New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-10-07
DIR PIEBs AND DOCKS.

II il not only that corrupt City Government
like ours does infinite evil from the WORST oi
motives, but that it arouses suspicion Of wrong
where no wrong exists. 1t perpetrates so much
mischief that no good thing can be proposed
without exciting doubt that villainy Is at the
bottom of 1t. 1t executes so many Jobs IN
the bad sense of that term, that lob" Is
looked for in every act that is proposed on be-
half Of the city. The system OF Iron piers ana
Warehouses, for which bill was passed by the
last Legislature, is case in point. Because the
work is great one, and because the City Gov
eminent must necessarily have something to DO
with an enterprise in which the city Is so
largely interested, it is at once assumed by
thoughtless persons that there must be some
thing wrong In it. We beg such persons to
turn to the Supplement Of this days TRIBUNE,
and read the statement therein given OF what
the Pier and Warehouse Company propose to
do, and tho necessity there is OF doing 1t.
That we need new system of docks and
piers nobody can doubt who will merely take q
walk along either the East or North River,
even if he have no practical acquaintance with
the subject. The wharves, narrow, incon'
yenient, unsafe, filthy above and filthy below,
are totally inadequate to the commerce OF a.
great port like New-York. They ought to be
replaced by better structures if only for her
commercial convenience. But when the effect
of these piers upon the tide.waters and the
immense sewerage discharges Of the city is
considered, some change, it is clear, is impera-
tive. That all the focal matter poured out
from vast city like this should be held alongits
shores, on both Sides to fcrment and stagnate, and
give out its noxious vapors TO poison and sicken
the inhabitants, Is an appalling fact. IL might
excite surprise that we have submitted 40 long
and 80 patiently to such an infection were 1t not
proverbal that We are the most indifferent peo-
Pile in the world to oil questions OF sanitary re-
FORM Nowhere else has any city quietly suf-
fered from such cause Of disease and death
without, at least, trying to remedy it; while no.
where else, from the peculiar situation Of New
York and the defective character Of our sewer
age, has the evil been so great. But here the
Only pIOttrt IL, Wllcu tuo uoAlots anu iuN'i'Ao-
bic etlluyia rolls up our streets in atmospheric
waves, to shut up doors and windows TO exclude
the stencil. Thousands and tens of thousands
have died from this influence combined with the
other causes of pestilence which feed and fattcn
in our filthy streets and terrible tenant-houses,
and still we turn deaf ear to all proposed
remedies. And We turn a deaf ear because the
villainy of city officials has made Us aistrust
any work of magnitude which proposes public
good, and which advances, at the same time,
any private interest
So far as we understand the plans Of the Pier
and Warehouse Company, their execution will
be an immense benefit to the commerce and tho
health of New.York, and will make our wster'
fronts what they should DO in beauty and con-
venicncc in city of so much enterprise ana
wealth as this. The structures they propose
will be at the risk and cost Of the COMPANY.
If their first experiment succeeds tho gain VIII
be the peoples, whatever their private proh'
may be. of which we know nothing. ii tney
fail tho loss will be their own, while the city
will have gained, at least, experience and an
opoued way to further experiment. The gam 10