Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-04-10
speelal Con- espondenee OF nvely Evening.

cptciui Noff res lonuence OF hVelV Evening
New York, April 9.-That New York
will within a comparatively few years
outstrip London and become the
largest city in the world is within the
prediction Of competent statisticians,
and accordingly Father Knickerbocker
has been patting himself on the back.
According to figures made public this
week by the New York Federation of
Churches, Gotham will catch up with
London about 1920 when the population
of the metropolis and its suburbs.
within a radius of nineteen miles of
the City Hall, should reach 5000 600.
According TO these statistics, eighteen
new inhabitants. are added to the me
tropolis every hour The growth of
New York between 1890 and 1905 was
2,071 6l0. For several daysof last week
immigrants poured into New York
harbor from Europe at the rate of D, 600
a day, and the majority of these re-
manned in the metropolis to swell the
population.
Probably in no other city in the
world is there such congestion of pas
sengers on the tract ion lines as in New
York This is particularly apparent
in the Borough of Manhattan, which
is "a long finger of land pointing down
into New York Bay. Every resident
of Manhattan has TO fight his way into
the car that bears him down town TO
his business, and in the evening there
is "a similar struggle to get home.
The Rapid Transit Commissions self
perpetuating body of very respectable
gentlemen who were appointed many
years ago for the purpose of solving
the transit problems of the city, after
years of slumher, gave New York "a
single subway which is habitually SO
crowded that one is glad TO escape
from it with all one's clothing intact
At present there are no additional
suhways in sight in Manhattan and the
number of passengers carried is in
creasing at the rate Of over "a million
week. The report of the State Rail
road Commission, published this week.
shows the enormous business done by
the transportation companies of the
metropolis. During 1905 they collected
total of LII. l5l, S9S fares day, an
increase of 93, 400, 600 over the previous
year. The car mileage of all the com
panies during 1903 aggregated 800 249,
400 miles.
Many New Workers. interested in
railroad rate legislation went TO Wash
ington this week to attend the eight
eenth annual convention Of the
National Association of Railway Com
missioners, and much interest was
aroused in the metropolis by the speech
of W. G.. Smith, Railroad Commits
sioner Of South Dakota and president
of the Association. Particularly
pertinent was considered Mr..
Smiths dictum that 'any law passed
that does not contain absolute rules
for deciding what is a reasonable rate,
what is a reasonably remunerative rate,
and does not establish the constitu-
tional right to appeal, will in my
mind fail in its object for good. On
the other hand tariff charges are bound
TO be adjusted by the constant pressure
of commercial and economic princi-
! pies. - Mr.. Smith went on to point
out some of the possibilities of confu-
sion arising from commission made
maximum rates. Suppose, he said,
"an article was being transported
from Chicago to New York over the
shortest route, the best and cheapest
managed and the best paying road 4;
would not this railroad maximum rate,
/ il made by the commission, apply to
every article in that classification be
/ tween Chicago and New York; If
| this maximum rate applied between
| Chicago and New York, would it not
apply on each of the railroads, the
longest as we'll as the shortestY Might
not this commission-m made rate be CON
hscation for the long road?'
Probably there is no street in all
! New York more interesting than the