New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-05-18
~ SEE THIRD PAGE. al
OUR CITY.

New-York is great place for busness-the best just
now on the Western Continent For importation and
wholesale trade for publishing books or selling or work
ing inventions and in fact for every pursuit or employ
men wi ich aspres to market commensurate with the
Union no other can compare with it. And many
branches of business prosecuted in other cities must
naturally gravtate hither unless repealed by some inhu
ence originating with ourselves.
And vet we must ever bear in mind that our adyan-
tages not strictly natural at all events, Nature
has not done for nearly much our fathers achev
ed for themselves Our HarbOr is indeed noble one;
but Norfolk and Newport have Harbors in respects
superior Our River might be turned-into the Missis
sippi without perceptiby increasing its volume and is
inferior in capacity TO at least thirty others this side Of
of the Rocky NJ, untans Our position is not central
to the exhausess fertility of the Great West as that of
Baltimore or Alexandria, Philadelphia, which
latter city has great advantage in proximity
access 20 imtable mines of Iron and Coal Humboldt
or Ricardo ignorant of American history and statistics
and Judging only from the map of this Continent, would
say that New Orleans st. Louis, any one Of half
dozen other cities likely to bethe great empO
rum of America than New-York
Our ascendancy has been won by effort and by effort
must be maintained. Had De Witt Clinton been born
Maryander, or Virgnian, the great emporium Of the
Union would probably have been located on Chesapeake
Bay Nor can we now rest satisfied with merely build
ing the tombs of the prOphets-we must initiate their
deeds and recognize their lineal We must
press on in confidence and strength the work they
menced in doubt and weakness. We must have better
and cheaper, more extensive and more cOmmodOus
channels of INSTRUMENTATION with all parts of the
Continent than any other city can have and while
are pressing forward the work Of Improvement abroad
We must not overlook the necessity of Reform at home
Here is the Immediate point Of dapger-here is the
work for 1853. We must reduce our enormous public
burdens or they will drive away Business and our
People Already these are projected from every
side by exorbiant taxation aud its natural aluncts
No great City in this age exists by Trade alone
1T must have a basis Of Industry that is,
of Manufactures. But Fabrication cannot be exten.
svey prosecuted where Food Fuel Rents, and almost
every other element of production, dear We have
here Wool, Cotton Iron, and all other imported with
some native elements Of production cheaper than they
will average az any other point in America yet little
Cloth and few Wares made even in the vicinity of
New York. With rich Iron ores all around Sin New
Jersey in Rockand, IN Putnam In Berkshire and in
Western Conn, cticut-the annual product of Iron
within hundred miles Of New York is hardly equal TO
one months importation. With immense quantities of
Copper ore and native metal nthe Lakes north and in
the West Indies south of u.s. have but one furnace
for smelling Copper, though thousands Of uus would
naturally come here at nominal rates as ballast if it
were sure of market And while fortune after for
tune has been made in Europe by transforming Iron /
into Steel for this market, there have been few at
tempts and those obviously undertaken and feeby sup
ported na'uraze here the fabrication of Steel for
ourselves Why is il that thelocOmOtyes the cars the
omnibuses which in or outof our City are nearly
all made in distant workshops Why but because the
expense Of living here is great that mechanics eau
not and should not serk cheap here in rival cities
We are paying ten thousand dollars year more for
printing The Trbass than the work would cost if
done fifty miles e,her side of City, and yet enable
the workmen 70 live better than they do here.
Now some Of the elements of excessive cost in this
City are nstural and be overcome bat others
sy be; and one serious item in the account is the
expense of disagreement TIE blocks Of houses
built by Aldermen, Executive fanctiOuaries and con-
tractors out OF their annual steangs bear with crush
ing weight upon Labor and Enterprise. While the
Taxes on house in New,York would pay the rent of
nearly good house in the country, need not hope
for much abatement in the cost of living nor cOnse
qsenty in the expense of manufacturing at this point
Citizens Of New. York we must clear away the foun-
dation for better state of things at the Special Elec
ton three weeks hence Every householder, every
otowner every laborer who does not wish 70 be driven
out of City, has deep and abiding interest in the
Reform then to DO naugurated Let us al, therefore,
from this day forward speak each to his neghbor he
meets him. and urge him to be IT home on the 4th Of
June and be to 80 straight from breakfast to the
poll of his district and his vote for CHARrrR Re-