Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-09-15
WILL 1T BE LONDON OR NEW
YORK.
FORMER FAR IN THE LEAD
New York is Now the Worlds Chief
Financial Centre, and 1t is Claimed
That 1t will Displace London's
Supremacy in Commerce and Pop
uIation.

their CITY is the WOrlu CuI0l uudu-
cial centre. It will soon, they say,
displace London as the premier city
in commerce and population.
That New York will become the
worlds capital for thigh finance" is
probable-indeed, it is fast becoming
so-but London will for long retain
as one of it's leading local industries
the conversion of private business,
mining claims, patents, etc., into joint
stock companies.
New York may soon become
greater port than London. Tt depends
on whether we reform and modernize
our docks. 1t depends, too, on
whether America develops it's foreign
trade by lowering it's making
the American metropolis the clearing
house and emporium of the continent.
But there is no evidence in sight that
New York will in the life time of any
one living equal London in popula-
ton. London is in great part as much
new city as is Chicago.
London has more elements OF per-
manent greatness than New York.
Unlike New York, London does not
depend on it's commerce for it's
growth. Four-fifths of the population
of London, as the census shows, are
dependent not on industries, but on
the continuance of London as one of
the leading ports of the world and as
the capital of the empire. London,
besides being the worlds market for
wool, tea, sugar, coffee, and one of
the chief markets for wheat, vast
emporium, is the political capital of
the empire.
1t is the city to which all civil serv-
ants, soldiers, naval men, statesmen
who have served in the colonies and
dependencies turn in the days of their
retirement. The class and their de-
pendents form vast population in
themselves. London is the one social
centre of the kingdom and the en-
pire; the city to which all traders and
merchants, whether in Manchester,
Glasgow, India, Australia, or Africa,
come to spend the evening of their
days.
So long, therefore, as London re-
mains the lodestone of the empire it
will increase.
How London Grows.
The phenomenal growth of London
suburbs is one of the most marvel
lous things in the worlds history.
Drive around the outer zone of Lon
don and you will pass through miles
and miles of comparatively new
houses-some colonies of workmen,
others the houses of the genteel clerk,
then the villas of the small business
man and so on through all the social
strata, until the more imposing resi-
dences of the merchant and the higher
middle class are reached.
Not in one direction, but in all, has
the builder been at work The houses
push southwark over the broad fields
of Surrey and Kent. They blot out
the green valley of the Thames, con-
vert the fiat marshlands in Essex into
forests of brick and mortar, cover the
clay plains beyond Tottenham and
scale the northern heights, sometimes
so steep that the houses look like
steps of huge terrace.
Nothing impedes the progress of
the imperial city. It's outposts cover
the home counties, and it can claim
the health resorts by the sea in Kent
and Sussex as it's natural suburbs.
Expansion VS.. Annexation.
Compare the growth of London and
New York. New York city, chiefly
Manhattan Island, has now a popula-
ton of 1,850,093; the enlarged city, or
Greater New York, has a population
of 3,432,202. The county of London,
at the last census, had a population
of 4,536,063; Greater London had a
population of 6,580,616.
New York has only maintained it's
position as the first city in America
by annexation. 1t annexed Brooklyn
"a city almost as large as itself,
which had absorbed a number of other
towns. Brooklyn was sister city.
with all the elements of Independent
existence. Within twenty miles of
City Hall, New York, there are a
number Of manufacturing towns, such
as Newark, Elizabeth and Paterson,
whose position would not be seriously
affected if New York did not exist.
All the towns in Greater London
are natural outgrowths of the parent
city. London, in it's outward march,
picks up small hamlets and absorbs
them. 1t turns old cities, which. if
left alone, would have long since sunk
into insignificance, into populous
towns. London, in fact, from the
Bank to the limits of the police area,
and far beyond, is one homogeneous
body, one vast community of interest.
each part of which is dependent on
the other.
New York does not enjoy such
homogenity
Comparative Figures.
London, as 1 have said, is in great
mart now nitU Tn, 1901 bo