Assets of the ideal city

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ASSETS

OF

THE IDEAL CITY

By the Same Author

HANDBOOK OF
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

A compact but complete statement of the
various forms of city government and the
best methods of administration.

Thomas Y. Crowell Company
Publishers New York

ASSETS

OF

THE IDEAL CITY

CHARLES M. FASSETT

SPECIALIST IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

FORMER MAYOR OF SPOKANE

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1922,
By Thomas Y. Crowell Company

Printed in the United States of America

To My Wife
EDITH M. FASSETT

TO WHOSE VISION, INSIGHT AND
KINDLY COUNSEL I OWE SO MUCH
THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED

FOREWORD

By Harold S. Buttenheim, Editor of The Ameri-
can City

This book attempts to sketch no impractical Utopia.
It is inspired, rather, by the author's knowledge of,
and participation in, municipal progress already accom-
plished in America, and by his faith in the dictum of
Dr. Edward Alsworth Ross, that mankind has "only
to do everywhere what is now being done with success
somewhere," that the world may be re-made.

In a larger measure than we yet realize, the future
of America and of the world will be determined by
the vision and ability of our local community leaders.
There are at least three reasons why this is so:

In the first place, in times of peace the governmental
activities which most directly affect our prosperity and
happiness are those of the community in which we live.
What would life or property in any city be worth
without the police and fire protection, the public schools,
the street paving and lighting, the water-supply, sewer-
age system and other community activities?

Secondly, the city offers an experimental ground for
civic progress which can be watched and controlled
much more readily than the larger governmental units.
A factor of prime importance in American progress

viii FOREWORD

has been the initiative of local leaders by which im-
proved forms of city government and better methods
of promoting the public welfare have been developed
here and there throughout the United States, and
through the contagion of a good example have spread
to other communities. If the adoption of new ideas
had to wait until public sentiment throughout the
nation rose to the level of the more progressive com-
munities, we should render impossible our present rapid
progress.

In the third place, the psychology of competition
between cities is totally different from that which
exists between nations. What I mean is this : Perhaps
the greatest obstacle to permanent world peace is the
too-prevalent idea that the welfare of one nation is
necessarily enhanced by the poverty or weakness of
other nations. But within any nation there are few
who believe that the welfare of their city would be
enhanced by the poverty of some other city. On the
contrary, we have learned that no city can attain its
maximum of prosperity and health and happiness until
every other city is prosperous and healthy and happy.
Some day we shall learn that the same thing is true
in international relations. And it is more than prob-
able that the most potent influence in bringing about
that understanding will be, not our national diplomats,
but our municipal officials, our educational institutions
and the leaders in our local commercial and civic or-
ganizations.

In striving to make our cities more nearly ideal, we

FOREWORD ix

in America have much to learn from other cities
throughout the world. A more frank and frequent
interchange of ideas would benefit cities of every na-
tion, and would help to establish among municipal
officials and the commercial and civic organizations
at home and abroad a mutual understanding and good
will which in times of world crisis might save civiliza-
tion from an overwhelming catastrophe.

No community is too small to afford to the citi-
zens trained for leadership an opportunity to render
service of local and perhaps even of national and inter-
national significance. So, in cataloguing the assets of
the ideal city, Mr. Fassett has included not merely the
physical requirements of modern community life, but
also governmental, educational, religious, cultural and
civic attributes, and the forces of organized leader-
ship by which community ideals are being transformed
into actual accomplishments in cities large and small
throughout the nation.

As a successful engineer who became president of
the Chamber of Commerce in a large city and subse-
quently its mayor, Mr. Fassett has had an exceptional
training and experience for the task which he under-
took in the compilation of this book. I am sure his
hope is well founded that each chapter may prove
to be both an inspiration and a practical aid to students
of civic affairs, and to municipal leaders in their efforts
to make our American cities as nearly ideal as possible
— and that the book may stimulate in some measure
that kind of inter-city emulation which shall help to

X FOREWORD

make of our world one great friendly community
whose local units shall vie for superiority in the arts
of peace and in service to mankind.

Harold S. Buttenheim.
Editorial Rooms
The American City
January, 1922.

PREFACE

This book is not a treatise. Every chapter title in
it might easily have been expanded into a volume.
Indeed, there are books and periodicals extant which
cover in fuller detail and wider application all of the
subjects treated, and these I commend to the interested
student who desires to pursue the subjects further.

In compiling this book, my aim has been to collect
in one small volume a brief statement regarding each
of the more important institutions, activities and un-
dertakings which have come to be generally under-
stood as appertaining to modern life in cities, in the
hope of encouraging a better citizenship by the develop-
ment of a greater interest in the public welfare. My
constant effort has been to condense and simplify, in
order to keep the size of the book so small that the
municipal official, the college student, the busy man
or woman might not be discouraged from its perusal
by its bulk.

The instances of specific cities mentioned are usually
those with which I am personally acquainted. It may
be that there are other cities whose activities in these
various lines are more deserving of praise, and to them
I can only apologize for the oversight. Particular
credit is gratefully acknowledged to Professor Zueblin's

xii PREFACE

"American Municipal Progress," the Research Division
of the American City Bureau, and to the files of The
American City magazine.

Charles M. Fassett.
January, 1922.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER FACE

I Government i

Relation of State to City — Charter — Form
of Government — City Plan — Zoning — Police
and Fire Protection — Centralized Purchasing
— Testing Laboratory — Civil Service — Service
Pensions — Accounting — Budget — Publicity.

II Streets 17

Pavements ' — Cleaning — Lights — Signs —
Trees — Piles and Wires — Bridges — Safety
Islands — Fountains — Comfort Stations —
Grade Separation — Traffic Rules — Sidewalks
— Alleys — Street Widening.

III Utilities 33

Water Supply — Gas — Sewers — Garbage
— Disposal — Electric Light and Power — Tele-
phones— Street Railways — ^The Motor Bus
— Steam Heat — Coal, Ice, Food — Rates.

IV Transportation 46

Railways — Passenger Depots — Freight Ter-
minals— Waterways — Port Facilities — Avia-
tion Fields.

V Industrial 54

Sites — Switching Tracks — Power — Market
— Labor — Tax Exemption — Democratization.

xiv CONTENTS

VI Educational 63

Kindergartens — Grade Schools — High
Schools — Junior High Schools — Technical
Schools — Night Schools — Colleges — School
Lunchrooms — Delinquents — Forums — Boy
Scouts and Camp Fire Girls — Americaniza-
tion.

VII Structures 78

City Hall — Library — Auditorium — Museum
— ^Art Gallery — Public Markets — Armories —
Building Code.

VIII Health 86

Housing — Food Inspection — School Clinics
— Communicable Disease Clinics — Visiting
Nurses — Hospitals — Health Centers — Health
Thought — Cemeteries.

IX Social 97

Social Centers — Clubs — Women's Clubs —
Dancing — Pageants and Celebrations.

X Correctional 104

Police Court — Juvenile Courts — Court of
Domestic Relations — Probation System — Pub-
lic Defender — Municipal Farm — Jail.

XI Institutions 113

Chamber of Commerce — Young Men's
Christian Associations — Young Women's
Christian Association — Hotels — Red Cross —
Humane Society — Associated Charities —
Woman's Hotel.

CONTENTS XV

CHAPTER PAGB

XII Recreation 122

Parks — Boulevards — Play Grounds — Gym-
nasiums— Athletic Fields — Camp Grounds —
Public Baths — Municipal Game Fields.

XIII Music and Art 131

Band Concerts — Municipal Orchestras —
Community Singing — Organ Recitals — Paint-
ing and Sculpture — Architecture — The Drama
— Landscape Gardening.

XIV Environs 141

Agriculture — Forestry — Farm Bureaus —
Suburban Homes — Suburban Parks — Roads
and Transportation.

XV Religion 149

Churches — Sunday Schools — Religious So-
cieties— The Salvation Army.

XVI Citizenship 154

Honesty — Humanitarianism — Public Spirit
— Co-operation — Leadership.

Selected List of Books 161

Index .....,.;. 171

ASSETS OF THE IDEAL CITY

CHAPTER I

GOVERNMENT

Relation of State to City. — A city cannot be a
city without a legalized corporate existence, derived
from the next higher political unit, the state. In the
exercise of its paramount power, the state either grants
the right of organization to the growing urban com-
munity, or gives to it the choice of, or imposes upon
it, certain ready-made plans of city government which
have been approved by the legislature. But wlien the
city is organized, only two states, Oregon and Colo-
rado, allow it to work out its own salvation. In all
states the city government is bound by certain funda-
mental principles of democracy, and a direct relation
to the general government, and this is quite proper and
essential ; but most states go much farther, and hold the
city subservient to a continuing tutelage of the state
legislature, which hampers and discourages constructive
development.

This condition has brought about a reaction in the
growing demand for home rule for cities. There is no
logical reason why a city should submit its internal

2 GOVERNMENT

problems to a legislative body whose members come
largely from rural surroundings, whose sessions are
infrequent and short, and whose processes are not con-
ducive to careful study or deliberate action upon the
vital problems of municipal life. Some functions of
government, such as deal with health, education and
the public peace may be handled better through the
broader authority of the state, but there is every reason
for allowing cities the greatest freedom for self-ex-
pression consistent with the basic structure of our gov-
ernment. Every state constitution not now granting
this freedom should be amended or modified to con-
form to the provisions now in efifect in Oregon and
Colorado, which are practically identical to the proposed
"home rule" constitutional amendment promulgated by
the National Municipal League in connection with its
Model City Charter:

"Such proposed charter . . . shall become the organic law of
mch city . . . and shall supersede ... all laws affecting the
organization and government of such city which are in conflict
therewith."

Charter. — A city charter and the ordinances
based upon it are the tools which, in the hands of the
city officials, will make or mar the civic structure. We
need not expect good workmanship, even from the best
of public servants, unless we provide the best possible
tools obtainable. The old notion that all we need to
produce good government is good men in office, is a
proven fallacy ; we know now that there are three prin-
cipal factors in good government, viz., good laws, good

GOVERNMENT 3

men, and a continuing interest on the part of the citi-
zens.

Given the proper home rule clause in the state con-
stitution, the city charter and its adequate administra-
tion determine the democracy, the efficiency, the econ-
omy, the responsiveness of the municipal government.
Experience has taught us that some charters tend to
discourage and hamper constructive action by city offi-
cials, disappoint forward-looking citizenship, and en-
courage graft and bossism, while others, even with
government in the hands of mediocre men, tend to give
us better results. We have learned better than to at-
tempt legislation in a city charter, understanding now
that the public conscience and the public will are in
constant flux, and that as soon as a man or a human
document becomes stationary, decay begins.

There are enough well-governed cities in America
today for our investigation as to form of city govern-
mental structure, so that a charter commission com-
posed of earnest and intelligent citizens properly ad-
vised by experienced experts need not go wrong in the
selection of a type of government and in the prepara-
tion of a charter, which, in the hands of competent and
honest officials, will give any city a modern, responsive
and democratic government, conducive to efficient ad-
ministration, suited to local conditions, and satisfactory
to the best citizenship.

Form of Government. — The selection of a form
of municipal government is a matter of prime impor-
tance, and many cities and towns now seek to improve

4 GOVERNMENT

civic conditions by a change. Forms now used in our
cities may be classified as follows : town meeting, fed-
eral, responsible executive, commission, and city man-
ager.

In spite of its claim for pure democracy, the town
meeting is, in practice, the least democratic. Taking
the Census Bureau's estimate, that fifty-five per cent
of total population consists of adults over twenty-one
years of age, a town of 10,000 population has 5,500
persons capable of citizenship. Few town halls seat
more than 1,000. The clerk of the town of Greenfield,
Mass., with 15,000 population, reports that measures
in the warrant are usually decided by a total vote of 200
or less. This can only mean that 10 1 persons deter-
mine the action of over 8,000 voters, and it may easily
give rise to evil practices by means of a "packed" town
meeting.

The federal form, with a mayor and two branches
of the legislative body, occasionally numbering 200 or
more, is cumbersome, unresponsive, slow in action,
and divides authority. Checks and balances may re-
strain but they cannot vitalize government.

The responsible executive form, as it prevails in
many cities, and as it has been adapted to state govern-
ment in Illinois, Idaho, Nebraska and other states,
depends too much upon a single elected official, and
involves too great an upheaval in administrative or-
ganization after each election. The commission form
is a considerable improvement over the older types.
It curtails national partizan politics in city business.

GOVERNMENT 5

fixes responsibility, and minimizes the practice of
"passing the buck." Its chief weakness is that it pro-
duces a five-headed executive which also constitutes
its legislative body, a body too small as a representa-
tive assembly and too large for efiicient administration.

The city manager form, involving a city council with
only policy-forming functions and a hired expert to do
the work, is the latest approved form of city govern-
ment. It is democratic, responsive, efficient and econom-
ical. It involves little change in administrative organi-
zation following elections ; it tends to make city execu-
tives experts instead of amateurs ; it allows representa-
tive men to sit in city councils without detriment to
their private business, and it provides for carrying on
the city's business with economy and dispatch. It is
therefore not acceptable to those elements which are
restrained by good government, nor to politicians who
live upon office or upon political spoils.

City Plan. — Most American cities have not been
built, they have grown without plan. A railroad sta-
tion, a cross-roads, a river junction, or a waterfall has
determined the first location, and from this point the
development has proceeded in haphazard fashion, en-
couraged here by an existing country road, hampered
there by some trivial natural obstacle or obstructive land
ownership. It is difficult for the pioneer to visualize
the city of the future, to realize that the hamlet of
today is the city of tomorrow, to understand that the
narrow road which is sufficient for the occasional farm-
er's cart is entirely inadequate for the heavy traffic of

6 GOVERNMENT

a city, to forecast the need of an urban population for
parks, playgrounds and open spaces. And even if the
vision appears, the means of carrying it out are lacking.

The city planning movement, now very much in evi-
dence in American cities, is a realization of our lack of
foresight and an attempt to direct growth and develop-
ment along sane and useful channels. Its aims are
threefold : to correct as far as may be possible the mis-
takes made by reason of the absence of a plan in the
past, to meet with good judgment the needs of the
present, and to prepare for such growth as may be
reasonably predicted for the future. In its more recent
aspects the city plan is not primarily a "City Beautiful"
movement; it is an attempt to build a city useful, effi-
cient and livable, a city in which men may work with
comfort and convenience and may make their homes
amid healthy and wholesome surroundings, homes that
are capable of producing the highest type of American
citizenship. Such planning no city can afford to neg-
lect or postpone.

Zoning. — The right of a citizen to do what he
will with his own is gradually yielding to the larger
right of the community. Private property in city land
is not so sacred as it used to be. We have long recog-
nized the right of the city to condemn privately owned
land for public use ; some states go further and allow
the condemnation of more land than is required for the
public improvement, and the re-sale by the city of the
unused portion. Now we are ready to go another step,
in saying that the use made of land shall be so regulated

GOVERNMENT 7

that It shall not infringe a neighbor's right of usage, or
the common interests of the community. This is zon-
ing, and it is usually made the first step in city plan-
ning, after an expert diagnosis of the local conditions
and requirements.

Zoning sets aside certain areas for every reasonable
use to which land in cities may be put; arranges for
facilities to accommodate specific uses, and prevents
infringement or trespass of one use upon another. It
determines the character of pavements and the height
of buildings, it locates manufacturing plants and ware-
houses in districts easy of access by railroad sidings
and heavily-paved streets, it prevents the location of a
stable, a garage, or an undertaker in a purely residential
neighborhood, and provides locations for all sorts of
business where it can thrive without damage to adjoin-
ing property. It stabilizes realty values and gives
greater permanence to investments in city property.
Zoning is the latest expression of the desire to make a
city more livable for all its inhabitants by the reason-
able application of a wholesome law.

Police and Fire Protection. — The protection of
life and property is one of the first obligations of gov-
ernment. A bill of rights or a paper grant of freedom
is of little avail, unless the citizen may confidently rely
upon his local government for his personal safety and
for adequate protection of his property. To this end
the organization and conduct of the police and fire de-
partments is of great importance. Equipment, person-
nel, organization and location of stations are the princi-

8 GOVERNMENT

pal factors. Motorized equipment is essential to prompt
action and is economical for many reasons. Fewer
stations furnish better service where the motor has
replaced the horses, and, particularly in a district where
calls are infrequent, the economy of a traction which
consumes no fuel when inactive, is very marked. With
good equipment, personnel and organization largely de-
termine efficiency. It is pitiful to see such vital depart-
ments subject to disruption and overthrow with every
change of political administration, as is so commonly
the case in American cities.

Fire departments are frequently sources of trouble
by reason of their men being idle so much of the time
that they get to hating themselves and each other. It
has been proposed* that the city establish shops in con-
nection with every fire station, where the city's equip-
ment for all departments may be renewed and repaired ;
that firemen be chosen for their mechanical ability as
well as their physical fitness for fire-fighting ; that they
be better paid, and expected to be at work excepting
when out on fire alarms. Spokane, Wash., maintains
a shop in connection with one fire station, at which
automobile apparatus is assemUed and repaired, and
the products of this shop, as well as the influence of
productive labor on the men, have been of remarkable
interest and advantage. Men are just as good firemen,
and perhaps better, when, on an alarm, they drop useful
tools, as when they lay down a deck of cards.

Centralized Purchasing. — No city, large or
small, can afford to allow each department or foreman

GOVERNMENT 9

to buy supplies independently. If the volume of pur-
chases does not justify a purchasing agent on full time,
an official with other work should be designated for this
duty. It will follow that the city will buy at lower
prices, goods bought will be accounted for, and time
will be saved, not only that of city officials and em-
ployees, but of the merchants from whom purchases
are made. The purchasing agent should be responsible
for goods bought, until they are in the hands of the de-
partment or the crew which uses them ; and all check-
ing of goods received and authorization of payment for
them should come through him.

Most modern charters require bids to be submitted
and considered in open session of the city council or
other official body when the amount of the purchase is
of considerable size, making provision for emergencies
when the time required for advertising would cause ex-
pensive or dangerous delay. This emergency clause is
frequently overworked, but if the city is fortunate in
having a real purchasing agent he will usually get as
good bids over the telephone as would have been sul>
mitted in writing, and no damage is done. Emergency
purchasing in the hands of all the officials often leads
to dishonest practices and the practice is found always
wasteful.

Testing Laboratory. — It has been said that no
city of 10,000 inhabitants can afiford to be without a
testing laboratory ; it is certain that any city which buys
in large quantities can get better goods at lower prices
if it has available the means of determining qualities.

10 GOVERNMENT

Most commodities which a city purchases have qualities
which relate closely to their value and which cannot be
determined by any casual inspection. The materials of
engineering construction, the component parts of
bridges, pavements, culverts and other civic improve-
ments are peculiarly subject to substitution, adultera-
tion and damage in manufacture and transport, and
unless they are carefully tested before they are incor-
porated into the city's structures great loss may result.
Good labor and skill may be wasted upon worthless
material, and resulting structures may not be able to
stand the strains which they are confidently expected to
bear. The testing laboratory in competent hands de-
termines comparative quality and value with scientific
precision. Coal, cement, asphalt, fire hose, lubricants,
paints and like products can be bought on absolute
merit by its means.

But only a small part of its benefits can be estimated
in money. Its work for the health department is vastly
more important, although less showy. The chemical
and bacteriological examination of milk and other
foods, the analysis of the city's water supply, the in-
spection of cultures and smears from suspected com-
municable diseases, these and the scores of other ser-
vices which the laboratory may render in the protection
of public health and the increase in public sanitation,
amply justify its cost, regardless of any money it may
save the taxpayers in other matters.

Civil Service. — The ideal city cannot do without
a proper merit system for determining the fitness of

GOVERNMENT 11

its employees. The old method of appointment to of-
fice as a reward for political or personal service has not
only brought chaos in municipal business, but has also
produced the common impression that no one but a
suspicious character would accept public office. Under
it service has deteriorated and public employment has
become distasteful to honest and competent men. One
of the greatest weaknesses of our system is found in
the general turn-over in our administrative public ser-
vice which occurs after every election.

Civil service reform has sought to remedy this con-
dition by appointment to public place for the sole reason
of fitness for the work to be done; to fill the' public
service with honest, intelligent and efficient employees.
In order to get and to keep good men, the conditions of
their employment as to salary, tenure of office and con-
ditions of life in the employment were to be made
satisfactory to the class of employees desired. A de-
cided value in an adequate civil service law is the relief
given to administrative officials from the importunities
of office-seekers. Fitness is determined by competitive
examinations which involve not only educational tests,
but also inquiry into physical condition, temperament,
personal habits and experience.

A common error in civil service laws is the attempt
to control dismissals from the service by giving a dis-
charged employee the right of a trial before the civil
service board, which may overrule the act of the em-
ploying official. This inevitably leads to disorganiza-
tion and inefficiency. The official head of the depart-

12 GOVERNMENT

ment is held responsible for its success or failure as
part of the city's working organization; he is limited
in appointments to persons who have proved their
fitness by competitive tests, and by assuming responsi-
bility he is entitled to authority in dismissals, restrained
only by the requirement that no one be discharged for
political or religious affiliations, and that every dis-
missed employee may have a statement of the cause of
his discharge and a chance to state his case.

Service Pensions. — We safeguard appointments
in the public service by adequate civil service laws, but
we commonly fail in consideration of what becomes of
a faithful employee after his active years of work are
past. In this consideration, private industry is setting
the pace in a movement in which our cities should be
leaders. Cities as a rule pay less salaries than private
employers pay for like services. In nearly every city
department will be found men and women who have
served the city long and faithfully, who have been
unable, and reasonably so, to provide adequately for the
time when they shall no longer be physically fit for the
performance of the daily task, and whose only outlook
for old age is humiliating dependence. Such a condi-
tion is nothing short of shameful. A few cities have
realized this failure and have corrected it by adopting
a scheme for retirement of civil employees for old age
or disability, with a pension sufficient to insure against
actual want. Many cities have already established this
practice in their police and fire departments, so that its
extension to apply to the other workers in the civil

GOVERNMENT 13

service will be only an enlargement of scope, and one
which every enlightened community will support.

