The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-15

more conspicuous tenor OF power.
Are We to Have Rapid Transit in New
York s-Some suggestions for the state
Legislature.
One of the lobby schemestO upheave Broad
way for the next twenty years and to tumble
down two-thirds of the buildings on that street
appears to have come to grief. The Beach
Pneumatic Transit Company, which asks the
privilege to accomplish this work for the
benefit of the citizens, in order to afford them
cheap rapid transit, has, it appears, burdened
itself in advance Of the commencement OF its
work with liabilities to the extent of five mil
lion dollars. OF course the President and
Secretary of this appartion of a corporation
inform the Legislature, through lobby agent,
that this is an error, and that all the original
stock, which is stated to have been thrown
away as bait to tempt influential fishes into
the underground net, is still securely locked
up in the treasury" although where that
important department of the corporation is
located does not appear. But this denial
amounts to nothing, and there is no doubt
that If any such wildcat scheme should be
authorized by the Legislature more than five
million dollars, If not double that amount,
would have to be placed TO the debit side OF
profit and loss at the opening of the company's
books. Such jobs have to buy their way
through according to the amount supposed to
be in them, and as o Broadway railroad,
overground or underground has always been
L. Co. ufn al
Emma Mine, either in the shape of profi's or
| of blackmail, no. one of them could hope to
secure legislative sanction short of con-
| sideration in stock and interest sufficient to
pay half the cost of an honestly constructed
and practicable road
From the days of Jacob Sharpe down to the
present time no city railroad has ever been
authorized in New York out of which score
or more of members and lobbyists have not
made small fortunes before a days actual
work has been done on the road, to say
nothing Of the hundred smaller fry,
such as Cheap Jack Bohemians, legislative
officials and strikers of all degrees, who in
| variably contrive to squeeze few dollars
each out Of such jobs. On the horse car lines
this sinking of capital has not nterfered
| greatly with the public interests, the profits
having been large enough to admit Of toler-
ably low rate of fare, Notwithstanding the leak
| age to spectators and bIackmailers. But on
a line of railroad Of any description to be
| operated by steam, necessitating large out
| lay for the construction of an elevated road
bed, the purchase of right of way or costly
tunnellng, the squandering of an additional
five or ten million dollars on legislators, lob
byists, Bohemians and other public robbers
would injure the people and not the corpora
| ton. 1t would so increase the cost of the
work-ceriain to be large under the most ia
vorable circumstances-as to render reason
able rates of fare impossible.
The people of New York require cheap
travel as well as speed. A railroad is the
need of the poorer and not Of the richer
classes The Astors and Stewards and Van
derbilts of the city have their own lines of
rapid transit in fast horses and comfortable
carriages. They can live where they please
without being dependent upon public con-
veyances. The Smiths and Joneses and
Browns of everyday life, the men who labor
with the brain or the muscle for a living, the
clerks and artisans and laborers who toll ten
and twelve hours out of the twenty-four need
some means of escaping the rapacty of land
lords and of reaching their homes after their
exhausting work is over rapidly and at the
lowest possible cost. If railroad is 10 be
| built for the use Of steam, so as to enable the
masses Of the people to spread out to the
| northern end of the island and to reach Spuyten
Duyvil Greek with greater speed, ease and com.
! fort than they can now reach Thirtieth street,
every dollar Incorporated in its construc-
| ton, every dollar squandered on legislators,
lobbyists and strikers" is public outrage
and injury. The schemes that are now hang
ing about the State capital are all of the
Beach Pneumatic character, and should be
kicked out Of the Legislature in company.
They are, one and all, jobs concocted by ad-
venturers and spectators to put money into
their own pockets, and the good of the city
and the interests of the people of New York
are ignored and UNDECIDED.
1t appears almost hopeless in the present con-
dition Of legislative morality to look for the
| construction of a vaduct railroads.&c. only
practical scheme Of rapid transit for this city
by private corporation, for the very reasons
above set forth. If our best citizens were Ia
| go In body to Albany, ask franchise for
such road, and pledge the amount necessary
for its completion, their request would be re.
fused aud some pneumatic experiment, some
elevated wheelbarrow humbug or some
threc-tier imposition would be pre-.
| ferred, simply because there would he
''more in it" for the Legislature and the lobby.
There appears to be only one way in which
| the great necessity of rapid transit can be