The sun., 1908-11-24

building activity. the percentages q
surplus epartments was it.02. The
empty apartments In the summer Of
1900, as counted by the Board Of Health,
numbered So,I7. BY December. 1909,
after the new law had been In effect not
quite two years, the number had dwin-
died down to 1880. A year later there
was house famine and rents had ad-
vanced 20 per cent On the East Side
and 25 per cent. in Harlem. Neverthe1
less tenement house building was not
resumed on large scale until the open
ing of the subway had given access to
cheap land.
The tenement house law Of 1901 has
had the consistent support Of this news
paper because It's social and sanitary
benefits justified the economic cost at
which they were purchased. We
should have been Obliged to take the
contrary attitude il the operation OF the
law had not been confined TO residence
housing. The residence population is
dependent on the city's commerce and
industry. 1t will submit to much in
convenience and expense rather than
give up an assured livelihood for un-
certain prospects Of employment else
where.
The city may without loss promote
distribution of it's tenement population
into the outlying boroughs by, in
effect. advancing residence rents in
Manhattan. But an advance OF busi-
ness rents there would not have
analogous results. The bulk of the
Wholesale commerce OF New York, the
industry that is Of primary Importance
to the city, is Of highly mobile charac-
ter attracted by the cheapness with
which, as measured by profits, it can
be conducted here. If driven away
from the continental market place CEN
tring in Broadway and extending from
the railway and steamship ferries in
lower Manhattan to the Grand Central
Station, market visited daily by 20o,-
900 strangers, this commerce would
go not to the purely local trade dis
tricts OF. Brooklyn or Tottenyille, but
to competing continental markets at
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Chicago.
During the period when tenement
house rents were going up the rents
of lofts and Offices remained stationary. |
Ii is the sort OF business that is housed |
in lofts and Offices which alone holds !
out promise of further growth on the
part of this town. For variety OF
reasons, including new routes of in
terror freight transportation and the |
absence of nearby sources of raw prod |
ucts, New York has lost its rough manu- |!
factures and bulky commerce. 1t is
growing only as centre for light manu-
featuring, commerce in finished goods |
and trade in luxuries, and of course
as a financial centre. However, it is |
the country's banking and brokerage |
centre only because of the enormous
capital and credit attracted here through
its trade in high priced goods.
Now these high priced goods are
both manufactured and sold under
the same roof. For example, our dry
goods trade and our trade in fur gar
.ments each is the largest OF its kind
in the world. Both dry goods and furs
are manufactured as well as sold in
Broadway lofts. Should Broadway
loft rents be materially increased the
manufacturing plants at least would be
removed, leaving only the salesrooms
here. The manufacturing plants IL
separated from the salesrooms would
certainly not 60 to high priced, high
taxed land elsewhere in the city, but
to upstate towns and villages. To
appreciate what a movement such as
this would mean it must be recalled
that more than three-fourths of the
operatives in the six leading factory
industries of the city are employed in
Meanwhile it is not certain that we
should retain evey the salesrooms. If
other important trade distributing
centres offered rents that would allow
the manufacture and sale OF goods
under one supervision we should lose
the best part Of our commerce as well
n