The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-11-17
The Glory of New York.


New York. said President GILMAN OF
Johns Hopkins University at the opening
OF the new buildings of the Teachers Col.
lege on Morningside Heights on Thursday,
lis In itself a sort Of teachers college where
other cities may learn both what to do, and
what not to do" II is ian example to all
this land a colossal object lesson which
other cities are sure to watch and weigh. ~
The remark was very appropriate to the
occasion, for the Teachers College is a part
Of a federated educational and university
system which is possible to New York alone
among all American cities, and n conse-
quence Of the development Of civilization
which is higher and more complete here than
anywhere else in this country. With Column
bia College as the nucleus, this system has
been extended until 1t now embraces all the
departments and facilities requisite for the
evolution of a veritable university destined
for an illustrious future; but as President
GILMAN suggested, the greatest university
is New York itself, the centre from which
proceed the forces most powerful in shaping
American civilization.
New York has been subjected to pretty
severe criticism of late. 1t has even been
described as furnishing the worst example
OF municipal government in the world, and
the Displacement has come from within
its own borders. Instead OF being a uni.
versity in itself profitable for the ~instruc-
ton OF the whole Union, as President
GILMAN sees It, those ~revilers have de-
nounced 1t as a very sink Of iniquity
whence only noxious influences can issue:
as a community so far degraded that it had
submitted supinely to the control OF its
basest elements and was sinking into sub
stantial barbarism. President GILMAN him
self spoke of New York as having Just
overturned in a day. "a bad municipal
Government" from which it had suffered
for years, with the battery of the Ten
Commandments, thus implying that before
Tuesday OF last week things here were in a
dreadful way. But the community which
put that Government out, was the same
which put II in two years ago by a vote OF
two-thirds OF the citizens. 1t came In Mt the
flood tide Of Democratic success in 1899: it
went out last week when the Democratic
tide everywhere fell to its lowest ebb. Its
overthrow, therefore, cannot be attributed
to any moral uprising peculiar to this city
at this time. New York simply followed
the prevailing political fashion.
However II was brought about, the change |
has occurred, and as II was the popular will
it is well. The people will now have a
chance to see II as a result OF il they get a
better municipal Government. They will
have an opportunity to compare the new
Government with the old, and they will he
able to see whether the old was as bad
practically as its ~revilers made it out to be.
Under the past Democratic Government
of this city, occurred all the advancement or
civilization which President GILMAN aid
had made it a model for the other cities OF
the Union. Central Park, the museums de-
voted to the works of nature and art, and
the vast educational development here.
which he instanced as influential in
similar civilizing n Guilt
waiting enterprises elsewhere, have all
been developed under this Government de
nounced as ~unspeakably base. The system
for the sanitary regulation Of a great COM
established and perfected under
rule, has been the model for every con.
siderable health department in the Union,
and is now recognized at home and abroad
as unexcelled in the world, il not the very
best existing. A New Yorker visiting the
great American cities sees in every one OF
them the effects of the beneficial example OF
New York. Even its Police Department,
20 bitterly and in some respects SO Justly
lssailed, has furnished the model for munich
pal police generally. Whatever its defects
may be, and they are still many, New York
IS by all odds the most civilized city in the
Beside it, none of the Others is toll
IL is also relatively to its popuIa-
lion, the most orderly, and it is the most
conservative and the most enlightened.
The Teachers College has been erected in
neighbOrhood which before many years
will have a distinction far exceeding any
'ther in this country. II will contain the new
cathedral of st. John the Divine, st. Luke's
Hospital, and the imposing structures of Co
umbia College, all buildings notable for
heir architectural eminenee. The days of
he TWEED Ring are accounted, and not un-
reasonably, as the worst in the history OF
he municipal Government of New York.
the coming development of those com
handing heights a a great centre
II learning and science and religion
vas a possible by the boulevard
cheme conceived b. tina. ring, and de
Iounced ~ it's inception re . rrrrap, aud 1
Iseless job Of stupendOus p.a'rIr. :1ns. Zen 4