The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 13

CLASSIFIED COMICS Brooklyn Eagle FEATURES RADIO i bentnct trie iHti iLSIVS Ernest K.Lindley 13 BROOKLYN, N. FRIDAY, A I GUST 1, V)Y) CnttrtS in tht Brnokljrn PoiU((lo ii Clan Mail Matter Boon to Industry The Next Battle The anti-New Deal coalition has won this battle. But will It win the war? Or, even the next battle? Within a few months there will be another passage at arms. The next time the Roosevelt Administration will be armed with an economic and social program bigger and broader than the one that row lies buried or in pieces. The showdown may well come In November.

For unless Congress, in its stampede homeward, miraculously sal- Wi Up Open several Important bits of ages Meeker Ave. Bridge Newtown Creek to Traffic, Boat legislation from the wreckage now strewn around Capitol Hill, a special session In the Fall will come Indispensable. The spend- 1: fcy mx JL 1 immmmiimmf? piiw t-ffl wibwii TMtossate, Carr Crosstown Highway to Queens through limiting the tax to the first $3,000 of an employe's annual income. Changes That Can't Wait There are other changes that cannot be made retroactive by action at the next regular session: the inclusion of 1,300,000 additional workers in the ins ance system, the payment of old age insurance benefits and survivors' benefits beginning Jan. 1, and the host of other improvements in r.ie whole social security system.

The amendments as they stand fall far short of what many New Dealers consider an adequate lend bill is only one of four or five major pieces ofdome tic legislation which have been Jammed or mangled. There is also the WPA ap-propr i a i which was granted, but with restrictions which lower i-ciency and are Mr. Lindley $4,500,000 Structure, 384 Feet Longer Than the Brooklyn Bridge, Will Be Ready for Dedication on August 23 program. If action is postponed, they are pretty sure to go to bat for more liberal benefit all around. But there are some changes which can't very well wait and which will make a special session necessary unless Congress takes care of them now.

It's too early to forecast what the Administration will do about all the fragments of its shattered spend-lend bill. Parts probably can be handled without specific Congressional authorization. Since the Senate approved parts, and the House didn't vote on the issues, the Administration may feel freeHo move ahead. Special Session Looms Qne thing is certain: that if the Administration wants to get economic results in 1940 from the spend-lend bill or anything luce I QlJJJ ij By LESLIE NORTH Less than three weeks from now, Mayor LaGuardia and a notable galaxy of officials from the two boroughs on Long Island will dedicate a brand-new steel bridge, 384 feet longer than the Brooklyn Bridge. This long, lean, newest steel and stone addition to New York City's mighty army of vehicular spans will connect Brooklyn and Queens across the gray face of Newtown Creek.

It is the new Meeker Avenue Bridge constructed to replace the squat, ugly, turntable bridge which for more than 40 years has "bottlefiecked" the very busy commercial waterway between the two boroughs. Construction on the new bridge, which literally dwarfs the old one, was started on May 25, 1938; when the ribbon-breaking takes place, it will be Aug. 23, 1939, just eight days beyond the time set. Notice: The eight-day delay provided for not to give more time for building, but to give Borough President Ingersoll time to return it, it cannot afford to wait until the regular session in January. Take, for example, the rehabilitation loans of the Farm Security Administration, which were the largest and fastest-moving the program.

The purpose of these loans is to put small farmers, tenants, croppers and the like, on their feet. The loans must be made during the Win almost certain to kick up a political storm before the Summer has passed. Thirdly, there is the housing bill, which was defeated by the House yesterday. Fourth come the Social Security amendments, apparently hopelessly deadlocked in conference committee. Or Taxes Will Rise In reserve is the National Health Bill, which the Administration forces made no serious effort to push to final action at this session but which, in substance, is an integral part of the New Deal program.

Unless the Social Security amendments are passed before January the old age insurance taxes will rise by 50 percent to the tune $275,000,000 for the year. Congress at the next regular session could "freeze" the taxes at their present rates of 1 percent each on employer and employe and make the "freezing" retroactive to Jan. 1. If this were done before April 1. the employers, who pay their tax to the Treasury every three months, could be relieved.

But how about the workers, whose contributions are deducted monthly, weekly, and, in some cases, daily? Rebates could be made to the some 25,000.000 workers who paid the higher tax, but only at a heavy cost of clerical work. This alone is too high a tribute for a muddled Congress to exact from the public. Of course, a simple resolution apart from the rest of the Social Security amendments could freese the fax. Such a resolution may be put through before the end of this session. But there would remain the $65,000,000 in unemployment compensation taxes which would be saved to employers if the pending amendments are adopted now, from his vacation and attend the ceremonies.

Even today, the new bridge to the casual observer appears to be finished. Next Tuesday, all of its 12.800 feet of concrete rnariwnv imnn feet in each of two wide lanec) will be finished. Then there will remain only odds and ends of Jobs that go on all the time, even on working bridges: painting, installing lighting equipment and the like. ZZ Why It Was Built ter and very early Spring. They cannot wait for action at the regular session.