Accounting. — We keep books of record because
we want to know the condition of our business. It
follows, therefore, that the best system of accounting
is that which will most readily and completely answer
our questions regarding the state of our affairs from
time to time. Not that we as citizens pay much atten-
tion to our public business, but the books must show to
the occasional inquirer the financial condition of the
city in sufficient detail and segregation to enable him to
form some judgment as to it£ general solvency, the
present condition of its departments and municipal
undertakings, its revenue and expenditures and its
financial obligations, and to give him the basis for such
comparisons as may illustrate its efficiency or its in-
capacity, as the case may be. For such comparisons,
cost accounting in public work is indispensable, and yet
we find few cities which use it, and where it has been
adopted it has usually come by means of outside pres-
sure. The manager of every public utility which the
city owns and operates should be able to show by its
books its condition and the cost, scope and financial
results of its operations, not only for his own guidance,
but in order to inform its stockholders, the citizens,
of its service and prospects.

Most states have provided uniform methods of ac-
counting for political subdivisions and exercise some
sort of accounting supervision over them, but it is a
civic duty to see that the accounting system is adequate,

14. GOVERNMENT

without the compulsion of any superior authority. If
the system used is so complicated as to be understand-
able only by an expert, which is a common tendency,
there should be a summary made of each balance sheet
in simple terms, easily intelligible to any inquiring
citizen.

Budget. — No prudent man decides upon an im-
portant expenditure without first considering his income
and his other uses for money. Like consideration is
more imperative in public affairs, for the reason that
city governments are not restricted to their earnings,
but are endowed with the power to tax the earnings of
every citizen. I may, if I choose, waste my money in
profligacy, but the city's money must bring something
of value for every dollar spent. To avoid public waste,
and to determine tax levies, the city must know what its
expenditures are to be, a year or more in advance. Its
citizens who are to be taxed have a rigfht to know what
their officials propose to spend and for what purpose.
Hence the necessity for a budget.

In ample time before the close of the city's fiscal
year, the estimates of the various department heads,
made in considerable detail, are collected and incorpo-
rated into a general statement which shows in separate
columns, expenditures for the same purpose during the
preceding year, appropriation for the present year,
amount of the present year's appropriation expended to
date, and the amount requested for the coming year.
This statement enables the tax-levying authority and
interested citizens to make those fruitful comparisons

GOVERNMENT 16

by which civic policies may be intelligently determined.
The budget system, while only a part of efficient gov-
ernmental practice, is a very important part. Many
cities now use it, and hopeful citizens visualize the time
when it will be used in our state and national govern-
ments.

Publicity. — Most city reports have little appeal
to the reading public. The immediate family of Hon-
orable John Jones may have a mild interest in the state-
ment that he was alderman in 1903, but it does not
count for much outside the family circle. Page after
page of tabulated statistics interest but few citizens, and
these will come to the city hall for the information.
The number of deaths per thousand from autopsycho-
sis may give a thrill to some savant, but will not excite
the average reader into further perusal of the pamphlet.
All this information should be made easily available
for those interested, but to attempt its general circula-
tion is a waste of good white paper, printers' ink and
postage. But a picture of the new municipal swimming
pool in the height of the season possesses a human in-
terest for the whole family, who will read with patience
the few descriptive words printed beneath it and brief
statistics of its cost and usage.

There are many activities of a modern city, the ac-
count of which may be put into attractive form on the
printed page; there is much of interest in most of the
city's affairs, but unless it is presented in interesting,
readable shape, with a touch of the pictorial to add to its
charm, few will trouble to read it. The modern pub-

16 GOVERNMENT

licity expert has a fertile field in producing municipal
reports which will be read by the people, and which
carry the essential information of the cities' activities
and progress. The Department of Public Works in
Philadelphia, under its administration by Morris L.
Cooke, has set us a good example of really fine munici-
pal publicity.

CHAPTER II

STREETS

Pavements. — In the transmission stage between
the use of horse-drawn and motor vehicles, the question
of proper pavements is one of considerable uncertainty.
When the horse was the only source of traction power,
a pavement was required which not only gave support
and ease to the wheels of vehicles, but which would also
furnish a safe foothold for horses. During the transi-
tion stage both these requirements must te considered,
but with the understanding that the horse is not likely
to be a factor for many years longer, and that there-
fore the pavements we now lay must at least be suitable
for motor-driven vehicles. There is no place in the
ideal city for the old type of cobble-stone roadway
which is now so common in heavy traffic streets in our
larger cities, nor for cut-stone blocks of softer ma-
terial, which soon become rounded by the chipping of
the square edges.

Sheet asphalt probably covers more miles of streets
than any other single type of pavement. When well
laid upon a sound foundation, it answers well all the
purposes of city traffic excepting that in wet or frosty
weather it becomes slippery and dangerous. This de-
fect is overcome in a measure by using coarser broken

17

18 STREETS

rock instead of sand in the mixture. The resulting
surface is not quite so easy for rubber-tired vehicles,
but affords a much better foothold for horses. What-
ever material is used, an acceptable pavement should
possess a good foundation, a firm base and an even sur-
face ; it should be easy to clean and to repair ; it should
be substantial and enduring. The radius of curbing
curves at street intersections should not be less than
twelve feet. Its first cost is not always an index of its
real value.

Cleaning. — Cleanliness is a civic asset; clean
streets help in giving the visitor a good first impression
of a city, and cities grow by impressing their desirable
qualifications upon strangers. Of course, sanitation by
cleanliness is more vital than appearance, but both are
important. A western city once advertised civic clean-
liness by obtaining several barrels of a well-known
soap powder, applying it with water and scrubbing
brushes to the pavement of its main street and photo-
graphing the process.

Street-cleaning methods must vary with the charac-
ter of the pavements. A smooth surface may be cleaned
best by flushing with water under pressure, but this
method is not applicable to cobblestones nor to old,
rough pavements so common in our cities. These must
be swept. They cannot be thoroughly cleaned by any
practicable process, but a little improvement in the sani-
tary condition and a considerably better appearance can
be had by sweeping. The old type of revolving street
broom, horse-drawn, which picks up the street litter

STREETS 19

and throws much of it into the air, is fast being dis-
carded. Hand-sweeping, or the use of the newer
types of pick-up motor sweepers, are giving good satis-
faction in a number of cities.

Lights. — It is interesting to note that systematic
lighting of city streets is less than one hundred years
old, having had its inception in Berlin, where artificial-
gas was used. Its introduction was opposed on theo-
logical grounds as a presumptuous thwarting of Provi-
dence, which had appointed darkness for the hours of
night ; on moral grounds, for the drunkard would feel
there was no hurry to go home, and late sweethearting
would be encouraged ; on police grounds, as the lighting
would make horses shy and thieves alert; and on the
patriotic ground that national illuminations would lose
their stimulating effect if the streets were illuminated
every night in the year. No public improvement which
involved a new vision of better living conditions has
been introduced without strenuous opposition by "prac-
tical" people, and doubtless none ever will be.

Street-lighting has become a necessity of modern city
life and its application has developed a new art. Light-
ing adapted to the width and use of the street, the char-
acter of the neighborhood and the local sources of
available lighting energy, can now be arrived at with
precision. Lighting engineers are studying reflection,
refraction, glare, and silhouette as applied to street
lighting. The type of lamp best suited for the varying
city uses, the proper height from the street, the kind of
glassware required, the means of getting the most light

20 STREETS

for the least expenditure, spacing and arrangement of
lights for good effect, have all been pretty well deter-
mined.

Signs. — In our familiarity with the streets of our
home city we frequently neglect the first requirement
of a stranger — street signs. No one but the stranger
on his first visit realizes how helpless he is in finding his
way about without street signs at the intersections. If
he be one of those diffident people who hesitate to ask
questions of strangers, his embarrassment is multiplied.
Many old residents in every city become confused when
they get into unfamiliar sections, so it is not entirely a
matter of convenience to occasional visitors that the
streets be well identified by means of signs.

Street signs should show names of streets in each
direction from the crossing, and it is a great conveni-
ence if they show also the house number nearest to the
sign. They should be plain in their lettering and the
letter itself should be of strong contrast to the back-
ground of the sign. It is well if they are of permanent
construction, for the street will, in all likelihood, be
there for generations. But the signs should be placed,
even if inexpensive and temporary.

Curb-lighting posts offer a good location for signs
in cities where they are used. Even wooden telephone
poles offer an opportunity, if located at or near inter-
sections, for cheap and readable signs, by painting the
names and numbers in black in plain block lettering on
a white ground which may be painted on the pole itself,
the name running vertically.

STREETS 21

Trees. — To a visitor from the older sections of
the country, the newer cities of the West have a barren
and uncouth appearance, largely owing to the absence
of shade trees on the residence streets, or to their small
size. To the visitor from the West, the older cities and
towns of the East have a charm of their own on account
of the splendid trees which line their roadways, often
meeting in a Gothic arch over the center of the street.
Good trees, besides giving pleasant shade, conceal to
some extent the architectural monstrosities dating back
to what has been called "the late U, S. Grant period,"
with which so many of our residential streets are dis-
figured.

The planting of trees along city streets has been left
too freely to individual taste and initiative ; it should be
done under public authority and supervision. And this
is true of their care as well as their planting. When
the construction crew of the electric light company
prunes a tree, it is not likely that the result will add
any beauty to the landscape. Every city should prize
its trees, should see that they are pruned for beauty
when they need it, and should be prepared to perform in
a scientific manner such surgery, spraying, etc., as may
be necessary to preserve this finest of civic assets from
decay or destruction.

Poles and Wires. — Municipal utilities which use
poles and wires placed in the streets are of compara-
tively recent origin, but in the few years they have been
in operation they have filled the streets of our cities
with veritable forests, not of live, beautiful trees, but

22 STREETS

of dead and decaying timber, making a blot upon the
landscape. In some of the larger cities, and particu-
larly in New York, this forest of dry bones was pro-
hibited and prevented, and the result is quite apparent
and satisfactory. Underground conduit is more ex-
pensive than pole lines, at least in first cost. It costs
more to build a street railway line having its electric
conductor beneath the surface than it does to use a
trolley line suspended in the air, but the added fraction
of a cent in street-car fare or electric light or telephone
rate, necessitated by underground construction, is a
small burden that city dwellers will gladly pay to be rid
of the nuisance of streets full of poles and wires.

The present difficulty is that franchises have been
granted, some of them for 999 years, which authorize
the promiscuous planting of poles in the streets. These
sacred contracts are difficult to break unless, indeed,
a court can be persuaded that a franchise rate is too low.
Enlightened owners of such a franchise, however, often
assist the municipal authorities in correcting the pole
evil by building underground conduits in business
streets and by anchoring trolley guys in the walls of
buildings. The city can always remedy, even if it can-
not entirely cure, this evil. It should build and own its
underground conduit system.

Bridges. — Most American cities are located on
streams, and these natural barriers must be overcome
with bridges which are a vital part of the general street
system of the municipality. Bridges are important be-
cause upon their location and character may depend the

STREETS 23

direction and growth of a business or residence section,
and, consequently, the increase or decline of realty-
values. If a bridge is wide, substantial and sightly,
traffic is attracted; while the contrary conditions bring
a contrary result.

In addition to their utility, bridges may be made the
means of expression of civic art and beauty, particu-
larly where some attention is paid to the banks of the
streams which they cross. In the larger cities of
Europe the design and decoration of a bridge fre-
quently make it the important monument of the munici-
pality, and European bridges are visited by many tour-
ists, not only for their historic associations, but on
account of their beauty. Even in American cities
bridges are becoming something more than the means
of carrying traffic across a stream or a ravine. The
arch is in itself a thing of beauty, and the possession of
artistic and architectural lines of grace in a bridge in
no way detracts from its stability and usefulness. The
ideal city will build its bridges of permanent material,
with strength calculated to stand the strains of the
traffic of fifty years hence, and will not neglect to make
the structure imposing and artistic or to see that no
unsightly conditions mar the beauty of its surroundings.

Safety Islands. — There is always an argument
between the automobile driver and the pedestrian as to
whose rights on the street are paramount, and the toll
of human life taken by vehicular traffic in American
cities is tremendous. A life taken every day of the
year is not unusual in several of our large cities, and

24. STREETS

the average in New York City was over two a day in
1920. That no one can be blamed for an accident can-
not compensate a mother for the loss of her child. So-
ciety must be blamed if our public servants do not take
every precaution possible to avoid accident, and society
is just ourselves. It is fair to the driver of a vehicle in
the congested traffic district of any city that the cross-
ing of the street by pedestrians be limited to the street
intersections, unless blocks are unusually long; it is
fair to the pedestrian that the crossing be marked so
as to indicate plainly the zone in which he has the right-
of-way, and such regulations go a long way toward
making the street safe for both.

But this regulation does not care for the presence of
pedestrians on the roadway in the loading and unload-
ing of surface street railway cars. For them special
protection is required, and this is furnished, to some
extent at least, by the so-called "safety island." In
some of the cities this island is a platform, raised eight
to twelve inches above the surface, from or to which the
car rider steps. In other cities the "island" is marked
off on the pavement by a painted line; and in some
others it is outlined by movable iron standards with
broad bases and carries signs. The platform is the
best, for the automobile cannot easily trespass upon it,
and the pedestrian cannot mistake its boundaries.

Fountains. — The modern city will install drink-
ing fountains in its streets, parks, and public places, not
only for its citizens and its visitors, but also for its
thirsty animals. The glare of the summer sun, reflected

STREETS 25

from brick buildings and hot pavements makes the
pubHc drinking fountain a necessity of city hfe. Our
cities are rapidly responding to this need. Most of
them have placed fountains in their parks and on busi-
ness streets, and some have installed them in residential
districts. For human use the type usually adopted is
the continuously flowing jet, and these frequently carry
as many as four jets and sometimes have a cup near
the base from which dogs may drink. A better type is
the foot-lever fountain. It not only avoids the waste of
much water, but as it draws from below the frost line,
it can be operated in freezing weather as well as in the
summer.

Horse fountains which operate in like manner
are now in use in some cities, and they are far superior
to the watering trough, which is held responsible for
the spread of much communicable disease among
horses. The newer horse fountain operates with a
lever, draws water from below the frost line into a
bucket, and hence can be used at all seasons even in
cold climates. A desirable type of this modern horse
fountain is described and illustrated in The American
City Magazine for August, 191 5. A suggested modifi-
cation is the addition of a third spigot carrying a short
length of rubber hose, to be used for filling automobile
radiators.

Comfort Stations. — The need of public comfort
stations has been generally recognized, but it has been
greatly accentuated by the abolishment of the saloon.
Such stations are usually constructed under a street or

26 STREETS

sidewalk, with only a railing or a canopy over a stair-
way visible upon the surface. Their proper location
will depend upon available space and facilities for
water supply, drainage and ventilation. Personal at-
tendance is very desirable until people generally learn
cleanliness, decency and regard for the rights of others
— and to the attendants of comfort stations this time
appears to be a long distance in the future. Their
experiences are frequently disheartening and almost
unbelievable.

Good construction, good lights, sanitary plumbing
and constant attendance are absolute requirements if
fair conditions are to be maintained. The addition of
a sufficient number of modern pay toilets is a great
boon to cleanly people, and the revenue therefrom, per-
haps augmented by the receipts from a shoe-shining
stand, goes far to pay for the necessary attendance.
When located above the ground, a newsstand and a
cigar counter may help with the revenue.

Grade Separation. — Most of our cities have been
built or have greatly increased in population subse-
quently to the arrival of the railroads, and have been
obliged to open, from time to time, additional streets
across the tracks, usually at grade. The growth of
population and of traffic, both upon the streets and the
railroads, has brought a terrible harvest of accident
and death from these grade crossings. Watchmen and
gates have helped a little, but the only real remedy is
the absolute separation of the two roadways. This is
expensive, but its results are so beneficial, both for the

STREETS 27

city and the railroad company, that almost any expense
is justified, and in most American cities grade separa-
tion is a pressing and immediate problem.

Grade crossings seriously hinder the expansion and
development of business districts, and constitute a bar-
rier to healthy growth. If the benefits of grade separa-
tion could be assessed to property benefited thereby, the
cost might easily be taken care of without calling upon
the railroad for more than its direct saving, nor upon
the tax funds of the community. The chief obstacle to
grade separation now is found in the impoverished
financial condition of most of the railroads, due in
some cases, it is true, to operations of frenzied finance
in their past history.

When a railroad is built into a city already well popu-
lated it is usually required to provide grade separation
in its original location. It should be so required i.n
every case, and city officials as well as railway manage-
ment should not rest satisfied until every grade crossing
is abolished. The railway grade should be lowered
below the street where possible, but if this be impos-
sible an elevated grade with the streets spanned by
bridges of neat design is not seriously objectionable.

Traffic Rules. — Previous to the advent of the
automobile the common law of the public road was
sufficient for the regulation of traffic on the streets in
all but the larger cities. With the coming of the motor-
driven vehicle and the rapid development of high power
machines capable of a speed approximating that of the
fastest railroad train, a new problem presented itself.

28 STREETS

Here was a new vehicle weighing from one to two tons,
developing a speed unheard of before on the public
highway, piloted by the young and the old, the incom-
petent and the inexperienced, and often by the intoxi-
cated and the reckless. This brought a new menace,
and a fearful harvest of accident and death. The horse
owners felt that they owned the roads, and their in-
fluence was used with legislatures and city councils to
procure stringent and suppressive laws to regulate the
automobile, or preferably, to drive it from the road.

But the horse was doomed and is now fast disappear-
ing from city use. There has gradually developed a
system of traffic rules, state laws and city ordinances,
which meet, with more or less sufficiency, the demand
for greater safety for all who use the streets. The
ideal city must not only regulate the movement of
vehicles in order to facilitate traffic and avoid accident ;
it must meet the problems of parking and gasoline
pumps and stations. The merchant has a right of use,
for his business and his patrons, to the street in front
of his store, a right which is infringed by long parking.
To adjust these conflicting rights is a matter of no
light difficulty.

Sidewalks. — The original purpose of sidewalks
is the convenience of pedestrians. This seems to have
been forgotten in many American cities, for the side-
walks have been allowed to fill up with various struc-
tures foreign to any consideration of this fundamental
use. The national postal service erects mailing boxes,
large and small, the city places fire hydrants, drinking

STREETS 29

fountains, signal boxes, and lamp posts, and allows its
utilities to erect poles for all sorts of public and semi-
public uses. Many cities allow gasoline pumps and
compressed air services on the sidewalks. Property
owners frequently trespass upon the public rights by
building entrance steps, basement stairways, and awn-
ings out beyond the property line, and tenants are often
obliged, by the absence of suitable alleys, to use the
sidewalks for loading and unloading all the merchandise
they handle. In the market and wholesale districts
of most of our large cities it is a common occurrence
to find a truck loading or unloading by a skidway across
the sidewalk, making the pedestrian take to the roadway
or cross the street.

These conflicting requirements are always a source
of trouble to city officials. Some of them can be rem-
edied, while others must be permitted, and a tolerance
allowed, dividing the inconvenience as may be found
expedient. It is a mistake to allow any permanent part
of a building to be located beyond the property line,
infringing on the sidewalk, or to permit any non-public
use to trespass upon it which cannot be easily removed
when the public good requires it. In a small city or
upon a street where traffic is not heavy, uses may be
permitted temporarily which, with the growth of the
city or the expansion of the business district, can easily
be curtailed or abolished. The sidewalks are a part of
the public streets. They belong to all the people, and
the time may come when their surface and the space

30 STREETS

beneath them will be needed for public use or con-
venience.

Alleys. — A woeful lack of alleys exists in most
of the older cities. When ground is plotted for public
use in cities, the plan of the lots is usually arranged not
so much to meet the requirements of future use as to
furnish to the owner the largest number of salable plots.
If streets do not conform to those of adjoining prop-
erty, so much the worse for the streets. If by crowding
out alleys and reducing the size of the lots another row
of salable lots can be obtained, so much the better for
the land owner. A few cities have prepared, by their
city planning activities, to prevent these practices for
the future, but the errors of the past will remain to
haunt us for generations to come.

Alleys in the business district prevent obstructive
business use of streets and sidewalks. In residence dis-
tricts they furnish means of handling fuel, ashes, and
garbage, afford easy access to garages properly located
at the back of the lots, without taking from the front
yard the area necessary for a driveway, and furnish a
convenient avenue for domestic deliveries. Poles carry-
ing overhead electrical service wires if located in alleys
are much less objectionable than in the streets.

Alleys should have the same care by the municipality
as do the streets. Their proper grading and paving
should not be neglected nor should they be allowed to
become the dumping ground for disagreeable and of-
fensive wastes. Show me your alleys and I will tell
you whether or not your city administration is efficient.

STREETS 31

Street Widening. — The newer cities usually
have streets of ample width; the older ones have many
which are totally inadequate in width to carry the traffic
imposed upon them. It is difficult for the pioneer of the
cross-roads, busy with his primitive struggle for exis-
tence, to visualize the growth of a mighty city upon that
spot or to provide for its coming, even if he may dream
of its stately buildings and busy marts; and it is just as
diffi-cult to foresee, even in our own marvellous time,
the changes which may be demanded to meet the re-
quirements of some possible vehicular invention of the
future. We expect that the city-planning movement
will prevent these mistakes in the future; that zoning
will determine the location of business and industry,
and thereby enable us to prepare our streets for the
heaviest traffic.

