New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-22
CH[CAGO Is A METROPOLIS

The controversy concerning the metropolitan
claims Of New-YOrl and Chicago, which has
evoked such an amusing display of Illinois AFRO
gance, has been joined in by Mr.. Watterson and
1.-THE London Daily News" That the contro-
versy should have reached its present pitch is
less astonishing than that it should ever have
been seriously urged. For our part, we are
willing to cOncede nearly everything that the
friends of Chicago claim for that great and
growing city. Narrow localiSm alone can with
hold the need of admiration due to its aston
ishing advance in the last twenty years and
anybody who questions the Solidity and value
of its achievements need only drive for few
hours along its magnificent bOulevards to be
permanently undeCeived. The albums of Chi
cago views presented recently TO Queen Vic
toria by the Worlds Fair Commissioners, typiGy
with amazing completeness the true tendency
of American civilization, and no more suggestive
exhibit of the triumphs of peaceful republican
ism could be compressed into an equally NARROW
compass.
We have no sympathy with the spirit that
decries the products of our society, human and
animate, north of the Ohio and west of the
Allegbanies. In Boston and New-York the re-
linements and elegancicS that age alone can
award are necessarily encountered in greater
number and variety. But to say that the
great West and Northwest are incapable of
teaching us anything in the way of essential
progress is to assert an ndcfenSible proposition.
At the same time, to attempt to detract from
the visible and acknowledged eminence of the
East in points where it is especially fitted TO
excel is an unfortunate confession of nferority
and virtual proof of the business of the stigma
Of provincasm which it is 80 streDuMisy sought
10 remove. For it is well to remember that
an album OF Newly York views would be even
more likely to impress a European potentate
with notions Of American grandeur, even though
stock yards and hybrid county buildings. II
might even tend to suggest a higher ideal OF
municipal aspiration, and would certainly con-
firm pretensons of metropolitan ascendancy.
OF course it is easy to institute comparisons
0f population and to swell territorial area by
including desert wastes actually within a city s
limits but entitled to no more consideration
than similar spaces in the outskirts of ANY new
large town. The primary definition of "me-
tropos'' is "mother cityp This at once re-
veals the strongest Of all reasons why Chi
cago, for at least another century, could never
hope to substantiate her present claims, though
on this point Chicagoans are singuary obtuse.
Mere agglomerationS of brick and stone and
the mere budding Of human creatures are not
enough of themselves TO constitute a title to
supreme eminence. If they were, Jerusalem
would not attract thousands Of Chicago tour
lists, personally conducted and unattached.
Athens would long ago have been forgotten,
and Rome compelled to hide its diminished
head. At this moment the causes that make
London the worlds chief city are largely in
dependent of her population and commerce,
stupendous as those may be. She is supreme
because nowhere else in the world are collected
so vast multitude of interests so diversified n
swarm of noble associations, so tremendous q
variety Of resources for the entertainment and
diversion OF all sorts and conditions of men :