io The Story of The Bronx 



great in volume that, on April 28, 1903, a committee was 

 appointed by the North Side Board of Trade to bring before 

 the State Legislature the formation of a new county to be called 

 Bronx County. In January following, a bill to form such a 

 county was introduced, but it failed to pass. It was intro- 

 duced in every subsequent Legislature, but it was defeated, so 

 ii is stated, because, if such a county were created, Tammany 

 and the other political machines would lose their power in 

 the Borough. Extraordinary meetings and agitations took 

 place in the autumn of 191 1, with the result that an act passed 

 by the Legislature of 191 2 authorizes the formation of Bronx 

 County, the matter to be decided by a referendum to the voters 

 of the Borough at the election of November, 1912.' 



The construction and opening of the subway in 1904 caused 

 a great boom in real estate; and the operations have run into 

 many millions of dollars, as many farm lands and estates have 

 been brought into the market and have found ready purchasers 

 for actual building. 



On January 16, 1904, the Bronx Free Library, which had 

 been in existence for several years, surrendered its separate 

 existence to the New York Library, and thus brought itself 

 within the scope of the Carnegie Library Fund; and, in conse- 

 quence, the corner-stone of a new building was laid on January 

 21, 1904, at Washington Avenue and East 176th Street. 

 Other branches of the New York Public Library are located 

 in Morrisania, Mott Haven, Highbridgeville, and Kingsbridge. 



1 The author is not a believer in the idea that you can make people rich 

 by taking money away from them ; and he thinks that, if the new county 

 be formed, it will be due to local pride, and to the active efforts of an 

 energetic minority of contractors and politicians, whose eyes are fastened 

 upon the annual expenditure of several millions (to be taken from the 

 taxpayers) for the salaries of county officials and the erection of county 

 buildings. 