But some of the mistakes of the past must be cor-
rected by widening existing streets or by driving new
and adequate streets through old and closely built sec-
tions of our cities. When tall buildings must be torn
down or their fronts removed, this is an expensive and
difficult undertaking. Relief is sometimes accomplished
by making the roadway the full width of the street and
using an arcade opened under the building fronts as a
sidewalk, or by establishing a new property line at the
edge of the new and wider street, requiring any new
structure to be set back to it and allowing older build-
ings to stand for a term of years or until they have
outlived their usefulness.

Where the laws provide for excess condemnation

32 STREETS

streets have been widened without any expense what-
ever. Frontage on a new and wider thorofare has been
found to be so much more valuable than that upon the
old and narrow street, that the unused portions of par-
cels of land condemned for the improvement have sold
for more than enough to pay all the costs of the con-
demned land and building the new street, and the result
is a more useful and sightly street.

CHAPTER III

UTILITIES

Water Supply. — An adequate supply of pure
water is the first necessity of city life, and with the
growth of American cities it has become the utility to
which we are ready to devote our best thought and
greatest expenditures. We must have water for do-
mestic use, for fire fighting, for the purposes of public
and private cleanliness and for manufacturing and in-
dustrial uses. American cities demand more than twice
as much water per capita as the average European city,
and this because we are the most cleanly and the most
wasteful people on earth. While some of our cities get
along on lOO gallons per capita per day, many call for
200 gallons and a few for 300 gallons or even more.

About three-fourths of the municipal water-works
in this country are owned and operated by the public.
Even opponents of general public ownership of utilities
agree that our water supplies, so vital to the health and
well-being of our people, should not be operated by pri-
vate corporations whose chief incentive is profit. Our
cities have not hesitated to go 200 miles or more for
pure water, nor to spend millions of dollars in its
acquisition and development. Many cities are forced to
use water which has been polluted by human and animal

33

34 UTILITIES

wastes and which is, in its raw state, unfit for human
consumption. Such water is now subjected to scientific
treatment which renders it harmless and wholesome,
and in every city where this modern system of purifica-
tion has been installed, the death rate from typhoid and
other filth diseases has immediately fallen. Spokane,
Washington, has a marvellous supply of water which is
absolutely free from organic contamination, pumped
from unfailing wells in the glacial gravel deposits, and
having a constant temperature of forty-nine degrees
Fahrenheit the year around. 50,000,000 gallons have
been pumped from one well, twenty-five feet in di-
ameter and sixty-five feet deep, in twenty- four hours,
lowering the surface but thirty inches. A cool, re-
freshing drink may be drawn from a street fountain
in that favored city on the hottest day of summer.

A municipally owned water-works should supply the
purest possible water, and should aim to supply it at
cost; it should receive pay for water furnished the
municipality for public purposes, and, in order to pre-
vent waste and to divide its costs fairly among its
patrons, every service should be metered.

Gas. — Artificial gas was the next public utility,
following water, to be introduced in city life. Its
original purpose was to furnish light, but its use in
heating, particularly in cooking, developed rapidly, and
now that the most of our lighting is done by electricity,
gas is used almost exclusively for heating, and the de-
mand for it is even greater than when it was the chief
source of light in cities. The invention of the incan-

UTILITIES 35

descent mantle enabled the gas business to survive in

competition with the high rates charged for electric cur-
rent in its earlier history. Following closely after the
discovery of petroleum came the introduction of natural
gas, and in the districts where natural gas was avail-
able, its cheapness and high heat efficiency drove arti-
ficial gas out of use.

Public authority usually fixes the standard calorific
value of artificial gas at from 500 to 600 British ther-
mal units per cubic foot. Natural gas is much higher
in value, often giving 900 to 1,200 British thermal
units.

Gas works in American cities have been subjected to
the evils of "high finance" more than any other utility,
possibly excepting street railways. Many gas plants
are now owned by nation-wide "holding corporations"
and it is not uncommon to find them capitalized at three
or even four times the actual investment. Tests made
by municipal authority have shown poor gas being fur-
nished, and immediate improvement has followed the
knowledge that tests were being made. Every city
should possess the means of testing the calorific power
of the gas furnished to its citizens, and the accuracy of
the meters used in its measurement. It should see that
the price charged for such a necessity of life is not ex-
cessive, and that the scheme of rates does not make the
cost bear too heavily upon small consumers.

Sewers. — Next to water supply, the disposal of
the city's wastes is always its major sanitary problem.
Cities without sewers are the breeding places of deadly

36 UTILITIES

epidemics, and the death rate of cities is frequently in
pretty direct ratio to the thoroughness of its sewerage
system. Fortunately for them most cities in the United
States have learned this lesson, and yet there are many
of them in which hundreds or even thousands of homes
are still without connection to the city's sewers. Even
where sewers are laid in the streets, many citizens rebel
at being forced to connect their homes with them.

Proper drainage is not a very difficult matter ex-
cepting in cities located on low and level plains. New
Orleans, located below the normal level of the Missis-
sippi River, cannot be drained except by pumping, and
has a real sewerage problem. The common practice in
many cities has been to run the city's sewage into any
stream or lake which happens to be handy, with little
regard for the inhabitants of other cities who must use
the same stream or lake as a source of water supply.
This disregard for the rights of others demands the
force of the state's authority to prevent the reckless
pollution of surface waters. Many American cities,
urged by the considerations of public decency or forced
by a higher public authority, have installed plants for
the purification of their sewage which are now in suc-
cessful operation. The solids are taken out and made
available for fertilization, and the liquids are disin-
fected and rendered harmless. Decency and thrift are
beginning to replace wastefulness and indifference.

Garbage Disposal. — Kitchen wastes, combustible
rubbish and unburnable refuse and ashes constitute the
city's offal which cannot be disposed of through the

UTILITIES 37

sewers, and must be taken care of, preferably by a pub-
lic authority concerned more with the health of the
community than with the profits of the undertaking.
Most cities charge the cost of waste removal to the citi-
zens to whom the immediate service is rendered, either
doing the work as a public function or letting it out to
contractors under public regulation ; a few cities per-
form the individual service without charge, paying the
cost from tax funds. Where service is charged for,
there is always the temptation and often the practice
of waste disposal in ways which are prejudicial to
health. Vacant lots and secluded nooks become the
dumping ground for disease-breeding filth as well as
unsightly rubbish. The proper disposal of these wastes
is of great consequence to the whole community; the
public health depends greatly upon it, and it is improvi-
dent to leave it to private initiative or to contractors
whose only incentive is profit.

In the more enlightened cities the wastes are not only
cleared away and disposed of, but are made a source of
revenue. Kitchen refuse is fed to hogs, combustible
offal is a source of steam power, and incombustible
refuse and ashes are used in filling in marsh or tide
lands, adding new and useful areas to city uses.

Electric Light and Power. — The development of
the use of electricity as a source of light has taken place
within the last forty years, a crude arc lamp having
been exhibited in public for the first time at the Centen-
nial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. The fact that
electricity has almost entirely superseded gas in light-

38 UTILITIES

ing has been due, however, to the invention and devel-
opment of the incandescent lamp, which has revolution-
ized private and public lighting everywhere. The arc
lamp, applicable only where large units could be used, is
now rapidly giving place to the modern incandescent,
using a tungsten filament and filled with inert gas, which
gives more and better light for the current used than
any previous type, and is applicable to large as well as
small units.

One of the difficulties of adapting electric lighting to
public or private use, is the rapid change continually
taking place in the art by reason of new discoveries and
inventions. Good lighting is requisite for the ideal city.
We cannot afford to wait for the next invention, but
must use present lighting equipment to the best pos-
sible advantage. Rapid changes, necessitating the loss
of equipment while still new, have kept electric light
and power rates higher than they should be in some
places, but the convenience, adaptability and safety of
electric lighting, and the elasticity and ease of transmis-
sion of electric power have made them indispensable
even where costs were not lowered.

The electric light and power industry is largely in the
hands of utility corporations which by reason of owner-
ship of water power or of transmission and distribution
systems are able to control the situation. 1,929 cities
and towns in the United States now own and operate
electric plants, and more own distribution systems, buy-
ing electric current at wholesale and selling it to their
citizens. Any city which has clean and responsive

UTILITIES 39

government may undertake such a function, when ex-
pedient or necessary, without anticipating failure.

Telephones. — The introduction and use of the
telephone have been controlled more closely by a single
nation-wide corporation than any other business which
we now classify as a public utility, and to the credit of
this corporation be it said that this business of marvel-
lous growth and universal application has served its
patrons and developed its usefulness with great effi-
ciency and freedom from the scandals which have dis-
graced so many great utility undertakings.

Although often classified as a municipal utility, the
telephone is like the electric telegraph and the postal
service in its nation-wide operation and usefulness.
The city may regulate its usage of the streets for pole
lines and conduits, but its general relationships to its
patrons are ordinarily and quite properly taken over by
the state or the national government ; and if public own-
ership is accomplished, it must be under the control of
the larger political unit. When an essential utility like
the telephone fails to function in private ownership;
when a citizen without special influence, desiring a tele-
phone in his home or his office, must wait a year or
more for its installation, as has occasionally happened,
thoughtful people will demand public ownership, in or-
der to get more consideration for their needs than a
private utility corporation will give them.

Street Railways. — An adequate system of trans-
portation within its borders is a paramount necessity of
modern city life. To many it is a convenience, saving

40 UTILITIES

time and facilitating business, bait its value is not con-
fined to those who use its service ; it affects the funda-
mental conditions of city life in a way which makes it
important to every resident. Slums, congestion and
bad housing with all their attendant evils, may be the
direct result of inadequate transportation. If the man
who works in the business center can, by means of easy
and cheap transport, have a home in the suburbs, with
plenty of sunshine and fresh air; if he can have a lawn
and some flowers and a little garden, he makes a better
citizen, than if forced to live in a tenement in order to
be near his work. His whole attitude toward life is
improved; his interest in his city is enlarged, and his
children are in the way of becoming a real contribution
to good citizenship.

Urban transportation as a business has suffered
severely in the last decade by reason of the decline in
the value of the nickel, which has been the almost uni-
versal standard of street railway fare in this country,
and by the competition of the automobile. The future
of the business is uncertain, at least as a private enter-
prise, and it is now difficult to get new money for the
much needed extensions and betterments to keep pace
with growing populations. But the service it renders is
too important to be allowed to decay. A few cities are
holding the fare down to five cents and paying losses
from taxation; some have undertaken to guarantee
reasonable return on the capital invested by raising
fares, and a few have taken over their transportation
for public ownership and operation. The situation is

UTILITIES 41

serious. It concerns us all and it must be met on the
basis of a far-reaching community interest rather than
private gain.

The Motor Bus. — Some students of urban trans-
portation believe that in cities of moderate size its
traffic will ultimately be carried upon rubber-tired
vehicles instead of rails. Whether or not this prophecy
will come true, it is certain that the motor bus is fast
becoming a factor to be reckoned with. Experience in
cities where well established lines of busses have been
operated for years does not seem to lead to the hope
that they can ever be operated as cheaply as cars running
upon rails. Electricity as a motive power, even where
obtained from coal, is more elastic, more adaptable and
cheaper than petroleum fuels, and unless we soon dis-
cover some means of increasing the supply of gasoline
or some cheaper fuel for the internal combustion en-
gine, their price is likely to become prohibitory.

The motor bus, however, is likely to prove a useful
adjunct to electric lines. As a feeder to trolley service
in sparsely settled suburbs it is now in general use, and
giving good service. Motor busses seating twenty to
thirty people now operate in several cities, a few on
through routes but most of them bring their loads to a
connection with trolley systems. A motor bus is useful
in determining the necessity or the route of a proposed
extension. A test can be made of the volume of traffic
and the most feasible route, without permanent invest-
ment in road-bed or trolley wires. The so-called "jitney
bus," usually a gasoline touring car seating five to

42 UTILITIES

seven people, running on routes already occupied by
trolley lines, is an unmitigated nuisance and should not
be tolerated in any city. It simply increases the ulti-
mate problem of urban transportation; its only service
is to hasten the end of existing uncertain conditions.

Steam Heating. — Public steam heating is one of
the newer utilities which has demonstrated its worth irl
some of the larger cities, where many business buildings
and a few residences are now heated from central
plants. Its service usually includes hot water supply
and often steam for various industrial uses, and oc-
casionally for power. Its economies are found in the
bulk purchase and mechanical handling of fuel, and a
great saving in labor over the superintendence and op-
eration of many small plants. Offset against these
savings is the interest on, and maintenance of, the plant
and mains, and the loss of steam in transmission
through the underground system. In some cities, where
there are public steam plants which have demonstrated
their capacity and reliability, commercial buildings have
been erected without heating plants. Where this can
be safely done, an additional saving of space and con-
struction expense is made.

The city of Boise, Idaho, has a public heating plant
established by Mother Nature many centuries ago. It
consists of a never-failing supply of hot water which
comes to the surface from the inexhaustible internal
heat of the earth, and is piped through the streets and
into the buildings. Nor is this the only special blessing
bestowed by Nature upon Idaho, A drilled well near

1

UTILITIES 43

Twin Falls in that state did not strike water, but did
open up a brisk current of air at close to the freezing
temperature, which now furnishes refrigeration to the
buildings of a ranch. Even the ideal city cannot hope
for such unusual dispensations.

Coal — Ice — Food. — To classify the merchandis-
ing of commodities as a public utility requires a rather
broad definition of that business. If we limit our defi-
nition to include only those undertakings requiring a
special permit or franchise for the use of the streets,
we must leave out this section; if we define a public
utility as the means of supplying a common need by
collective action, then the furnishing of coal, ice and
food may be public utilities. We furnish gas, why not
coal? We furnish water, why not furnish food or
ice? Ordinarily the price of these commodities is so
well regulated by supply and demand that there is no
temptation to add the burden of their supply to the
ordinary task of a government none too efficient in its
normal and usual activities. Merchandising is not a
natural monopoly, but the tendency toward private
monopoly and price-fixing by producers and dealers'
combinations in recent years, and gambling in essential
foods, has become such a menace, particularly in the
common necessities of life, that we may be obliged in
self protection to arrange and maintain our own ave-
nues of supply.

Food, ice and coal have been supplied to the people of
many cities in times of emergency by public officials
either with or without governmental authority. When

44 UTILITIES

common needs become the pawns of speculative games
by financiers, when control of any necessity of life by
gamblers produces artificial prices which involve dis-
tress to considerable numbers of our citizens, when
greed becomes insolent and forgets the common obliga-
tions of human brotherhood, the modern city will not
hesitate to make public utilities of undertakings which
we now leave willingly in private hands.

Rates. — Rate-making for public utilities is an
art which should not be lightly undertaken by inex-
perienced public officials. Few activities of the city
government call for more knowledge, experience and
common sense, and when rate-making or rate changes
are in contemplation, officials should not hesitate to
obtain the best expert assistance available. This is
essential in fixing rates for the service of publicly owned
utilities, and is doubly so when dealing with those pri-
vately owned. With the former there need be no con-
siderations but those of justice, fairness and sufficiency;
with the latter we must not only meet these require-
ments, but must see to it that rates are reasonable for
the service rendered.

In fixing utility rates the quality and character of
the service must be considered. Good service is better
than poor; it costs more and it is worth more. Gas of
standard heating quality is better than gas mixed with
air; pure water is better than impure; electric service
which is continuous and stable is better than if subject
to frequent interruptions, and keeping service standards
up to a high mark is not an easy thing to do. Utility

UTILITIES 45

rates should be fair to all classes of consumers, equitable
between individuals in each class, and should yield
enough revenue to keep the business solvent, whether it
be publicly or privately owned. A nice balance between
justice and expediency must be maintained, for absolute
justice is unattainable in rate-making. The cost of
pumping water depends largely upon the height to
which it is elevated, yet it is not expedient to charge
the householder on the hilltop more than the one in the
valley. The cost of passenger transportation depends
upon the distance traveled and the weight of the pas-
senger, yet we find it expedient to carry the fat or the
lean, two blocks or ten miles, for the same fare.

Rate reductions may increase net profits by inducing
larger use of the service and thus benefit the utility
as well as the consumer. The introduction of 3,000
electric cooking ranges followed a rate reduction in
one of our cities, contributing to the earnings of the
utility by adding to the "off peak" load. A heating
rate of one cent per kilowatt-hour has been found
profitable where an excess of hydro-electric power had
been developed.

CHAPTER IV

TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT

Railways. — On a balcony overlooking the main
concourse of the Grand Central Terminal in New
York is exhibited the first railway train which ran in
America. The small and crude locomotive and the
thorobrace stage coaches — exact replicas, except in
wheels and trucks, of the horse-drawn coach of that
day — bring to mind one of the objections urged against
the introduction of steam locomotion, that if God ever
intended his children to ride at the terrific speed of
fifteen miles an hour, He would have mentioned it in
His holy word.

A modern city without railroad service is inconceiv-
able ; it couldn't be. The progress of railroad building
is the progress of civilization as we know it. By means
of the cheap transportation of the railroad, whereby a
ton of merchandise is carried a mile for less than one
cent, the standard of living of the common man has
been raised in this country far above that of any other
country or any other age, and this constitutes the real
measure of human progress.

Whether the railroad came to the city or the city
was built on the railroad, their interests are identical;
neither can exist without the other, but together, and

46

TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT 47

in the spirit of mutual dependence and understanding,
all their problems of relationship can be worked out.
Bear-baiting is a discarded sport. We need not go into
the unsavory history of railroad finance or of the rail-
road domination of state and city governments. Trans-
portation is a vital function, and its control will come
more and more under public authority if not public
ownership. The enlightened among railroad managers
have already shown a new spirit of public service and
a real desire to meet the public demand for honest
financial methods and efficient administration, and city
officials must be ready to meet them upon this fair
basis.

Unlimited competition is bad for the railroads and
the public they serve. A new competing line into a
city already well served costs twice as much as an
added track on a line already built, and handles only
half as much additional traffic. It is an economic
waste which can only be a burden upon a community,
as it must eventually be paid for out of fares and
freight charges.

Passenger Depots. — The unification of passen-
ger terminals in American cities would be a great boon
to those who use them and to the cities generally.
Where a number of railroads come to a city and each
has its own passenger station, there is much confusion
of traffic, complicated street railway service and dis-
comfort to travelers having to change routes. The city
is badly cut up by the railroads and the growth of
business and residence districts seriously impeded.

48 TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT

Enough cities have union passenger stations to have
demonstrated their advantages to travelers and to the
railroads, as well as to the city itself.

The modern city which now has several passenger
terminals will do well to seek the services of a city
planning engineer, skilled and experienced in railroad
location and traffic matters, and have prepared a plan
of unification of terminals for the whole city, a plan
contemplating not only the present situation but also
looking ahead to future growth and the advent of new
railroads. Changes in railroad location are difficult
of accomplishment, and it often takes years to bring
them about, but conditions are continually arising which
demand changes in location and facilities, and a com-
plicated and distressing situation is, for this reason,
never hopeless. It may be that the city, in asking the
railroads for unification, may be able to offer in ex-
change some property or facility which will be of great
value to them. It may be that the authority of a state
railroad commission can be of use, or that unification
may be accomplished as a part of a scheme for general
grade separation. Let the railroad management know
your desires, show them the advantages of your com-
prehensive plan, your willingness to alter it in unim-
portant details, and be ready to cooperate with them in
bringing it to pass.

Freight Terminals. — Railroad freight traffic in
this country has increased with incredible rapidity,
much faster than the railroads could furnish increased
motive power and rolling stock to handle it. But the

TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT 49

greatest impediment to this wonderful growth in traffic
has been found in inadequate freight terminals in our
cities. Carload minimums have been increased, demur-
rage charges raised, better movement of loads and
empties arranged, and locomotives repaired and built,
but the terminals are not so easily or so readily en-
larged. There is no reason to believe that the present
transportation demands are abnormal; they represent
normal growth in population, production and demand.
The constantly increasing development of our natural
resources, the settlement of new land reclaimed from
the desert, the swamp and the forest, and above all, the
continual rise in the standard of living generally, have
brought about this increasing demand for transporta-
tion, which promises to continue its growth for many
years to come.

The ideal city will help in the solution of the present
problem and at the same time will prepare for the
inevitable growth of the future. Some cities now own
and operate, or lease for operation, belt lines of rail-
road connecting with all incoming trunk lines, serving
many industries and provided with switching, transfer
and loading and unloading facilities. Main lines of
railroad through cities are relieved of congestion by
"cut-off" lines for carrying through-freight traffic
around the city. Ample yards in connection with these
belt lines and cut-offs, with plenty of additional ground
for future expansion, provide facilities which will
enable good rail service to be given at present and in
the future.

50 TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT

Waterways. — Location upon navigable water is
a great asset to any city, and if ocean-going traffic can
come to the city's docks the possibilities of world com-
merce contribute to the city's future growth and impor-
tance. So great is the benefit of such a situation, that
many cities in this country and in foreign lands have
spent millions of dollars in making artificial waterways
to their docks, by deepening streams, by digging ship
canals or by building jetties and breakwaters. No
amount of money seems excessive to pay for such a
project, so great are its advantages. The cheapest way
to move freight is by water, and the ocean furnishes a
most attractive means of passenger travel.

Houston, Texas, has dredged a twenty-five-foot
channel fifty miles to the sea; Seattle, already pos-
sessed of a splendid harbor, has dug a ship canal from
Puget Sound to Lake Washington, a large body of
fresh water in which ships' bottoms are automatically
cleansed of marine growths; Los Angeles, instead of
digging a channel, extended the city limits twenty miles
in a narrow strip of land, to reach an acquired harbor.
Many cities located on the Great Lakes and on navi-
gable rivers are investing heavily in harbor acquire-
ment and improvement. In the past, internal water
traffic has been throttled, and harbor development de-
layed by the railroads, but with the ever-tightening
tendency of public regulation of railroads, an end will
soon be put to the suppression of water traffic for
selfish reasons, and the cities which are located upon

TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT 51

navigable waters will reap the benefits therefrom to
which they are entitled.

