The suggestion came from a member who complained that Germany was sending to New York pamphlets designed to injure the cause of the Allies. The home secretary said he was positive that these pamphlets would have no effect on American opinion.
Shanty De Luxe.
What is to be probably the finest “shanty” ever erected in the United States is being put up by Frederick L. Cranford, Inc., subway contractor, at the southwest corner of City Hall Park, close to Broadway, New York City. It is to have a height of three stories, the first to form a sort of arcade to allow free passage for pedestrians along the Mail Street sidewalk. The building will cover the entire width of the broad sidewalk for a distance of seventy-five feet.
Shanties of some sort are always erected by contractors on subway work, and if this one had had to go up in some other place, it would have no doubt resembled a real shanty on stilts by the time it was finished. In this case, however, the public service commission required the contractor to build an extra nice-looking structure, because of the fact that it is located on the edge of the park and in front of City Hall. The plans had to be approved by Park Commissioner Ward before the work could be begun.
“The shanty will be divided into two separate buildings,” said a representative of the company to-day. “One side will serve as headquarters for our field force, and the other as quarters for the men engaged in tunnel work on the subway. The labor law requires, you know, that where men are engaged in tunnel work rest quarters must be provided for them. There will be wash rooms and lunch rooms, with lockers, where the men may change their clothes on going to and leaving work. The whole structure will cost from five to six thousand dollars. The building will be painted an attractive color.”
The pretentious shanty will serve only the tunnel men and the field engineering force of the section of the new Interborough subway running under the post office. This section begins at West Broadway and runs through Park Place, under the post office, and through Beekman Street, to William Street. This section will connect the new Seventh Avenue subway with the tunnel under the East River to Clark Street, Brooklyn. The contract price for this section is $1,571,363.50. It is the section that was held up so long because of the opposition of Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo to granting an easement for digging under the post office.
152,000,000 Bushels of Wheat.
The bureau of crop estimates, in Washington, says that the amount of wheat on farms March 1st was about 152,903,000 bushels, or 17.2 per cent of the 1914 crop, against 151,809,000 bushels, or 19.9 per cent of the 1913 crop on farms March 1, 1914, and 156,483,000 bushels, or 21.4 per cent of the 1912 crop on farms March 1, 1913. About 60.7 per cent of the crop will be shipped out of the counties where grown, against 53.9 per cent of the 1913 crop, and 61.6 per cent of the 1912 crop so shipped.
The amount of corn on farms March 1st was about 910,894,000 bushels, or 34.1 per cent of the 1914 crop, as against 866,392,000 bushels, or 35.4 per cent of the 1913 crop on farms March 1, 1914, and 1,289,655,000 bushels, or 43.3 per cent of the 1912 crop on farms March 1, 1913. About 18.6 per cent of the crop will be shipped out of the counties where grown. The percentage of the crop merchantable is about 84.5 per cent.
The amount of oats on farms on March 1st was about 359,369,000 bushels, or 33.2 per cent of the 1914 crop, against 419,476,000 bushels, or 37.4 per cent of the 1913 crop. About 29.4 per cent of the crop will be shipped out of the counties where grown.