New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-04-15

70 f0retrhuON tDc VI
ell the City Railroad bih< .
We .urmi.e that thi. i. not precisely Whist is
de.ireS by large majority Of s>ee se''vs opponea"
Of those bills; aud yet m,jonty It the anti Kali
road speeches aud reports have log'SNF cOn~",
plated this eud. A reader ia the West or south Of
Mr.. Opdyke's nti-Railrcsd speech, for in.Naoce,
would naturally inquire why the Common Couseu
does not order the owners to take up TIE rails al
resdy laid in our streets, or, suppo,ing tue Coah-
ella to be brbed or dIugged into subsersieney 70
the railroad men, why some OF our ipjanction-loV'
ing Courts do not stop the running OF their care
Yet no one here can doubt that this City contains
to-day many Millions worth more Of taxable prop.
city than il could have done in the absence
of these Horse Railroads in its streets, aud
that the present ratio of growth and eIpsn-
sion within our City limits is largely owing
to and dependent on these roads. Twelve to
fifteen Years ago, veto illustrate general
truth BY a personal incident-used to pay York
shilling doubled on Sundays for daily omnibus
ride up Third Avenue to Fiftleth street. in stage
which rem hourly from a. m. to III p. m. Ii We
were detained downtown later, We had one or two
stages till midnight far as Twenty seventh street,
whence we had 70 walk long mile and half home.
The whole number Of persons brought downtown
daily from above Fortieth- street by public convey
snce cannot then Qs44-5) have exceeded two
hundred. Now, we ride for five cents up either
the Second or Third Avenue to SItyfrst-street
once in three or four minutes from daybreak till
late at night, whence till morning car runs up land
DOWN the Third Avenue every twenty minutes.
The actual value of lots above FOrteth street Is
nearly doubled by Horse Railroads, and must be
still further increased as those roads multiplied
and extended. Mr. Opdyke, being man OF for
tune, and not tied to early hours, may ride down
town very comfortably in his own carriage, and
does no. need fppenny railcars; but if he thinks
they are not needed BY and popular with the work
ing masses, he is greatly mistaken. If the poor
who work in the lower part of our City are ever to
escape the nuisance and stencil Of the wretched
old tumble down novels of the Fourth aud
Sixth Wards, and the hardly less loathsome
tenant houses Of the Eleventh and Seventeenth
Wards, 80 as to live where their children will have
some chance to grow up strong and healthy, 1t
must be through the fundamentally OF City Rau-
roads. And unless it be deemed polite to drive
them over to Brooklyn, Jersey, &o.,-where Rail-
roads are being rapidly constructed and meet little
oppostion-we must have such roads in abundance
on our own island.
Nor can we assent to the proposition that those
who live each side of particular street have q
right to veto the passage Of railroads through that
street. Doubtless, their wishes entitled to con-
sderation, but not TO despotc sway. Were it
otherwise, the owners Of the property lying be-
tween BleecIer and FOurteenth.streets might COM
bne to prevent the passage of any railroad cars up
and down the island from selfish calculation that
this would prevent the populatDg and improving OF
the upper part of the City by disabling all who do
business in the lower Wards from residing above
their belt of tie island road is not made for the
benefit of those only whose land abuts on such
road, but for the general convenience Of the CON-
mupity A Dutchman who lived few miles west
of Schenectady hung himself when the Erie Canal
was run through his rich MISUNDERSTANDING him,
as be ihought-but the Canal went on, nevertheless
The real and forclbe objection to the City Rail
road projects is, that they were calculated to en-
rich the favored few to whom the grants were
given. This objection may furnish excellent res-
son for amending the bills, but none at all for de-
feating them. Make them just, if they are not
already so, but do not deprive the public OF great
and palpable benefits from an apprehension that, in
securing those public benefits, certain individuals
will be enriched. If the 5000, 900 to be paid into
the CITY Treasury by the grantees Of the Seventh
Avenue Road lin addition to the 100000 to DO
paid to indemnify the owners Of Omnibus lines de-
stroyed by this road) is not enough, then raise
the fgures or, if that plan be Objectionable make
the grantees pay oneth Of their receipts into the
Treasury or require them to keep the streets they
traverse in perpetual repair, and impose on them
any other conditions which may be deemed just;
but do not deprive the City of needed means Of
cheap and easy transportation between the dwell
iDgs and the workshops or warehouses Of her cit-
zens. Such seem to US the obvious dictates Of
common sense and public good.
II the Railroad bills are overheard for the Ses-
sion, We trust they will come up under fairer aus
pieces next Winter. There may be still further de-
lay; but, ultimately, there will be railway through
nearly every one Of our Avenues-tbe Fifth prObs.
bly, excepted, because those who reside on and
fancy they own it, do not want 10 ride from Six
tieth. street to the Park for five cents. The rest
Of the uptown folks generally do.
A hill has pasaad both hranchea Of the Iepiala.