MODERN NEW YORK.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1920, Page 11

MODERN NEW YORK.

CITY OF MONEY AND STRIKES. WHERE LIVING GROWS DEARER DAILY. To-day the wealth of America is concentrated in New York, as are many of the strikes, Writes Mr. A. McKenzie in Forty-four per- cent, in bulk and 75 the London Daily Mail of November 8. per cent, in value of America's recordbreaking world trade passes through this port. Last month America soli the world a hundred and twenty million pounds more goods than it bought from it. Every one of those millions brought its percentage of profit to New York. It is among the people that one can study best the results of this wave of prosperity in this most prosperous of cities. The charwoman who cleans the staircase of the house where I live wears white kid boots ( £3 a pair) while at woi-k. The shop girls come to work on Saturday morning dressed as though bound for a garden party in Mayfair. Yesterday 1 sat in the Elevated Railway opposite a dear old -Irish woman. If her general aspect told anything her husband had spent most of his life as a janitor and she had helped him by taking in washing. But her hat could not have cost less than JCS. Her dress was worthy of Dover street, Piccadilly. But you can spend more money here in less time than in any other city known to me. Some things are dearer in the West, but Western places do not offer such variety, 'a sandwich, a large glass of beer, and a moderate tip for the waiter will cost you 5s in an hotel bar around 34th street. Half-a-'crown a glass for temperance drinks, disguised under a fancy name, is nothing out of the way. The department stores are issuing warnings that before long shoes may be four guineas a pair, and clothing £2O a suit. Imitation silk stockings, once 4s a pair, arc to he 14s. Rents are jumping up all the time. An increase of from 25 to 50 per cent, is normal. Young married couples, without families, could formerly rent suitable apartments in lower Manhattan itself for £l2 a month. Eighteen pounds is now the price. Once the maximum rent of apartments Tor the newly rich was £(1000 a yenr. I hear now nf apartments renting at £-2(10.0(10 a venr. Offices down town arc almost unobtainable. You may search for six weeks and find noihing at n iv,-mv possible for any hut ilnlncrats. It is a cily to keep away from jnst now. , | New York is nmVtious lo be ranked , to-day as the metropolis of the world. How far can she <]aim the title? London still leads In population. The

inhabitants of Greater New York will number this year over six millions, as against considerably over seven millions in Greater London. But New York is rapidly catching her. At the beginning of this century London was twice as big as New York; in 1932 the two may be a tie, with a population of eight millions each, the twin world capitals. If by the financial capital of the world one means the city that has the, most money, then New York can claim the title, at least for the time. ■ The - spare gold of the world poured into New Yoi'ic during the war. New York is now becoming the centre of the flotation oi international loans. The machinery of exchange and the control of the great banking facilities of the world reinam with London. We have the machinery of finance; New York has the money. In shipping—on which the position of a city as the world capital must ultimately largely depend—New York and London run a neck to neck race. New York has many natural advantages over London as a port. Its harbor is one of the most spacious and safest in the world, and there are over seven hundred miles of waterfront available for docks and wharves.

But—the condition of the port of New York is chaotic. Control is divided between two States, many cities, and various authorities, and strikes are chronic. They all distrust oiie another and refuse to unite their forces. There is an absence of elementary facilities such as can be had in many sixth-rate ports elsewhere. There is—except for one trifling industry—no direct landing of cargoes by labor-saving macninery on to railway cars waiting on dockside sidings. Cargoes have, as a rule, to be taken from ship to lighter, from lighter to shore, from shore to truck, and from truck to railroad depot. The expense is heavy—far more than in London —and the continual delay is worse than the expense. The labor is always restless. London possesses another enormous advantage in her warehouse Bystem. The producer of almost anything in any part of the world can send his goods to London with absolute confidence that they will be graded properly, warehoused under the best conditions, sold at the world price of the moment, and the money will be fairly paid over. The ralerooms of Mark Lane and Mjpcing Lane get the prices of the world and have drawn a thousand trades around the port. New York is attempting by private enterprise to build up a big warehousing system, but the thing cannot bo done in a day, or a year. Historically New York and London have always had special intercourse and friendship. Despite the Irish crusade, this remains. I could tell a hundred tales of kindness received and of appreciation of England voiced. But to me one little tale summarises the general sentiment here. t went to the letter clerk of one of the big hotels one night and asked her the foreign postage on a letter I had with me. "Five cents (2Jd)," she repliel briskly. This was in the days before war postage was reduced. "Surely you are wrong," I maintained "I know that a friend sent a letter to England for three cents (lid) a few days ago."

"England three cents,, yes," she said, "but you asked for foreign postage." "Don't you call England forcigi:, then?" She looked hard at me, as though astonished at so stupid a question. "Of course not," she replied, with tremendous emphasis.