Most of the rest of the scuttled spend-lend program was slow-moving stuff as slow moving as the public housing which will be held up for a year now. Congress obviously needs a "cooling spell." Perhaps when it comes back the anti-N'ew Deal coalition will hold its lines against a revamped and enlarged New Deal economic and social program. If so, the issues for 1940 will be clear-cut. But maybe, when Congress gets home, it will begin to hear from some of the many mil- lions of American citizens whose interests and welfare are adversely affected by what Congress did, or failed to do, about social security, relief, housing, and economic recovery. Tht new Meeker Ave.

Bridge note being rushed to completion. Here't a photo of the maitire utructure, looking toward Hrooltlyn. tnirard II Ij V-SaS'-IE -L, I Lell-i i ui looking Queen. Below Painting bridge iupporf Jftii the Wau Ji fa Bq Maxwell Hamilton iTj the Oueent tide of the structure. Top, left How it will look to you, Mr.

Motorist, when you The burning questions that stand out In viewing this new link between the city's two fastest growing boroughs are these: Why build a new bridge over Newtown Creek? Why must it be-longer than the Brooklyn Bridge? For the answer to that first query, observe a stocky cargo boat moving at a mere walk up the narrow waters of Newtown Creek. The journey of this vessel from Newport News, through Hampton Roads, the Atlantic Ocean, the Narrows, Buttermilk Channel and the East River has been uneventful. Now, however, below Meeker Ave. the old bridge that is giving way to the new stands like a medieval fortress solidly in the way. Newtown Creek at that point is 144 feet wide; the ship is only 52 feet wide.

The bridge ahead, like a turnstile, pivots on an island one-third as wide as the waterway. When it swings to open position, therefore, it offers this creeping boat two channels, the width of the wider of which lets the cargo boat go by with a scant eight inches to spare. That's not all. Though purposely loaded far below its capacity with this bridge in mind, the boat skims by with its keel less than two feet from the creek bottom. The creek simply cannot be deepened there.

If it were deepened the bridge foundations would collapse. Had to Have One Multiply this little boat by the number of little boats that must pass Newtown Creek's "bottleneck" bridge wastefully underloaded in the drive over ill roadwayi couple of week. Eault Staff Photo. Letters From Home We have looked at the matter calmly and objectively and we have about decided that nobody loves us. We don't know of anyone who hates us exactly, but that, somehow, Is beside the point.

What we're getting at is that no one has written to ask us to autograph his album, no one so much as asks us to be his Valentine and no one sends us any mash notes. On the contrary, the only mail we get is from folks whom we suspect of disapproving of us somewhat. There was that bill or not. because every time the note we got from a rooter in Bath gas company sends a bill now I Beach which suggested that we 801nS ir off the receipt part and throw it in his face should try to get our old job back 'kW' 1 Mm li i pasting labels show him if the gas company could arrest me for doing such a thing so if I get choked to death this time for doing it the gas company will be responsible for my death, so you better go to my husband's office and tell him if course of a year. Add the number of boats too large to pass the bridge at all.

Consider, also, how the Commissioner Irving V. Huie and his director of bridges, George P. Hefele, not only had to think of traffic relief in terms of 20 or more Newtown Creek cargo boats a day. They had to think of auto traffic; this in terms of 10,000 or more cars a day traveling from Brooklyn to the World's Fair, What resulted, therefore, was inevitably a bridge which will carry the new Crosstown Highway straight bridge for more than a generation has recklessly squandered the time of vehicular traffic waiting for It to turn landwards; the time, too, there was that communication from Ozone Park which suggested that we go dive in the river. And there was still a third suggestion from another reader but, after all, this is a family newspaper.

of waterway traffic waiting for it tq turn channelwards. Li All these counts in the indictment against old Meeker Ave. Bridge con- as an arrow irom Brooklyn to stituted the reasons upon which the QUeenSi eliminating the s-curve and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce carried on a long but ultimately sue cessful campaign to bring about construction of the new span JJI we'd like to railroad grade crossing of the old bridge; a bridge 125 feet above the water at its highest point, clearance enough for the tallest vessel ever likely to travel along Newtown Creek and long enough from tower to tower to allow for widening the creek to 250 feet or more. The Borough Chamber long ago took notice of the daily crimes of waste, inconvenience and delay committed by the bridge. Its traffic experts appeared before the Board of Army Engineers, supplied facts and figures to the officials of the old DeDartment of Plant and Struc --r IO? Reason It's So Long To accomplish its engineering gymnastics the bridge had to lx' unusually long.

From the base of one approach to another it is more than 6.400 feet, more than 42 times the width of the channel which it crosses! Along the way from blueprints to the blue ribbon which Mayor LaGuardia will cut on Aug. 23 were many engineering accomplishments. In building foundations on the Brooklyn side, for example, engi tures, the new Department of Public Works and the Board of Estimate. Arguments showed that Newtown Creek, mile for mile, carries more commercial traffic than any other waterway In the country. With a new bridge to replace the old, it was pointed out, the waterway could be widened to 200 feet or more for its whole length.

