[The New York Herald noted that the owners claimed the order amounted to] a confiscation of property…
[Sprinkler systems are a] cumbersome and costly apparatus.
To my mind this is all wrong….The experience of the past proves conclusively that the best government is the least possible government, that the unfettered initiative of the individual is the force that makes a country great and that this initiative should never be bound...
We are of the opinion that if the present recommendations are insisted upon…factories will be driven from the city, labor will be compelled to accompany them, factories, tenements, and small houses will become tenantless with the final result of demoralization in tax collections by the city. What is wanted is evolution and not revolution.
You must relieve [New York's] real estate from the terrible yolk of oppression which has been throttling it for some years past…
This condition is depreciating the value of real estate, restricting its marketability, and driving manufacturers out of the City and State of New York.
The Real Estate Board of New York is informed that thousands of factories are migrating to New Jersey and Connecticut in order to be freed from the oppressive laws of New York State.
It is almost impossible to sell any real property in New York City at the present time at its assessed value.
The owners of real property are becoming terrified by the number of laws which have been enacted affecting real property in New York City…in each succeeding year there is a law passed…This compels the owner to expend…large sums of money, which…are absolutely needless and useless.
You can no longer distinguish the real estate owner by the smile of prosperity, because his property is now a burden and a liability instead of a comfort and a source of income. To own a factory building in New York City is now a calamity.
