO be tine
largest and most costly In the world,
and will represen, an expenditure oi
between fifteen and twenty millions.
A thousand men are now engagd in
claring away the four blocks IT is to
occupy between Thirty.frst and Thir-
iy-third streets. Work on the tuD-
Dels has been begun and Is being
pushed as repidly as possible. On
opposite sides Of East river at Thir-
ty-third street are four enormous
steel boxes which look like towers,
When tney are completed they will
be sunk below the bottom of the river
and will furnish the air chambers
from which the contractors will begin
boring the tunnels. The cylinders
represent a weight of several tnou-
sand tons and cost as much as an or
binary once building. Yet their use
is only temporary, and when the tun
mel is completed they will be sold for
cid iron. similar tubes will be sunk
In the Hudson river as soon as they
are needed. The boring on both the
New York and Jersey sides has al,
ready commenced Toe engineers
tell me thai while the length OF the
tunnel under North river will be near
ly four times that under East river
the latter Will take longer and be
more expensive because of the rock
and treacherous sands
The New York Central railway is
also spending an enormous amount