It could be made a new life stream for industries in both boroughs. The chamber submitted lengthv briefs to officials, consulted with he could choke me to death just because I tore off the receipt part off the bill tell him too if the Gas company will arrest me for tearing Jtff the receipt part off the bill." There will be a short pause while we all gasp. Hearing From the Mob Another letter Mr. Connolly showed us was from a young lady who Insisted that an International plot was being hatched by a gang of electrical experts. According to the lady, the gang was using the gas and water mains to transmit their secret messages, and she thought the gas company should roll up Its heavy artillery and go to work.

Basis for the lady's complaint rested in the fact that she heard music when she turned on her gas range and voices when she tried to get water from the tap. The gas company promised to investigate, did so, found nothing not even the specks. Another customer wrote and asked to see a representative of the company, and when the latter came she wouldn't see him for an hour. She insisted he had come on Daylight Saving Time, whereas she kept all appointments on "God's time," I.e.. good old Eastern Standard.

The gist of her beef was that she refused to pay more than a dollar a month for gas. The lady revealed that, so close a watch did she keep on her use of gas. that It COULDN'T come to more than a dollar. She watched the meter carefully, and if she was using too much, she'd shut off the gas till the meter'd been read. And.

if she was using too little and the meter man was about due she simply burned a Jet constantly till she'd tipped her quota. As the fellow says, it certainly takes all kinds, doesn't Ul Msm Titian m4 i. neers found the earth a lot loss substantial that it looked. TIkv discovered that the creek ran under Mr Hamilton matte ncic ia that we've always suspected that this type of correspondence came only to columnists, that it has been more or less generally agreed that that's why columnists were born to be insulted courtesy of U. S.

Mail. Now, however, Mr. Jay Connolly, of the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, tell us that we will have to share that honor. According to Mr. Connolly, not many folks seem to like the utilities much either, and their dislike frequently urges them to grab up a pencil and tell all.

And. to prove his point, Mr. Connolly permitted us to peep into his agony file, wherein we saw letters that made ours look like petitions for a loan. It was grim. I Power of the Pen Much as we writhed with Mr.

Connolly over his insult-letters, however, we thought some of the others in the file were Infinitely more interesting. There was the one, for example, which read as follows: "Dear Sir: My husband wanted to choke me to death last week because I tore off the receipt part off the gas bill you sent he said that the gas company would have nie arrested so he didn't want me to get arrested so that is why he wanted to choke me to death, so I wish you would kindly please send (tome one up to tell him if the gas company will arrest me for tear-, tig off the receipt part off ths ground at that Brooklyn landing place. At one time, too, there had I end. Alert, the engineers made the forming the 12 800 fee. Bright Lights Deen a pona on me spot, ine net result was bigger, wider foundations, more expensive construction in some places and less expensive than original estimates in others.

Boon to Industry On the Quees side the foundation builders ran Into copper slag, foundations oversize, then took dou-; roadway was invented especial. for ble care bv coatlne them with special Murray, Ky. W)-W. Gentry, a rure HeodocheS them on plans, enlisted the support of industrialists served by the creek and retorted to every argument made against building a new structure. $4,500,000 Project The Board of Estimate finally authorized construction late in 1937, agreeing to spend $4,500,000 for the project, an unprecedentedly large sum to spend on a span crossing a mere "creek" even if that creek does carry in the course of a year about 6.000.000 tons of freight, valued at over $300,000,000.

The new bridge not only has an interesting reason for being. It has an interesting engineering history. acid-proof compounds. nL -ow the new bridge carntf r' clalms oldesti batte' Special new methods of construct-! Wnruv in continuous use in America. Hei Columbia, Mo.

(A) Rural electri- ing the steel towers and of bracing' Tn an- savs he has used a five-unit wet fication has cured Missouri farmers phur compounds and acids pile! parts under water were devised. An that prob- cell battery daily for 25 years on a'0f sucn things as headaches and ln- other few months a deep into the ground for 50 years more by a nearby copper refining plant. The acids and other chemicals could have eaten away the concrete foundations, could have undermined the whole miRhty struc- the old bridge will have been gasmme engine iuiiumuus pofi i. savs Huf ot the "moved and Newtown Creek can a plane. Universitv of Missouri agricultural swarm all it wants with cargo boa's.

I John A. Heffernan is now on va- barises. tankers, tugs and all department, cation. His column will be re- vast merchant flotilla that! "Lighting definitely afterus human sumed on this page next week. moves behiud the scenes in modern! Fiddletown, Cal.

tTi The mayor efficiency, resources and behavior, lsjavt i In planning a new bridge over the creek at Meeker Ave. Public JVorka ture and brought It to an untimely.