The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-05-05

/ tween the projectors Of rival railroad schemes
nothing was easier than for interested parties
10 interfere and paralyze any successful effort
by arraying one enterprise against another
| In the old days it was always safe for the
patrons Of one scheme to throw upon the
others the stigma Of corruption. The barter
and sale Of legislative franchise had become
virtually a recognized industry in Albany
and members, emulating the pernicious but
dazzling example of men like Tweed, were
only too anxious to combine into rings
to insure the success OF their own
measures or dictate the defeat of those
to which they were opposed. If the
true history of the passage of the Tweed char
ter, the Erie Classification bill, and, in fact
every measure affecting any Of our great rail-
roads, could be known, it would be easily
seen how so long as any enc powerful in
terest was arrayed against rapid transit as
general measure Of public welfare it would
be impossible to induce the Legislature to
adopt it
Happily. however. or perhaps we should
say, to be accurate, unhappily, considering the
condition in which New York is to-day, rapid
transit is no longer question of schemes and
plans The issue is no longer whether
we shall have an elevated, or sur
face or an arcade, or an underground
railroad. People are no longer divided into
partisans, one class demanding railroad on
the east side, another insisting that there
should be one on the west. 1t is not ques-
ton Of tunnelling, or of bridging, or of exca-
= h
lie sense of New York is that we need rapid
transit, no matter in what shape it comes.
The problem to be solved is, how to go from
the Battery to the Harlem River in the shortest
space of time. We are forced into solution
of this problem by the fact that while
New York has been retrograding for the
last ten years, the cities surrounding it
have been advancing in prodigious
strides We see that Brooklyn and
Jersey City and Williamsburg, the towns on
the Erie and the Pennsylvania railroads as
well as those lying beyond the East River,
have entered upon career of unexampled
prosperity. Their prosperity represents the
atrophy of New York, the paralysis of its
growth, the fact that, notwithstanding the
ferries and the obstacles of the Hudson and
East rivers, the people prefer to find homes
in other States and other counties than to live
in the city of their choice, where they trans
act their business, where they earn their
money, where, if they were permitted, they
would make their homes.
This sentiment has grown slowly but
steadily. We do not underrate the magnitude
Of the interests opposed to rapid transit. At
the same time we think that the gentlemen in
charge Of these interests, as has been 80 often
the case, fail to read the situation truly
There is this general belief that the owners Of
the surface lines running along our main ave-
nues regard rapid transit as virtually the
death Of their franchise. They fear that in the
event Of q steam line running either on the
east or west side from the Battery to the Har-
lem River, there would be lessening
Of their revenue. Now, we think this
is q fear and not . demonstration The
addition Of rapid transit to the present facili-
ties Of communication would be 10 increase
the bulk Of travel and not materially decrease
the revenues Of any Of the companies. The
fact is that none Of these roads is competent
to transact the business that has been forced
upon IT, Take the Third avenue line, which
is now our main artery to Harlem. This is
prosperous, shrewdly managed, advantageous
road, but for years it has failed to answer the
wants Of the people. In the morning and
evening, when the tide Of business either
goes up or down, tho Third avenue cars
are unable 70 accommodate their pas
sengers. A journey from Harlem 70 New
York in the morning, or from New
York to Harlem IN the evening" Is most dis
agreeable undertaking, and it Is because the
travel has outgrown the accommodation. Now,
if We had a steam line from the City Hall to
Harlem there would probably not be as many
passengers at certain hours Of the day on the
Third avenue line; but that line would stiI
have its local traffic Il would still be able to
pay good dividends on its capital stock. In
stead of transporting ladies and gentlemen
very much as cattle are carried on cattle
trains from the West it would have the op-
portunity Of accommodating them as ladies
and gentlemen, in proper cars, at good rates
Of speed, and without any Of the annoy
ances that now attend o trip to Harlem at GER
tain hours Of the day.
This We might say q the other lines. though
perhaps not in So large a degree. The gem
eral fact We present i this That rapid tran
sit does not necessarily mean destruction Of
our surface lines Therefore, when the own
ers Of these franchises spend money at Albany
/ to arrest rapid transit they 40 not gain any
material advantage, because rapid transit
must come, sooner or later. The longer II is
postponed and the more impatient tho people
become for the proper measure the less dis
position there will be to consider tho Just
rights Of these railways. The people feel,
and justly, that they have given the
\ owners az these roads certain valuable fran