The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-24

ley, Fullerton and Guttman may be above their
influence and will fearlessly expose the crimes
and rottenness of the whole system.
Peter Cooper and Our Piers and wharves-
Picayune Ieeformers.
Peter Cooper and the Citizens Association
have recently made their annual temperance
In the city papers and are busily engaged in
getting up controversy with some of the heads
of the city departments in regard to the man
agement of our piers and wharves, public
markets, &C., and the amount of money ex.
pended annually on repairs. The Citizens
Association has hitherto been regarded as
sort of philanthropic reformatory society,
organized for. the protection of the taxpayers
and standing entirely aloof from and indie
pendent of politics. 1t is unfortunate, there
fore, that all these alleged discoveries of ex-
travagance, mismanagement and frauds should
be made on one side and just about the time
of election, and that during the remainder of
the year their voices should never be heard in
behalf of municipal reform. But giving Peter
Cooper and his associates all credit for honesty
of purpose in their annual tits against the city
departments, we feel impelled to say that they
take very contracted view Of the subjects Of
which they treat and waste much valuable time,
great amount of labor and an unnecessary
quantity of manifold paper upon very insig-
Ai6cant matters. Everybody conversant with
our city affairs is aware that our piers and
wharves are in disgraceful condition and
,1oI1x ;co 30 30 <ho 80
But it is very well known that the fault lies
with those who fail to appreciate the necessity
of making the piers and wharves what they
should be in the great commercial emporium of
the New World, and not with the officers who
are charged with the care and management Of
lot Of dilapidated, broken down structures
unfit for use and only to be rendered available
for ordinary business purposes by constant
patchwork and tinkering
The city of New York is rapidly becoming
the centre of the commerce Of the
whole world, as 1t has already begun
to take its position as the centre OF
the news of the world. The great railroad
to the Pacific will soon be in operation and
will pour its tribute into the lap Of the metro
polls. Ship canals, connecting lakes and
oceans now separated from each other, will
bring new fleets to our docks. The vast
Chinese empire, opening to the outside world
her great wealth and traffic, will find her prin-
cipal mart in New York. If the Citizens
Association is honest in Its desire to advance
the prosperity of the city it should demand
that hundred million dollars be raised and
expended in building magnificent granite docks
along our whole water front, commensurate
with the magnitude of the growing commerce
Of the port and creditable to the wealth and
progress of the age. This is the sort Of reform
we need, and this is the policy that would
enrich the corporation and tighten the burden
of the taxpayer. The ultimate value of our
piers and wharves is uncomfortable. The city
should own them oil, without reservation, and
should by q liberal and princely expenditure
make them worthy Of the great commercial
emporium of the world. When citizens asso-
Citations or any combinations Of picayune
reformers and political adventures undertake
to fritter away time about q few feet Of lumber,
more or less, used in repairing lot Of rotten
wooden DOCKS or an extra hundred dollars
paid to an unnecessary employee, they engage
in very small business and show their inca
pacity to grasp the subject in Its full proper
tions.
Efforts have been made on several occasions
to improve the condition Of our piers and
wharves, but they have invariably been de-
feated by professed reformers who have
failed to get a finger in the pie. Last winter
we'll considered bill was introduced in
the Legislature appointing q committee to
reconstruct all our docks of stone. or such
other material as they might deem proper.
The committee embraced the Commission ers
of the Sinking Fund, who are the trustees and
custodians Of the property, and an equal mum
Der Of the members of the Chamber of Com
merce, to be designated at full meeting of
that body, who would have looked after the
interests Of commerce in the contemplated
work. It was proposed that bonds should be
issued from year to year for the purposes of
the Improvement, maturing by instalments
and at such dates that the accumulatons from
The increased rents might pay the debt instead
of making IL an immediate burden upon the
people. This would have been, In fact, q
relief to our taxpayers at this time, since the
amount raised for patching up our present
dilapidated piers is assessed upon them at
once and is, after all, thrown away. But the
managers of the Citizens Association op posed
and defeated the bill because they could not
control the work II contemplated. We have,
therefore, very little faith In the pretended
efforts Of the Association towards reform 10