Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1898-10-26
WILL BE A COSTLY STREET.
London to Cut New 1horoughrsre AT
a Cost of s3,BOO.OOO.

London to Cut New Thoroughrare al
Cost of s3,6Oo.OOO.
The city of London is about to un
dertake another of those gigantic op
erations which have marked its de
velopment during the greater part Of
the present century. in the opening OF
a new street for the convenience OF
commerce, extending from Holborn to
the Strand. 1t will be cut through
district now intersected by crooked and
narrow thoroughfares and inhabited by
a population of about 5000 artisans.
Inc Improvement requires the evic-
tlon of these people from their homes,
ana the London council has agreed to
Sehouse them within a mile of theiI
present quarters, so as not to disturb
their vocations. 1t is estimated that 1t
VIII cost the municipality $1,500,000 tc
DO this, being an average of $1,000 for
each family. The rent to be derived
rom these artisans when quartered
In their new homes will represent only
a small share of the interest on the
capital invested, but that is the penalty
which the municipality has been will
ing to assume in making the changes
involved in the main improvement,
which will cost $3,500,000. Incident
ally the measure has introduced GU
rious problem into municipal govern
ment, for in rehousing the evicted
working people employed on the line
Of the new thoroughfare 1t has virtual
ly established the principle that the
municipality shall reserve a part of the
constantly expanding and high-priced
areas within it, which are devoted to
commerce and warehousing, for the
housing of the laboring people en-
plgyed in them, and that the munich
patty must bear the difference be-
tween what the working people can
reasonably be expected to pay for such
accommodations ard the actual inter
est due on the basis of surrounding
land values. The experiment has been
MADE there on small scale for years
past, with some degree of success. The
great cities of the world have grown
curing the present century as they
never grew before Modern travelling
facilities, the development of manu-
featuring industries and the growth of
commerce have steadily drawn into
them the population of the rural dis
lrlcts. AS consequence the crowding
mas been so great and rapid within
them that many such improvements as
the one which London now contem-
plates making to relieve a gorge, which
were little dreamed of in the earlier
part of the century have, in the latter
half of 1t, become imperative necessi-
ties. Within the past fifty years the
ground plans of Paris and London
have been materially altered through
the opening of new thoroughfares
through congested districts in the in
terest of convenience, adornment and
commerce. During this brief period
all the boulevards which make Paris
the city beautiful and the magnificent
sewer system which makes 1t the best
drained city in the world have beel
constructed. So, also, the Thames cur
bankr ent and the great sanitary prob
lem involved in the relief of the
Thames of the city's sewage, which II
carried with it; the opening up of great
thoroughfares through congested dis
tricts, the construction of new bridges
to accommodate the eyer-increasing
transriver traffic, and the construction
of subterranean system of metropol-
itan railroads have largely changed the
face of the British metropolis.