Year: 1877

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respect in which rapid transit will con-
tribute powerfully to the growth Of the
city there is another respect in which it
will not. The benefits of rapid transit
will accrue to the city Of New York
as municipality its effect on the
port of New York as a centre OF commerce
will not be so remarkable 1t will not do to
reason as if these two questions were one and
the same question. A million Of enterpris-
ing inhabitants on the New Jersey shore OF
the North River and another million Of
enterprising inhabitants on the Long Island
shore of the East River would contribute as
much, or nearly as much. to the foreign
commerce of the port as the same number Of
inhabitants on the south end Of Manhattan
Island. But it makes great differ.
ence in the prosperity of the munich
pality whether the people who transact
business in this great commercial emporium
reside in this city or out of it. The long
delays in supplying rapid transit have pre-
vented the settlement of the upper part OF
equal to that Of the city itself to places out
side the city limits. The consequence is
that our municipal taxes are nearly double
what they would be if we had had rapid
transit as soon as the city was compactly
built up to Forty-second street. Had it
been as easy to reach Harlem River
and the district beyond as it was
to reach Brooklyn Heights and the
New Jersey suburbs great part Of the
people who now reside in Brooklyn and in
the neighbor towns of New Jersey would
be taxpayers in New York. and the burden
Of our taxation would be light in proportion
to the greater amount Of property over
which it would be distributed. This is the
benefit and alienation which we expect
from rapid transit. At present large pro-
portion OF the people who transact their
daily business here, and whose establish
ments are protected by our municipal gov
ernment, live in fine mansions beyond the
two rivers and pay large share OF their
taxes outside of the city.


There is another and larger question
which has been q good deal discussed Of
late, and on which this seems a good occa-
sion to offer some observations. AS an
echo or reflex Of discussions in the United
States we noticed few days since lead
ing article in an important Canadian journal,
the Montreal Gazette, arguing that the pros
perity of New York has probably eliminated,
and that Philadelphia will, perhaps be
the future commercial metropolis OF the
country. The chief points Of the argu-
ment were that Philadelphia was larger
city than New York until after the compile
growth of this city was owing to that cheap
water way that the extension Of railways
has taken away our chief advantage; that
the cost Of transportation from the West to
other Atlantic cities has become less than it
is to New York, and that we are likely to
fall behind in the race by the successful
competition of railroads with the Erie Canal.


All this reasoning rests upon fallacies.
1t is true that railroads have made great
change and that they carry immense
amounts of the same kinds of freight of
which the New York canals formerly had
monopoly But diversion of business from
the water route is not the only revolution
which railroads have accomplished. An,
other and more remarkable change is that
which they have caused in the foreign COM
merce Of the country. Before the intro
duction Of railroads every port of entry
along the whole line Of our Atlantic
coast was a seat of foreign commerce. When
goods had to be hauled in wagons to all points
in the interior the expense Of internal trans
portation was so heavy that all exports
and imports had to be made at the nearest
accessible harbors. Every district of coun-
try lying back of seaport was supplied
with foreign merchandise through that port,
because the goods could not bear the cost
of transportation by teams to distant points.
But railroads have superseded this method
of transacting business. Since their general
introduction our foreign commerce has
tended more and more to concentration, and
the chief point of concentration for the
whole coast is the port OF New York. This
great change can never be reversed.
and the commercial supremacy it has estab-
lished in New York is altogether more solid
and important than any advantage the city
ever derived from the Erie Canal


Nobody disputes that the first great i'm
pulse to the growth of this city was given


by the genius of De Witt Clinton. We


already had the Hudson River, and Clinton


opened for us q continuous line of water


communication extending from Albany to


Lake Erie, and, through the circuit of the


great upper lakes to the far West While


the other Atlantic seaports had communica-


tion with the interior only by means of


wagons and short rivers New York had n


cheap waterway of thousands of miles into


the distant heart of the continent. The


circle of its foreign and domestic trade ex-


tended in proportion. In the twenty years


between the opening of the Erie Canal and