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N ORDINANCE passed in April, 1911, created the Factory Site Commission of Baltimore, to consist of one representative of each of the following leading organizations and corporations: Chamber of Commerce, Merchants and Manufacturers' Association, Travelers and Merchants' Association, Old Town Merchants and Manufacturers' Association, Federation of Labor, Builders' Exchange, Real Estate Exchange, Pennsylvania Railroad, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Western Maryland Railroad.

This Commission began work in June, 1911, and already it has achieved some valuable results. For example: in 1845, the City of Baltimore acquired for $2,500, for marine hospital purposes, a tract of about 139 acres of land located just outside the city limits on deep water. The original plans were long since abandoned and by the dumping of old brick after the great Baltimore conflagration of 1904, as well as by the subsequent dumping of refuse by the Street Cleaning Department of the city, the area of the tract has been increased to 177 acres. Altogether, since the city acquired the property, about $86,000 has been spent to bulkhead the entire water front and make possible the increased area as well as to provide for deep water at the land edge without expensive dredging. The City Comptroller had the Topographical Survey Commission lay off the property in lots and streets and the secretary of the Factory Site Commission then succeeded in selling seven acres of the tract at $500 an acre to a concern that manufactures concrete scows. Since that time, seventy-three acres more have been leased on 99-year leases to manufacturing concerns, making a total of eighty acres disposed of within eight months. The

consideration for the total sales was $41,511, or its equivalent in rents at 6 per cent., and, at this rate, by the time all the lots have been disposed of, the city will have come out even on the property, notwithstanding the $86,000 it has spent to bulkhead the waterfront.

The leases for lots of this tract of land are for ninety-nine years, renewable forever, and redeemable at any time for a sum of money equal to the capitalization of the rent reserved, at 6 per cent.

An even more interesting work of the Factory Site Commission is its effort to make sure that all unoccupied city property shall produce revenue-land and buildings that the city will no longer require for municipal purposes will be offered for sale, and, if not sold, for lease.

The Commission found that an old truck house, abandoned by the Fire Department several years ago, had been acquired by the City in 1880 for $9,500 and to-day is appraised at $7,250, and yet it has remained idle for several years. Yet people had passed the property every day who might have purchased or leased it if they had thought the city would dispose of it. The City Comptroller recently had "For Rent" and "For Sale" signs put up on this particular piece of property and in less than thirty days twelve offers were made for its lease or sale.

Again, one of the municipal markets, built at an expenditure of more than $600,000 four years ago, has not been a paying investment. One section of this market was not rented. The Comptroller had signs put upon the property, announcing that it was for rent or sale and that improvements would be made to suit tenant. People were soon scrambling for the property and in less than thirty days it was profitably leased.