The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-06

which on his part Was the furnishing or the hotel and the consideration on the part of the syndicate the delivery to him Of capital stock. The transaction involved on each side is about sl,0O0,000 and so far it has proved satisfactory.
 The contemplated cooperative hotel, which if erected and put in operation will entail a cost of $15,000,0oo. is understood to be still ill the experimental stage. Men of large capital are interested in the un- dertaking, and they are now persuaded that the larger the hotel the better the returns on the investment, provided the enterprises be well managed.
 The Pennsylvania Railroad company, on the one hand, and on the Hudson river side of Manhattan and the New York Central Railroad company, on the other hand. and in that section which is now called the hub of New York, have al ready under way constructive work for their hotels The two properties will in volve not far from s20,O00,0O0. That is more than the assessed value of all the hotels of New York in the days when the new departed Fifth Avenue hotel was in it's prime.
 WHAT ENTERPRISES MEAN
 lHeSc two uOtel Gllci pfiScS ICliSCt lhS revival of business prosperity. The work has been undertaken notwithstanding the considerable increase in cost both of skilled and of ordinary labor and of ma terial. Some 10 or F years ago, when the lste John Jacob Astor decided to build a very large and luxuriously equipped hotel, he was asked why lie yen- tu1ed upon an enterprise of that kind when business conditions were not very lf I-r ri al, no His ura that he oO1l10 build cheaper then than would be pos sible if he waited for q great revival of business activity.
 But the railroad companies are per suaded that business prosperity will be co1itinued for some years, and if that be the cas then there will be heavy busi ness for New York hotels. The prece- dents justify this view The steel and iron industry of the United States and trough that industry many wage-earn- CTS and incidental industries will be bene- fted by the construction of these two hotels. At least 10000 tons of steel will be utilized iE the building of the Penn sylvafia hotel This is believed to be an uL6ers stimate. :or it is suspected that before the hotel is well under way it will be found that at least 2a,0o0 tons of fab rict te steel will De required for the ccnlrletion oftthe structure s
 Fifteen years ago the late James J. Bel den, then a. member. of. Congress for the Syracuse N. Y., district, in cooperation with William s. Hawk and his associate, William Wetherbee, was venturesome enough to undertake to finance the build ing of modern hotel to be equipped lux uriously and to be. of skyscrapirg height on a plot of ground east of Fifth avenue. He came to this decision in spite of the friendly counsels of men who were of eX- Ierience in the hotel business in New York. He was told that he could not get fashionable patronage for a hotel east of Fifth avenue. Nevertheless he obeyed his impulses, and the instant and con- tinued success of the hotel led to the construction of another in the vicinity and recently still another, which was financed indirectly by the New York Gen. tral Railroad company. These three rep resent investments of approximately $1S,-