740





The Record and Guide.





July IS, 1884





The American government instead of helping th« mail steamships
carryingits flag has acted the part of the bully andthe robber. Under
the old law it refused clearance papers to any vessel that would not
carry the mail for two cents a letter, a ridiculously inadequate
compensation. The Dingley bill repeals this blackmailing enact¬
ment, but it leases thecoutractopen without any l?gal regulation.
Aa " Bradstreet" points out, the result will be the sending of
all letters from this country to Australia byway of London and
the Suez Canal, for the Australian colonies have gi^ en notice that
they will withdraw their subsidies and will no longer consent to
pay for the carriage of the American mail. Germany has just
subsidized a steamship line to the Australian colonies, just at the
time when our ineffably stupid Congress has done what it can to
throw away all chance of a trade with the Oceanic dependencies of
Great Britain. We buy our coffee and other South American prod¬
ucts by way of Loudon, and in a short time, in' all probability,
our mail to tho Pacific Ocean and what little trade we can maintain
will be done through the capital of Great Britain. These facts come
out only through the trade journals. Our so-called great dailies
think it adds to their reputation for honesty by denouncing jobs
which in their point of view includes every legitimate appropria¬
tion by Congress.





Our Prophetic Department.

Mk. Knickereockee—I do not think we said alt that might be
said about the future of New York in our last conversation. It
seemed to me tha:; there have been certain eras which have marked
the progress of our city which it would be well to recall. Perhaps
we might fiud other agencies now at work to give a fresh start to
the growth of this great city.

Sir Oracle—I think the influences to-day which are at work
adding to the wealth and population of New York will prove as
potent as any of the former agencies which added to the import¬
ance of the greatest of American cities. It was our noble harbor
which gave New York the pre-eminence in trade before and after
the revolutionary war and also after the war of 1812. When lum¬
ber was the important material in the construction of ihips, New
York marched steadily onward in marine supremacy. The civil
war put an end to that monopoly, but what injured us most of all
was the substitution of iron and steel for wood in the construction
of steam vessels. The proximity of the iron and coal mines of
England to Glasgow in Scotland has made that the great ship¬
building city of the world. The seats of manufacture everywhere
owe their practical monopoly to the fact that they are points where
coal and iron are so accessible as to be procured at a minimum of
cost. This accounts for Manchester, Birmingham, Philadelphia,
Pittsburg, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Mr. K,—Is there then no hope for New York as a great manu¬
facturing city ?

Sir O.—It is such now, but only in such manufactures as do not
require coal and iron. But I will come to that further on. The
Erie Canal was what gave New York its flrst great start, for by it
the productions cf the West were drawn to the greatest harbor on
the Atlantic coast. Next followed the construction of the railway
system, every mile of which in any part of the country has helped
to add to the wealth and population of New York. The Pennsyl¬
vania Central road was constructed with a view of building up
Philadelphia, but that admirable trunk hne has been forced to
extend its lines to the metropolis, and Philadelphia to-day is
practically a way-station on the road it sacrificed so much to con¬
struct. The Baltimore & Ohio road was also called into existence to
pour the products and the business of the Southwest into Baltimore,
but that wealthiest of American corporations is now at work solv¬
ing the problem of how to reach and make a terminus of this city.
The last few years have seen several new corporations constructing
great roads and extending others to act as new feeders toward busi¬
ness prosperity. Among these are the West Shore & Buffalo and
the extension of the Delaware & Lackawanna.

Mr. K.—Yes, that is all obvious enough, but has not New York
itself done something to add to its attractiveness as a place in which
to live and do business ?

Sir O.—Yes, the improvements in our city travel have helped,
first the omnibus, then the horse-car, finally the elevated road. These
have all increased the wealth of thio city by making intercom¬
munication cheap and easy. We will soon doubtless have the
cable system of roads to help, and in the fullness of time
the great Arcade Underground Road will give New York a means
of intermural travel superior to anything of the kind in the world.
I have no patience with Governor Cleveland'a veto of that mag¬
nificent project. His veto also of the trifling appropriation for
correcting the topographical maps of this State was unworthy
the successor to Governor Clinton, i Governor who could see
no merit in the Arcade plan, no value in a geological and topo¬
graphical survey, would have been as blind as a bat to the advan¬
tages of a vast improvement like the Erie Canal.





