The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-09-28

work by q liberal system Of improve
ment at this end of the route. The
docks of New York should be improved
from the Battery to the upper end Of the
island, along both the rivers which hold us in
their embrace. The harbor of New York, in
its natural advantages, has not its equal in any
other country, and its system of docks should
be similarly unrivatled. There appeared to
be some prospect two or three years
ago, that this necessary public Improvement
would be secured, and that we should one day
see along our whole water front massive piers
and slips which would accommodate the ship
ping of the world. But the blight of preju-
dice, incompetency and scrub-woman parsi-
mony fell over the city, and all public enter
prise dropped palsied to the ground. Rapid
transit is with us necessity of commerce, as
well as of our very existence in the city. This
great benefit also appeared promised to us,
until small minded malice and intrigue inter-
fered to obstruct its progress, and all hope of
securing steam transit through the island died
away under the rule of niggardliness and
stupidity to which we were doomed. To-day
New York is going backwards. The fraud
of q bogus reform has swindled the
metropolis out of decade of prog
ress. Our taxes are increasing, our debt
is growing larger and larger, our finances
are in inextricable confusion, our creditors are
unpaid, the city is involved in unceasing
and costly litigation, and, in the face of oil
this, the whole system of public improve
ment is paralyzed, and not single under
taking that can benefit and enrich the metrop-
oils is in healthful condition of progress.
The government is crippled and inharmonious;
hobbling along feebly on crutches or snarling
and swapping like an ill-tempered cur. There
are in New York but few of those conveniences
for commerce which great city should pos
sess, and it is notorious that on freight coming
to the city the cost of handling and storing
is often greater than the charge for transporta-
ton. We need system of docks such as we
were promised three years ago; we need rail
roads for moving freight by steam from end to
end of the city warehouses ample enough to
accommodate a commerce whose growth
can only be limited by the extent of the
facilities we can offer, and means of
rapid transit for the population
needed to carry on the vast business OF the
metropolis. Under a spirited, competent and
efficient government we should soon possess
all these necessary aids to our growth and
prosperity under the rule Of effete and in
competent men we can never hope to secure
them. Yet while the question of improved
and cheapened transportation is agitating the
public mind it is time that we should remem-
Der the importance of the public improve
ments that are needed in the great centre of
the nations commerce. It is always well to
commence reform at home. While our magnif-
icent boulevards are left in an unfinished
state through the distractions and spite
of the financial department while our
docks are permitted to rot away by
slow degrees; while all the wheels of
progress in the city are blocked by arrogance,
prejudice, obstinacy, false economy and in
competency, we are scarcely in a condition to
read homilies to others. Let us seek to infuse
some spirit of enterprise and iberality into
our municipal government; let us place in
power men of sterling integrity and of intel
hgence enough to appreciate the Importance
of great works of public improvement let us
push the metropolis forward on the road of
progress and prosperity, and we shall then be
able to join hands with the great West to offer
her the facilities at the seaboard SO much
needed for her growing commerce, and to
unite with her in demanding the solid reforms
which are Of such vital Importance to her
people.
Statcme nts of Suspendei Com nm n les.