The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-28

WILL Ouor MS celeDrat6u hdZOES W LILO
public at St. Patrick's Hall, May 81 and
June 4.
THE SHRiNKAGE OF VALUES.
The hard times for New York and the whole
country continue Men have looked forward
to q change which does not come, and which
seems as far off as ever The depression
promises to be long, and the revival only to
be arrived at after great shrinkage of values
and the reduction to the strictest economy OF
public and corporate administration and pri-
yate hfe We are in the hands of circu1n-
stances which no human wisdom can manage
or shape, and We shall be obliged to shape
ourselves to them. We have too many rail-
roads, and they have cost too much.
We have overdone manufactures, and our
mills are lying idle, or running to no profit.
We have too many middlemen In trade. In
brief, we have too many facilities Tor busl-
ness, There is not business enough In the
country to employ the men and the capital
that are Devoted to it; and we can only grow
mn to the employment of them by slow and
painful degrees We shall reach this point
quicker by the necessary diversion OF this
capital aud labor to productive pursuits or
bv the destruction of the one and the forced
withdrawal of the other.
New York seems likely to suffer more than
anv other city; the reason being that the
high price at which real estate is held en-
forces an unexampled expense in doing busi-
ness The number of stores unoccupied on
Broadway is very unpleasant indication OF
the state of affairs in the city. Business is
being absolutely forced into side streets, be-
cause men can not afford to pay the
Broadway rents. Taxes are enormous,
simply becau the people who do bust
ness in New York can not afford to live here.
Brooklyn has been largely built up by New
York men. New Jersey thrives at our ex-
pense, The towns up the river and out into
Westchester county are made and sustained
very largely by men who would live IN New
York if they could afford to do so. The sub
urbs of New York are drinking the life OF the
city; and New York goes on laying out its
cannot sell their lots to builders.
Nor is this all, or the worst Business goes
| in the long run, where it can be done the.
cheapest If any specified number OF
Western products can be handled and
shipped more easily and cheaply at Balti-
more, or Philadelphia, or Boston, than in
New York, that fact settles the question as
to where they will be handled and ship
ped Trade naturally goes to the metropo-
| lis of trade. New York is universally recog-
nized to be the metropolis. and, SO tai
cannot furnish the conditions tor doing bust.
ness as cheaply as it can be done elsewhere,
trade will lust as naturally turn away from
her AZ water will run down hill. If business
men will examine the prices Of real estate IN
the competing cities we have mentioned, and
compare them with those that rule in New
York, they will understand precisely why it il
that the process of diversion has already be-
gun. :.
For this matter of real estate and rents ii
destined to settle the whole question for New
York. with all her prestige. Business will g
where it can bs done the cheapest, and tina
question will be mainly settled by the prices
Of real estate. The element of rent goes intt
everything. The clerk who pays from two Il
five dollars more a week for his board than h
would be obliged to pay in Baltimore o.
Philadelphia, must have that sum added t.
his weekly wages. The workman who pay
fifty or hundred dollars more per annum to-
his tenement than if he were in q neighbor
ing city, must earn, in some way, that add
tional amount Not only our trade but ou
tax and, therefore, work at constant ant
killing disadvantage.
| IfNew York is ever to thrive again, AMI
perfect its growth and Importance as indubit
ABLY the great American city, her real estat
must shrink so that her own people may liv
mon Manhattan Island, and thus reduce he
i rate of taxation, and so that business can be
| done here as cheaply as it can be done else
where. It is hard for Q man who has had fift
, thousand dollars year for Broad way stor
: to take twenty-five thousand. 1t is hard for
man who has paid fifty thousand dollars tor
? house, or thirty thousand for q lot, to sell
, at thirty Ter cent discount; but the sacriic
must be made and the shrinage submitted to
! Rapid transit may accommodate Limited
number of business men now living within
> the city limits, but it will not populate tn
| vacant territory, unless it can be cheapl
: bought and built upon.
/, The cost of living 10 New York is some
! thing fearful. A man can buy a dinner fo
: his family at Washington Market at fal
t price. but the moment the staples of that mai
ket are moved uptown, sum is added j
j. MANY instances eq nal to their original cost {
q the producers door. Beefthat originally Coz
Q from tour to six dollars on the foot, rises
an equal advance by passing from Fulto
street to Forty second street; yet we do NJ
know that the market-men make too niue
r money. Turkeys that cost eighteen cents
Washington Market, rise to twenty-five
riding three miles. All this must be changed
IS and it can only be changed by fall of rent
le Would it not be we'll for New York to loo
" all these facts in the face, and accept then
e with all their practical consequences, befo
% it is forced to do so in chronic adversely
'. general disaster? There is but ono way o.
Of our trouble. 1t is just as patent to-day
n. it ever will be, to all wise men. Why not e
ter upon it at once, and thus Dust the incub
that is pressing the life out OF us!-Scribn
re for June.
You can get ice cream, Strawberries, 81
a. other summer refreshments, at St. Patricl
a. Hall, each evening during the great eco
Is, gress."
Go early, go often, and be richly repa
r.. '"Congress of Nations" St. Patricbs Ha
May 3lst, June lst, I'd, Sd and 4th.