The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-20

People or Now York-A Last Appeal
to tho Legislature.
The State Legislature has yet some days to
remain in session, and the "rapid transit
that has been made through the Senate by the
Vanderbilt bill to extend the lines of the Har-
lem and Hudson River railroads to the City
Hall Park shows that the members, when they
have the will to do So can accomplish great
deal of business in very short space of time
No subject has been considered at Albany this
session more important than the question of
rapid transit for New York 1t directly in
wolves the health, morality and happiness of a
million and half of people, residents of the
city; it concerns the prosperity and progress
of the metropolis, and it affects indirectly the
pockets Of every taxpayer in the State. Recent
statistics show that out of the whole number
Of persons doing business in New York only
forty-one per cent live in the city. Of the
remainder twenty-six per cent are driven
to find homes outside the State
twenty-four and half in New
Jersey and one and half in Connecticut.
While the Orange Mountain country, across the
North River, would probably always attract
more or less residents from the city, ct least
during the summer months, it is unquestion-
able that this tremendous drainage of our popu-
lation is wholly attributable to the want of rail-
road facilities for local travel on the island.
There are no more beautiful spots in the sur
rounding country than are to be found in the
northern part of Manhattan Island and in the
adjoining county of Westchester. If our bust
ness men could reach Spuyten Duyvil Creek
from the Battery in forty or fifty minutes
by steam cars not five per cent of our whole
population would live in other States. We
should then have some eighty thousand per-
sons, with their families, added to our city
residents, increasing the trade and profits of
our retail dealers and enhancing the value of
real estate, while nearly quarter Of million
of those who now live in New Jersey and Con-
necticut would swell the list Of taxpayers Of
this State. Owing to the shape Of the island
fifteen miles long and about two miles on on
average across from river to river-rapid transit
is an actual necessity The great bulk of the
business of the city is done in its lower por-
ton, say from Union square to the Battery,
but mostly below Canal street. Without
steam communication it is impossible that
business men can live with any convenience or
comfort in the upper part of the island, and
hence they are confined to limited area for
the selection Of homes or driven to Brooklyn,
Staten Island or New Jersey. The laboring
classes are in worse plight still; for they can
less spare the time consumed in travel or the
cost of the ferry crossings and are compelled
to huddle together in close, unhealthful locali-
ties and in tenement houses where the indis-
criminate mixing of the sexes leads to all sorts
Of vice and immortality. Give them rapid
transit at cheap rates of fare; let them spread
out into the country along Spuyten Duyvil
Creek and into Westchester county, where
they can find pure Dir and retired, clean attrac-
tive homes and the health and morals Of the
city will be more improved than they can hope
to be by the efforts of all the health boards
ever created and of all the missionaries that
ever prayed and preached.
These facts are familiar to the representa-
tives at Albany from the southern part of the
State, and should be understood by every in
telligent man, from whatever district he may
come. Up to this time the Legislature has
done nothing for the people in the way of
securing rapid transit in the city for the city.
The underground schemes that have been
discussed in the Senate and Assembly, and
over which disgraceful wrangling and fight
ing have been going on all the session, are mere
jobs, not designed to accomplish the work the
people SO much desire, but intended to put
money into the pockets of lobby spectators.
Some persons have fallen into the error of sup
posing that the Vanderbilt Tunnel bill is
project of rapid transit for the citizens of New
York, but it is only an extension Of the Har-
lem and Hudson River railroads, intended to
distribute and gather the travellers by those
lines at an extra charge of ten cents each, and
to be used as feeder for the freight trains to
the West. The Vanderbilt road is to run to
Fifty-ninth street for ten cents fare;
but there ore no provisions in the
Senate bill requiring the incorporation to
start trains every five or ten minutes both ways
for the convenience of residents, even for that
insufficient distance To offer to the business
and laboring classes of New York as means
of rapid transit steam railroad running only
to Fifty-ninth street would be very much like
holding out to the commerce of the Western
lakes the convenience Of o railroad from the
Atlantic coast to Buffalo, cut short at SYRIA
cuse. The Legislature has, therefore, done
nothing as yet towards giving us any practical,
sufficient rapid transit to meet the wants Of
the metropolis. Will they persist in obsti-
nately denying this boon to million and
half of people, or will they avail themselves
of the time yet remaining before the session
Closes to enact law in the interest Of the
public as promptly and as swiftly as they pass
bills in the interest of Individuals
There is but one practical plan of rapid
transit for New York certain to be carried out,