New-York tribune., 1921-07-04
Of
Port Is Laid to
Ancient Charter.
Must Scrap Legal Mechan-
ism if City's Trade Is To
BE Expanded, Says Dock
Commissioners Report
Large Revenue Increase
Appointment of a Traffic
Adviser and Building of
Airplane Landings Urged

An antiquated charter, almost bind
ing the hands of the Dock Commits
sioner in regard to any real program
of construction, has in the past been
responsible for the partial stagnation
OF New York's port facilities, accord
ing to Murray Hubert in the annual
report of the Dock Department for
1920. submitted to Mayor Hylan Sat-
urday. Only through extraordinary
efforts has the city been able to keer
Face with some of the modernized
dock needs, says the Commissioner.
In this respect Commissioner Hull
bert says:
"lf we are to modernize the port,
1t Is not merely necessary to adopt
new plan for longer and wider piers
with wider intervening slips and rail
facilities and supporting warehouses
more conveniently located and proper
mechanical appliances and labor aiding
devices, but the legal mechanism must
be scrapped and modern provision SUBJ
stituted in the city charter to afford
greater flexibility in dealing with
present-day as we'll as future prob
lens"
The Commissioner pointed out that
only the recent passage of the Lynch
bill has permitted the construction
of warehouses on the marginal streets
along the city docks, and these are
now being built in connection with
adequate railway yards between Tomp-
kinsville and Clifton, in the Staten
Island dock development project.
Revenues Show Increase
The Commissioner calls attention to
the fact that only few days ago the
nna nnv -, 1a1> 49,
anniversary and says that more has
actually been accomplished during the
present administration than the COM
bined efforts of all preceding admin
istrations. He presents facts and fig
ures in support of this assertion. The
Commissioner says that in 1917 the
total income Of the Dock Department,
exclusive of the ferries, was Sc, ,633, 1872.
The increase during 1918 over 1917
was $636,702; the increase in 1919
over 1918 was $563,172; the increase
in 1920 over 1919 was $164,181, or q
total of "a per cent over the preceding
administration.
The Commissioner further says that
when the improvements now under way
are completed the revenues of the Dock
Department will reach $10,000,000 per
annum, or an approximate increase of
100 per cent since he took Office. He said
that while the improvements under
construction will increase the available
wharfage by 26 per cent, the contem
plated improvements in Jamaica Bay
Flushing Bay and Gravesend Bay will
add more than 100 per cent to the
wharfage created in the last fifty
years and that the proposed tunnel
from Staten Island to Brooklyn under
the Narrows will afford all of this
II ,,fc +,0,,
with all the railroads entering the
Port Of New York.
West Side Plan Discussed
Concrete suggestions are made in the
report with view to settling the vexa-
tion West Side plan. This plan already
has been considered by the New York
and New Jersey joint commission,
along the lines suggested by Commits
sioner Hubert.
"Under the plan," the Commissioner
says, "New York Central freight would
follow the main passenger route from
Spuyten Duyvil down the east bank of
the Harlem River to a point near Mott
Haven, whence a line would be built
to proposed yard in the vicinity of
the East River accessible to the New
York Connecting Railroad as we'll as to
the New York Central. From this yard
would lead subway under First Ave-
nue., Manhattan, which would extend
south to about Thirtyfourth Street.
Underground laterals would cross Man
haitian to the Sixtieth Street and
Thirty-third Street yards of the New
subway would be built on the West
Side south to Fifty-ninth Street. The
entire West Side surface system would
then be removed from Supyten Duy-
vii south, with the exception of the
Sixtieth and Thirty-third Street yards.
That part of the plan calling for the
bringing Of New York Central freight
down the east bank of the Harlem
River to an East River yard and re-
moval Of the New York Central tracks
from Riverside Park has been incor-
porated in the expanded automatic
electric system recommended"
Criticizcs New jersey Opponent
Commissioner Hubert criticizes the
opposition, as he says, of New Jersey
to the undermining of the North River
water front in Manhattan, and alleges
that only New Jersey was against the
100-foot extensions on the Chelsea
piers.
"While the evidence submitted at the
hearing before the New York Harbor
LiIo DOdIu, dppOllltCO ny tuc OSCICLdAy y
of War;" says the Commissioner. "es-
tablished the fact that the maintenance
Of these temporary extensions in no
way interfered with navigation, the
application was opposed vigorously
and only by the New Jersey Board of
Commerce and Navigation, which, how
ever, was quite willing that the extern
sion should be granted upon condition
that similar extension be permitted
on the New Jersey side of the river.
This opposition at time when an ef-
fort is being made for effective CO.
operation between the two states
through the creation of unified port
district does not augur for port
amity."
In the report Commi ssioner Hubert
warns the city authorities of efforts
to weap from New York Harbor its
great shipping supremacy and he por-
trays the moves made by other ports
to retain shipping business built up as
war emergency. Among the important
needs to keep apace with the times,
he says, are the appointment Of a
traffic adviser and the construction of
a series of landings for airplanes on
the docks along the water front.
Would Limit Wharfage Charges
In regard to dock leases, the report
recommends that tenants should be per