Port Facilities. — To take advantage of its loca-
tion upon navigable water the modern city must provide
ample room for dockage and adequate facilities for
loading and unloading vessels, transferring bulk prod-
ucts and merchandise, and storage for stable and perish-
able goods. During the Great War the problem of ocean
transport was not only to procure vessels to carry our
men and munitions across the seas; it was largely to
provide means of quickly loading and unloading vessels
on both sides, transferring cargoes and taking care of
goods in transit. The problems of peace-time com-
merce are similar. Traffic moves along lines of least
resistance, and that city will be most favored which
has provided the best means for facilitating transfers.
Cost is also important, but it is secondary to speed. A
large ocean carrier cannot afford to lie an unnecessary
day or hour in port.

American seaports are meeting this demand with
creditable speed and enthusiasm. Some are wisely in-
sisting upon publicly-owned docks and terminals, others
have allowed their water fronts to drift into private
ownership, but all are awake to the imminent develop-
ment of a trans-ocean trade which will strain all our
harbor resources, public and private, within a few years,
San Francisco and New Orleans are given the credit
for the best dock service in America, and in both cities
the docks are owned and administered by the public.
Over twenty-five millions of dollars have been spent

52 TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT

on the harbor of San Francisco, mostly obtained from
the income from docking charges. Both cities own
terminal railways connecting their docks with the main
railroads. The port district of Seattle has a number
of fine docks, well provided with cold-storage and other
warehouses and a capacious grain elevator. New York
has 577 miles of water front, of which 350 miles are
owned by the city. The city also owns nearly 250 of
the total of over 600 wharves. Lake and river cities
are active in the movement for better port facilities, the
former stimulated by the prospect of a ship channel
connecting Lake Ontario with the Atlantic via the St.
Lawrence river.

Aviation Fields. — Commercial transportation
through the air is now an accomplished fact. It
promises to have a wonderful development within the
next few years, and the city which does not prepare
for its coming will fall behind the procession. In fact,
many cities have already made some preparation for
this means of transport in establishing aviation fields
and landing places, but much yet remains to be done.
By its requirement of level ground, large area and free-
dom from poles, wires and other obstructions, the
landing field is necessarily located at some distance
from the city, and is often lacking in transportation to
the city and in other accommodations for the traveler.
The laws of air transport are still in embryo, practically
no preparation having been made for policing or other
regulation of air trafBc. The national government has
established aerial mail routes; and the introduction of

TRANSPORTATION FROM WITHOUT 53

practical and systematic passenger service in this coun-
try is imminent.

The modern city will prepare in advance for this new
and wonderful service. Air terminals will require large
areas, and these should be secured at once, owned by
the city, and supplied as the need may develop with such
markings, hangars, repair shops, and other facilities as
the new art may require. Choice of location may well
be determined by proximity to established lines of urban
or suburban railways. The city which prepares ahead
of the demand may easily reap an advantage when new
routes are being considered or established. Now is the
time to get busy..

CHAPTER Vi

INDUSTRIAL

Sites. — Industrial development has been the
prime factor in bringing so great a percentage of our
population into the cities, and in building so many
cities so closely together in the eastern section of our
country. Industry has brought us also many of our
vexing city problems, not only relating directly to the
manufacture of various articles of commerce, but also
to the human side of city life. Cities seek new indus-
tries, expecting by their advent to increase population,
enhance realty values, stimulate business, put new
money into circulation, and generally add to the impor-
tance of the city. They advertise their facilities, and
the rivalry between them has been keen. Some have
offered free sites along with other inducements for new
factories, but this practice is becoming discredited and
rare. New industries which must be subsidized are
seldom worth having.

The location of factories is an important matter to
any city. They should be placed where they will have
every facility required for their operation, convenient

54

INDUSTRIAL 55

to transportation, where growth and expansion may
be provided for and where they may be operated with-
out damage or detriment to the other interests of the
community. Location in the pubHc interest can best
be directed by a proper zoning law. It is one of the
benefits of such a law that it provides suitable location
for all sorts of industries where they may be freely
operated without danger of trespass, and where they
will not damage the other uses of land and activities
of the neighborhood. Flint, Michigan, has handled the
site problem in a very intelligent manner. A group of
public-spirited citizens has purchased a large block of
land adjacent to the city, with adequate railroad service,
which is offered without profit to any approved industry
desiring a location.

Switching Tracks. — Shipping facilities for both
incoming and outgoing traffic are essential to most
modem industries. Attleboro, Mass., where jewelry
is made, does not need railroad sidings, either for raw
material or finished product, as badly as some other
cities, but the city which expects, and is preparing in
advance for, industrial growth will see that any zone
set aside for manufacturing purposes is one in which
ample shipping facilities exist or can be provided. A
railroad track on a business or residence street, or
crossing it at grade, is not permissible in the ideal
city, but does no serious harm in a zone set aside for
exclusive manufacturing or warehouse purposes, and it
is scarcely possible for such industries to do without it.

Where the streets are used by considerable numbers

66 INDUSTRIAL

of pedestrians during the day, where they are the only
avenues whereby the factory employees can pass to and
from their work, it may be desirable or necessary to
restrict the switching of cars to the night hours. This
can usually be done without serious detriment to the
industries and has been done in many places. Switch-
ing tracks crossing business streets are sometimes tol-
erated when the railroad traffic can be carried on at
night or in the early morning, but this condition should
be allowed only while awaiting comprehensive grade
separation. Each industry has its own problems of
shipment and receipt of materials, but the loading and
unloading of heavy goods can usually be taken care of
inside the property of the industry. The city seeking
industrial expansion must see that every possible con-
venience for carrying on such enterprises is at hand or
readily available.

Power. — Some industries cannot exist without
cheap and abundant power, and most industries are
fairly dependent upon it. All our available power,
except in those rare cases where the tides have been
harnessed, comes more or less directly from the sun,
and the most direct source of power is furnished by
falling water. Factories are drawn to waterfalls as
flies to molasses. The early industrial development of
New England grouped itself closely about the natural
waterfalls, and as these became fully used, made arti-
ficial waterfalls by damming the streams. When the
power of the streams was pre-empted, steam power
had been discovered; and as both wood and coal were

INDUSTRIAL 57

cheap and abundant, development was not seriously
curtailed. Later the discovery of electrical transmis-
sion made water power available hundreds of miles
from its source.

The modern city which has available water power
for industry has a great advantage, yet many fine manu-
facturing cities exist without it. Nearness to raw
materials and markets, good transportation and labor
conditions, exceptional managerial ability and civic
enterprise may counterbalance the more expensive
forms of power for many industries. The proposal to
generate steam power at the coal mines and transmit
it electrically to the place where it is used, instead of
shipping coal, is a very interesting one, and if this is
done, power for industries will not be such a problem
in many cities. Even when steam power is generated
at the point of use, it has been found economical to
distribute it electrically within the works, driving ma-
chines by individual electric motors. Loss of power in
transmission over wires is usually much less than by
the means of pulleys, shafting and belts. Steam tur-
bines geared to electrical generators in large units are
the favorite prime movers where hydro-electric power
is not available.

Market. — Cheap power, efficient labor and near-
ness to raw materials will not always obtain pre-
eminence for a city as a factory site; there must be a
local demand or other avaiable markets for the prod-
uct. Markets are made by human wants, and the ability
of the individual to pay for what he desires. Need

58 INDUSTRIAL

does not always make commercial demand. Millions of
Chinamen need shoes, America makes the best shoes,
but the market for our shoes in China is inconsiderable.
The Chinese coolie works for ten cents a day or even
less, and he cannot buy any better foot covering than the
sandals of braided straw which are made in his local
village by a shoemaker who works for as little as the
coolie gets. Only a wealthy Chinaman can afford
American shoes ; in fact during the World War only a
wealthy American could afford a new pair. The secret
of the wonderful market in our own country is found
in the rising standard of living of the bulk of its
inhabitants.

Cities located in far western states are in line for a
great industrial development, owing to rapid growth of
population and general prosperity. Most of our hides
and wool, the raw material for clothing and shoes, come
from the west, are shipped 3,000 miles for manufac-
ture, and a considerable portion of the finished product
shipped back 3,000 miles to the consumer. This is an
economic waste which cannot long endure. Western
cities have the raw material, a large market and most
of the undeveloped water power of the country. Every
advance in freight rates will be a potent factor in their
industrial development.

Labor. — Has your city a supply of cheap and
efficient labor for the new industry which is seeking
a location? It cannot be too efficient but it can easily
be too cheap. Unless the new industry can and will pay
all its labor a fair wage you do not want it in your city.

INDUSTRIAL 59

for its presence will be a liability, not an asset. By
"fair wage" is meant a wage that will be sufficient, with
only the bread-winner working, to maintain the family
in true American style, permitting recreation and social
life for the workers and education, good housing and
clean living for all. Only by maintaining these standards
can we hope to keep up and improve our citizenship;
without these standards in other cities as well as our
own we lose the market for the very merchandise we
seek to produce.

During the war the necessity for immediate and un-
precedented production set the manufacturers to bid-
ding against each other for labor, created an abnormal
demand and opened the way in some instances for
vicious labor leadership to exact conditions under which
normal and stable industry cannot exist. Prices of food,
clothing and other necessities of life were carried up
to the point where the man who did not get a propor-
tionate increase in wages or salary had a struggle to
live, and individual production was held down in many
industries to the capacity of the least efficient work-
man. The profiteer took advantage of the general
inflation and gave prices a still higher boost ; landlords
pyramided the rents. The point of diminishing returns
has been reached and in the readjustment now under
way the modern city will see that it is made on a basis
fair to all; to industry, to later and to the public.

Most great industries have begun in a small way,
building up their labor forces as they grew. Those
which have had little or no troubles, and there are

60 INDUSTRIAL

many of them, are the ones which have regard for
their workmen and in which the workmen have had
regard for their employers as human beings, members
of the great human brotherhood; in which have been
kept ahve the kindly associations which were common
when journeymen were few and when they lived in the
employer's family or were socially intimate with them.
Labor treated as a commodity — as so much raw mate-
rial which can be worked into a profit — is likely to prove
in the long run very expensive material for the manu-
facturer and detrimental to the progress of any city.
Workmen who regard their employer as a taskmaster
to whom they will give as little labor as possible and
from whom they will exact as much wages as possible,
are not benefiting themselves or helping their home
city to industrial prosperity. Better do with few indus-
tries, than have in your city the disgraceful conditions
which have been allowed to develop in so many indus-
trial centers in this and other countries.

Tax Exemption. — Some American cities offer to
manufacturers contemplating a change of location of
their plant, exemption from taxation for a term of
years. There are strong objections to this practice.
It cannot be legally done in most states ; it is unjust to
other tax-payers, particularly to like undertakings
already established, and it falls under the general rule
that subsidies should not be granted to obtain new in-
dustries. All the governmental activities which are
paid for by taxation are beneficial to the newcomer as
well as the old resident. We incline to grumble at

INDUSTRIAL 61

taxation and to regard it as an unmitigated burden,
but a little consideration will convince us that what it
produces is necessary to life, happiness, and business
and personal safety, and that, with a fairly efficient
government, we really get more for the money we pay
in taxes than for any other money we spend.

This is not saying that our system of taxation is
just or intelligent, but it is the best that we have so far
been able to put into being. We neglect the obvious
method of taking for public use the values created by
the public in the increase of site value of land in cities,
giving such benefits to the citizen who happens to hold
title, and for which benefits he has made no return to
society. Most student?, of taxation believe that the
tools of industry should not be taxed at all. This
would benefit all industries; it would not enable us to
coax manufacturers to locate in our city by a special
subsidy.

Democratization. — The management and con-
trol of industry is at present undergoing a considerable
change, partly brought about by pressure from labor
organizations, partly by the new industrial conditions
following the Great War, partly by the new vision of
better human relationships gradually arising in enlight-
ened minds.

In such changes as may come we shall do well to
remember that capital is largely composed of the accu-
mulated savings of thrift, that management has the
burden of care and responsibility of launching the ship
of industry and steering it clear of the many shoals in

62 INDUSTRIAL

commercial waters, and that labor must be considered
as citizenship as well as an ingredient of merchantable
product. Mutual understanding, an effort to see the
other's point of view, is the keynote of satisfactory
human intercourse. To quote Irving T. Bush : "Labor
needs a few headaches to understand capital, and capi-
tal a few backaches to understand labor, while reform
needs to get its hair cut to understand either."

The extreme radical looks with hope to industrial
and political government by soviet, but the experience
in Russia is not heartening, and it is safe to predict
that it will not permanently succeed in any country,
least of all in a country having universal suffrage and
free institutions. It is necessary, however, and has
proved immediately profitable, to give larger influence
and initiative in industry to the workers, to curb the
greed and selfishness of both employer and employee,
to foster and develop more kindliness and realization
of brotherhood and mutual dependence in industrial
partnership. Labor is concerned in the risks and losses,
as well as the profits of industry, and a way must be
worked out to divide these equitably between labor,
management and capital. To this extent at least we can
endorse and help to bring about democratization in
industry..

I

CHAPTER VI

EDUCATIONAL

Kindergartens. — Education begins with con-
sciousness; every experience of life is educational. All
we may hope to do with the effort and the money we
devote to schools in America is so to direct education
as to bring about a happier life and a more useful citi-
zenship, to make the path to knowledge shorter and
easier, and to teach us how to know or to do, when
the desire to know or to do possesses us. A recent
criticism of our educational methods by a great teacher
is that they "do not develop public-mindedness, a sense
of public service and responsibility." Our public
school system begins, or should begin, with the kinder-
garten, an institution for which we are indebted to
Germany. It was brought to this country about the
middle of the last century. It was fostered for many
years by enthusiasts and voluntary organizations,
until it was first introduced into our public schools in
1887 in the city of Philadelphia. In too many of our
cities the kindergarten is still regarded as a fad or a
day nursery.

Boston had 125 kindergartens in her public schools
as early as 19 12, and in cities all over the United States
it has become part of the regular school system. It is

63

64. EDUCATIONAL

the inception of the laboratory method of instruction,
teaching by doing, which we now approve throughout
the whole school life of the child. It cultivates the
social instinct and the spirit of co-operation, trains the
observation, opens the young eyes to the beauties of
nature, develops interest in the common things about
us, and thereby stimulates the desire to know, and the
impetus to do. It interests parents in the schools and
opens a useful door of communication between the
home life and the school life. In Pittsburgh, where it
has had sympathetic reception by school authorities, it
is one of the requirements that the kindergarten teacher
visit the homes of the pupils, each teacher making at
least 150 visits annually. Think of the social benefits
which inevitably must come from several thousand
visits a year by a trained kindergartner to homes, poor
and rich, where child life is so little understood.

Grade Schools. — It has been well said that no
fact or process of Nature is more wonderful than any
other ; it may be said that no part of our school system
is more important than any other part. And yet mil-
lions of our children are touched by no other school
training than that furnished by our grade schools, and
this fact entitles them to our best consideration. The
future of our civilization depends in large measure
upon their product, and we do well to expend more
money upon them than upon any other single govern-
mental activity. But money is not enough; our sus-
tained interest must go along with Qur money to this
splendid purpose. We leave the administration of our

EDUCATIONAL 65

schools too much to boards of education and to the
teachers; too often we allow those hindrances to good
citizenship, indolence and indifference to dominate our
public relationships. In a fine city of 80,000 popula-
tion, in which the women voted on school matters, an
important school election was determined a few years
ago by a total vote of less than 500. The identity
of that city shall not be disclosed.

Citizens of the ideal city will restrain its govern-
ment from too much so-called economy in providing
for the schools, which makes them the first ito suffer
when the treasury gets depleted. They will see that a
competent and progressive teaching force is employed
and that it is well paid. They will foster and keep alive
the community interest in the schools by frequent
visits, parent-teacher associations and like activities,
and be ready to uphold their progressive educators in
bringing the school system, and particularly the grade
schools, up to the standard of modern administration.

High Schools. — The high school and its curricu-
lum have always been subjects of controversy in this
country. In its earlier years the high school had to
fight for its life against those who contended that edu-
cation at the public expense should stop at the eighth
grade; that the "three R's" were sufficient equipment
for the average American, and if any further training
were desired it should be procured at the cost of the
pupil or his parents. Later the introduction of any
new course brought up argument upon the same basis.
Now we are pretty well agreed as to the public value

i66 EDUCATIONAL

of the school itself, but are always disagreeing upon
the course of study. Up to about 1870 the few high
schools then existent made it their business to prepare
for college. The chief course was "classical," involv-
ing in the three-year course then generally adopted,
three years of Latin and two of Greek, with sometimes
a light touch upon modern language, some algebra and
geometry and a very little science.

Our present concern is for the large majority of high
school students who will not enter college, whose school
training is finished at the twelfth grade, but we still
desire to train for college those who may want to go
there. Large cities may have, and some already do
have, separate high schools for these two classes of
students, but the smaller cities and towns must combine
the two functions in one school, and this, with limited
means and small equipment, is a most difficult under-
taking. The rapidity of the transformation in the
public school system to meet the new requirements was
well illustrated by a survey of the Cincinnati schools in
191 5. which showed forty-three elements in the curricu-
lum, thirty-two of which did not find place there in
1904.

The modern city has no greater problem than to
adapt its school system to the growing needs of its
students, and to keep pace with the constant improve-
ment in teaching methods.

Junior High Schools. — The realization by edu-
cators that the transition from primary to secondary
schools involved too sharp a break, and that pre-

EDUCATIONAL 67

vocational training with some liberty of selection by
or for the pupil should begin earlier than the ninth
year of school, has resulted in the new movement for
junior high schools. The tendency is to have these
schools cover the seventh, eighth and ninth grades, with
an organization distinct and complete in itself, but
blending closely into the work of both primary and
secondary schools, and beginning with the seventh
grade to mold the school system to meet more closely
the "individual differences in capacities, interests and
needs of the boy and girl." Experience shows that this
scheme encourages continued school attendance among
those pupils who usually leave at the close of the eighth
year, that it gives those who must leave early a better
training for life, that it promotes an easier transition
between primary and secondary schools, and that it is
more easily adaptable to individual proficiency and ease
of learning.

The first junior high school was opened in Columbus,
Ohio, in 1909 and these schools have now been estab-
lished or are being organized in most of the progressive
cities. Attention is focused upon the pupil rather than
the curriculum; individual tendencies, tastes and apti-
tude receive earlier attention, and as proclivities for
specialization develop, the courses are organized into
three principal lines, academic, manual arts and com-
mercial, which fit into the tenth, eleventh and twelfth
year courses in the regular high school. It is claimed
that the re-arrangement of school years into three
periods of "6 — 3 — 3" rather than two periods of

68 EDUCATIONAL

"8 — 4" as formerly, conforms more closely to the
marked stages of development of the growing child,
and is productive of better discipline, more satisfac-
tory school association, and better educational progress.
The rapid growth of the junior high school is indi-
cated in a recent report that the attendance at them has
multiplied seven times in six years.

Technical Schools. — The first duty of the indi-
vidual to society is to be self-supporting. Making a
living first and making a fortune next are the ideals
of success in most young minds, and are not to be
quarrelled with too strenuously. Entering the compe-
tition of business life, into which most of our young
men and women go, they are seriously handicapped
unless their eyes and their hands have had some train-
ing in the details of the industry they have chosen.
In some industries the men and the women who work
with their hands hold better jobs and receive higher
pay than the so-called "white collar" brigade, with the
result that the demand for technical school training is
increasing with great rapidity. This demand the city
must adequately meet, or its assets are minus one essen-
tial item.

Technical training should begin in the grade schools,
and its earlier and more general steps should not be
elective. Every boy and girl should know how to drive
a nail and to fit a shelf in the pantry. Every boy should
be taught how to splice a rope and to tie a safe knot.
Technical schools should follow the local industries of
the community to a considerable extent, for we want to

EDUCATIONAL 69

give the boys and girls the opportunity of useful, happy
and successful life in our own home city, rather than
to train them for an industry which they can follow only
in some other town.

Cultural studies cannot be neglected even in technical
schools. Some of these boys and girls must be prepared
for leadership and all of them for citizenship. The
business man must be able to write a letter and to
think on his feet. English, civics, and economics de-
mand a place in every scheme of education in America.
Educators of vision look forward to the day when
every factory, workshop, and place of business will
contain a training school, with teachers and equipment
provided not only for producing manual dexterity and
business knowledge, but also for developing power of
mind, strength of character and a sense of civic respon-
sibility. We learn best by doing, and by association
with our fellow while doing.

Night Schools. — It is probable that night schools
have a more immediate value to society, that is, to you
and me, than any other branch of our public educa-
tion. In them we reach not only the potential citizen
of some years in the future, but large numbers of adults
who are already citizens or about to become citizens.
The demand for evening training has grown with
wonderful rapidity. It is an inspiration to good citi-
zenship to visit a night school in any of scores of our
progressive cities, to see the character of the learners,
their industry and application, and to realize the de-
mand for education on the part of those who are of

70 EDUCATIONAL

adult age and engaged in gainful occupation in the day-
time, so that no other means of school training are
open to them. New York had over 40,000 foreigners
studying English in her night schools as far back as
191 2. We cannot expect comprehension of our insti-
tutions by immigrants who cannot use our language.

It is not alone for the immigrant that the modern
city must maintain night schools ; we have many native
born who may not have realized the need of training in
their early years, who have left school, voluntarily or
on account of economic pressure, and who now desire
and appreciate the instruction which the night school
offers. We have many adult citizens who are glad to
avail themselves of the special technical courses which
most night schools give. And along with all its courses
it must teach citizenship, voluntary obedience to law
as representing the will of the majority, and responsi-
bility as a voter. The evening schools of our cities of
over 10,000 population have an enrollment of over
500,000 pupils, and the demand is steadily increasing.

