Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-01-23


nent character.
On the 1st of Janu,ry the net pub
lie debt of New York was S118, 000.-
900, as agains. 500, 900, 900 II year
ago. This increase of so, 900, 900 has
been variously explained, but not
clearly and cogently in any public
document which has yet made its ap-
penrunce. The debt of New York is in
the form chiefly of longtime bonds,
drawing low rate Of interest,
and protected by the segregation
of certain items of public revenue,
some of them from special sources,
as, for instance, water taxes, not de-
voted to the payment OF the city's cur
rent expenses. The whole debt, how.
ever, is charge upon the people of
the city, and the question may be rea.
sonably asked if there is n corre-
spending increase in the assets of New
York to keep pace with the growth OF
the funded debt.
The city owns within its territorial
boundaries real estate and buildings
upon real estate to the assessed value
OF 1920, 900, 900, or of an actual value,
under the ordinary basis of computa-
tion of ren estate values, of $3.50, O0O,- :
OGO. Included in this are the docks
and wharvcs, of the value OF about
$50, 900, 900; the school houses, valued
Mt 500, 900, 600; the courts, prisons, and
correctional institutions, Mt q like sum {;
fire horses $40, ,00O,0OO and police
stutions also $40, 000, 900, with srmor-
les valued Mt $3,5oO,OO0 The mar
kets. yielding considerable item Of
public revenue. are valued ut
800, 600, 900 and the city parks, e1-
elusive of Central Park, nt $45, 900, 900.
OF course, the CITY has neither the de-
sire nor the need to sell any Of it's
park lands; but this estimate of their
present value greatly exceeds tho
amount of bonds issued for their ac-
QUESTION. Shortly before the tinan.
cial difficulties of 1893 the commits.
sioners of taxes and assessments esti-
mated the approximate value of Cen
tral Park at $87, 900, 900, sum which
on the basis of actual to assessed valuo
would represent about $145, 900, 900
at that time or now $3.50, 900, 900 at
least.
Besides the tangible assets of the
city already given, there are somo
others-wuter lots, unused municipal
property aud portable effects, which
bring the total value up to about
SAT-, 100000, exclusive of the city,
many franchises of great value, such
as the ferries, the railroad licenses,
and the licenses for street cars. But
excluding all these from the account
of stock prior to the Greater New
York consolidation, this city has in
material wealth four dollars OF value
for every dollar it owes.
In report adopted the Board OF
Trade and Transportation has pre-
sented what appears to be safe work
ing Lasis for legislation to restrict the
height of new buildings. The concln-
sions submitted represent the careful
work of subcommittee charged with
the duty of investigating the whole
question, and they present the results
of the most intelligent study OF the
subject that has ever been undertaken
in this city. This report favors law
providing that no building hereafter
erected in the wide street and avenues
shall exceed 200 feet in height, and
that no structure to be used MS a
hotel or apartment house shall exceed
1G5 feet. The extrcm. limit of
height for buildings on the narrower
streets is not indicated, but it is to be
regulated with view to greater safety,
for inmates, ndjncent property owners
and the general public. Two impor-
tnnt provisions are proposed with re-
gard to such structures. The frs; is
TINT every building having height of
1877 feet or more shall contain two
separate s,airways lending from the
ground to the roo', and the other is
that euch building Of such character
shall maintain its own individual ap.
paratus for cxtinguishing fires.
There we're nearly 5000 cases Of
consumption i'll New York city last
year, and nearly 6,0O) persons died
of it. The board OF health reports
that nearly all of this suffering and
death can be prevented by treating
the disense rs II communicable one,
like small pox or diptheria. Atpresent
from 80 to 50 persons are strlken
every day because the sputum Of
consumptives is not safely disposed Of
Hence, hospital should be started.
OF which the board OF health should
huve charge, for the exclusive ore OF
the city's consumptivrs. There is no
escape from this conclusion Of the
board, for consumption has more VIC
Tins in New York thnn al other COM
municable diseases put together.
Since January l the convicts in the
New York state prison have been kept
idle under the provisions of the new
constitution, which prohibits the sale
Of products of prison labor and the
employment of convicts except ON pub
lie works. The first fruit Of this pol :
icy of idleness is the attempted suicide
of prisoner at Sing Sing named
Hoffman, who listlessly brooding over
his situation for some days in the soli-
tary confinement of his cell on the
fifth tier, seized the chance, when re-
leased for the morning exercise, to
lenp to the stone floor 70 feet below.