Mr. K.—But we shaU have other improvements in our means of
local transit?

Sir 0.—Yes, the elevated road must be extended and improved.
We must have swifter trains, fewer stoppages, additional tracks;
also roads along the river fronts, not only for passengers but also
for freight. This ^vill involve warehouses and means of depositing
cargoes direct from the West into the holds of steamships, and
thus save the absurd taxes on commerce in paying for transporta¬
tion from one side of tbe city to the other. I am told it costs more
to take a barrel of flour from dock to store than it does to trans¬
port it from St. Paul to New York.

Mr. K.—What other infiuences are at work to add to the busi¬
ness and the numbers of people in New York city?

Sir O.—The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, it was sup¬
posed, would help Brooklyn at the expense of New York. Now
while it is true that building in the former city has been stimu¬
lated it is also a matter of fact that since the construction of the
bridge New York has built more and costlier houses than at any
time during her past history. The figures in The Record and
Guide prove that beyond all peradventure, No sum in arithmetic
can be clearer than the demonstration of the fact that the business
of New York will be very largely augmented by the construction
of this bridge. Whenever the system of railroads on Longlaland
converges at that bridge it wiU pour a continuous stream of shop¬
pers into this city who otherwise would have traded in their own
localities. Within five years the tunnel under the North River
ought to be completed. When it is it will effect a revolution in its
way by transferring to New York the best part of the trade now
transacted on the Jersey side of the harbor. Then, as the census of
1880 compared with that of 1870 shows, New York ia becoming the
greatest manufacturing city in the Union. It haS outstripped Phil¬
adelphia. True we cannot fabricate iron materials as cheaply as at
some other pointa, hut in thousands of minor industries our near¬
ness to the consuming markets, and our having the whole railway
system of the country at our command, gives us an enormous
advantage which is adding steadily to our working population and
wealth.

Me. K,—Then surely our parks, theatres, opera houses and other
atti^ctions are steadily bringing people into what will be the Paris
of America ?

Sir 0,—Right you are ; just think of the new parks in tfae an¬
nexed district where people can roam about at will and in which
we are to have our great parades, our shooting matches and out¬
door sports.

Me. K.—Suppose you mention briefly the different factors which
are now operating or will operate to make New York not only
the greatest city of the western world but the possible capital of
all the world.

Sir O.—It is scarcely possible to itemize all the factors in the case.
First there is our noble harbor, then the Erie Canal, the railway
system of the country, the elevated roada, the Brooklyn Bridge, our
splendid parks and places of amusement, the growth of our manu¬
facturing establishments, the tunnels under the East and North Riv¬
ers that are to be made, and the Arcade road under Broadway which
is certain to be builc in spite of purblind property-holders and Gov¬
ernor Cleveland. Then when American shipping revives and the
commerce of our country is carried under the national flag, New
York will become so vast and rich a city that the present genera¬
tion can have no conception of it. Of course, when I speak of
New York, I take it for granted that before many years that name
will include Brooklyn, States laland and much of the country
to the north of us.

Mr, K,—You aaid nothing about the elevator and the tall build¬
ings.

Sir O.—Nor do I intend to to-day ; that will be worth a conver-    ^
satiou by itself,                                   --                                                ^^fl

The Financial Chronicle argues that bounteous crops all over the
world produces prosperous times in every country under the sun.
But then evidently there are other factors needed than great crops
to give us busy and profitable years. The crops of last year were
abundant all over the world. Food, cotton and wool were never
so abundant or cheap, yet 1883 was a notoriously unprosperous
year in every civilized country. Even in Japan, where there was
an over-production of rice, there was great distress because of the
impossibility of selling tbat grain at any remunerative price. The
cotton crop of that year was exceptionally large, but cotton grow¬
ers and cotton manufacturers had a very hard time of it. An
abundance of good money, however, always creates what is known
as good times. There is generally food enough and to spare in
this great world of ours, and if people have money to buy it busi¬
ness is profltabki. The prosperous eras in the world's history baa
been when gold or silver has been discovered in large amounJ;s, but
whenever the production of the precious met^ has fallen oflf or
legislation haa interfered to demonetize gold or silver there has
then been a blight upon the buaineas of the world.   Good crops ara