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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