Oft COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



that wherever there are tall buildings used as factories the police commis- 

 sioner finds it necessary to designate as many men as are available for duty 

 in the side streets in order to prevent the snarls and jams of vehicular 

 traffic. 



Street car congestion 



The street car, elevated and subway congestion in the evening rush 

 hour has given much concern to the Department of Health. A single trip 

 along Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues between 6 and 6:45 P. M. between 

 24th and 30th Streets for instance, will reveal hundreds of human beings 

 pushing and shoving and actually fighting inspectors, motormen and con- 

 ductors of the street cars in an effort to board the already packed cars. 

 The same condition exists on 8th and 14th Streets west of Sixth Avenue, 

 and on 14th Street and 8th Street on Fourth Avenue. A mere glance is 

 sufficient to identify these crowds as employees of the garment factories 

 located between Fourth and Seventh Avenues from 24th to 30th Streets. 



Elevator congestion 



As to crowding in elevators, consider for a moment that some of 

 these loft buildings employ as many as 3,000 to 3,500 people. All of these 

 factory employees are compelled to ride in the freight elevators — usually 

 two, exceptionally three in number. It does not take much imagination 

 to conjure up before one's eyes the scenes at the beginning and the end of 

 the lunch hour, or at the hour when all of them stop work for the day. 



In this connection it is to the point to narrate an incident which oc- 

 curred on October 9, 1915, Fire Prevention Day. The building in question 

 at 105 Madison Avenue is a new 20-story loft building of the best type. 

 The Joint Board of Sanitary Control which exercises well defined authority 

 over the garment factories located in that building, had decided to have a 

 fire drill on some floors of that building. Let me interpolate right here, 

 that on no occasion has the attempt been made to have the fire alarm signal 

 sounded throughout the whole building. On the 9th of October it was 

 proposed to have a fire drill on one or two floors. The subject was broached 

 to the proprietors of these shops and they promptly declared that unless they 

 were indemnified and reimbursed for any and all liabilities, which thev 

 might have to assume in case of an accident happening to any one of their 

 several hundred employees, they would not consent to have a fire drill, 

 because they considered it too dangerous for their employees to descend 

 the stairs in large numbers. Naturally no fire drill was held. What would 

 happen if the 3,000 factory workers in that building should try to get to 

 the street by means of the stairs I leave to your imagination. 



Statement of J. Bernstein, Traffic Expert, Fifth Avenue 

 Association, April 29, 1916 

 Congestion of factories in New York City 



Factories tend to congest in New York City because the greater part 

 of European immigration comes to this port and cheap foreign labor is 

 plentiful. This is especially true in the garment industry in which about 

 80 per cent of the operatives are Russian Jews and 20 per cent Italians. 

 A few of the foremen and cutters are of other nationalities, but the vast 

 majority of the employees have been in this country a relatively short time. 

 The industry was originally organized on the cheap-labor, sweat-shop sys- 

 tem, but in late years there has been a tendency on the part of the better 



