The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-07-15
Attac king the Enemies OF Rapid
Transit.

rPoX SHs COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CRY 70
THE cpS rH 70 70 s sHEsk pso
PINE As IS WITHIN THE POWER OF THE CITY
ri HE soHna SHAr ras FOREGOING REsoLu.
TION BE C0MlCSlCATEp TO giiiF MAYOR 81
| THE CITY AND iHE MEMBEaS " THE TWO
B14eDs 81 I RHoUsT ALL
Such MEASURES AS The LAW ALLOWS TO AS
CERTAIN WHISTLER rHE >GRFAcE . KAILKo ,ap
S ss VI OR AAi psr So RAPID TKsSslr ASe
| MADE, THEN THAT THEY WITHDRAW Such OF
! THE FRANCHISES or Tue OFFENDING CON 90 l.
| PASIEs AS 1T Is WITHIN THE POWER OF THE
| CITY GOVERNMENT TO WITHDRAW.
| RESOLVED FURTHER, THAT ~ THE sELEC
4H OF a HRr rs q AkS 70 AND
! ELECT SUCH REPRESENTATIVES,, AND suCH
ONLY. AS ARE Is FAVOR OF RAPID TRANSIT
/ WITH ALL THEIR HEARTS
Messrs. j. L. N. Stark, Isaac d. Cole, Fl.
w. Dimmock, Joseph Fl. Goodwin and
George Hobart were chosen as Il committee
| to lay these resolutions before Mayor Ely
and the Common Council. We trust these
Gentlemen will do their duty as quickly as
possible, and make public report OF the
answers they receive.
We have repeatedly warned the horse rail-
road corporations that they were compelling
the people of New York, in self-defence, to
attack them. These companies occupy the
streets without paying for that occupancy,
and having so long held the streets free Of
charge they seem to have come to believe
that they own the city Also But their
attempt to monopolize the carrying of pas
sengers in New York will fail, and if they
play too long the desperate game Of obstruc-
tionists they may find justice overtaking
them in unpleasant ways.
Originally the establishment Of horse
railroad lines was so great o convenience
that the public was not inclined to deal on
business terms with the companies. 1t was
not certain that these enterprises would be
profitable, and they were allowed to occupy
the streets without charge. Had the people
been able to foresee how profitable these
concerns would be they would have, justly,
insisted on payment to the city for the priv
ilege of occupying the streets. The horse
railroad companies and the gas companies
ought, at the very least, to keep the streets
in thorough repair and good order in return
for the rnonopolies which they hold. There
is no reason why this should not be de-
manded OF them now, and We should like
to see the effort made. Public opinion is
fast coming to the point where it will not
merely consent that this shall be done, but
will demand it.
The fact is the horse railroad corporations
have. for their selfish purposes, put stop
to the natural growth of New York. They
| Il in fbo 11otio
Of this island. They have very good thing
oft, for they have the carrying Of about a
million of people, and they say to them
selves, eff another million came in they
would inhabit the upper end of the island
and we should not carry them" Their de-
sire is to cram the tenement houses full, to
crowd the whole population into as small
space as possible and then to levy as large
tribute at as small an outlay as can be man
aged Mr.. Jackson S. Schultz showed in
his speech, by singular piece of forgotten
history, that these monopolists have but
lately come to this theory of managing
and controlling the city's growth. "Only
q few years ago. said Mr.. Schultz, ''both
the Third and Fourth Avenue Railroad pro.
| prietors made common cause, and asked the
Legislature for grant to erect an elevated
railroad over their respective tracts. ! made
a trip to Albany at my own expense to aid in
this endeavor. l thought then, and think
now, that it would have been proper solu-
ton of our difficulty. They were both large
and responsible corporations, and it appeared
to ne that, on the whole, it was better to
allow the quick and slow transit to be under
one control. But by reason of some in
huences, which it will serve no good purpose
to state here, that project failed. But
neither of these corporations then saw either
! constitutional or other impediment in the
way of an elevated railroad; and l venture
to think, if the grants had been made as then
contemplated, by this time we should have
had an elevated railroad over the present
track of the Third Avenue Railroad to Harlem
and one over the Fourth to Forty-second
street" Evidently ct that time these
monopoists had not elaborated their pres
ent notions OF controlling the growth OF the
| city so as to allow them to make the most
money with the least trouble and expendi-
| ture.
Mr.. Schultz is right in warning the horse
railroad companies that the people will not
consent much longer to spend one hour and
| a half in making trip from the upper to
the lower part OF the island, or three hours
a day in going to and coming from their
business. We are to have a series OF rapid
transit meetings, and the agitation of this
/ question will not cease until the opposition
either prudently gives way or is crushed.
Nine hundred and n.nety-nine out of every
thousand of our population desire and de-
mand rapid transit, and this overwhelming
! majority will not be much longer put off.
Not only the city but all the Hudson River
counties demand il, and if the monopolists
| s.nn- q OF tno Lang thnu mn Ii Nd the I.enis=