Colleges. — What this old world needs most is
men and women who can think and who will think.
And as with the world, so with the ideal city. People
who "didn't think" or who "can't think" or who only
"think they think" are useful in their way, but that way
is the path of the burden-bearers, not the leaders.
Justification for schools of higher education which cost
large sums, and which are available for only a very
small proportion of our youth, must be found in the
preparation of that small number for leadership.

EDUCATIONAL 71

Knowledge as the result of a college education is en-
tirely incidental; a college course is a very small part
of the education of a human being. The time and
cost of a college course, the appropriation to it of four
or more years out of the productive period of life, can
be profitable to society only by teaching us how to
think straight and how to get knowledge when we need
it, by the most direct route.

A number of American cities maintain colleges as
a part of their public school system, paying the cost by
taxation. Many other cities have one or more colleges
supported by religious societies or by private benefac-
tion; other cities are located near the great state uni-
versities or the famous endowed universities, so that
they enjoy their use as a local institution. Thousands
of students flock to these larger colleges, attracted by
their size, their prestige or the reputation of the teach-
ing stafif, but after much debate it is still unsettled
whether the large or the small college gives better op-
portunity to the student. The city must foster its local
college, large or small.

School Lunchrooms. — Physical examination of
school children has shown a startling amount of under-
nourishment, even in those coming from homes of com-
fort and plenty. The science of dietetics is little under-
stood, and few children receive food best adapted to
nourish their growing bodies. Even where attention
is paid to diet at home, thousands of children are obliged
to carry lunches to school and to eat them cold. Sta-
tistics for the counties and smaller towns of Illinois

72 EDUCATIONAL

in 1 91 8, exclusive of the larger cities, showed that
over 250,000 school children in that state alone carried
their lunches to school daily.

In some of our cities the school authorities have
established lunchrooms and cafeterias in which nourish-
ing food can be had by the pupils at cost or less, either
to make the whole noon meal, or to supplement the
lunches brought by the children with a hot and whole-
some dish. This work is sometimes done by the domes-
tic science department of the school, thus accomplishing
the double purpose of education and nourishment.
The U. S, Department of xA.griculture has prepared a
number of menus for school lunches, and the subject
has received much attention in the high schools of
the larger cities. It is entitled to more consideration,
and to extension into the grade and country schools.
In a recent issue of The American City magazine, Her-
bert Hoover is quoted as saying : 'T believe that the defi-
nite institution of supplementary child-feeding in pub-
lic schools in certain places is a necessary part of muni-
cipal endeavor."

Delinquents. — It has become a truism to say that
there is no such thing as the normal child. Every child
is an individual, and it is part of the great scheme of
Nature that no one of us is exactly like any other. We
try to classify, but the boundaries of any class are in-
definite and elastic. There are large numbers of children,
however, who are developing together in such an ap-
proach to harmony that they fit fairly well into our
classifications, and can be trained together in our

EDUCATIONAL 73

schools. Many others do not fit, and any adequate
scheme of school training must be organized so as to
care for these so-called "abnormal" children. The
word "delinquent" impHes a lapse from duty, and yet
many children so classed are in no way personally re-
sponsible for their failings. Our city schools, to be
efficient, must give special care to children who show
the need of special treatment by exhibiting unusual
traits, expressed in lapses all the way from backward-
ness in their studies to tendencies toward crime.

Bad environment and distressing home relationships
are largely responsible for delinquency. Insufficient
nourishment, and the lack of medical, surgical or dental
care are contributing causes. Hence, while we give
special attention to the child, we cannot neglect the
fundamental causes of which his condition is only a
symptom. And this knowledge of causes should prompt
us to attack the problem in the child with loving sym-
pathy. There is a direct relation between divorce and
delinquency, as also between intemperance and delin-
quency. The Presiding Justice of the Children's Court
of New York City reports a decrease of fifteen percent
in child delinquency in 1920, as compared to 19 19,
which he attributes to the weather, the probation sys-
tem, the work of voluntary organizations and the in-
tensive efforts of the court itself. May he not have
overlooked the chief cause: the advent of prohibition,
lax as its enforcement has been in some sections? De-
linquency is frequently but misdirected energy.

7* EDUCATIONAL

Forums. — No scheme of education is complete
without some means of reaching adults who do not or
cannot make contact with the school system, and this
purpose is served to some extent by the establishment
of a public forum. That city will do well which will
wisely direct the activities of a forum, and not leave
its influence in the hands of the soap-box orator. Good
citizens often complain that the propaganda of the
streets is vicious and uncontradicted, but they are slow
to take the obvious means of contradicting it where their
arguments will reach the people who are likely to be
misled by its sophistries. An eyewitness of the down-
fall of monarchy in Russia reports that the most re-
markable feature of the revolution to him was the
numbers of men who were speaking on the streets and
in public places wherever they could get an audience.
Men seek self-expression and the good opinion of their
contemporaries, and that vital impulse should be given
opportunity where it will do the most good and the least
harm, and that is, where their proposals can be analyzed
and publicly approved or condemned.

The forum is a public safety valve. Radical propa-
ganda loses much of its danger where its fallacies can
be openly met and refuted, and social and industrial
abuses can be remedied when their existence and their
causes are understood.

The conduct of a public forum is a task for devoted
citizenship. The machinery is well developed in several
American cities, the most conspicuous exam.ple being in

EDUCATIONAL 75

Boston, where it is known as the Ford Hall movement,
developed by George W. Coleman and his associates.

Boy Scouts and Camp-Fire Girls. — General Ba-
den-Powell has made a great contribution to society
in the establishment of the Boy Scouts, an organization
which has so appealed to good sense and public spirit
that it has spread over the civilized world and has been
followed by like organizations of girls. These organi-
zations take the child at twelve years of age and give
him a program which is wonderfully constructive as
well as fascinating, directing into proper and sane chan-
nels the enormous dynamic energy incident to healthy
childhood, developing vigor of mind and body, educat-
ing the senses as well as the brain and imparting knowl-
edge without drudgery. Our citizenship in the coming
years is bound to be greatly improved by this splendid
movement.

It is an inspiring sight to see a group of American
boys stand erect, with right hand at salute, and hear
them repeat in unison the Scout oath: "On my honor
I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country,
to obey the Scout laws, and to keep myself physically
clean, mentally awake and morally straight." It is an
obligation which adult citizens might repeat to advan-
tage occasionally. The boy and girl are taught, by the
Scout laws, to understand and observe twelve simple
rules of attitude and conduct, and to "do a good turn
daily." They learn to swim and skate, to handle a boat,
and to take care of themselves in the open. Merit badges

76 EDUCATIONAL

and promotion reward special effort, and the whole
program is made so attractive that they learn while
doing and almost unconsciously. The city without such
organizations is neglecting the best means yet discov-
ered to build up its future citizenship.

Americanization. — Civic and moral training
must be a part of every branch of public education,
from the kindergarten to the forum. We do not want
slavish adhesion to our institutions or our government,
but we do want our institutions understood and our
government respected, and until this attitude can be
established by reason it should be inculcated by train-
ing. To the immigrant whose impulses have always
been restrained by force, liberty is often misinterpreted
into license ; the youth suddenly removed from parental
restraint is likely to make the same mistake, and both
are in danger until they learn that liberty is theirs only
in so far as they do not trespass upon the rights of
others. In organized society freedom is always rela-
tive.

Our enormous immigration constitutes our greatest
problem in Americanization. A city to which immi-
grants come in large numbers and where they go into
colonies of their countrymen in which the speech and
the newspapers are in their native tongue, must for
self-protection take measures to teach respect for law
and ideals of free government. Disregard for the
rights of others is by no means confined to immigrants
and foreigners; a fruitful field for effort along this line

EDUCATIONAL 77

exists in purely American communities. The defini-
tion of true culture, propounded by the English essayist
Chesterton, is : "The possession of that little mirror in
the mind which reflects the point of view of the other
fellow."

CHAPTER VII

STRUCTURES

City Hall. — A public building serves, or should
serve, two useful purposes, the first utilitarian, the
second aesthetic. A city hall must conveniently house
the various departments of the government, and it
should express a fine ideal of architectural art and
beauty. The first function appeals to all, the second
to those of cultivated taste and those who understand
spiritual values. But how does taste become cultivated
if not by observing beautiful things? And if we as
citizens exert ourselves to build fine and stately homes
then our common home, the center of our public activi-
ties, may well express the highest art we are able to
furnish to its design, so that every citizen, and particu-
larly every child, may have taste cultivated by observing
it. Many good and enduring architectural styles give
us plenty of variety in choice. We admire the delicate
marble of the Taj Mahal, the classic beauty of the
Parthenon, the stern and stately lines of the Egyptian
obelisk, and we put a task before the modern architect to
adapt the beauty of ancient structures which were built
to approach and surround, to the usefulness we ask
from our modern public buildings in which we must
live and work.

78

STRUCTURES 79

To house the city's administrative force is not
enough ; to spend a large sum of money in construction
may or may not accomplish our ends, for many cities
have done these things without justifiable results.
American cities are disfigured by the presence of ex-
pensive public buildings which are architectural mon-
strosities, marring instead of beautifying their neigh-
borhood. There is no excuse for these expensive fail-
ures. Many stately public buildings in our cities dem-
onstrate the ability and taste of our architects and our
people, and many of them have been built with integrity,
both of construction and finance. Any city may well be
proud of a city hall which expresses art and beauty in
its architecture, and honest worth in its construction.

Library. — No argument is needed to prove the
necessity of a public library in any city or town, or
its place in our educational system. We must have
the library, not only as an adjunct to our schools, but
also to make accessible to students, young or old, the
stored-up accumulations of the knowledge of the past.
Many library buildings have been built by means of the
benefactions of private citizens, and this method of
giving to the public has perhaps as little danger of ill
consequences as any method of bestowing large sums of
money yet devised. But we cannot afford to wait for
private philanthropy; a library is too vital a part of our
community life.

The library building should be located convenient to
transportation, easy of access, and upon abundant
ground to provide for future expansion. The use of

80 STRUCTURES

the public library is growing at a wonderful pace all
over the country. The building itself must be sub-
stantial, its stacks for holding books capacious, and it
should be as nearly fireproof as modern construction
can make it. Its contents become more and more
precious with the passage of the years. If it is one of
a group of public buildings, its design should conform
to its environment ; and whatever its location, it should
be a building which, in its architectural style, will reflect
its noble uses, and cause us pride and satisfaction in
its possession. As the city grows and population
spreads out, branches must be built convenient to the
residential centers. Branches in schools, large factories
and other places where books may be conveniently
distributed are an essential part of modern library ad-
ministration.

Auditorium. — Every city needs a community
center where public meetings may find good housing.
Nearly every New England town has a town hall,
where its town meeting is held and which is used for
all sorts of public and community gatherings. It is
usually of inadequate size, often seating less than a
tenth of the town's citizens, but it represents a spirit
of neighborliness which does not find expression in
the newer towns and cities of the West. But western
cities are building public auditoriums which have de-
veloped a larger usefulness on account of larger size.
Several cities now have halls which will seat io,cxdo
or even more, and are finding them a valuable civic
asset. Not that they are as a rule money-makers, or

STRUCTURES 81

even self-supporting, but they pay well for their cost
and their maintenance \yy attracting large conventions to
the city, and by opening up the opportunity for culture
and entertainment to the people.

Organ recitals, band concerts and fine vocal music,
either furnished free by the municipality or given with
a low admission charge, are made available to all.
When a national character of prominence comes along
he may have an audience worthy of his abilities instead
of being heard by a few who can afford a high admis-
sion charge. The educational value of a large audito-
rium is very great.

A modern civic auditorium should either be built so
that the main hall can be expanded and reduced in size
and seating capacity, or it should contain halls of vari-
ous sizes, to accommodate the needs of the community.
It may well be planned to house various civic organiza-
tions and to afford meeting places for public or private
bodies which are able to contribute to the cost of main-
tenance.

Museums. — Museums help us in learning to read
the book of Nature. To read of a beautiful bird gives
us a dim idea of its form and beauty; to see it pictured
increases the vividness of the impression, particularly
when shown in natural color; but to see the bird itself,
mounted in scientific accuracy and in its natural en-
vironment, as shown in some of our better museums,
makes an impression which we cannot soon forget.
And if, as is now done in the museum extension work
in a few cities, the student is taken on an excursion to

82 STRUCTURES

a place where he can see the Hve bird in its natural
habitat, the instruction is complete. We are getting
more and more away from the printed page for our
science and natural history instruction, and this is made
possible by well-conducted museums.

The public museum has become so valuable as an
educator that in some cities the schools are served with
collections of material bearing upon the subjects being
studied. More than 1,200 schools are so served in
Pennsylvania by the Philadelphia museums. In New
York the American Museum of Natural History has
five hundred cabinets of exhibits in circulation among
the schools of New York City. 1,180.000 students
used this museum in 1920; 88,000 pupils attended the
lectures. 1,650 blind children inspected the material
selected for their use. The Field Museum of Chicago
has an endowment fund of $250,000 specially given
for the purpose of carrying the exhibits of the museum
to the schools. Brooklyn, New York, has built a
children's museum at a cost of $175,000, and it is
visited by more than 100,000 children every year. The
museum is ^s valuable as the public library in educa-
tion, and both are necessary in any modern city's edu-
cational scheme.

Art Galleries. — Only a few of the larger American
cities support public art galleries. But if good pictures
and sculpture give joy and increase culture, we need
them much more in a place where they are available to
all than we do in the homes of the wealthy. A great
invention is secured to the inventor for a term of years,

STRUCTURES 83

after which it becomes the property of the public;
why not apply the same principle to a great art creation ?
We should reward the artist, but should forbid that his
contribution to society be sequestered for generations,
when it might be benefiting thousands of our citizens.

A few public-spirited art-lovers have realized their
stewardship and have bequeathed or presented their
treasures to the public. These gifts have formed the
nuclei of the principal art collections in this country,
and have attracted other bequests and gifts until notable
collections have resulted. While we are not yet edu-
cated up to the expenditure of large sums of public
money, for the purchase of works of art, the housing
of such collections may well be considered a public
duty.

Local art societies all over the country, in cities of
small as well as larger size, have done a most useful
work with very moderate resources in making the pub-
lic schools the community centers for loan exhibits of
works of art, and in procuring good reproductions of
famous paintings and statuary, and placing them where
all may admire and study them. Until the modern city
provides a gallery no better place can be found in which
to make an art collection useful than the public schools,
and when a central art gallery is provided an important
part of its service will be in supplying the schools with
collections.

Public Markets. — The modern city supplies, at
the public cost, a place where producer and consumer
may come together, or at least sets aside a plot in the

84> STRUCTURES

streets or some convenient public place where the prod-
ucts of near-by farms and market gardens may be
offered for sale. Small producers find difficulty in dis-
posing of their products to commission houses for the
reason that small quantities of perishable produce can-
not be handled to good advantage by jobbers, and the
small producer seldom knows how to prepare his mer-
chandise for proper storage and shipment. The com-
mission man sometimes takes advantage of the igno-
rance of the small producer as to the market conditions,
and his shipments have frequently yielded him insuffi-
cient return to pay for the containers. Not only the pro-
ducer, but also the thrifty housewife, is benefited by
the public market. She can get fresh produce at a
reasonable price if she will take the trouble to go to
the market.

The city owes it to both these classes to provide a
place where their exchanges may be facilitated, and a
visit to the public markets of any of our enterprising
cities will show the advantage of bringing them to-
gether. Many so-called public markets pay little at-
tention to local produce. They are only small stores,
gathered under one roof, and the dealers supply prod-
uce and merchandise from all sources, home and
abroad. These have their function, but the city should
offer the facilities of trade in some special market, ex-
clusively used by the local producers, a place where
accommodation is made for their horses and trucks, and
where shelter is provided over suitable stalls, which are

STRUCTURES 85

furnished free or at small daily rental. Such service
is appreciated by both producer and consumer.

Building Code. — The city's own structures
should be models of correct and enduring construction,
not only because it pays to build well, but for the ex-
ample which the city may set to its citizens. And it
must go further, it must enact suitable laws governing
the erection of all sorts of buildings, for all sorts of
purposes, within its boundaries. The location of var-
ious uses should be established by a zoning law, and the
character of the buildings by an adequate building code.
The earliest attempt at zoning has been in establishing
districts in which only a certain type of structure would
be allowed, usually considering only the matter of
safety from collapse and fire. Every modern city has
a "fire limit," inside of which the flimsy wooden con-
struction so common to American cities is forbidden.

City officials are subjected to much pressure by prop-
erty owners within such zones, who desire, for the
sake of cheaper construction, to secure a reduction of
the safety requirements. Most cities are already too
lax in these requirements, and even where the building
code is itself sufficiently rigid, city councils frequently
allow infractions by special permit, which nullify re-
strictions and increase risks. The requirements of the
building code should be of general application and
should be rigidly enforced, for the good of all.

CHAPTER VIII

HEALTH

Housing. — The chief health requirements of city-
life are pure water and good drainage. In cities which
possess these requisites the chief health deterrent is bad
housing. Sunlight and pure air are potent factors of
good health, and when they are not allowed to exert
their beneficent influence, the body decays and fails to
function perfectly. When a city begins to fill up with
people, or when any territory in the city becomes con-
gested, ground becomes valuable and there is always
the temptation to build tenements in which there are
overcrowding, inside rooms, dark hallways, unventi-
lated basements, poor plumbing, and bad housing gen-
erally. Landlords in many cities have yielded to this
temptation, and the result of their ignorance or greed
and the absence of governmental restrictions, have made
our city slums.

We are just beginning to know the value to the com-
munity of healthful life for all; and to realize that
bad living conditions for any of our citizens are detri-
mental to all of us, no matter how well we live. The
wealthy citizen upon the hilltop suffers with the dweller
in the slums; the greedy landlord suffers with his
unfortunate tenants. We commence to realize that

86

HEALTH 87

for purely selfish reasons, if none other, we are our
brother's keeper. Herbert Spencer told us a generation
ago that no one could be perfectly happy unless all
are happy, and the same can be said of healthiness.

There are now housing laws in many of our cities
which attempt to reach this condition, some good and
some indifferent, but all hopeful as a recognition of
the evils of bad housing. Most of them are not retro-
active and permit the continued existence of many
of the unsanitary tenements which were built in the
years before the law was enacted. New York has a
tenement house law which is stronger than one would
expect to find there. Under it nearly 2,000,000 people
have been housed in apartments which have outside
light and air in every room, sink, toilet, running water
in every apartment, and private baths in more than
half of them. Housing conditions are improving in
all our cities with the growth of civic consciousness
and the sense of public responsibility.

Food Inspection. — A stringent regulation of
food supply and a constant and thorough inspection
of the foods offered for sale are necessary in any city.
Dealers in food products usually do not know how and
frequently do not care to discriminate between those
fit and those unfit for human consumption, nor how all
foods should be protected from contamination while ex-
posed for sale. Inspection should also go to the source
of foods, to the dairies, the slaughter houses, the can-
neries and the bottling works, and should include the
physical examination of all who are engaged in any

88 HEALTH

branch of food production, handling or sale. Without
adequate laws and rigid enforcement of them bad con-
ditions are bound to arise, and these conditions are
at once reflected in the city's death rate.

A decrease in infant mortality immediately follows
an improved milk supply, and better conditions are not
established by chance nor by voluntary action of milk
producers. In order to bring about an improvement
in the city's milk supply, dairy herds must be cleared
of tubercular cows, barns must be cleaned, whitewashed
and provided with sanitary floors, light and air freely
admitted, cows cleaned before milking, and proper ar-
rangements provided for caring for the milk. One of
the most striking advertisements for a brand of con-
densed milk is the statement that it is produced "from
contented cows". May the time soon come when we
shall insist that all the manufactured goods we purchase
be made by contented workmen! Hood's "Song of the
Shirt" still applies to many of the goods we find upon
bargain counters.

School Clinics. — One of the shocking disclosures
of the selective draft for war service was the large per-
centage of our young men who were physically unfit
for active service. Nearly one-fourth were found
wanting, and a large proportion of these men who must
enter productive life with a tremendous handicap were
in that condition by reason of disability which might
have been removed by proper attention in their earlier
years. School clinics and school nurses can no longer be
dispensed with. The clinic discovers and corrects or

HEALTH 89

relieves those physical defects of which the parents
may have been ignorant, or which they, for lack of
money, have been unable to have corrected. The
nurse follows the child to its home and corrects or re-
ports to proper agencies such hindrances to healthful
life as she very frequently finds. Bad teeth, adenoids,
defective eyesight and hearing, bad nutrition, lack of
sanitation and cleanliness, poor cooking, insufficient
clothing, all interfere with normal development and
all can be relieved or corrected.

Ten or twelve years ago, six per cent of the children
in the public schools of New York were treated by the
chnics or nurses; today eighty-five per cent of them
receive medical, surgical or dental help. All of the
larger cities now employ school nurses. Chicago has
over one hundred of them. Each school is visited fre-
quently at stated periods and each child is given a
thorough physical examination, and the results are re-
corded, at least once a year. Parents are notified and
if the trouble is not promptly attended to the school
nurse visits the home. It is ordinarily found that from
seventy to eighty-five per cent of the children need
attention.

The correction of bad health conditions means better
attendance and therefore increased revenues for schools
in those states where money is apportioned to school
districts in proportion to attendance, besides giving in-
calculable help to the individual and to society by con-
serving health and human life.

Communicable Disease Clinics. — City health au-

i90 HEALTH

thorities have found that if they wait for family phy-
sicians to report cases of infectious or contagious dis-
eases the menace to the community is Hkely to be beyond
their power to control. Delay in such matters is ter-
rific in its consequences. And in many communicable
diseases which are still considered unimportant the
family physician or the. city's doctors are not called in
until serious conditions develop. School clinics and
visiting school nurses are often the first agencies to dis-
cover the outbreak of an epidemic among children, and
these should be supplemented by public clinics provided
for adults. These clinics should contain dispensaries
where needed medicines can be promptly supplied to
all, whether or not the patients can afford to pay.

