The National tribune., 1889-10-31
THE NEW YORK CRY IDEA.

line SELFISH aDlnlu5 Oh INC AFeIdpo NOW
York City man against protection is perfectly
easy to understand. lie thinks it is against
his pecuniary interest As rule, he is more
or less closely connected with importing. IF
not an importer himself, importers are his
with them. If capitalist, he has his
money invested in some great trunk rail-
long distances into the Interior, and bring
ing back agricultural products. What he
would bring about, if he could, would be q
commercial system by which every bushel
of grain or pound of meat raised in the
country should be sent to New York City
for shipment to Europe, and every dollars
worth of goods used by the grain and meat
raisers be purchased in Europe and imported
through New York. In this way he, and
those like him, would make double profit
on the entire business of the country. lie
has no sympathy whatever with the desire
of people outside the city for home manufac-
lures and home markets for their products
He regards the building of factory in the
Interior MS direct stab at the prosperity of
the city. He gets no profit on the goods
it furnishes the farmers, nor on the food
products they supply it with. Neither
commissions nor freight earnings from the
transactions find their way into his pocket.
They all go to enrich the people of that
locality. He is consequently fiercely against
the system.
Since the very foundation of the city this
feeling has dominated great portion of her
people. They have always felt that their in
tercsts were different from and antagonistic
to those of the rest of the country. During
the Revolution they were bitterly hostile to
the patriot cause, and the worst Tories in
the Colonies were found among them and the
people of South Carolina. They raised at
least one regular regiment of "LOyalists to
fight the Continentals. They welcomed the
British troops, who captured the city in the
first year of the Revolution and held it
through the entire struggle, it being the last
place they gave up, which they did not do
until two years after the surrender of Corn
wallis ut Yorktown.
1t was only with the greatest difficulty
that New York City was induced to consent
to the Union. She insisted upon quasi
independence, and it was largely due to her
opposition that New York was the last of
the IL States whose ratification of the Con-
stitution was necessary to render it opera
tive. At the outbreak of the rebellion this
element supported Fernando Woods scheme
TO make New York free and independent
city.
This element has been increased enor-
mously by the influx of greedy harpies from
every land, who have absolutely no interest
in the country, except the money they can
make ont of it in the shortest space of time.
1t is idle to talk 10 them about whatever
benefits the country Mt large beneiiting also
its chief city, as the experience of the past
clearly shows. They don't want any policy
which will bear fruit 10 years from now,
when they may--probably will be back in
Europe. They want all the money they can
make no'o-let the future take care of itself
They would welcome stopping every manu-
featuring wheel in the country tomorrow,
if possible because that would bring an inn
mense increase at once of foreign importa-
tions, which would I'll their pockets.
OF course there Is, and there always has
been n very strong patriotic elcment-na-
| tive and naturaiized--in the city, by the
assistance of which it has been held in
its place. These are MS genuinely American
in all that the word applies-as the peo-
| pie of any other city or section. We are
now speaking only of the sordid, clamorous
| I'M Amercan element-native or alien
which has always been hostile to the best
| interests of the country at large, and is now
sayagely aggressive in its assaults upon pro-
| lection and upon the Governments pension
policy.
/