Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-05-22
BIG BOOM IN GOTHAM,
End of Labor War Brings Buildino
Operations Involving $3.50, OoO, 900.

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 center
| where Central Park lies. Beyond the
Harlem 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 it is
difficult for Il stranger to tell when he
has reached the city.
Just now there is great boom in
building-the greatest on record
Never in any other city on the earth
was SO much money put into brick and
nor tar, marble and granite, steel and
tile construction as will be expended
this season in New York. This is
largely due to the termination of IL
ioiic otiihC III NIiC tIuuCS. II
lasted nearly year and cost the
members of the Carpenters Union
alone more than a million dollars in
loss of wages. A settlement has just
been made after prolonged negotiations
between the board of governors of the
Building Trades Association which is
composed OF contractors and officials
of the Brotherhood of Carpenters.
which is Il part of the American Fed
GRAFTON of Labor. This settlement
affects not less than 10000 skilled me-
chanics and artisans, directly and in
directly and promises a peaceful and
prosperous year in building circles. The
result appears in the applications for
permits for new buildings, which dur
ing the month of May have been I'M
precedCrteh. and it is estimated that
not less than s2500U0,O 600 will be- ex-
pended this season. While the strike
has not been general. and has involved
only a portion of the building trades. it
has. nevertheless, been the cause Of
continual apprehension and uneasi-
ness has frightened timid capitalists
and has compelled many architects to
tuck plans for new buildings into the
are now sending to the contractors for
estimates.
Under the agreement tie non-union
carpenters who have been employed by
mclnhers of the Building Trades AS
ISOLATION have been organized under Il
national charter into the Greater New
York Carpenters Union. and are to
have the same representation in the
New York district council as the old
carpenters unions. All carpenters are
TO receive $3.50 for an ei2ht-hOur days
work and double pay for overtime un
Ill Jan. l. when the wage scale is to he
revised, and a revision is to be made
annually after that. All questions
hot CATER arising are to be submitted
10 arbitration: walking delegates are
to be admitted 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. l am told. is unique in the
history of labor organiza tons, but il
has been assHnted to ny the thirty-two
different trades unions. The day after
Il was signed plans wee fled with the
building department. for more than 81
OOG. 900 worth of new buildings, mostly
small ones, and ut the present rate per-
I.,its to tho amount of $50 900. 900 will be
issued during the month of May. The
most of this goes into apartment hotels
and tenemcnt-houscs,h but does not IN
Glide the new Pennsylvania station.
That, as you know, is 10 be the larg-
est and most costly in tine world. and
will represent an expenditure of be-
tween fifteen and twenty millions.
thousand men are now engaged III
clearing away the four blocks that it Is
to occupy between Thirty-first and
Thirty-third streets. Work on the tun-
nols has been begun and is being
pushed as rapidly as possible. On OPP
posite sides of East River at Thirty
third street are four enormous steel
boxes which look like towers. When
they are completed they will be sunk
below the bottom of til, river and will
furnish the air chambers from which
the contractors will begin boring the
tunnels. Tho cylinders represent
weight of several thousand tons and
cost as much as an ordinary office
building. Yet their Use is only temper
arv. and when the tunrel is completed
they will be sold for old iron. Similar
tubes will be sunk in tho Hudson River
as soon as they are ne9ded. The Dor
ING on beth the New York and Jersey
sides has already commenced. The en-
gineers 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
treacherous sands.
The New York Central Railway is
also spending an enormous amount of
money in charging its terminal facili-
ties. 1t has purchased three entire
blocks east Of the Old station. has torn
down the buildings ana is now exca-
waiting a great basin, which will he used
for train yard. thus doubling the
present terminal facilities. A portion
OF the tracks are being covered with
heavy iron framework. 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 arc to be run By electricity will
arrive and leave on he ground floor.
When these two great stations are