Year: 1871

1t was predicted, when the Tammany Ring
! was first OverthrOwn, that when we came to
settle accounts with our disgraced rulers we
| should find the actual amount of injury in
| fcted by them upon the taxpayers of the
| city far more serious than most persons then


supposed it could be. Day by day we are wit


Messing fulfllment of this prediction. Rob-


berries to the amount of $20,O0O,0O0 have been


traced so directly that we can almost follow
the course of the money from the public treas


ury to the pockets of the public thieves.


Swindling to much greater and indefinite
amount is known to have been carried on
through indirect means in the various depart
mcnts of the local government. Nobody
can tell how much it has amounted to-,
because nobody can separate the honest
from the dishonest expenditures. And
now we are gradually appreciating
the losses we have suffered, not from
actual robbery but from scandalous and long
continued misgOvernment. We have shown,
in our articles upon the distractions to New
York commerce, how the officials of Quaran-
tine and the HarbOr-Masters have combined to
drive trade away from the port and yester
day we presented some serious facts in con-
ueCtlOu WIFI tuc lcLudI huuiC uCCillO al uC
ratio of our increase of population, and its
Inevitable effect upon the value of city prop
erty. Not to recapitulate the Details it was
shown that the increase of population, which
was nearly 5S per cent between 1850 and 1850,
fell during the next decade to 13 per cent
and the increase in the valuation of property
for the same periods was reduced from 101
per cent to % per cent. But this is not all.
The increase during the last year has been
$27, 100000 the taxes for the same period were
$23, 100000 and the increase in the debt, by
charges which ought to have been paid out of
the annual revenue was much more than the
whole amount of the taxes In reality there
fore the nominal increase was all swallowed
up, and the city is poorer in 1871 than it was
in 1870.


The war accounts for some of the loss to
our commerce before 1865; but not for the
constant depreciation since then, nor for the
check to the growth of population. The loss
is referable almost entirely to msgOvernment
Up to certain point in the development of
the city the tendency toward increase was
strong enough to overcome the obstructions
of corrupt, burdensome, and inefficient ad-
ministratiOn f; but that point has been passed.
Ships sought our harbOr, in spite of the ex-
actions at Quarantine, and the wharves, and
the Custom House, becauSe there was no other
equally convenient port and the demands of
trade were imperative but while the exactions
have grown worse and worse. hospitality has
been offered to foreign commerce elsewhere,
and hs extension of the railway system has
enabled other cities to become our rivals.
Dnpuldfinn }noroocaN ohila
keep pace with the increase Of trade, and
while there was still room on the island for
the area of habitations to spread without en-
countering serious obstacles. But as soon as
the trade fell of, and all the lower half of the
city became closely settled. the vexations in
cident to imperfect means of communication,
detective streets, heavy taxes, unjust assess
mentS and general municipal disorder proved
TOO strong and the growth stopped


WIN good government the story would