[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.
[It is a] collectivist [myth that business people] would attempt to sell unsafe food and drugs, fraudulent securities, and shoddy buildings….It is in the self-interest of every businessman to have a reputation for honest dealings and a quality product.
Notwithstanding all the talk of a probable exodus of manufacturing interests the commission has not found a single case of a manufacturer intending to leave the State because of the enforcement of the factory laws.
I do not believe in legislation so radical that it means an attack on the valuation of real estate or driving out of our state manufacturing concerns or other large business enterprises.
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…
That same threat was made when the child labor law was passed and not one of the manufacturers moved out.
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.
