The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-19

| Fooltshs
I Rapid transit is the first and most pressing
want of the city of New York. We might
make all other local improvements that could
be suggested, and without the means OF steam
car travel through the city the money expended
upon them would in great measure be
thrown away. Our docks might be rebuilt
and extended along both sides of the island;
our cramped streets down town might be
widened and opened; our splendid boulevards
up town might be completed; we might grade,
pave, lay sewers and gas pipes and clothe the
newly annexed territory in the richest OF
municipal robes, but without railroad or
railroads to carry the people from the West
chester border to the Battery in half an hour,
and to afford them local accommodations ss
ample as those afforded to the Londoners by
the English underground railway, all such i'm
provements would fail to supply the real want
of the city or to properly advance its progress
and prosperity. To make q great
metropolis it is necessary to have,
above all other things, the means Of
rapid locomotion, so that people who live at a
distance may pass quickly between their homes
and their occupations and business may be
transacted without the annoying delays OF
Broadway blockades and crawling horse cars.
The business centre of New York is not CEN
tire at all 1t is, and always will be, at one
end of long, narrow neck of territory, and
hence what is o necessity for all great cities is
doubly necessity for New York.
The growth of London is regarded as mar
out further and further every year on every
side and continues to spread the life and bus
tie of city streets over green fields and coun-
try roads in every direction. The reason is
obvious Men can live wherever they may
please, or wherever their means will allow
them to live. and can reach the business parts
of the metropolis from distances of fifteen or
twenty miles more quickly than New Yorker
who Lives on Twentieth street can reach Wall
street. Underground railways and viaduct roads
carry their thousands of business men, clerks
mechanics, laborers, bankers, brokers, ship
pers and all other callings backwards and
forwards, north, south, east and west, SO that
every man whose living is made in London
can live in the city or its suburbs, taking his
choice of locality and suiting himself with a
residence in accordance with his income. If
New York had such accommodations it would
very speedily double its present population,
and the beautiful country across the Harlem
River would be covered with fine streets and
7 convenient residences. Asst is, we drive our
population from us across the East River to
Staten Island or into another State. Business
men make ivings in New York and spend
their incomes in other places IF steam cars
were running every five minutes the whole
length of the city, some in through trains and
others making stops at short intervals, after
the fashion of the London underground road,
| q much smaller portion of our business men
would seek residences outside New York, and
certainly very few indeed would live in
another State. Rapid transit would enrich
the city, increase the valuation of real estate,
decrease the rate of taxation and add to the
general prosperity. Why should we be with
out it?
The cost of railroad, even if built through
the heart of the city, would be trifing as COM
pared with the benefits to be secured by such
work. But taking the estimates of the cost
Of o viaduct road, already carefully prepared
by competent persons, and calculating the
amount Of travel on the present horse cars,
aud it is shown that the receipts would be GER
tain to pay handsome profit on the invest
ment We must not, however, forget that the
construction Of steam railroad from the
| Westchester border to the Battery would
| largely increase the present travel, for it
would at once take to the upper part of the
| city thousands who now live across the rivers,
and other thousands who are now packed in
densely crowded tenement houses and who
seldom ride at all. If the city should build
road, making the fare simply enough to pay
the running expenses and interest and to pro-
vide q small sinking fund, the traffic would be
correspondingly increased and the people would
derive the full advantages Of the investment
But if private capital chooses to undertake
and carry out the work there is no reason
why it should not do so. Let any honest,
practical citizens be granted franchise, only
requiring that trains shall be run at certain
| intervals and with o maximum rate Of fare
specified in their charter, and we have no
doubt they will make large fortunes out of the
undertaking. If the right sort Of persons do
not offer to build the road, then it should GER
tainly be built by the city, and law author
izing it should be passed at the present ses-
sion of the Legislature. We have already
sunk large sums of money in uptown i'm
provements. We shall soon be called upon to
make considerable expenditure on the new
wards If we desire return for our invest
ments we must secure rapid transit and thus
render the new streets and avenues accessible.
It is penny wise and pound foolish policy,
now that we have done SO much to improve
and beautify the upper part of the island, to