Year: 1879

TIE STREET. RAILROAD QUESTION.


The recent proceedings of the mOrbund
Board of Aldermen have the Appearance OF
an extensive conspiracy. series of heavy
operations involving pecuniary interests to
the amount of some millions of dollars. and
presenting various features of the most OBJ
iectionabe character seem to have bcen
planned in profound secrecy, by syndicate
of Aldermen just large enough to defy the
Mayors veto, considerable proportion OF the
mariners being men who were not reelected
last month. A short time before the close OF
their term of Office. the cOnspirators begin to
astonish the public by producing these
privately arranged schemes The resolu-
tons are sprung upon the Board,
not only to the surprise of the citi-
zens, but to the amazcment of all the
Aldermen who are not in the job, and they
are forced through without debate and amidst
manifestations of indecent and suspicious hi
larity. The opportunity has been artfu,ly
chosen. 1t is so far from the end of the year
that there will be time enough to override a
veto. and yet so near that day of dissolution
that there will be hardly a possibility of or
ganizng an opposition or breaking the solidiy
of the confcderatcd band. Two jobs have
already passed the Board thrd-thc worst
of the Lots understood to be well advanced.


The Mayors veto of the Chambers Street
Railroad project would probably not have
received the courtesy OF consideration
IN the Board, had it not been ac-
compamed by an opinion from the
Corporation Counsel OF such nature that
even an Alderman could hardly afford TO dis
regard it. MIR. Whitney shows c0nclusivcly
that the Aldermen have no power to author
ize the construction of a railway IN any street,
and that the permission they assume to grant
is not worth the paper on which 1t IS written.
With copious citations from the statutes and
the decisions of the highest courts hc makes
the following points quite plain:


l. The act OF 1904 empowered the Common
Councils of all cities IN the State to authorize
the construction of street railways, a right
which had always up to that time been re-
tanned by the Legislature.


9. The act OF 1860 repealed this grant of
mower so far as it related to the City of New
York, and declared that IN future it SHOULD not
be lawful to construct any street railroad III
the metropolis. except under the authority
land subject to the regulations and restTic-
" tons which the Legislature may hereafter
grant and provide" This act has never been
repealed.


9. The constitutional amendment Of 1875
limited the authority of the Legislature in
granting railroad franchises. 1t prohibited the
passing of "local OF private bills" foI such
purposes. but provided that general laws
might be passed, with the condition that no
street railroad should be authorized except
with the approval of the local authorities and
the consent either OF a majority of the prop
erty owners on the street or of three COM
missloners appointed by the Supreme Court.


This seems to be conclusive 1t puts stop
for the present to the Chambers-st. job and
also to the Broadway job Before the persons
interested in the roads can 60 on with their
projects they must obtain the enactment of
general law by the Legislature, and then the
,ther conditions must be satisfied, as we have
quoted them above Meanwhile the citizens
who are menaced by these destructive enter
prses have the opportunity to prepare rcso-
Lutte and systematic resistance. The Alder
men are supposed TO be guardians of the
city's interests. Ii is hut too plain that they
are on the contrary the city worst enemies, and
it is left for private zeal and enlightenment
to undertake the protection OF the public
rights. The movement begun 10y the owners
of property on Broadway does not promise
the best results. These gentlemen proceed
upon the false assumption that the street is
theirs, and that they alone ought to be con-
suited about the authorization of railroad in
it and they are organizing now not to op-
pose the road in the public interest, but to
secure for themselves whatever profit there
may be in the line in case 1t be con-
structed. Many of them, probably ma
jority of the active members of the in
cipient association, believe that horse
cars on lower Broadway would increase
their income from rents, and bring back
to that part of the city a class of re-
tail trade which has gone to more con-
venient localities. They do not seem
to have given any consideration to the prob
lem of providing for the steadily increasing
stream of wagon traffic which is 80 important
to our commercial prosperity; that is mat
ter affecting other people, and other people
must look out for IT. We trust that other
people will lose no time in doing so. Sup
pose the merchants who do not own property