The New York herald., 1869-09-08
The Union Ferry Company and the Brook
iyn City Hospital.

The Union Ferry Company and the Brook
Iyn City Hospital.
population of four hundred thousand-who
have been for years past the victims and the
slaves of that gigantic swindling monopoly
known as the Union Ferry Company, appear
to have walked up to the fact that there ought
to be some limit put to the despotism which
has been doing its best to ruin all the interests
of that city and to retard its prosperity for
their own selfish purpose. II seems that the
law courts are to be appealed to by a certain
number of citizens in order to decide whether
the Ferry Company, according to its charter,
is not indebted to the City Hospital in the sum
of three millions of dollars or thereabouts,
which have been, by an ingenious subterfuge,
withheld from that institution. The charter Of
the Union Ferry Company provides that all its
earnings over and above its expenses and
dividend of ten per cent per annum to the
stockholders shall be paid to the City Hospi-
tai for the support Of the sick poor. To
those who know how the ferries have
been managed 1t may be unnecessary
to state that this provision has never
been complied with. It has been evaded
by the ingenuity Of the directors In adding
to their capital by the purchase Of additional
water fronts, the erection Of costly buildings,
and by the issue of extra stock-a watering
process which has perhaps paid better than
the earnings Of the ferries themselves. although
those are known to be enormous.
Thus, while the City Hospital has been skill
fully cheated of its proper dues by the Ferry
Company, poor patients, who ought to be re-
ceived there gratis, or nearly so, are com
PEELED either to pay weekly stipend, which
they cannot afford, or 60 to some of the county
institutions and become q burden upon the
taxpayers. At the same time it has been a
marvel why the trustees of the Hospital, hav
ing the law on their side, and having an obvi
GUS right to this accumulated sum of three
millions, did not attempt to assert their
rights and compel the Ferry Company to
comply with the provisions of the charter.
The mystery may perhaps be explained by the
fact that out of the twenty trustees of the City
Hospital six are connected with the Ferry
Company-one as superintendent and the
others as directors. or the Hospital trustees
belonging to the Ferry Company are Cyrus
P. Smith, superintendent, and Henry E.
Pierrepont, A. A. Low, Charles E. Bill, Fl.
B. Claflin and S. B. Chittenden, directors.
otLo NH hov
nection with the Ferry Company are William
II. Allen, A. W. Benson, A. v. Blake, Peter
G. Connell, J. H. rockingham, John Green
wood, John Halsey, Thomas Messenger, j.
L. Pope, H. G. Nichols, W. M Richards, W.
S. Tisdale D. W. Wetmore and A. M. White.
Why these gentlemen should have permitted
the claims of the noble institution they repre-
sent to remain in allegiance all these years and
leave it to "Citizens' Reform Association"
of a few weeks growth to take legal steps for
their recovery is a question they can probably
best answer for themselves, and they should be
called upon to answer 1t. 1t is pretty evident
that the city of Brooklyn has been cheated in
this matter of contract between the Legislature
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amount, while the company has been growing
rich, while it has been incommoding and
expressing the residents of Brooklyn in every
way and thus retarding the advance of property.
Fortified by that provision of the charter
which declares that the purchasers of the ferry
franchises must purchase also the entire pro-
perty in docks and boats and houses and privi-
leges owned by the present company, that cor
poration keeps the monopoly in it's own hands.
There is hardly an interest in Brooklyn that
the Union Ferry does not control. 1t has
finger in everything-the Hospital manage
ment, the Board of Education, the Corpora
ton and the Bridge Company. As to the
latter, the ferry interest may be considered as
having killed the bridge project outright. The
Ferry Company indeed, virtually, though in
directly, governs all Brooklyn, and most unfor-
tunately does it govern that city against the
interests of its inhabitants and property own
ers. 1t is to be hoped, therefore, that the
legal proceedings contemplated will compel
that grasping corporation to disgorge some Of
its gains and to surrender some portion of its
assumption to control and damage large and
growing city like Brooklyn.
The Sultan and tue viceroy.
The special correspondence from CONSTANT
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