Year: 1871

REVlVIyG OUR MATERTAL PROSPERITY.
No merchant or real estate owner in New
York familiar with the history and causes of it,
early prosperity and late decline fails to recog-
nize that the city cannot hope to regain the
once rapid ratio of increase m wealth. com
mcrcc and population which marked its mar
velous growth before tho decade OF Tammany,
until the abuses which remain, though Tam
many is dead have been thoroughly reformed
Until the State officials at Quarantine and on the
wharvcs arc compelled to adopt policy which
will attract instead of driving to other ports
the commerce of other lands; until the Federal
authorities change the present system OF tax
ing merchants for tho benefit of retired army
lieutenants and suffers, and encouraging snug
Cling for the advantage of special agents and
spies, there can be no actual restoration OF our
commercial prosperity.


Relief to some extent is already fore
shadOwed. Our merchants have taken action
in regard to the cxtOrtons of the Quarantine
officers and HarbOr Masters, and will go to
Albany next month armed with direct proofs
of their criminality. The Legislature, which is
overwhelmingly Republican, will undoubtedly
do something toward reforming the abuses
which Gov. Hoffman and the Ring Legislature
refused 20 correct or even to condemn. IL
will he the fault of the merchants themselves
if the removal and perhaps the prosecution OF
CarnOchau, Hart, and their follows do
mott follow hard upon the meeting
of the Legislature next week. IT they
will act with that energy and tirmness which
they have displayed since TIE TRIBUNE first
exposed the officials who robbed them, and
the means employed to cripple the vast com
mcrce of a whole port for the paltIy advantage
Of gang of Petty thieves, they will certainly
attain the import ant objects OF the great re-
form we have pcr,i,tcntly urged. We believe
Congress may be trusted to reform out of office
the CustOnr- House vampires, who. under the
gllisc of General Order and Special Agents"
suck the last drop Of blood from the
lean commerce which slips past Quarantine.
TIE TRIBUNE will ut beast furnish, when
Congress rcconvcnes after the holidays. facts
regarding various corrupt and mismanagcd
bureaus of the Custom House, sufficient to
justify immediate and thorough Congress in-
vcstigatiOn. The merchants, too, must not
hesitate to insist upon the restoration of the
General Order business" to convenient locali-
ties, and the abolition of that system Of COM
promises which compels merchants to compete
with sn,uggers or turn smuSslers themselves.
Positive. firm. united action will obtain both
at Albany and Washington these reforms 80
absolutely necessary before general prosperity
can be restored.


But the great problem affecting Our material
interests, which the Metropolis has yet to
solve is that of rapid transit. 1t is the ono
imperative need of this great city. paramount
| in Importance and urgent in point of time.
| Until some sort of railway to the upper part
of Manhattan Island is provided, the region
above Central Park cannot vie in attractions
with the suburban districts and cities Of Long
Island and Ncw-Jcrscy, and there will be no
checking the rapid transfer to the suburbs of
the population, and consequently of the
wealth, which naturally belong to the
city proper. An underground or Vaduct
road, finished ten years ago, would
have populated onr whole island, aud prac-
ticaly extended Ncw-York before this time
well through Weschcster County. The real
estate of the whole city would have been
appreciated beyond calculation by such an ell
terprisc, and its cost would not have been
felt by the community which prOtited through
its completion. As long as the means of rapid
transit are unprovided in the city and are in
creased every year in the suburbs, the present
slow increase Of wealth and population here
and the rapid increase there must of necessity
follow. We must not only remove the exist
ing obstacles to material prosperity, but pro-
vide this new means of attaining greater i'll
crease thereof.


Holding these views, we naturally feel en-.
cOuragcd at seeing sudden revival of the
n Al
Ring Legislature, and to be submitted anew
to the Republican Legislature which is about
to meet. OF course we cannot have all the
projects of Underground, Pneumatic, Vaduct
and Elevated roads carried out; but we may
have, and indeed must have, some practical
scheme adopted and completed. The several
companies named will, it is understood, make
early application at Albany for authority and
assistance. and doubtless a sharp rivalry will
spring up to distract, if not to affect,
legislation. This is unavoidable, but in the
end there will be little to fear from this spirit,
1t cannot greatly influence the final adoption
of the best plan. No road of this kind can be
built except upon its own merits and no com.
pany will find encouragement to enter upon
any particular project as speculation. In
the end the plan which the capital that must
build the road chooses will prevail. The only
fear is that the multiplicity of projects may
delay legislation, which ought to be prompt.


As indicative of the renewed interest in this
important work, the President and Executive
Committee of the Viaduct Railway have pre-
pared report on that scheme which, since
the rupture of the Ring, has lain dormant o.
if dead, ibut which, under new Directory,
hoa haan oral into fn 10,