The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-05-24
Lost OpnortunltY.

It is assuredly a very great disap-
pointmens to all who wish Jersey
City well, that the opportunity OF
presenting the city in a favorable
light, afforded by the City Hall corner
stone laying, is to be let pass unim-
proved We are especially sorry to
see that Mayor Wanser, who is in
general public spirited, has taken a
decisive attitude in opposition Co a
fitting public display.
Jersey City has figured a good deal
in tine newspapers of the country this
year. We started off as a sort of wild
and desert community where a
ruffian could set upon a young woman
in the early hours of the evening and
fracture her skull and otherwise NAL
treat her In a brutal In the
last week, we have again been paraded
as a sort of border community, a city
of vacant lots and unvisitsd wilds.
Just the place which q deliberate
assassin may select in which to put
an end TO the sweetheart he is tired
of. This has always been our pecu-
liar fate. Year after year We I'LL
columns upon columns of space In the
New York papers; but it is always to
our detrilnent. Our bud water, our
high taxes, our thieving officials, rail
road aggressions on our streets, shock
ing crimes and occasionally disgust
ing scandals are the contributions we
mainly make to the news of the
day.
OF late, there has been some yaria-
ton in the m%onotony. Mayor Wan
ser's administra ton has brought US
much credit abroad. The coming of
the trolley ser vice has caused solne
better things TO be said of US. But,
In fact. nothing sufficient has ever
been done to dispel the false and in
furious Impressions that prevail
afnong our neighbors. and which
g~rIeSoahsiyy retard the growth of popu-
lation and the extension of invest
ment, especially among the better
classes of people whom we should be
most anxious to attract.
Thers was really a fine opportunity
to exhibit ourselves in the right light
on the present occasion. A fitting
celebration of the corner stone laying
of a municipal building on which ws
are spending a million of dollars was
sure .to. oattraet great attention. Ex-
tensive articles in the New York and
other papers were q foregone GER
tainty. Probably the whole city, its
institutions, it's advantages, its pros
pects, would have been written up to
an extent and in q vein never before
enjoyed by our people.
We cannot help regarding this as a
golden opportunity lost. We think it
has been let go very cheap, too. We
sympathise, of course, with Mayor
Wanser's desire to ave money. We
approve most cordially his ambition
to see the new building furnished in
beautiful style whom it is completed.
But We think there are times when
money spartng is poor economy, and
this is one OF them. 1t seems to Us
that If the Board of Aldermen had in
ftiated a movement for a public cele-
bration by a suitable resolution, and
the Board of Finance had appropri-
ated, say 81, 900, for the absolutely
necessary expenses, the taxpayers
would have heartily approved the ex-
penditure. We believe that if the
movement had once been started thus,
in an official way, the wealthier citi-
gems would have responded literally
Subscriptions, we believe, would have
been forthcoming; private enterpr Use
would have added to the public cele-
bration such private features as a big
banquet or reception, and the event
would have been in accord with the
importance of the occasion and the
dignity of the city.
As ii is, we are doing a big thing in
a ene-horse way. We are displaying
a lack OF public spirit, civic pride and
liberal appreciation of our W prog
ress which are calculated to make US
seem rather small than otherwise in
the sight of our contemporaries
tx