8 7 o NEW YORK 



routes of state highways were changed, and altogether more than a dozen routes or sub-routes 

 were added to the previous list. There were large appropriations for the state proportion of 

 repairs on highways; one bill in 1911 carried $1,795,254 and another $1,207,079 and in 1912 

 separate bills carried respectively $2,519,399, 95,641 and $1,833,182 for maintenance and 

 repairs. In 1911, $1,030,000 was appropriated for interest on the debt for the highway and 

 in 1912 two bills carried a total of $9,345,000 for highway improvements. The highway law 

 was generally amended in 1912. At the regular election the people voted (637,548 to 281,- 

 265) for the issue of $50,000,000 in bonds for highways. A commission was appointed to 

 investigate the operation of a barge canal; $30,000,000 was appropriated for the improve- 

 ment of the Erie and Oswego and Champlain canals: $6,000,000 for the Cayuga and Seneca 

 Barge Canal; $3,230,000 to pay off a part of the principal on the canal debt; $12,000,000 for 

 canal terminals and facilities and $2,883,850 for interest on the canal debt. In 1911 bonds 

 amounting to $19,800,000 were authorised for terminals for barge canal traffic. At the close 

 of 1912 the barge canal, on which it was expected that boats 275 ft. long, 30 ft. wide, 12 ft. 

 draught will be used, was two-thirds completed, the final opening being set for 1916. A 

 commission was appointed to act with the New Jersey authorities and the Federal authorities 

 in the investigation of operating conditions, and a terminal station commission for Buffalo; 

 and a freight terminal act was passed for Ne\v York City, giving the board of estimate the 

 power to plan terminals approved by the commissioner of docks. A section on freight terminal 

 corporations was added to the law on transportation corporations. A law regulating the 

 terminal of the New York Central & Hudson River R. R. in New York City provided for the 

 abolition of the use by railways of streets at grade. In 1912 a revision of the rapid transit law 

 gave additional powers to the public service commission and made possible an addition to 

 New York City's rapid transit facilities. In June and July 1911 a part of the new subway 

 construction (mostly into the outlying parts of the city) was awarded to the Brooklyn Rapid 

 Transit Company, and a part to the Interborough system, which had built the earlier sub- 

 ways; early in 1913 the terms, of the contracts were still under discussion. The question 

 of lengthening city piers for the accommodation of trans-oceanic passenger steamers aroused 

 much public interest in 1911-12. The United States department of war in 1911 gave 

 temporary permission to lengthen certain piers outward, i. e., toward the river channel, 

 but in 1912 the Secretary of VVar refused to permit this permanently, and many new plans 

 were suggested : for riew piers along Riverside Drive, above 72nd St.; for piers running into 

 the land obliquely -to save room in the river channel; for docks in South Brooklyn; etc. 



The Federal government practically Completed in 1912 the Ambrose and the Coney Island 

 channels in New York harbour and the breakwater (1,565 ft. long) at Plattsburg, had more 

 than half finished the improvement of East River and Hell Gate, and had begun the improve- 

 ment of the Niagara river (12 ft. channel), of Ogdensburg harbour and of Jamaica Bay 

 (r8 ft. entrance channel). On December 14, 1912, New York City began work in Jamaica 

 Bay in co-operation with the Federal government. 



Legislation. The legislature met in regular session from January 4 to October 6 

 1911 and from January 3 to March 29, 1912. At the latter session the newly surveyed 

 boundary line between New York and Connecticut was put on the statute books. 



The 1911 session (April igth and July i2th) ratified the proposed i6th amendment 

 to the Federal Constitution providing for a Federal income tax, which had been defeated 

 in the previous session, largely because of the opposition of Governor Hughes. "All 

 the amendments to the state constitution submitted by the 1911 session to the people 

 at the November election in 1911 were defeated. Among them was one raising the 

 salary of assemblymen from $1,500 to $3,000 and of senators to $3,500 and making the 

 mileage, instead of toe a mile for the trip once in each session, 3C a mile once in each 

 week of actual attendance at the session; raising the governor's salary from $10,000 to 

 $20,000; giving partial home rule to cities and changing the requirements as to condem- 

 nation proceedings. The 1912 session passed three amendments which go over to the 

 1913 session: providing for condemnation " by the supreme court with or without a 

 jury, but not with a referee," and giving the legislature power to authorise any city to 

 take more land than it needs in condemnation proceedings to secure control of certain 

 property practically the same as two amendments defeated in 1911; securing to the 

 legislature the right to pass a workmen's compensation act; and revising the system of 

 county courts. 



An elaborate election and primary law was passed in 1911. A clause (to prevent fusion) 

 forbidding the repeating of the name of any candidate in different columns of a ballot 

 was held unconstitutional on March 7, 1912; the clause requiring personal registration in 

 rural districts was declared invalid on October 10, 1911 (Hopper v. Britt 203 N. Y. 144 Court 

 of Appeals); and the requirement of 1,500 names for a petition for independent nomination 



