116 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



tries. But among the garment workers a distinction must be made between 

 the younger generation and the older. The women in the trade are of a 

 better fibre than the men. As a rule, in their contact with other people, 

 they are less prone to make themselves offensive. As a matter of fact 

 certain particular trades, in which the majority of the employees are 

 women, are not objectionable from the point of view of the noon-hour con- 

 gestion. As a rule these women eat their lunches in places set apart for 

 them in the factories. Quite a number of employers have provided sanitary 

 and healthy, even attractive, lunch rooms for their female employees, and 

 at the present time the Labor Law prescribes lunch rooms and rest rooms 

 in every factory which employs more than 20 women. Of course, even at 

 the best, the women add to the congestion of the streets in the morning and 

 in the evening. They form a material percentage of the crowds which seek 

 transportation in the street cars, subways and elevated trains and they are 

 seriously endangered by the risk of fire or panic in any of the tall buildings. 

 The men, however, do not find lunch or smoking rooms provided for 

 them in the factories. They are compelled to go out in the street. A few 

 experiments have been tried along the line of using the roofs for these 

 men. In each instance, however, the experiment has failed. The roofs are 

 not capable of accommodating the large mass of men who work in one of 

 these buildings. At the best, the expense of strengthening and properly 

 safeguarding the roofs to make it possible for a large number of the men 

 to congregate on them is costly, and they would in addition have to be 

 roofed over to protect them from the elements. So the attempt to take 

 the men off the streets and have them congregate on the roofs has met with 

 no success. 



Necessity for preservation of the Fifth avenue district as the retail center 



The high-class retail stores which have been forced, by the invasion 

 of factories, to move further north on Fifth avenue have now reached the 

 limit of their northern migration. When the sections below 23d Street, and 

 then in turn between 23d and 32d Streets, were invaded by factories there 

 was a stretch from 34th to 59th Streets into which the retail stores could 

 move. This section, however, is now fairly well built up. Incidentally it 

 may be remarked that this is the only section of the city where assessed 

 valuations have been rapidly increasing during the last three years. Should 

 factories be erected to encroach further on this territory the retail stores 

 must look for an entirely new section in the city. Central Park is a barrier 

 to all trade. On the east side of Fifth avenue, facing Central Park, are 

 the very costly homes of our citizens, and still more costly apartment build- 

 ings are now being erected there. These two barriers prohibit the migration 

 of retail stores above 59th street. It is hard to think of any locality which 

 would be available should the territory from 34th to 59th Streets be further 

 endangered by factories. 



This is not a local question — it is a matter affecting the entire city. 

 yes, the whole country. It is in the interest of all that this district shall 

 be preserved as the great retail district of the city and country. It is 

 impossible to foresee or prophesy what will happen if the northerly spread 

 of factories is not checked in the immediate future. Hundreds of millions 

 of dollars are invested in the greater and smaller retail businesses in this 

 district, and hundreds of millions have been spent in the erection of beau- 

 tiful store buildings intended to be permanent, as well as on churches, clubs. 

 hotels, public buildings and residences. To endanger these investments, to 