Since the discovery was made that tuberculosis was
communicable, many cities have established special
clinics and sanatoriums for its treatment, and good
progress is being made, although in most places ac-
commodations for patients are not equal to the urgent
demand.

In Massachusetts every city of 10,000 population or
over is required by law to provide a dispensary for tu-
berculosis patients, and these institutions are subjected
to close surveillance by the state board of health.
Buffalo has an endowed hospital for the treatment of
incipient tuberculosis where the afflicted children are
subjected to the "sun treatment," their naked bodies
being exposed to the sun's direct rays for several hours
every day. It looks like cruelty but under certain con-
ditions it really is salvation to send children out to play

HEALTH 91

in the snow with nothing on but shoes, a cap and a loin
cloth.

Visiting Nurses. — Bad health conditions in their
earlier stages do not come to light automatically or
spontaneously; they must be sought if we expect to
meet them effectively. For this purpose no agency has
been so effective as the visiting nurse. The woman
trained in social work gets into the homes of the people
more easily than the doctor, and in many cases does
the required service or furnishes the required help so
promptly and efficiently that the doctor's aid is not re-
quired. The nurse has a better approach to the wife
and mother, has a more sympathetic understanding of
family life, and ordinarily more tact in instituting nec-
essary health measures. She instructs mothers in the
care of children, living and unborn, gives demonstra-
tions in cleanliness and feeding, ventilation, dress, care
of the home, etc., and often renders service of inesti-
mable value.

It is an indictment of the heedlessness of most city
governments that the visiting nurses of our cities have
usually been first employed by means of voluntary or-
ganizations or private charity. It is a credit to our
cities that public recognition and public support have
quickly followed the demonstration of the usefulness
of the visiting nurses' work. Privately supported nurses
still continue in service, and find plenty of useful work
to do even with the co-operation of the city's nursing
staff. Kansas City sends a card to the mother of each
baby reported, telling her of the interest in her baby

92 HEALTH

by the health department and thus securing her co-oper-
ation. Nurses in many cities now call on thousands
of expectant mothers, helping to make safe the path
of the coming baby. Why not give as much attention
to the new citizen arriving by birth as to the one coming
across the Atlantic?

Hospitals. — Every modern city should have
three hospitals under city authority or supervision;
one for the ordinary medical and surgical treatment
and care, one for the isolation of patients afiflicted with
infectious and contagious diseases, and one for the
treatment of tuberculosis. For the benefit and the
protection of all of us, our government must be pre-
pared to give prompt aid in these lines, regardless of the
ability of patients to pay for its health services. Cities
which have all these facilities are invariably proud of
them, and cities which do not have them should be
ashamed of their lack. Some municipal hospitals are
so complete in their appointments and efficient in their
management that the popular prejudice against going
to a city hospital for care has vanished. San Francisco
has built a city and county hospital that is a model for
American cities.

Isolation hospitals now exist which are as well built
and managed as the finest private sanatorium, and the
old "pest house" is practically abolished. They should
contain every convenience for efficient care and treat-
ment, and they must be planned and operated so as to
avoid the dangers of cross infection. Spokane has an
isolation hospital of which she is justly proud. It is a

HEALTH 93

fine building, beautifully located in a grove of pines
on the river bank, containing ample rooms and wards
for contagious diseases and also provisions for enforced
isolation of venereal disease patients.

Tuberculosis hospitals must be planned particularly
to provide the open air treatments and the "sun cure"
facilities which this dread scourge requires, and to
separate the so-called hopeless cases from those of less
progress and intensity. We now know that tubercu-
losis can be cured, and we believe that it can eventually
be exterminated. God gives us strength and persis-
tence in the effort.

Health Centers. — A new feature of the city's
health activities and one which promises great im-
provement in both methods and results is the "Health
Center" movement. Its aim is to bring together in each
community all the various agencies and activities of
the modern civic health movement under close co-opera-
tion. Its essential services are educational and clinical,
and by combining the community health activities under
one roof the work is co-ordinated, and duplication of
effort is avoided. In a building centrally located, large
enough to house all the public clinics and visiting
nurses' headquarters, preferably with a room for health
lectures and wall space for educational charts, are
brought together the various branches of modern city
health work, whether carried on by the American Red
Cross, by local or national voluntary organizations, or
by the city or state government. A central board of
control, made up of representatives of all the societies

94 HEALTH

interested, determines general policies and, through
a "service organizer'' directs the activities.

The good sense of the plan, its efficiency and econ-
omy have appealed to our people, and its introduction
has been rapid. On January i, 1920, seventy-two
health centers were reported in active operation, and
twenty-eight more about ready to begin work. The
American Red Cross is making the establishment of
health centers a definite and important step of its peace-
time program.

Health Thought. — At this stage of its develop-
ment it may be difficult for a city to organize and direct
the health thought of its citizens, and yet it is a very
vital civic as well as personal asset. Mental therapeu-
tics is now a well recognized branch of medical train-
ing, and its students and practitioners are numbered
by the thousands, both in and out of the regular medical
profession. The influence of the mind upon the body,
the immediate and direct effect upon the physical state
of mental and spiritual attitude and activity, are no
longer questioned by intelligent people, and the direc-
tion of these vital forces into channels of health, hap-
piness and prosperity has become the paramount study
of the age. We may question specific claims of healing,
we may contend that the age of miracles is past, we
may still insist upon dosing ourselves with drugs, but
no one who gives the subject careful thought and study
can longer deny the healing power of constructive
thought. The affirmative evidence is too voluminous
and too convincing.

HEALTH 96

No experienced medical man will deny or belittle the
aid he receives in the treatment of bodily ills by the
faith which his patient has in his ability and in the
efficacy of his remedial agents; and if faith in a medical
practitioner works wonders, why not faith in the heal-
ing power from a higher source ? In nearly every Ameri-
can city, and in cities all over the civilized world, there
exist today centers of faith healing, where devoted
men and women are making daily and hourly dem-
onstration of the power of the spirit to heal diseases of
the body, the mind and the estate. In churches, in
theaters and in public halls, throngs are listening to
these teachings, and are giving a new meaning to the
old saying, "As a man thinketh, so is he."

Cemeteries. — The disposal of the dead has been
allowed to become a source of private profit and, among
the poor, a means of exploitation of the living, in
many of our cities. There are few more appropriate
public undertakings than municipal cemeteries and cre-
matoriums. Private control of these agencies has be-
come a public scandal in many places ; and the high cost
of living is an innocent incident compared to the high
cost of dying. The burden of this cost bears most
heavily upon those least able to bear it. Death comes
unexpectedly and leaves surviving relatives in a state of
mind in which they are easily induced to authorize
expenditures beyond their means, and to incur debts
which become an arduous burden for years.

A cemetery lot frequently sells for more than the
plot cost per acre, and, in private ownership, the

96 HEALTH

"perpetual care" which is often "guaranteed" is a
delusion. A private owner may sell out his cemetery,
spend his money and go bankrupt, leaving valueless
assets in a property which by its use for burials, cannot
be sold for other uses. Under public ownership the
cost of graves can be kept reasonable and the guarantee
of perpetual care is valid.

Every municipal cemetery should contain a crema-
torium and columbarium. The disposal of the dead
body by incineration appeals to more and more of our
citizens with the passing years, and these should have
the opportunity to have this service performed in their
own city, in an appropriate environment and at a rea-
sonable cost.

CHAPTER IX

SOCIAL

Social Centers. — The spirit of democracy is fos-
tered by neighborliness. It is often said that we hate
people because we do not know them, and if this is true,
any movement toward friendly acquaintance in a city
is a step toward good citizenship. "Get together" is the
watchword of civic progress and we may well practice
getting together in our social life as a first step toward
co-operation in our public business.

The social center movement began to take serious
form in Rochester in 1907. It was such a success from
the beginning that it has spread over the whole country
with great activity. The schoolhouses were the first
meeting places. The tendency of school boards was to
keep the schoolhouses closed except for schools, and
much reluctance was encountered in getting them
opened for social and community gatherings, but the
new idea is that the large public investment in school
buildings must be made useful in every way in which
they can serve.

As the social center developed, school boards allowed
the use of the schoolhouses on payment of a small
fee; later they were furnished free for educational
work, lectures and the like ; and now in many cities

97

98 SOCIAL

they are not only given free for all social activities,
but new schoolhouses are built with this end in view,
having auditoriums, moving picture booths, kitchens
and dining rooms, and in some cities, gymnasiums,
swimming tanks, bowling alleys and billiard tables.
The activities now encouraged include lectures, concerts^
art exhibitions, physical culture classes, forums, debat-
ing societies, men's, women's and children's clubs,
and even social dinners and dances.

Every schoolhouse now gives, or should give, a
double service to its community. And the school-
houses have been found inadequate for the new need.
Public libraries, playground houses, and public audi-
toriums are now planned to meet the demand for so-
cial centers. Dover, N. H., a city of 13,000, has in its
city hall a fine banquet room with complete kitchen
equipment and good dancing floor, and a theater seating
1,200 with a complete stage equipment. The direction
and encouragement of social activities has become a part
of public duty.

Clubs. — Most cities have social clubs with rather
exclusive tendencies, some have men's and women's
clubs which admit most of those who desire to join,
and a few actively organize and encourage clubs in
connection with social centers : civic clubs for the dis-
cussion of economic, social and political questions,
athletic and debating clubs for the boys and girls, and
even organizations of foreign-born citizens in which
they may discuss any public question in their native
tongue, self-governing clubs in which parliamentary

SOCIAL 99

law is observed and ability in public speaking de-
veloped; clubs for the encouragement of local educa-
tion in art and music, with concerts and exhibitions a
part of their activity; women's clubs formed for the
study of the new duties of citizenship.

School boards are now employing thousands of men
and women to direct this growing social center work.
State laws recognize and encourage it, the public be-
gins to understand its importance and its fruits, and is
willing to pay the cost. Its benefits are seen in better
social understanding, more neighborliness and a fine in-
terest in government. Foreign-born citizens are be-
ginning to realize their dreams of "free America" and
Americanization makes real progress. The school-
house, once hermetically sealed against everything but
its day-time use for eight or nine months of the year,
is now frequently in demand for useful purposes every
night in the week and every month in the year. And
we are becoming better friends, better neighbors and
better citizens.

Women's Clubs. — Probably the most useful civic
clubs are those organized and conducted by the women
of America. They promote art and music, they take
the lead in public charities, they study government and
parliamentary law, they take a profound interest in
social betterment, and they set a noble example of inter-
ested, constructive and devoted citizenship. Any li-
brarian will testify to the amount of inquiry coming
from members of women's clubs in the preparation of

100 SOCIAL

papers to be read in their meetings ; any public official
will ordinarily have twice as many requests from wo-
men's clubs as from men's for the information he
can furnish regarding his public activities in govern-
ment. They take hold of their new duties of citizen-
ship with devotion and intelligence and put new life
into public affairs.

We owe much to the women of America in addi-
tion to motherhood and home management, and the
debt is increasing with the years of their active partici-
pation in our political life on equal footing. They are
responsible for the American Red Cross, the kinder-
garten, the day nursery, the travelers' aid, and most
of the movements for improvement of the drama, the
motion picture, and many other social, educational and
recreational advances. Settlements led by noble women
are responsible for the public playground movement in
Chicago and elsewhere. Hull House and Jane Addams
began the work in 1892 and procured the first public
recognition and appropriation of public funds in that
city. The Women's Municipal League in Boston es-
tablished the first neighborhood center there. We agree
with Joseph Choate, that the Pilgrim Mothers are en-
titled to more veneration than the Pilgrim Fathers, and
for more reasons than he gave.

Dancing. — Dancing has such a hold upon the
young that opportunity must he given for indulging
in this recreation under the supervision of public author-
ity. Unregulated dance halls have been the chief re-

SOCIAL 101

cruiting ground for the brothel, and there is no excuse
for their existence in the modern city. Dancing is one
of the oldest forms of recreation, and whether or not we
regard it as an unmixed evil, so long as our youth are
allowed to practice it, we must surround them with
every safeguard we can devise. We began by detailing
a policeman, as we usually begin every movement for
moral uplift. Then we appointed police-women and
made this one of their first duties. Then we began
to provide places for public dancing where we might as-
sume complete control; and now the public dance has
advanced from the restraint stage to the service stage
of city government.

Regular municipal dances are now held in the larger
American cities, often led by the public officials and
always under careful supervision. City halls, municipal
auditoriums and social centers are designed and built
with this recreation in view. Private dJance halls
which have been allowed to continue are carefully su-
pervised, with close regulation of ventilation, dress,
and music as well as conduct. Streets are often cleaned
and closed to traffic in the evening, where anybody may
dance to the music of the municipal band. In San Fran-
cisco the fine municipal auditorium is frequently used
for public dances where a small fee is charged, but on
certain evenings the city's band furnishes the music for
free dances on well-paved streets. The public dance,
properly supervised, is a contribution to the social life
of any city.

102 SOCIAL

Pageants and Celebrations. — The pageant is one
of the oldest forms of civic celebration, dating from
prehistoric times. In its modern form its value is both
social and educational, the former value attaching to
any occasion for the happy foregathering of the peo-
ple to a holiday show, the latter to such historical or
illustrative exhibitions as give instruction through the
eye. The cities of this country are behind those of the
old world in this form of public celebration, but the
Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the pageant of the
Veiled Prophet in St. Louis keep up the reputation of
America. In Europe most pageants have a religious
origin and appeal; in America they are usually recrea-
tional and historical. Americans incline toward quiet
behavior and sober dress when in public, but we are
all children if one digs deeply enough, and we delight
to don extravagant costumes and make a holiday show
of ourselves when opportunity offers.

The circus parade is the great American pageant,
but the city fire department attracts crowds, when deco-
rated for the Independence Day Parade. And when, as
a people, we have occasion or excuse for walking up
and down the streets wearing paper caps, blowing horns
and throwing confetti, our joy is complete. The city
must supply the occasion for what Charles Zeublin
calls "spontaneous community combustion" so that it
may be blown off without damage to the machinery.
The community Christmas tree is now well established
in our cities. New York claims the honor of its dis-

SOCIAL 103

covery, with Jacob Riis as discoverer. Riverside, Cal-
ifornia, makes an Easter Pilgrimage to its Mount Rubi-
dou, to see the sunrise and celebrate the resurrection of
the Master who taught "Peace on earth, good will to
men".

CHAPTER X

CORRECTIONAL

Police Court. — In no branch of civil government
have there been such changes in the present generation
as have taken place in our treatment of offenders
against the law, and in few branches were changes so
much needed. Government has two broad functions :
to serve and to restrain; and as service grows
and restraint lessens we know that civilization
advances. Reform begins with the individual, not
with legislatures, courts and jails. If we all under-
stood that the first civic duties in a democracy are volun-
tary obedience to law and respect for the rights of
others, there would be little need for correctional in-
stitutions. The first contact of the citizen with the
machinery of justice comes in the police courts. He
may have committed a heinous crime, or unconsciously
violated some petty ordinance. Under the old system he
was summoned or led into a court room filled with idle
and curious spectators, sordid and ill-smelling, where
he took his turn in a line of derelicts of all ages and
both sexes. He lost respect for himself and the courts,
and if found guilty, the penalty was a fine, a jail sen-
tence, or he was held for trial by a higher court.

In the modern city all is changed. The offender and

104

CORRECTIONAL 105

not the offense is the chief object of our interest, and
we even look beyond the offender to his past history
and his present environment, searching for fundamental
causes of his delinquency. Creating a good citizen is
our purpose rather than punishing a misdemeanor.
We study characteristics, surroundings and mental and
moral development, hoping and expecting to reinstate
the offender in the ranks of the law-abiding and make
of him a creditable citizen. Dr. William Healy, who
organized the Psychopathic Institute for Chicago in
1909 says, "It practically always requires the effect of
environmental influences to create a criminal out of
even a mental defective."

Police courts now have various subdivisions — night
courts, children's courts, courts of domestic relations,
traffic courts — where specific offences are handled by
experienced and high-minded judges who realize human
possibilities. The probation system is freely used and
correctional institutions have a distinctly beneficent or-
ganization and purpose.

Juvenile Courts. — Children have been tried sepa-
rately in our police courts only since 1899, Chicago and
Denver leading the way. Before that time they were
indiscriminately mixed with hardened criminals and
older offenders, and were subjected to the evil influ-
ences of such contacts. The first exclusive children's
court was established in Indianapolis in 1903, and this
fine example has since been followed not only in most
of the leading American cities but in many countries
in Europe including England, France, Belgium, Hoi-

106 CORRECTIONAL

land, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Aus-
tria and Hungary. We have learned many lessons in
municipal government from European cities, but in
this fine movement we have led the way.

New York now has five children's courts, presided
over by judges of special fitness for this exacting duty,
having long terms and salaries of $10,000 per year. In
that city it has been found that the number of cases of
child delinquency follows very closely the number of
cases of improper guardianship, and that seventy per
cent are directly traceable to that cause. The Den-
ver juvenile court, presided over for many years by
Judge Ben Lindsay, has been the model for many
American cities. In it girls' cases are heard by a woman
assistant and the whole atmosphere of the court is that
of kindly helpfulness and confidence. Probation officers
and detention homes have taken the place of jail con-
finement, and the children are kept from debasing con-
tact with criminals and given better training and care
than they have had in their homes. Judge Lindsay
established the practice of trusting the children to go
alone to such correctional institutions as he designated,
and in eight years, out of 507 so sent, only five have
been lost. We realize now that it is better and more
economical to open the door to a wholesome and pro-
ductive life, than to jail a juvenile delinquent.

Court of Domestic Relations. — A special branch
of police court work has developed in the large cities in
the settlement of family and marital differences and
abuses. Such courts invariably endeavor to re-establish

CORRECTIONAL 107

satisfactory relations, and do so in more than half the
cases brought before them. In the Chicago court of
domestic relations only about twenty per cent of the
complainants are represented by attorneys. The court
gets the parties before him, gets the story of the diffi-
culty as best he can by sympathetic inquiry, without
too much attention to court rules of evidence, and plays
the part of family friend rather than legal arbitrator.
Half or more of the cases he hears are the result of
desertion, and punishment of deserting husbands is
usually prompt and stern. The personnel of the court
includes two secretaries, who hear and settle many of
the quarrels, a physician and a visiting nurse.

Many cases are discovered requiring the help of
outside social agencies, and these are kept closely in-
formed. The seamy side of life comes to light in these
courts, and their disclosures are always pathetic, par-
ticularly so when there are children involved. Some
courts of domestic relations have jurisdiction over in-
fractions of the laws regulating the employment of
women and children in industry. The new court de-
mands more than a knowledge of the law in its presid-
ing officer; he must have tact, good sense, sympathy,
and vision.

Probation System. — A probation officer is as es-
sential as a mayor in the modern city, and he will
probably accomplish more real service to the com-
munity than most mayors. His career will not be so
spectacular ; he will not get into the newspapers so
frequently, but he will have great influence upon the

108 CORRECTIONAL

general well-being of the community, present and fu-
ture. Before probation was established as part of our
judicial system there were only three alternatives of
court judgment for offenders : dismissal, fine, or im-
prisonment. But we have discovered that human fail-
ings have as many aspects as there are diff^erences in
human character, and that our stern and simple methods
of treating delinquents do not fit in most cases. The
indeterminate and the suspended sentence have opened
the way for the probation system, whereby the court
may exercise continuing care over delinquents while
they are re-establishing themselves as useful members
of society.

In most cases this treatment is effective and thou-
sands have been helped to self-respect and honest living
by it. An ideal probation officer must possess rare
qualities of mind and heart : firmness, kindliness, faith,
sympathy, discretion. It is not the position into which
a broken-down policeman or a political heeler will fit;
the success or failure of the plan will depend in large
measure upon the man selected. Boston appointed the
first probation officer in 1878, and in several cities he
appeared prior to the establishment of juvenile courts.
The probation officer greatly relieves the police court
by settling neighborhood quarrels and family differ-
ences before they arrive at the poHce judge's door.

Public Defender. — It is an old axiom of the law
that every accused person shall be considered innocent
until he is proven guilty, but the public machinery of
the law is geared to establish guilt, not to prove inno-

CORRECTIONAL 109

cence. Police officers complain if those they arrest are
discharged, and prosecutors endeavor to make a record
of their number or percentage of convictions. Men
with money employ sharp lawyers, wise to every trick
and technicality, to procure their acquittal, but the poor
man finds few friends in court. He is often the prey
of the shyster and the professional bondsman, if money
can be extracted from him or his friends. When New-
ton D. Baker was city solicitor for Cleveland, Ohio, he
took the position that "no merit is shown nor credit ob-
tained by the mere fact of conviction, and that it is the
duty of the prosecutor to see . . . fair opportunity
given to the defendant to show both exculpatory and
extenuating circumstances." A prosecutor who takes
this position will not go far wrong, but this attitude
is very rare.

The public defender, now a fact in several cities, has
justified his existence by saving the innocent from pun-
ishment, by procuring leniency when it is the best pub-
lic policy, by obtaining suspended sentence when im-
prisonment would bring starvation to a family, by mak-
ing contact between charitable organizations and those
needing their aid, and by saving much public expense
in the confinement in jails of persons for whom liberty
on probation is infinitely better for themselves and for
society. The prisoner is interviewed and his state-
ments investigated. If he has a worthy defense his
case is prepared and tried in court; if not, his friends
are notified and his personal business looked after in a
sympathetic way. He is made to feel that justice is

110 CORRECTIONAL

for the poor as well as for the rich. The public de-
fender performs a useful function in caring for small
civil matters as well as criminal cases. A report from
Columbus, Ohio, for 1918 states that over 100 civil
cases had been tried and approximately 400 adjusted
outside of court.

