Inadequate Ventilation

Not long ago engineers made smoke in the Holland vehicular tunnel under the Hudson river to test the all-important ventilating system. The announced result: complete success (TIME, March 28). But last week, Chairman John F. O'Rourke of a special committee of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation begged to differ. He announced that the committee had given "serious study and conference to this question." "We believe," he added, "that a great menace to public welfare is involved. The tests so far made for ventilation have been inadequate. . . . The present exhaust openings . . . are totally inadequate . . . we suggest . . . further tests." Autoists crowding impatiently at the crawling ferries must settle down to a new wait; the Manhattan and New Jersey tunnel opening is once more delayed.