New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-16
ROBBINS REEF AGAIN.

It is difficult to understand how n legislator
who looks forward to career in any pnbllc
place except prison can lend himself to the
schemes by which adventutcrs at Albany are
almost every day llling the people of the
metropolis with alarm. The Robbins Reef job
has just made its appearance again under cir
cumstances which ought to prevent any gen
tleman of self-respect from voting for It, even If
the objections to it had not been over and over
again exhibited. II was smuggled through the
Senate by a trick and pressed forward in the
Assembly, and had nearly passed that body also
before the members knew what they were vOt-
ing for. Any project which is presented to the
Legislature in disguise is presumably Il nefa-
rous one and any Senator or Assemblyman who
busies himself III pushing disguised project
that is to say, getting votes under false pre-
tences-is presumably corrupt. The burden OF
proving that he IS an honest man rests upon
HIM.
The bin to authorize the formation of an arti-
fetal island on Robbins Reef does not even
pretend TO be for any public advantage. The
only object of the enterprise is to enrich private
spectators, by giving them leave to build an
island in the harbor for their own use. FavOrs
of this kind, it is hardly necessary to remark,
ought never to be granted except upon the
clearest possible proof that they will not inter
fere with the general interest. But with re-
spect to the Robbins Reef enterprise there is
an overpOwering weight Of opinion, from the
best engineers and other admitted experts, that
it will be serious injury to the harbOr. The
most that any competent authority can say for
the project is that perhaps the Judgment Of
those who oppose it is mistaken, and the island
may do no harm. If there is any doubt upon
the subject, if there is the least danger of injury
to the harbor, then the Legislature has no bust
ness to grant this concession. This seems al
most too clear for argument; and yet the Leg
islature does not seem to realize what it Is On
the point of doing.
The business men of New York who know how
much tie prosperity of the metropolis, and with
it the welfare of the whole State, must be
affected by acts of the Legislature and the
Common Council, how commerce is crippled by
bad government, how the ship channels are
shOalDg, how the streets are given up to UNI
necessary railways, how the corporations get
for nothing what the merchant must pay for,
and how the city is becoming such a labyrinth
Of Instructions that traffic seems likely ere long
to be brought to full stOp-the business men
of NewYOrk, we say, must look around in
despair for some one to protect them. The
Common Council are elected to look after their
interests but the members make 1t their chief
business to quarrel over the patronage, and give
away the public streets. The Legislature is ex-
pected to guard the public; but in that body,
where obscure members from the back country
undertake to dispose of our metropolitan
waterways, wharves, and thOrOuehfares, our
chief danger appears to lie. Certainly there is
no raid upon the public so bold that members
enough to make it formidable cannot be rallied
in the Legislature. No doubt there are gen
tlemen in that gathering who have no character
they need care about, but all of them probably
hatter themselves that they have n reputation
worth preserving for future use.