The New York herald., 1874-11-22
City Debts and City ImprOvementS-
Paris and New York.

luxuries and splendors of existence, find their
maginations stimulated by the supplies OF
that city; and the poor, who are compelled
to live on hard earned pittance, can do more
with it in Paris than in any other great city.
In one particular only does it yield the palm
in the necessities Of modern life to one other
great city. London is an age IN advance Oh
other cities in overcoming that difficulty which
we call s'the problem of rapid transit" Lon
| don has no horse cars. No street of the city
or the West End is handed over in fee to
monoposts in order that they may exclude
ordinary vehicles, filch the public, and or
ganize great vested interest to defeat with
capital every scheme for the more eff
cient transportation of the people from point
to point Horse cars in London are confined
to suburbs like our Manhattanville or Har-
lem or Morrisania. But in the vast and
densely peopled districts between the Royal
Exchange and Westminster and Kensington
steam trains regularly run to and fro at inter-
walls of from five to ten minutes, and for very
low fares. So efficient is this sort of transit
that if we had it here laboring man might
leave his home in Harlem at quarter to seven
and be at his labor near the City Hall at seven
O clock, and this for six cents.
London is supreme among cities for the
convenience and advantages Of rapid transit,
but Paris in this particular also is far ahead
of our own city. Paris is cut into
two great sections by the Seine, and
on this river ply rapid little steamers
to and fro from either extremity of the
city, stopping at dozen stations. On these
the fare is from two to ton cents, according to
distance. Then Paris has six hundred and
ninety-four omnibuses, or perhaps more, as
that was the number reported in 1870. In
that year these vehicles carried one hundred
and seven million passengers. Each omnibus
made sixty-six miles day. Paris omnibuses,
owing to the excellent pavements, are easy
vehicles to ride in; they move at fair rate,
and one can ride either inside or on top, and,
as the average patronage is two hundred and
ninety thousand passengers day, they move
every day one-seventh Of the population.
With these, therefore, and the little s'bateaux
mouches on the river, the movable quantity
Of the population is pretty well cared for.
Persons who wish to ride more luxuriously
take cabs, which go to any part Of the city
limits for forty cents. While, therefore,
judged by the way in which she meets that
important requirement of modern life, the
rapid transportation Of the people, Paris is
fully up to the times, it is in other facts that
her glory is found. 1t is in the splendor and
the excellence of her public improvements
For her wellnigh numberless miles of per-
fecly paved streets, kept in irreproachable
condition, she is alone. Not only are the
streets themselves worthy of admiration, but
the administrations by which they are kept
in repair and also kept clean are worthy of
study. There is no part of Paris TO which one
cannot go by fine avenue, and there is no
time when that avenue is not in good condi-
ton. In every quarter Of the city there are
markets all conceived and regulated with
regard to the need and comfort of the people
The sewerage, the water supply, the police
exhibit the evidences of an equal thorough
ness in plan and administration. BY COM
parison with the hospitals of Paris we ought
to be ashamed to say that we have any hospi-
tals for we should be less Inundated by such
an acknowledgment than by The comparison of
what we have in that way with what there is
in Paris.
With all New Workers who contemplate these
facts there must come the inevitable query,
What does all that cost Is Paris as far ahead
of us in debt as in the more enjoyable posses
sions of great city? Without the loan it is
now proposed TO issue the consolidated debt
OF Paris is ,S00 000 600 francs or $780, OO0, OOO
and with the addition of the projected loan it
will be $412, 100000. Our acknowledged CITY
debt is about Sl5o, 200. Apparently the
absolute difference here is greatly in our favor
and if the addition of S262, 100000 to the
debt we're to be taken as the necessary price
of good streets and splendid promenades and
the other features of grand and beautiful
city, our people might well congratulate
themselves that they are without them But
the amount Of our debt, as it relates to the
is $3.50 to each person, and the
debt of Paris, stated at the outside, is S2O6 to
each person. With regard to the pressure on
the people, therefore, the debt OF Paris is
not greatly larger than ours while, if
we were to consider it with regard to its rela-
ton to property, the comparison would be
still less in our favor
But this comparison of the debts is based
upon the statement of the obligations of Paris
as they will be upon the addition of fifty-two
millions to the actual Indebtedness, but even
that actual Indebtedness does not represent
the amount Of money spent upon the city.
In fact, large figure in the present debt of
Paris is due to the events of the late war-an
Indebtedness altogether extraordinary and
not properly to be counted in a CON-
parison with our debt, as our city has
never had to pay war contribution
II we leave out Of the computation the burden