Municipal Farm. — While most cities confine pris-
oners awaiting trial and those convicted of minor of-
fenses in city jails, a few American cities have pro-
vided tracts of ground and living accommodations for
their prisoners outside their limits where they can help
themselves and the community by productive labor.
Where the chief consideration for the delinquent is his
return to freedom with hope and incentive to honest
living, these municipal farms under proper manage-
ment perform a great public service.

The city of Cleveland has several farms, totaling
2,500 acres, upon which it has grouped many of its
charitable and correctional activities and established its
municipal cemetery. Each activity has its own terri-
tory and its own buildings. The colony group houses
its almshouse dependents, and consists of separate dor-
mitories for men and women and a home for aged
couples where they may live together as long as both
shall live. Its motto is "To lose money is better than
to lose love." The sanatorium group holds the tuber-
culosis hospital and its administration building ; the cor-
rection group is the municipal house of correction, and
a separate farm of 500 acres is for truant and wayward
boys. Wholesome living conditions are provided for

CORRECTIONAL 111

all, and healthful and productive work in the open for
all who are able to work. The evils of the jail system
are entirely absent. There is no idleness, there is san-
itation, decency, training and education, and the labor
is useful and pleasant. The human side is never lost
sight of. It is claimed that the land, which cost $170
per acre, has increased to more than twice this value
since the city bought it. Other cities are following the
example of Cleveland, and the adoption of the munic-
ipal farm idea may well be made unanimous.

Jails. — There are cities of considerable size in
the United States where the jail is seldom occupied, but
we cannot yet dispense with this institution in most
cities. We can, however, and must, give it more care
and thought than it is now getting. We must see that
our jails are places in which those suffering confinement
may be safe, secure and clean, and that their treatment
is decent and human. The theory of confinement is
that those who have not yet learned to respect the rights
of others must be confined where they cannot infringe
those rights, at least until they have learned better, but
the usual practice tends to make them hate the law and
turns them out enemies of society, deadlier, more ef-
ficient and more wary than when they entered.

Most persons confined in jails are there awaiting
trial. They may be innocent; in fact, the proportion
of convictions is small. But in most jails they find an
unclean, foul-smelling, ill-ventilated cell, no room for
exercise, scant provision for personal cleanliness, and
are often exposed to moral and physical infection.

112 CORRECTIONAL

The usual jail is a breeding place for crime. The fee
or contract system, still in existence in some cities, is an
invitation to unscrupulous officials to arrest and confine
the innocent, or trivial offenders, for profit.

St. Louis has a model jail and an industrial farm of
359 acres, where its industrial school is housed. The
jail is a handsome and stately structure, six stories high,
of Bedford limestone, as well built and cleanly as a
modern hospital. The inside walls are of white glazed
brick, the wood-work and the steel cells are covered
with white enamel, and the whole building is kept scru-
pulously clean. Every convenience for cooking and
serving food and maintaining sanitary conditions has
been provided, as well as modern appliances for opening
and closing cell doors and locking them in position.
White and colored men and women prisoners are segre-
gated. In most cities the jail may well be the point of
first attack for constructive municipal reform.

CHAPTER XI

INSTITUTIONS

Chamber of Commerce. — No institution serves
so efficiently in crystallizing public opinion in civic mat-
ters as the modern, well-organized chamber of com-
merce. Its program is based upon a consideration of
public needs by a selective group of citizens who are
voluntarily associated in the interest of civic progress.
This group represents the best thought of the commu-
nity, those who have ideas and ideals and are willing to
give time and money to bring about their realization.
If the local chamber of commerce has succeeded in
getting the active co-operation of all the various groups
of the community, the labor element, the churches, the
women's organizations, as well as the business and pro-
fessional men, there is no limit to what it may do for
the benefit of its home city.

The relation between the chamber of commerce and
the city government must be close and friendly if good
results are to be expected. The city officials are the le-
gally constituted authority; the chamber is advisory.
The city officials have the responsibility and must stand
or fall as they exercise their authority for the good of
all. If they believe that the chamber of commerce is
a "high-brow" organization which does not represent

113

114 INSTITUTIONS

nor seriously consider the common run of people, it
will have little influence with them. But if they know
that it fairly represents the average members of the
principal groups, they will consider its recommenda-
tions seriously and try to merit its confidence and sup-
port. The faithful official is always glad of construc-
tive advice and criticism: the chamber of commerce
must be careful tliat its proposals are constructive and
its attitude broad, intelligent and unselfish. No city
can afford to be without a chamber of commerce, nor
can any citizen who really desires civic progress afford
to be outside its membership.

Young Men's Christian Association. — A re-
ligious institution which unites all sects of believers in
humanitarian and social efforts is a boon to any com-
munity and is entitled to a liberal public support. If it
is to achieve its full purpose, its management must be
liberal and its membership requirements broad enough
to include that considerable element of every community
whose religious beliefs are undetermined, but who are
essentially religious and ready to co-operate in any
moral and helpful undertaking. The Y. M. C. A. or-
ganization is no place for cant, bigotry or insistence
upon niceties of theological distinctions ; it is a place
where the religious and moral impulse may be directed
into channels of usefulness to the community. Its oc-
casional failures have been largely caused by a local
leadership which inclined to dogma rather than to
service.

Thousands of our young men are seeking new fields

INSTITUTIONS 115

of work. They are leaving homes where they have
been surrounded with the best influences, and are for
the first time in their lives freed from parental guid-
ance and restraint. It is a dangerous venture and they
need just such an environment as the Y. M. C. A. is
organized to furnish. If the local organization is
planned and conducted so as to attract such young men
and be of real service to them, it is worthy to be one
of the institutions which may freely call upon the city
for support. Its proper functions are as numerous as
the needs of young men. It should have a commodious
and attractive building for its home, and a management
impregnated with that divine love which has learned
the blessedness of human service and the universality of
the religion of the Master whose name it bears.

Young Woman's Christian Association. — The
demand for an institution which will do for women
what the Y. M. C. A. does for men has become pressing
in every city. There are probably twice as many young
women in gainful occupations as there were five years
ago, and in order to be economically independent and
self-supporting, thousands of wotnen must leave their
homes and follow their work. In such circumstances
they need, and are entitled to, even greater considera-
tion than men. The path of a girl is beset by more
serious dangers and she is less able to defend herself.
The community has a greater responsibility for its
women and girls, which must be met with vigor and
completeness by every city which hopes to be con-
sidered modern.

116 INSTITUTIONS

The city which allows its Y. W. C. A. to exist in
rented quarters is not fulfilling its civic obligations ; this
specialized service requires a building particularly de-
signed for its functions, of enduring construction, good
architecture and attractive in interior as well as exterior
aspect. Grounds should be ample for tennis courts
and other outdoor activities, and its management and
surroundings should invite, as well as permit, healthful
exercise and wholesome recreation in the open.

Hotels. — Among the most desirable additions to
our population are those who will get first impressions
of our city through our hotels ; hence the city which has
no good hotel is seriously handicapped. The stranger
in our midst is always a potential citizen, and if his wel-
come is hospitable and his surroundings are pleasant
and comfortable on his first visit, he naturally thinks
better of the city as a place of residence.

In addition to furnishing acceptable housing for the
visitor, the hotel has an important function in the civic
and social life of the community and, under wise and
competent management, is made to serve as a center for
social activity and a meeting place for all sorts of com-
mittees and organizations interested in public progress.
Busy men and women transact the greater part of our
community business at the hours of luncheon and din-
ner, and the hotel which is prepared to serve such
needs by having suitable rooms for meetings and con-
sultations, where food may be furnished, makes busi-
ness for itself and is of real benefit to its city.

There is a large and growing class of tourists, who,

INSTITUTIONS 117

induced by the pleasures of automobile travel or a new
appreciation of the scenic and climatic advantages of
our own country, are demanding better hotel accommo-
dations everywhere, and their patronage is so profitable
that new and better hotels are being built in our smaller
cities on routes of tourist travel. Such routes are
not fixed, and good hotels attract the traveler to new
routes. Realizing these conditions, the building of new
hotels has become a civic function. Chambers of com-
merce and other public organizations are raising funds
to promote good hotels in many American cities. Ash-
tabula, Ohio, has recently completed a fine hotel which
was financed through the effort of its local chamber.

Red Cross. — The whole world owes a debt of
gratitude to Clara Barton and the noble men and women
associated with her in the organization and development
of the American Red Cross; and the city, large or
small, which does not contain a local chapter, will be
hard to find in this country. Its need is so well under-
stood, its accomplishments are so well known, and it
stands so high in the esteem of everyone that a prompt
and generous response follows its every call for support.

Floods, fires, earthquakes, epidemics, and other great
catastrophes do not announce their coming. They
sometimes overwhelm whole sections and their ruin
and havoc paralyze local relief agencies. Immediate
relief and succor are necessary to save from hunger, ex-
posure, destitution and death the survivors of great
disasters. The American people respond with liberal
sympathy, and work through this great Red Cross or-

118 INSTITUTIONS

ganization, which is manned and equipped to send aid
even before its call for assistance is sent out to the pub-
lic. Thousands of American lives have been saved
by its prompt readiness. It is another of our great
institutions for whose never-failing efficiency we are
indebted largely to the noble women of America.

In quiet times the Red Cross performs services
which, though not so spectacular, are essential to our
welfare. No modem city can afiford to allow its local
branch to grow weak through lack of public interest and
liberal public support.

Humane Society. — The city government may
well furnish ground space, buildings and equipment
to the local humane society, and contribute to its sup-
port through taxation or by means of allotment of dog
license fees, pound charges, police court fines for cruelty
to animals, etc. The city must either keep alive its
voluntary society or take over the work as a proper gov-
ernmental function. The former course is preferable,
for it usually insures better administration, by keeping
the responsibility in the hands of a continuing organiza-
tion of men and women interested in its objects and un-
affected by political changes.

The service is essential to the public welfare. It
usually covers the operation of the city pound for stray
livestock, the collection and disposal of unlicensed dogs,
the care of public horse and dog fountains, close co-
operation with the police in preventing, discovering and
punishing cases of cruelty to animals, and general at-
tention to the needs of our four-footed friends. A less

INSTITUTIONS 119

frequent but most desirable adjunct is a hospital where
medical, surgical and dental aid can be administered to
animals. One might suppose from a casual visit to
our principal cities that the horse was rapidly growing
extinct, and that humane societies would soon lose their
usefulness; but the city of New York housed 47,000
horses in 7,500 stables in its five boroughs in 1919.
They are decreasing in that city at the rate of about
fifteen per cent, a year.

Associated Charities. — To avoid waste, duplica-
tion of effort and imposition by the undeserving, the
city's charities should be combined in a central clearing
house. So much that we used to call "charity" is now
included in what we call "social service" that we may
well name our co-ordinated organization a "Social
Service Bureau" or "Council of Social Agencies," not
only as being more descriptive, but as avoiding the
word "charity," which is sometimes a hindrance to the
work. Such a name as "The Society for the Protection
of the Poor" is a misnomer as well as a handicap.
When we protect or help anyone we do as great a ser-
vice to ourselves, and there is no good reason for in-
sulting any proper recipient of needed assistance. The
word "charity" is now defined as "the disposition to
think well of others; universal love and good will."
"Alms" is only a secondary definition.

Every city should combine the efforts of its police
force with those of its voluntary organizations in the
suppression of professional begging, either by mendi-
cants or societies. It must care for its unfortunates

120 INSTITUTIONS

but there is no excuse for allowing them to beg on the
streets, or for permitting unauthorized persons, usually
unworthy, to solicit alms in public or in private. Au-
thority to solicit should be granted only after careful
investigation by some established agency or authority,
and the people must be educated to demand such au-
thorization before contributing. Much damage results
from indiscriminate giving.

Elmira, N. Y., has a federation of social agencies
which may serve as a model for our smaller cities. It
owns a fine building, in which are closely co-ordinated
most of the social service and welfare work of the city.
The combination has been brought about by the de-
voted women of the city under the fine leadership of
one of their own number.

Woman's Hotel. — Most large cities have hotels
which cater exclusively to women, but the rates are
usually high and they depend largely upon the transient
trade. A considerable number of cities have Young
Women's Christian Associations but they are usually
in rented quarters, inadequately financed and able to
accommodate but a small portion of the applicants for
rooms. The private boarding house generally offers
little that is attractive or satisfying. Not only does the
working woman need a home which will furnish the
bare necessities of existence, shelter and food, but she
must have opportunity for culture, relaxation and pleas-
ant companionship, or she and the community suffer.

To meet this need the Woman's Hotel has arrived in
some of our cities. Usually it has been planned, in-

INSTITUTIONS 121

augurated, financed and operated by women who appre-
ciate the need of their working sisters, the pitfalls which
open to them, and who know the advantages of health-
ful surroundings and a cheering atmosphere in molding
useful and happy lives. Such a hotel should be self-
supporting or very nearly so; it deals with a class of
people who do not want alms. Its rates need not be
high. Cleanliness, good food, and a clean social en-
vironment are essentials to its success.

CHAPTER XII

RECREATION

Parks. — The artificiality of city life has always
been recognized. Normal human life calls for close
contact with Mother Earth. Up to the middle of the
last century, cities were considered as places of physical
and moral decay, which would have been obliterated
were it not for the continuous influx of new blood from
the country. When the day's work was limited only
by the extent of daylight, and the man's time was
taken up with working and sleeping, unless his work
was in the open decay was inevitable. Now that the
day's work is limited, leaving time in each day for rec-
reation, we have begun to know the value of the whole-
some disposition of this extra time, and of opportunity
to spend it in closer touch with Nature.

Central Park in New York and a few others in New
England cities were planned in 1855, but the general
recognition by the cities of America of the need and
utility of city parks did not come until near the end of
the nineteenth century. In fact, the greatest develop-
ment in city parks has been made in the past twenty
years. In this short period many thousands of acres
of land have been acquired and many millions of dollars
expended in purchase, development and beautification.

122

RECREATION 123

A lively sense of the desirability of city parks and their
good influence upon city life has grown up, and money
can now be obtained by popular vote for park purposes
easier than for almost any other civic improvement.

A city which does not now own an acre of park land
for each one hundred inhabitants, or which does not
have a park or other open space within easy walking
distance of all its homes, is falling behind the proces-
sion. High talent has been developed in landscape
architecture applied to park and public square improve-
ment, and lands so developed are now common in all
our cities. There is a new demand for large park
lareas near the larger cities which may be left in a
state of nature. "Keep off the grass" signs are now
taboo.

Boulevards. — As driveways are essential in park
development, so boulevards are necessary for ap-
proaches to the city's parks and the connections between
them. A beautiful park should not be allowed a mean
and ugly approach. A boulevard is a parked street
and must be designed to afford a pleasant passage
for pedestrians as well as those who ride. If street
car tracks are necessary their location should be sub-
ordinate to the use of the street by carriages, automo-
biles and pedestrians. They should not be permitted
unless they are needed to bring to the parks those who
have no automobiles — those for whose particular use
and benefit the parks were provided. Car tracks in
boulevards are often planted and sodded to make them
less objectionable. A bridle path for equestrians is a

124 RECREATION

fine adjunct to a boulevard in these days of slippery
asphalt pavements, and these dirt paths should always
be provided in parks of considerable size.

Chicago has a fine system of boulevards whose
beauty depends almost entirely upon landscape garden-
ing, as the city is located upon a vast level plain. Du-
luth, Spokane, Seattle and Portland'are hilly cities, and
in laying out their park and boulevard systems ad-
vantage has been taken of natural configuration to
make nature an ally of art in the production of beautiful
scenic drives and attractive vistas. In many cities
boulevards have been built along rivers and water
fronts to the great improvement of the locality and the
city. The city that allows its water frontage to fall
into private ownership neglects an asset of great value
and importance.

Playgrounds. — In 1890 there was but one public
playground in the United States, located in Brookline,
Mass. Chicago opened its first playground in 1893,
followed by New York in 1899. Organized and super-
vised play is really a creation of the twentieth century,
and is a result of the new realization of the utility and
the necessity of play as part of sane and healthful life,
for adults as well as children. Too long had we al-
lowed the unregulated dance hall, the theater and the
saloon to supply the human need for joy ; too long had
we accepted excitement, frivolity and intoxication as its
unwholesome substitutes ; too long had we created hood-
lums and delinquents by failure to provide direction for
the exuberant spirits of youth. The rapid growth of

RECREATION 125

the playground movement is a credit to our generation
in the speed by which action followed realization. Lin-
coln's belief in the common people, of whom God made
so many, is justified; they want to do right when they
learn what is right.

Now we have supervised play in nearly every city,
tennis courts in almost every park, ball grounds, polo
grounds, athletic fields and golf Hnks furnished by
public funds and directed by public authorities. Every-
body now believes in play and wonders why it has been
neglected so long. The story of Jacob Riis and his
long and finally successful struggle for a playground in
the slums of old New York is fascinating reading. He
showed a congestion of population in Sanitary District
A of the Eleventh Ward considerably greater than ex-
isted in any other city in the world : "986.4 persons per
acre for an area of thirty-two acres." New York now
has over one hundred playgrounds, one of which,
Seward Park, cost between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000.

Adequate investment in playground equipment will
reduce future investments in jail or hospital equipment.

Gymnasiums. — It has been the practice in most
cities to leave to private initiative or to voluntary organ-
izations the promotion of physical culture for the peo-
ple. In fact, most of the new activities of govern-
ment have had their inception through private organiza-
tions ; which is to say that the official group has not been
noted for progressive ideas, and takes the forward step
only in the rear of the majority of its constituents.
The examinations under the selective draft revealed

126 RECREATION

a startling deficiency in the physical condition of our
young men, and we are now beginning to realize that
disabilities which unfit our boys for military service
limit their capacity for civil pursuits and deny them a
measure of their birthright — happy and useful lives.

If this condition is to be remedied we must not leave
means and incentive for physical improvement to weak
and desultory agencies. Careful physical examinations
must be frequent throughout childhood and adoles-
cence ; remedial measures must be prompt and thorough,
and some sort of physical culture must be obligatory
and universal. National legislation will be ultimately
necessary, but the city can begin by establishing public
gymnasia and inaugurating thorough physical care of
pupils in the schools. Boston was the pioneer in this
movement, the East Boston indoor gymnasium being
the first public institution of this kind in America.
Boston has since built others and has furnished the
model for several other cities. Facilities are invari»
ably overtaxed by heavy attendance as soon as these
institutions are opened to public use. Physical exam-
inations are made, individual records of progress kept,
and exercises are adapted to personal requirements.
Physical culture is no longer confined to the contestants
in athletic contests, who usually need it least.

Athletic Fields. — An athletic field or stadium
should be a part of every comprehensive park and
playground scheme. Interest in games and tourna-
ments fills the hours of leisure of many of our people,
and it is in the public interest that these sports should

RECREATION 127

be encouraged and kept clean. In too many cities
athletic grounds are owned and operated for profit by
private agencies, and are not subject to proper public
supervision ; their rental charges are beyond the means
of many who might advantageously use them, and clean
sport is held subordinate to profitable sport.

A public athletic field should be a clearing house for
all the city's recreational activities. It must be con-
veniently located to the center of population or readily
accessible through adequate transportation facilities. It
may be a means of park revenue by rental for games
and athletic events, but should be given free to the city's
established athletic activities and to field days of
schools, Boy Scouts, etc., where no admission is charged
and general attendance is invited. Tacoma has a fine
stadium on a natural site adjoining one of its high
schools, and with a beautiful outlook across the Sound.
It is made useful for many civic gatherings as well as
for athletic events.

Camp Grounds. — Entertainment for the stranger
within our gates is now incomplete unless there is a
place for him to camp and park his automobile. Civic
hospitality pays. 6o,cxxd automobiles toured one of
the transcontinental trails in 1921, and the num-
ber is rapidly increasing. Many such tourists seek the
shelter of hotels, but thousands prefer to camp, usually
planning to reach some town or city for the night where
supplies may be purchased or repairs obtained. Only
those who have made such pilgrimages realise how
much money is left with garages, hotels and merchants

128 RECREATION

along the route, and hence how valuable the tourist traf-
fic is to the city. A pleasant camp ground in one of the
suburban parks or along the river, supplied with con-
veniences for cooking, laundering, and cleaning cars,
with comfort station, and perhaps an opportunity to
fish or hunt, may induce the traveller to make a longer
stay. It always gives him a favorable impression of a
city and leaves with him a pleasant memory. No town,
located on a trunk road, is too small to be benefited by
an automobile camp, and no city is large enough to
afford to neglect this means of tourist accommodation.

Camp grounds in the suburbs, for use by walking
clubs. Boy Scouts, Camp-fire Girls, and like organiza-
tions for an over-night or week-end hike are indis-
pensable for the modern city. Shelter houses with fire-
places and a fuel supply make these camps available for
use in winter as well as summer, and give a taste of out-
door life to many who do not often get other opportuni-
ties for it. Undeveloped park lands outside the city
may usually be put to no more useful purpose. Los
Angeles maintains a tent colony in the mountains, 75
miles from the city. Here men and boys are accommo-
dated, for a small fee covering the cost, during the
month of July, and women and girls during August.

Public Baths. — A large proportion of the inhab-
itants of American cities are still unprovided with
proper bathing facilities. The Tenement House Com-
mittee of 1894 in New York reported that out of
255,000 inhabitants of the tenements which it inspected,
only 306 had access to bath-tubs in the houses in which

RECREATION 129

they lived, and the statistics of eighteen of the larger
cities of this country in which no public baths existed in
1887 show that about five-sixths of their inhabitants
still must use the family wash-tub or bucket. That
people want to bathe when they have a reasonable
chance has been abundantly proved by the way in
which they flock to the temporary and inadequate bath-
ing facilities which have been established in some cities.

