Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1865-08-17
The Growth Of New York City.

The census of the imperial city of
| America has just been completed, and
the population is 1908 $50. In 1860,
the population was e14,254. The city
/! has thus increase at the rate of nearly
100000 per annum, during the past five
years. 1t is now the third city in the
world, being surpassed only by London
and Paris But counting in Brooklyn.
Jersey City and Hoboken, which are
really wards of New York, the popula-
tionis ,30O,0 600 that is larger. than
Paris and second only to London. In
| 1886, when Robert j. Walker, in one of
| his speeches in the United States Senate
estimated that Manhatten Island would
be covered in 1900 with a population of
1000, 900, he was laughed at and ridi-
culed by many journals as lunatic.-
But if New York increases during the
next thirty-fve years as rapidly as it has
during the past and there is every reas-
on to believe it will, it will have popu-
laton of 100000.
| The restoration of the Union renders
it certain that New York must be the
imperial city Of the world. Had the
nation been divided there might be some
doubt as to the future of New York
The cultivation of every new farm at the
south or at the west, adds one building
to New York. 1t is the only city in the
nation which is benefited by an improve
ment in any and every other portion of
the country It is interesting to look
at the progress of this great city. 1t is
common to speak of New York as new
city. but such it is not. It was founded
over two hundred years ago. It's growth,
though rapid, will bear no comparison
to that of our western cities. Chicago,
in thirty-fve years after it's foundation,
has population as large as New York
had in lS25-one hundred and seventy
years after it's foundation. And Mil
waukee, in thirty years after it's found
alton, had population nearly as large
as New York had in 1900, or one hum
dred and fifty years after its first settle
ment.
AS soon as the Union was established
its growth was steadily forward It took
large leap from 1888 to 1916. It has
gained 970, 600 since the recognition of
our Independence. It received another
impetus from 1926 to 1885, consequent
upon the completion Of the Erie and
Champlain canals. From lS45 to 1860
it received another gigantic impetus
from the completion Of the numerous
railroads which converge to New York
from all sections of the Union. The
Erie, the Hudson River, the Harlem,
and the New Haven roads were compile
ted within that time. New York has
now all the railroads that she needs, but
she will receive her future growth from
the business, consequent from the exter-
sion Of the railways to the Pacific ocean
and to the Gulf Of Mexico.
The mining regions of our new terri
tories, and the development of the South
ern States will be to her, source of adj
ditional wealth At one time, New Or
leans might have been the rival of New
York, but the civil war has destroyed
that chance for the Crescent City
The war has very naturally stunted
her. while it seems to have given more
vigor and vitality to the city of tho
North. Some croakers with southern
sympathies, held that New York would
be ruined when the South rebelled. But
they did not understand the irrepressi-
Bile power of a free labor community,
when acting as the receiving and distrib-
uting centre of free and educated peo-
pie Wisconsin.