The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-03-18
The Progress OF Large Cities-A Word for the
INdust <tal Glasses.

The Progress OF Large Citaes-A Word for the
Indust rial Glasses.
Whilst in the lar ger cities of Europe the al
tention of philazthropists has been directed
to the improvement of the dwellings of the
laboring clauses, we, in our new born pride
and ostentation, seem to be fast losing
sight of the claims which policy and hui
manyty have forced upon the attention of
aristocratic communities. We may enact strin-
gent laws against the indulgences and excuses
Uf the poor; but unless we accompany these mea-
sures of repression with efforts to ameliorate
| their material condition we might as well leave
legislation alone. We have unfortunately be-
gun at the wrong end, and we shall have to re-
commence the work anew. We are too proud
and too self confident to profit by the expert
ence and example of others, and we shall have
to pay the penalty of our mistakes. Instead Of
endeayoring to abate the evils of intemperance,
and check crime by elevating the social status
of the industrial classes, we are every day en-
croaching upon their rights, and restricting not
only their means of enjoyment but of livelihood.
Between the starvation prices at which the
necessaries of life have arrived, and the rack
rents which the rapid increase of population has
enabled rapacious property holders to screw out
of tenants, it is almost impossible for the work
| ing-man to keep his head above water. His
present condition is fifty per cent worse than it
was ten years ago. The consequence is that
/ whilst our city presents all the apparent evil
denies of increasing prosperity, pauperism is
advancing with equally rapid strides. We are,
in fact, approaching that melancholy con-
summation in the growth of large cities so
forcibly described by Charming, lin which the
| good things Of life are accumulated in a few
hands, in which property sinks great gulf be-
4 tween different ranks, and in which enc portion
of society swells with pride while the other is
broken in spirit"
1t seems to have been hitherto accepted as an
inevitable condition of the progress of large
cities, that wealth should override poverty, and
thrust aside from it's path the contact of the hum
BILE andlowly. Where the rich have not been able
to extrude thepoor by force or fraud they have
sought new outlets for the isolation of their pomp
and selfshness. But where the sites of great
cities are contracted as in our own case by impas-
sable limits, it but too frequently happens that
the dwellings Of the humber classes are swept
away to make room for the stately mansions of
the rich, whilst the Industrious and the deprav-
ed, who are included alike in the ban of these
would-be aristocrats are driven into some OBJ
scure and pestilental quarter where moral and
atmospheric contagion involve them in CON-
mon ruin. Is it to be wondered at that poverty
and crime and disease should be the concomi-
tant evils of our miscalled civilization when we
do every thing in our power to foster and encour-
age their growth. There is, unfortunately, but
too much truth in the observation of Jefferson
that great cities are great sores ON the body
polite"
1t is clear that unless some steps be taken to
arrest the encroachments of capital upon the
rights of humanity, the poor man will soon have
adificulty in obtaining foothold in this city of
palaces. We take pride in the splendor of our
public edifces and in the beauty of our street
architecture, but we do not reflect that these
monuments of pride and centralized wealth are
absorbing for the benefit of the privileged few,
the space and air which were destined by God
for the enjoyment of ALL And yet this love of
ostentation, which is natural to man, is not in
consistent with the well-being of the industrial
classes. There is no necessity for thrustng
them into crowded and unhealthy localities, in
order to spare the eye Of the proud man the
sight and contiguity of an humble dwelling
In the European cities they are now erecting
palaces for the poor which vie in external splen-
dor, and even internal neatness with the man
sions Of the aristocracy. By adopting the
French system of building to great height,
and subdividing the houses into separate fats,
as they are termed, the requisite conditions of
comfortable and well-ventilated dwellings are
obtained, whilst the stringent rules to which
the little communities that inhabit each house
are subjected, prevent the evils arising from
slovenliness and overcrowding. The most graft
flying feature in this great social improve
ment is, that it has been found as pro-
itable an investment for capital as any other
description of house property. In London |
the system has worked SO well that in Pmlco |
and several other neighborhoods dwellings on
a similar plan are now in progress of construc-
ton, for the middle and even the upper classes.
Amongst us there is still greater necessity for
its adoption. As our city cannot expand beyond
certain limits we must endeavor to make the
most of the space that we possess. No plan
that can be suggested appears to us more likely
to meet all the difficulties Of our geographical
position than this, To prevent the artizan and
laborer from being built out by spectators, let
the quarters now principally occupied by them
be purchased up, and covered with dwellings of
the class we have just described. If private
capitalists will not do it, it may be effected as
in England and France by associations of in
dividuals We know no better plan by which
the increasing evil ofexaggerated rents can be
kept down, and the comfort and well being of
the industrial classes promoted.
QUITE WlNDFAII TO AN EDTToR-The Hon