AN AMAZING CITY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 352, 12 April 1911, Page 6

AN AMAZING CITY.

Mew-York's Municipal' Expenditure. Of the growth in municipal expenditure we in this country (says the London "Evening Standard") are not without experience. How it fares with our neighbours across the Atlantic may be gathered from the following table that is published by the '■Wall Street Journal," showing the increase of municipal debt in ten years : Net debt Jan. 1. Cities. 1909. 1899. Dollars Dollars New York ... 672,015,244 244,220,435 Chicago ... 24,844,400 15,104,636 Philadelphia 79,635,020 36,380,082 St Louis ... 19,966,000 13,924,278 Boston 74,099,388 55,084,172 Baltimore ... 22,507,048 12,408,434 Cleveland ... 22,567,077 8,139,003 New-York's debt is greater, in proportion to its population and its taxable wealth, than any other city in the list, and the reader who is interested in the subject will find in the American edition of "Pearson's Magazine." for July some highly-illumina-ting comments on the subject by James Creelman. Until a few weeks ago, he says, the people of the American Metropolis believed that their city had been brought to the edge of bankruptcy ; that almost incredible extravagance had nearly exhausted its stupendous borrowing power. But when it was announced that a cunning way had been found by which the taxpayers could be loaded with more than £21,200,000 of additional debt a great shout went up, and the foolish city, almost in tears of gratitude, at once began to argue through its newspapers and politicians how it might borrow and spend that money in the quickest possible time. London is English, Paris is French, Berlin is German, St. Petersburg is Russian, Naples is Italian, and Canton is Chinese.

But New-York, the second city of the world, is not American. It is the only cosmopolis in existence. With a population of 4,500,000 inhabitants, it has nearly 2,000,000 who were born in foreign countries. There are vast districts in the city, some of them miles in extent, where the English tongue is used by few, and even the street signs and newspapers are in strange languages. The officers of the mighty city spend more than £40,000,000 a year, nearly one-third as much as the United States Government. Of this amazing sum £31,309,029 is raised by direct taxation. The rest piles up in bonded debt.

The municipal officials and employees alone number more than 60,000 persons, drawing something like £14,000,000 a year in salaries. How the American heart beats high at the sight of the great city which only ten years ago was divided into a hundred cities, towns, and villages ! It is possible iio go for forty miles in a straight line without leaving the city. The streets of New-York, placed end to end, would reach to San Francisco and several hundred miles out into the Pacific Ocean. In a sense the tall sides that lift themselves out of the busiest part of New-York are without loveliness, save when the changing light turns them into many-coloured cliffs. It is the sense of an immense life conveyed by the multitude of windows that invest the monstrous piles with a thrilling interest ; the density of humanity, the costliness of its ways, and the mightiness of the surroundng community.

There rises the reddish tower of the Singer Building, six hundred and forty-two feet high. The tower alone cost £400,000 to build. Below spreads the white mass of the City Investing Building, which cost £2,000,000, and whose twentythree elevators can carry ton thous;:nl persons an hour. That one structure houses the population of a small city.

Close by are the twin 'Trinity buildings, valued at £3,200,000, and opposite to them stands the Equitable Life Insurance Building, a property re:resenting £4,000,000. Even the ground of the small Trinity grave-yard, set at the head of Wall Street, is worth £5,000,000.

Away in the distance the white marble tower of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building lifts its noble mass seven hundred feet above Madison Square. That vast edifice represents an investment of £4,000,000, and contains more than eight thousand inhabitants.

Here, there, everywhere are massive structures, in each of which are populations large enough to make whole towns. So tremendous is the city's growth that one year's building plans represent a cost of £26,000,000. There are nearly 10,000 policemen in the 3200 miles of streets. Their pay alone amounts yearly to £2,573,051. They made 244,822 arrests last year. To clean the streets they guard costs £1,483,659 for a single year.

The parks of the amazing city cover fourteen square miles, including some of its choicest ground. It is said that they contain more than 2,500,000 trees, and are valued 'at £300,000,000. In other words, the parks owned by New-York contain more land than the big city of Rochester. New-York, and could be sold for enough to pay the entire national debts of Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Turkey.