New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-01
GOYERNMENT or GREAT CITIES.

The strongest argument against the consoli
datlon of New-York and Brooklyn is the diff
Guilty of governing great municipalities. 1t Is
assumed that as the population increases the
task of administration becomes more complex,
local politics degenerate more and moro into
iobbery. and the facilities for the organization of
rings are vastly enlarged. 1t is quite true that
thieves of the Tweed class find an opportunity
in hugo metropolis which could not exist else
where. 1t is true also that the typical City
Hall Politician 6ourishes only in those rich
centres of enterprise aud industry which attract
the dissolute and ignorant who sustain him
and the busy taxpaye rs who tempt him by neg
lectiDg public duty for personal enterprises.
But is it true that municipal government gets
worse in proportion as the municipality gets
bigger 1t seems to us that the experience both
of New-York and of foreign cities teaches
that this is not the case.
Men now in the prime of life can remember
when New-Y0rk was q city Of the modest
Dimensions supposed to be favorable to pubic
virtue and good administration. Let them ask
themselves what the municipal government
was thirty or thirtv-five years ago. The police
force was marvel of inefTciency and demon
alzatiOn. Life and property were scandalously
unsafe. There were streets into which no re-
spectacle person would venture after nightfall,
and regions, like the Five Points, a visit to which
in broad day was no. without spice of adven-
ture. Riots ard street rows common.
A fight at the polls was an ordinary incident of
election day and we dare say there are few
mddle-aged Ncw-Y0rkers who cannot re-
member seeing a score or so of Ward patriots
marched to the station-house with bloody
heads, after smashing ballot-box and trounc-
ing few constabes. The fremen, though
courageous and active, were apublic scandal !;
a fire too often meant battle on the road and
drunkenness on duty. We complain great
deal of the condition of the streets, but at the
time we refer to the streets were not only i'm
measurably diruer than they are now. but gen-
orally ont Of repair, and even the principal
thOroughfares were allowed to become unsafe.
Their appearance in winter heggars descrip
ton. There were no great public pleasure
grounds. The small city parks, incosea with
ugly ratings wooden fences, were so ill-Kept
as TO he more of an eyes0re thar an ornament;
and having only few shftess guardians they
we're the constant resort OF disorde~ly char
acters. Cattle were driven through any of the
streets anu al any Jllle. oIaugutcI-Hou
were to he found in the neighborhood of genteel
residences, and a crowd of sch0ol-bOys might
generally be seen looking over the half-doors
and admiring the skill of their favorite butch
ers. Pigs were allowed the run of the best
streets, where they picked up a good living
from the ull-freighted cutters.
Rings were smaller in those days than they
became afterward, but they existed neverthe-
less, and official scandals were at least as COM
mon as they are now We hear of honorable
old citizens who used to hold places of trust at
the City Hall, and we imagine that they rep
resented the average character of the public
fdnctionaries of their day. We forget that
there are men of the same class in Office now.
and always have been. The Common Council
of the last generation was much more igno
rant and ridiculous body than our contempt