The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-18


the consolidation Of groups OF industrial
corporations into giant combinations, or
trusts, each big enough to control a
given line Of track throughout the coun-
try. These combinations required huge
issues OF stocks and bonds. New York
was the only city in the United States
with banking community strong enough
with a stock market large enough to
absorb their securities. This city conse-
quently assumed a relation toward the
nations commerce and industry which
it had never before possessed. The
consolidated corporations and their
numerous constituent companies were
impelled to establish their executive
headquarters here in order to be In touch
with their stock market and banking
interests.
Through the rise Of the industrial COM
bination New York became the national
clearing house for the commerce and
manufactures Of the United States. It's
position in this respect had an important
secondary result. The concentrated
command over the country's credit re-
sources which followed from It's new
relation to general business placed New
York in the first rank as an international
monetary center.
The process of industrial combination
eliminated in 1901. 1t added an army
of capitalists, professional men and
clerks to the city's population. The
effect was apparent in the extraordinary
efforts made to provide house room for
the new arrivals. The years 1901 and
1902 were notable in the building indus
try for the vast amount Of capital in
vested in skyscraping Office structures,
luxurious apartment hotels and costly
private dwellings. For the first time
private residences valued as high as a
quarter of million dollars each were
built on speculation, so great was the
press Of out of town capitalists and cap
tains of industry to establish themselves
in the fashionable Fifth avenue quarter.
In two years the architectural appear
ance Of the downtown and midtown dis
tricts was substantially altered by the
lavish outlay for expensive construction.
Meanwhile, skilled and unskilled man.
ual laborers were attracted in unprece-
dented numbers. A series Of public
and semi-public ks-railways, tun-
nels. bridges, Government buildings,
roads, schools, parks, harbor improve
ments-was inaugurated which would
require years for completion and involve
an expenditure of 500 900 900. In addi-
ton, during the last five years the con-
struction of private buildings has been
progressing on scale demanding an
annual outlay Of 500, OOO,OO
All this construction work was merely
incidental and subordinate in importance
to the expansion of the city's commerce
and industry. BY virtue of it's superior
location as distributing center, New
York has drawn to itself large and
increasing part Of the country's light
manufacturing, general commerce and
trade in luxuries. New York leads or is
rapidly overtaking its competitors in
some half dozen great staple markets.
We need mention only the dry goods
trade, which includes nearly everything
that men, women and children wear
except shoes. The dry goods trade Of
New York is the largest market OF its
kind in the world, equaling the combined
dry goods trades Of London and Man
chester. During the last five years the
expansion of commerce and manufac-
lures has been enormous. The increase
of purchasing power given to the country
at large by succession of rich harvests,
coupled with high prices, has been felt
here with concentrated force.
The extraordinary demand for manual
labor, due to activity in various forms of
construction and to rapid growth of the
dry goods and other markets. was out OF
all proportion to the supply which do
nestle immigration could furnish. The
bulk Of unskilled and considerable
proportion of the skilled labor has had
to be drawn from Europe. The alien
immigration during 1903 attained vol
ume unprecedented in the previous his
tory of the United States, and that for
the current year promises to be even
greater. About three-quarters of the
vast army of foreigners which has in
vaded our shores since the last Federal
census came through Ellis Island, and of
that number one-third has remained in
New York
The size Of our domestic immigration
it is impossible even to estimate. The
European immigrants who have settled
here since the last Federal census repre-
sent an annual accreton equal in number
to the entire population of noted seaport
towns like Charleston, s. c., or Portland,
Me. On a conservative reckoning, the
total addition to New York's population
from all sources since the last Federal
census, five years ago, would. if gathered
into an independent community, consti-
tute one of the half dozen principal cities
in the United States.
The English Dramatists To-day.