Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1873-10-25
CONSOLIDATED CITIES.

| CONSOLIDATED CITIES.
The New York Graphic says, since
Philadelphia gathered under her NUM-
cipal wing the outlaying villages with
in the limit of Philadelphia County, the
example has been followed by other
leading cities. Boston and its suburbs
have been consolidated. Brooklyn has
annexed to itself the whole of Kings
County. New York would have extend
ed its rule over large part of West
chester County had not the veto of the
Governor been interposed. And now
New Jersey proposes to weld Jersey
City, Railway, Elizabeth, Newark, Pat
erson, and dozen lesser towns into
city which, at the start, will include
nearly half million Inhabitants, and
which is expected by our sanguine
neighbors to ultimately overshadow
New York. This tendency to consolida-
ton is in accordance with the dictates
of a wise political economy. Senator
Sumner, in his recent letter in reference
to the consolidation of Boston with its
suburban towns, clearly set forth the
wisdom of uniting under one rule adj
joining towns where interests are essen
TALLY identical. There is no doubt that,
before many years, a great part of West
chester County will be absorbed by the
City Of New York and it is greatly to
be regretted that the barrier of State
lines forbids the union of the various
towns lying within q circuit of thirty
miles of the City hall, in New Jersey,
Westminster County, and Long Island,
with New York, and the consequent for
nation of vast metropolitan district
that should be the undisputed metropo-
lis of the nation.
Jersey City, as the terminus of all
but one of the great railways leading
from New York harbor to the West and
South, possesses a vast advantage over
New York, in that goods can be trans.
ferred directly from the railway cars to
the steamers lying at the Jersey City
wharves. Until the Hudson River is
spanned by a railway bridge this ad-
vantage must exercise potent influence
upon the growth of Jersey City. 1t is
not impossible that the proposed con-
solidation of that growing town with its
greater and lesser neighbors, will, il
wisely carried out, result in building mp
a formidable rival to New York, both
in population and in commercial i'm
portance.
1t is to be hoped that, if this project
is carried out, the new city will be laid
out and built in such a way that fu.
ture generation will be spared the ne
cessity of tearing it down and rebuild.
ing it. The latter has been the process
through which all great cities have pass.
ed, and through which great part Of
New York will yet have to pass. An
opportunity to build model city will
be before our New Jersey friends, if the
proposed consolidation should become
an accomplished fact; and there is
doubtless wisdom and foresight enough
among them to prevent the opportuni
ty from being neglected until it is LOST
forever under the mushroom growth OF
a new city. Most of our old cities were
built by accident, without much regard
to commercial convenience, and in brave
defiance of aesthetic conditions and san
itary laws. One-third of New York will
have to be rebuilt before it can be O
convenient or healthful or beautiful city.
A vast progress has been made in archi.
tectural art and in sanitaryscience with.
in twenty-five years and, if the State
OF New Jersey Incorporates the propos.
ed consolidated city at the head of New
York Bay, we hope its proprietols will
take time by the forelock, and make il
commercially convenient and all that
can be desired in other respects. The
average length OF life should be twenty
years longer in the city than in the
country it is some fifteen years shorter
Our new city builders should see tina,
this state Of things is changed for the
better. aoa
l Official returns from the recent elen