RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 115 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



below it. From the point of view of this long and difficult haul the fac- 

 tories would be best off near the waterfront, but if they are to remain near 

 the avenue they are far better off below 23d Street than above it. Not only 

 would their presence in the other locations benefit the manufacturers, but it 

 would be a tremendous relief to the traffic situation. 



The finished garments are transported from the factories, first of all, 

 to a packing house located in the district. It is not often that any one man- 

 ufacturer ships a car load or even three or four cases to the same destina- 

 tion. In order to receive more favorable rates it has become customary 

 for the various manufacturers to ship their goods in small quantities to one 

 of the several packing houses which specialize in this kind of freight. In 

 this packing house are delivered the goods of three or four or even two 

 dozen manufacturers, where they are repacked again and finally delivered 

 to the receiving stations of the railroads or the steamships, on the North or 

 East River, where most of the receiving stations are located. All this means 

 double handling and double hauling and a double strain on the traffic 

 situation. 

 Proximity of buyers 



It has been said that one reason that the factories located in the Fifth 

 Avenue district above 23d Street was that manufacturers of garments must 

 have their factories located within easy reach of the hotel district and the 

 retail stores ; that no buyer coming from out of town will go very far from 

 his hotel to buy his goods ; and that in order to buy intelligently the buyer 

 must be close to the retail district in order to see the variety of styles. This 

 argument sounds plausible, but a little investigation will quickly show the 

 futility of it. Of course, in the old days, the buyers who stayed in uptown 

 hotels were a long way from the factories. But referring to the present, 

 in the Fifth Avenue Building, to speak only of one instance, there are a 

 number of salesrooms maintained by garment manufacturers who make their, 

 goods hundreds of miles away from New York. They find no difficulty 

 in getting buyers to come down and look at their goods. Strange to say, 

 the very New York retail houses, in whose vicinity garment manufacturers 

 are located, find it to their advantage to buy their goods as far out of. 

 town as Cincinnati, Rochester, Baltimore, or Cleveland, not to speak of 

 Philadelphia. There is no sound reason why a manufacturer cannot logically 

 do all his manufacturing where the rent is cheaper, where a workingman 

 can live closer to his work, and where his overhead expenses are greatly 

 lowered. If need be, should the manufacturer be too far away from the 

 general vicinity of the buyer, there is nothing to prevent him from having a 

 salesroom and office on or near Fifth Avenue. 



Difference between garment-factory workers and office and retail-store employees 

 There is a decided difference in the character of the employees working 

 in offices, retail stores and factories. By habit and training the employees 

 in offices are courteous, mindful of the rights of others and not prone to 

 interfere with the orderly and regular use of the streets. To a degree 

 the same holds true of employees in the various retail stores. They are 

 mostly the products of our public school system and have learned their 

 lesson in behaviour. When we come to the garment factory employees we 

 are confronted with the fact that the vast majority of them are relatively 

 recent immigrants and not many of them are familiar with the English 

 language. They do not readily fit themselves into the conditions which are 

 so different from those under which they have lived in their native coun- 



