Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-17
Effect Of Restored Peace
Among the Workingmen.
OUTLOOK IN NEW YORK
MILLIONS TO BE SPENT BY THE
RAILROADS.
Immense Mercantile Establishments in
View-The New Cathedral and
the Custom House.
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald

Special Correspondence The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
NEW YORK, May 10, 1905.
1t will not be long before every inch of
Manhattan Island will be covered with
buildings except the parks and the streets.
If you will go up into any of the high
places today and look over the city you will
see nothing but roofs from Harlem river to
Battery Park with a green spot in the GEN.
ter where Central Park lies. Beyond the
Harlem and the Bronx, the two rivers which
make the city of New York an island, build
ing 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
it is difficult for a stranger to tell when
he has reached the city.
Great Boom in Building.
Just now there is a great boom in build
ing-the greatest on record. Never in any
other city on the earth was SO much money
put into brick and mortar marble and
granite. steel and tile construction as will
be expended this season in New York. This
is largely due to the termination of a long
strike in the building trades. 1t lasted
nearly year and cost the members of the
Carpenters Union alone more than a mil
lion dollars in loss of wages. A settlement
has just been made after prolonged negO-
tiations between the board of governors of
the Building Trades Association, which is
composed of contractors, and officials of
the Brotherhood of Carpenters, which is
part of the American Federation Of Labor.
This settlement affects not less than ninety
thousand skilled mechanics and artisans,
directly and indirectly, and promises a
peaceful and prosperous year in building
circles. The result appears in the applica-
tons for permits for new buildings, which,
during the month of May, have been I'M
precedented. and it is estimated that not
less than $3.50, 100000 will be expended this
season. While the strike has not been gen.
eral and has involved only portion of the
building trades, it has. nevertheless. been
the cause of continual apprehension and
uneasness; has frightened tmid capitalists
and has compelled many architects to tuck
plans for new buildings into the pigeonholes
of their desks, which they are now sending
to the contractors for estimates.
The Peace Agreement.
Under the agreement the non-union car
penters who have been employed by mem
bers of the Building Trades Association
have been organized under national char
ter into the Greater New York Carpenters
Union, and are to have the same repre-
sentation in the New York district council
as the old carpenters unions. All carpen-
terS are to receive $3.50 for an eight hour
days work and double pay for overtime
until January /, when the wage scale is
to be revised; and a revision is to be made
annually after that. All questions here
after arising to be submitted to arbi-
tration; walking delegates, are to be ad-
mtted to all buildings. and non-union labor
IS not prohibited when union labor cannot
be procured but 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 diff
ferent trades unions The day after it was
signed plans were filed with the building
department for more than 81, 900 600 worth
OF new buildings, mostly small ones, and
at the present rate permits to the amount
of SJ6.OOo,00O will 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
station.
Pennsylvania's Terminal Facilities.
That. as you know, is to be the largest
and most costly in the world and will rep
resent an expenditure of between SIS, COX, 600
and S2000OOOO A thousand men are now
engaged in clearing away the four blocks
that it Is to occupy between 31st and 33d
streets. Work on the tunnels has been be-
gun and is being pushed as rapidly as pos
sible. On opposite sides of East river, at
sd street. are four enormous steel boxes,
which look like towers. When they are
completed they will be sunk below the bot
tom 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 thousand
tons and cost as much ordinary office
building. Yet their use is only temporary,
and when the tunnel is completed they will
be sold for old 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 already COM
menced. The engineers tell me that, while
the length of the tunnel under North river
will be nearly four times that under East
river. the latter will take longer and be
more expensive because of the rock and
tceacherouS sands.
New York Centrals Operations.
The New York Central railway Is also
spending an enormous amount of money
in charging its terminal facilities. 1t has
purchased three entire blocks east of the
old station, has torn down the buildings
and is now excavating great basin which
will be used for train yard, thus doub-
ling the present terminal facilities. A por-
ton of the tracks is being covered with
heavy iron frame work, even more solid
than the elevated railroads in the city, and
tracks will be laid upon the top for through
trains. while suburban trains (Which are
to be run by electricity will arrive and
leave on the ground floor.
When these two great stations are COM
pleted more than thousand railway
trains will arrive and depart from the heart
OF this great city every twenty-four hours.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, l
understand. has absorbed the rival tunnel
scheme, which was to bring the trains of
all the railroads now arriving at Hoboken
into the center of New York, and traffic ar
rangements will be made so as to concen-
trate them in this great central station.
Immense Mercantile Buildings.
In addition to the Pennsylvania station
the most notable buildings now being erect
ed in New York are the new custom house
the Episcopal Cathedral Of ST. John the
Divine. the Carnegie library and Wanna
makers store, which. by the way is being
built by ID. II. Burnham & Co. of Chicago
much to the discomfort of New York archi-
tects. 1t adjoins Wanamaker's present
building, which was formerly occupied by
y. T. Stewart, and the two will be con-
rected by several underground passages
Altman. the 23d street merchant is about
to build another monster department store
which / told will be even larger than
Wanamaker's, on the block surrounded by
9th avenue. Madison avenue, "a tn and 35th
streets, diagonally across from the Wal
dorf-Astoria; and the residences which
have occupied that ground are now being
torn down. This brings another big es-
adjustment in competition with Saks and