Public baths, operated on an all-the-year basis, with
swimming tanks and showers, are now established in
many cities and have become indispensable to civic
health. Milwaukee, a city always favorable to water
for bathing, built the first of these, in 1889, and a sec-
ond in 1894. Brookline, Mass., followed in 1895.
The legislature of New York has since passed a law
making it obligatory in cities of the first and second
class and permissive in smaller cities and towns, to
"establish and maintain such number of public baths as
the local board of health may determine to be neces-
sary," requiring public baths to be open not less than
fourteen hours each day and that hot and cold water
be provided. As a result of this wholesome law the
cities of New York state are now pretty generally pro-
vided with public baths, and the movement has become
nation-wide with great rapidity. Frequent renewal
and disinfection of water are essential to healthful pub-
lic baths.

Municipal Game Fields. — Baseball, football, golf,
tennis and polo games have become part of American
life and furnish the inducement for millions to open-air

130 RECREATION

activities.Their first requirement is ground space, which
is not always easy to get in our populous cities. Ball
playing on the streets seems impossible to prevent and
it has been the cause of many fatal accidents. So
great is the demand for game fields that many cities
have closed streets to traffic at certain hours in order to
encourage play and prevent accident. Some have tried
to prohibit play on the streets without providing game
fields, but the effort is futile as well as unworthy. Va-
cant lots abound in most of our cities, but with the bill-
boards and accumulations of rubbish which so often
befoul them they are a poor substitute for the real
thing.

Golf, tennis and polo have until recent years been
possible only to those who could afford private grounds
or membership in expensive clubs. Golf and polo wer]e
"rich men's games" but with the advent of public game
fields they have lost their exclusiveness. A visit tO'
any one of the hundreds of municipal golf links on a
pleasant Saturday or Sunday will give ocular evidence
of the democratization of this fine, healthful sport, and
the need and utility of municipal provision for its
indulgence. The golf course in Jackson Park, Chi-
cago, is open at 4 130 a. m. in the summer, and at most
public links people are often obliged to wait hours for a
chance to play, particularly in the larger cities. When
our people show this enthusiasm for healthful recrea-
tion the ideal city will not be content until it has fur-
nished adequate means for its expression.

CHAPTER XIII

MUSIC AND ART

Band Concerts. — Man does not live by bread
alone. His first necessity may be physical well-being,
but man is essentially spiritual, and recognition and
nourishment of his spiritual nature is the only sure
path of social advance. To this end music is a chief
contributor. Heine says of music, "Like a twilight
mediator, it hovers between spirit and matter, related to
both yet differing from each. It is spirit, but spirit
subject to the measurement of time; it is matter, but
matter that can dispense with space." Community
music is not mere recreation or a form of entertain-
ment; it is something far deeper and more vital in
human life.

Good music in America was for many years the
special privilege of the favored few who could afford
expensive entertainment ; it is now regarded as an essen-
tial to normal life and proper development, and hence
its supply is fast becoming an acknowledged function
of government. Band concerts afforded the first music
which received general approval and the support of
public funds, but, as usual, public recognition and sup-
port came only after a few enthusiasts had demon-
strated the demand for, and the value of, good music

131

132 MUSIC AND ART

as a public undertaking. A large number of cities now
support municipal bands, and many others employ bands
for open-air concerts in the summer. The park con-
cert has become an institution; the people demand it
and are willing to be taxed for it. Every school has
more or less instruction in music, and in many high
schools good bands are organized and credits given for
progress and proficiency in instrumental music.

Boston supports a municipal band which gives a
series of noon concerts for the workers during the sum-
mer, and evening concerts every day except Monday in
the fine Parkman Memorial Bandstand on Boston Com-
mon. The Denver municipal band gives seven concerts
a week during the summer ; and in hundreds of Ameri-
can cities the people flock to parks and public squares to
listen to good music furnished free by the municipality.

Municipal Orchestras. — After the band the next
in municipal musical progress is the symphony orches-
tra. Private orchestras supported by voluntary organ-
izations and subscriptions have been common in many
cities for many years, but their support from public
funds is comparatively new. The prices necessarily
charged for concert tickets by private promoters were
too high to allow really popular patronage, and the civic
benefit of good music for the people was largely lost.
The movement for municipal music aims at furnishing
it either free, or at so low a price that no one need deny
himself. Ten cents is a common charge and if this
small fee does not pay expenses the residue is borne
by the city.

MUSIC AND ART 133

The first municipally supported symphony orchestra
in an American city was in Baltimore in 1916. It is
composed of sixty musicians led by a competent con-
ductor and gives monthly concerts usually assisted by
soloists of national reputation. Boston, which has a
privately supported symphony orchestra of great ability
and reputation, also supports a municipal orchestra at
whose concerts lectures are given explaining the compo-
sitions to be played, biographical sketches of the com-
posers and the uses of the various instruments. But
the municipal support of orchestral music has by no
means been confined to the large cities. Towns of 5,000
to 10,000 inhabitants have achieved national reputation
as musical centers. Lindsborg, Kansas, a city of about
3,000, the home of Bethany College, enjoys the unique
distinction of being "the most musical town of its size
in America." Its annual music festival includes a
chorus of over 500 voices and a symphony orchestra
of sixty-five pieces. The Messiah is rendered each
year during Easter week, and thousands of persons
travel to Lindsborg to hear it.

Community Singing. — The cultivation of the
musical taste and the enjoyment of good music through
the sense of hearing are not the most important of our
musical ambitions. Humanity craves self-expression,
and progress requires co-operation. People who sing
together are better prepared to work together. If it be
true, as Emerson says, that "facility of association is
the measure of civilization," then we get more than har-
mony of blended voices from community singing.

134. MUSIC AND ART

And the production of harmony, while desirable, is not
the only benefit. As in some other activities the effort
is worth more than the accomplishment in the develop-
ment of character.

Community singing is by far the most popular of all
the forms of community music, the easiest to inaugu-
rate and the happiest in execution and results. Its full-
est expression came to America during the Great War,
when it was found that it lubricated patriotism and
loosened purse-strings. Men and women sang who
had not raised their voices since childhood, and as they
sang they became better neighbors, better friends and
better citizens. Musical leadership was developed, and
community singing, long confined to religious meetings,
came to be an indispensable part of the programs of
chambers of commerce, rotary clubs and gatherings
of all sorts. Audiences in moving picture theaters
were invited to sing together, from words and music
thrown upon the screen, and daily "sings" were held in
workshops and stores.

Community singing has become a part of the social
and the business life of the country, and the movement
must not be allowed to languish for want of persistent
aid and encouragement. The cost of leadership and
printed songs is trivial and the outlet of human emo-
tions in song is desirable in every way.

Organ Recitals. — In all of our cities are thou-
sands of persons who never hear good music; the
best they hear is often of the cheap type which they
get at jazz dances, at the moving picture theaters or on

MUSIC AND ART 135

the street. Many children have no notion of good
music. Commissioner Claxton of the U. S. Bureau
of Education has suggested that every church should
open its doors at least once a week at an hour con-
venient to school children and factory workers, and
have the organist render music for these people in his
best style. He suggests that the people be allowed to
come and go freely and says that if ushers were supplied
there would be no commotion and no damage to the
church. These informal organ recitals should cost but
little and the return in good citizenship would be great.
For several years, during the Lenten season, a church
on Fifth Avenue in New York has given a free concert
every Friday at the noon hour and is usually packed
with listeners. The programs are invariably high in
quality as well as attractive, and the artists of New
York donate their services to this fine purpose.

Most municipal auditoriums contain fine organs, and
Sunday afternoon organ recitals are given in many
cities, either free or with an admission charge of ten
or fifteen cents to cover necessary expenses. No other
musical instrument so successfully combines adaptabil-
ity, dramatic power and grandeur as does the pipe
organ. The municipal organ of Portland, Maine, is in
the city hall, and Sunday afternoon organ recitals have
become an institution in that fine city. Daily concerts
are given during the summer. The first series of
municipal organ recitals in America is said to have
been inaugurated by the city of Alleghany, now a part

136 MUSIC AND ART

of Pittsburgh, in 1890. Professor Zueblin says "Pitts-
burgh sounds better than it looks."

Painting and Sculpture. — The so-called "fine
arts" have an important function in spiritual, and there-
fore civic, development. The appreciation of beauty
lightens care, cultivates the observation, and lifts the
spirit above the contemplation of sordid things. Many
of us city dwellers are denied the privilege of frequent
communion with the beauties of Nature and we may
well seek their reproduction in the work of the artist.
The true artist not only reproduces and portrays but
also interprets. His landscape subtly leads the eye to
its predominant feature and accentuates the beauty of
the scene as he sees it ; his portrait expresses character
and vision as well as likeness ; his statue possesses more
than fidelity and beauty of form in its portrayal of
action, impulse and emotion. Our perceptions are en-
larged and our taste cultivated by an exalted vision of
the things of beauty seen, not necessarily as they are,
but as they appear to the artist's eye and as they impress
his spirit.

The "practical" things of life have their utility, but
the man whose whole existence is devoted to them walks
blindfolded through a universe of surpassing loveliness,
and misses the best part of normal life. Every child in
the kindergarten has his gaze pointed outward and up-
ward to the beauties of Nature. Every adult may have
his vision enlarged and his life ennobled by aesthetic
development. Every city should provide the means, by
giving opportunity to contemplate and study art and

MUSIC AND ART 137

beauty, of enlarging the capacity of its citizens for
happy and productive Hfe, and aiding spiritual develop-
ment. A broad appreciation of the fine arts is one of
the highest forms of human enjoyment, and their ex-
pression is the most lasting record of civilization. The
art which has come down to us from the past forms our
best index of ancient civilizations. "Where there is
no vision the people perish."

Architecture. — A building is often only a shelter
from the elements, and this is true of many of the city's
structures in most American municipalities. The city
hall may be monumental, but the pumping plant of the
city's water-works is likely to be a series of ugly sheds,
and the jail a blot on the landscape. It is so easy and
so inexpensive to give a touch of beauty and dignity
to a building, that there is no excuse for neglecting the
artistic qualities in any city structure, not even the
garbage crematory. When we appreciate the influence
of symmetry and beauty in architecture upon the spirit
of the beholder, the uplift of fine design and the dignity
of good lines, we shall be no more willing to neglect
good architecture in our civic structures than in our
homes.

America is far behind Europe in the character of
public structures. The European cities understand the
commercial value as well as the spiritual influence of
civic art and beauty. They know that fine buildings
inspire citizens and attract tourists. Art is applied to
all public structures, and a closer supervision of private
buildings to make them conform to location, environ-

138 MUSIC AND ART

ment, and a high ideal of architectural fitness. In this
country the design of a public building is frequently left
to an architect whose chief asset is a political pull, and
his work is directed by a council committee whose mem-
bers do not know the difference between a Gothic
column and a flag-staff. We get really better than we
are entitled to get.

Advisory art commissions are coming into being in
America and we may hope for better civic structures as
the ideal grows. Washington, New York, Philadelphia
and Boston have such commissions, and in recent years
the city-planning movement has carried forward the
idea of good architecture for public buildings with con-
siderable new impetus.

The Drama. — Public support of the drama is not
common in American cities, yet there are probably a
score or more of municipal theaters, mostly in the
smaller cities. Most of them are used for traveling
companies, with moving pictures for interim dates, but
occasionally there is one which has its own stock com-
pany, which takes a vacation or plays in some near-by
city when the theater is rented to a traveling company.
Many cities now own portable moving picture booths
and outfits, which they use for both education and en-
tertainment. Women's clubs in nearly every city study
the drama and often promote dramatic recitals, lectures
and performances by local talent.

Dover, N. H., has a fully-equipped theater in its
city hall. Hennessy, Oklahoma, has a municipal the-
ater where the attractions are booked by a member of

MUSIC AND ART 139

the city council. Red Wing, Minn., received a bequest
of $80,000 with which to build a theater, with the stip-
ulation that it was not to be used for public or private
gain. It is used by outside attractions which are
booked by a citizens' committee. The credit for the
first municipal dramatic company is given to North-
ampton, Mass. It was supported in part by endowment
and in part by voluntary subscription. The control of
American drama by New York syndicates, under which
many of the smaller communities have sufifered and
dramatic art has decayed, will induce a larger interest
in the drama by the modern city, which will elevate its
tone and enlarge its influence. The incentive for profit
must be tempered with consideration of the artistic and
aesthetic influence of dramatic art, and if theatrical syn-
dicates will not give this consideration the public will
insist upon other guidance and control. The best in
the drama, both substance and presentation, is none too
good for American audiences.

Landscape Gardening. — Those American cities
which are located on level or commonplace sites must
depend for most of their beauty upon architecture and
landscape gardening, and in every city there is good
opportunity for the landscape architect, as he is now
called. The most ugly and forbidding vistas have been
made into scenes of beauty by his art. San Francisco
has built one of the finest parks in America on the sand
dunes of the Pacific ocean. Chicago, with little topo-
graphical background, has made one of the finest boule-
vard systems in the world upon her level plain, and her

140 MUSIC AND ART

lake-front park is fast growing into a thing of beauty.
Cities for which Nature has suppHed a beautiful set-
ting are made more beautiful by the application of the
gardener's art, in nice conformity to natural features.

Spokane has a handsome park made from the clay pit
of a former brickyard, and has enhanced the civic at-
traction of a fine natural environment by the planting
developments about its city garbage crematory, water
works, pumping plant, fire stations, reservoirs, stand
pipes, etc. River banks and water fronts, once rescued
from private ownership, take on new beauties and are
changed from civic liabilities to assets by the gardener's
art. The landscape architect has made millions of
blades of grass and hundreds of thousands of trees
grow where none grew before, and in locations where
multitudes of Americans have been influenced for good
by their beauty and fitness.

CHAPTER XIV

ENVIRONS

Agriculture. — A city cannot live unto itself.
Whatever its cause and justification for existence, its
relationships with its neighbors and with the surround-
ing rural territory are vital, and no program for its
well-being is complete without a consideration of its en-
virons. Indeed, if it be an industrial city, its interests
may be indissolubly interwoven with those of the state,
the nation, and even with other countries of the world.
Its first consideration must be for the food supply of its
inhabitants. It may draw food staples from long dis-
tances, but it is vitally concerned with agricultural
production in its own neighborhood and must consider
the condition of its nearby farms and farmers, and of
these latter as producers, consumers and fellow-citizens.

Most American cities are contained in a county of
considerable area, to the tax revenues of which they
contribute the major part, and whose government over-
laps that of the city in many places. Hence the city
dweller must interest himself in seeing that the interests
and welfare of the neighboring farmers are not sub-
merged by the selfishness of the city. The farmer can
be aided in many ways. We must not only foster and

encourage his industry and promote increased produc-

141

142 ENVIRONS

tion ; we must also understand his needs and aspirations,
aid him in mental and spiritual development, and in
his endeavors for a larger life for himself and his
family.

Farms have been lonesome places for the w^omen of
the farmer's household, and farm life has afforded
little attraction and encouragement to the younger
members of the farmer's family to remain in its whole-
some employment. But with the advent of the auto-
mobile, good roads, the rural free postal service and the
telephone, conditions have been much improved. We
cannot expect Americans to remain in an occupation
which does not offer opportunity for social, religious
and recreational activity as well as economic indepen-
dence. The modern city can and must take a real inter-
est in the lives and fortunes of its rural neighbors.

Forestry. — Trees do more than beautify the land-
scape, although this function alone would justify their
existence and our care of them in our environs as well
as in the city itself. Two or three generations ago the
problem of the forest was how to get rid of it and
make way for the plow ; now it is how to retain what
is left of our forests, how to defend the remnant, and
how to promote new forests. We appreciate now the
effect of our forests upon climate, agriculture and water
supply, and are expending millions for reforestration
where it would be unnecessary except for our reckless-
ness in past years. Probably no other natural resource
has been attacked with such a complete disregard for
the welfare of future generations.

ENVIRONS 143

The lumber industry is not so much to blame for this
condition as ourselves ; we demand material for build-
ing, for railroad ties, for telegraph poles, and a thou-
sand other uses, without a thought of its source or the
penalties to us all through its rapid and careless har-
vesting. Our cities have been built of lumber when
other material would have been more substantial, more
enduring, less inflammable and cheaper in the long run ;
we have allowed the lumber interests to destroy and
obliterate the younger growth in forests in their hurry
to market the mature trees, and this devastation has
been thorough even upon land which can have no value
for agricultural purposes except that, when covered
with trees, it would conserve the summer supply of
water by retaining the winter snows, as well as grow a
new crop of lumber. The modern city will interest
itself in state and national legislation in the interest of
forest conservation, for reform must come in this mat-
ter through the larger governmental units, and it will
not come unless we all take an interest.

Farm Bureaus. — No movement of recent years
has done so much to bring about fruitful co-operation
between city and country as the establishment of farm
bureaus, with their accompanying activities of county
agricultural agents and home demonstration work.
The city usually acts through its chamber of com-
merce, and while the work is primarily for the benefit of
the farmers, the business men of town and city reap a
decided advantage from it, in a better relationship and
understanding with their rural neighbors. The injunc-

lU ENVIRONS

tion to "love thy neighbor as thyself" is not curtailed
by city limits, and its practice produces economic, social
and political, as well as ethical and spiritual benefits.

Farm bureaus are promoted by the national and
state governments, which join with local agencies in
financing and conducting them. Through paid agents
they bring to the farmer in his fields and his home the
most approved methods of agriculture and domestic
science, teaching the prevention of blights, the destruc-
tion of pests, proper selection and treatment of seed,
care of livestock and poultry, conducting demonstra-
tions in crop-growing, organizing the boys and girls
in clubs for pig and poultry raising and, in general, im-
proving farm conditions and inspiring farmers to better
methods. A high ideal of service is contained in the
conception of the U. S. Department of Agriculture of
the province of the farm bureau : "To develop and in-
spire local leadership and inculcate high community
ideals, to stimulate co-operation, and help the rural
people — to make farming an attractive business and
country life satisfying to man, woman and child."

Suburban Homes. — In the larger cities of this
country there are thousands of citizens, active in busi-
ness and professional life, who seek homes outside the
city for the sake of better living conditions, less noise
and more freedom. Thousands of toilers as well are
induced to go into the suburbs for cheaper homes and
land for gardens. Both of these classes contribute to
our total of citizenship and their interests are important
to us as city-dwellers. Our cities grow in area by

ENVIRONS 145

extending the city limits out into surrounding territory
from time to time, and for this reason the plotting of
land and laying out of roads in contiguous territory
are always important. The direction- of the city's
growth may be greatly influenced by the private and
mercenary interest of real-estate speculators, who are
more concerned in the profitable sale of lots in the
suburbs than in the future welfare of the people who
will inhabit them.

Every city should have a measure of control over
land-plotting for at least five miles outside its city
boundaries, and should have authority to insist upon
the dedication of proper connecting streets, thorough-
fares and boulevards in conformity with those within
its limits. School sites and lands for future parks,
playgrounds and public squares may be properly and
reasonably acquired, and convenient arrangements made
for the extension of the city's utilities when the need
for them arises. In the control of contiguous land
which is likely to become a part of the city, three fac-
tors are necessary : authority from the state legislature,
a city-planning commission with intelligence and vision,
and a city council wise enough to act sympathetically
on the planning board's recommendations.

Suburban Parks. — No opportunity should be lost
to acquire ample areas of suburban land for present or
future use as parks, particularly forest land and water
frontage. Some European cities buy land for residen-
tial, business and industrial purposes, and are thus
enabled not only to determine its use and control its

146 ENVIRONS

development, but they also benefit from its increase in
value, instead of allowing private owners to absorb the
unearned increment created by civic growth. Our
American legislatures are loath to allow such rights to
our cities, but do ordinarily give us the right to buy
land for suburban parks. If the city, desiring a park
of forty acres in some thriving suburb, could buy
eighty acres, and lay out half of it in residence lots
around the proposed park previous to its improvement,
our parks would cost us less than nothing. The right
of excess condemnation comes slowly to American
cities, but it will come eventually. Europe and our
neighbor Canada have shown us the way.

Astute realty owners are awake to the profit brought
by dedicating part of their suburban tracts to the public
as park lands. There is usually considerable land in
suburban tracts which is not adapted for sale as resi-
dence sites or industrial purposes on account of its
condition or topography, but which will make fine
parks. Swamps, gullies, rocky ground and steep hill-
sides all have possibilities of beautification and scenic
development, and such land may be cheaply acquired
or donated to the public if proper and timely steps are
taken. How long do you expect your city will be on
the map? Isn't it worth while to get that piece of park
land now, "while the getting is good," even though it
may not be developed or used in the immediate future ?
Is there not some wealthy citizen who can be induced
to buy it and dedicate it to public use by the people of
the next generation? Call it by his name if necessary

ENVIRONS 147

— it is a better memorial than a marble mausoleum.

Roads and Transportation. — Good roads and
transportation to the surrounding country are proper
subjects for the city's earnest attention, for upon them
depends the extent of its trade territory. Not less im-
portant to the city is the influence of easy transportation
upon the living conditions of its rural neighbors. The
very thought of forced confinement to the farm by rea-
son of bad roads is depressing and discouraging to
those whose social and recreational opportunities are
never overabundant, or whose necessities require a
trip to the city. Such conditions may easily determine
to a considerable extent the character of the suburban
and rural population.

The city, through its government and its commercial
organizations, can do much to influence transportation
conditions in its environs. Its influence with county
authorities and with the state legislature is more potent
than that of a scattered rural population, and when its
citizens come to realize how great is their dependence
upon the surrounding country — how intimately their
economic life is interwoven with that of their rural
neighbors — self-preservation will dictate an active in-
terest in their problems. Good roads invite to travel.
They save time and reduce the expense of transporting
the farm products to market, and supplies to the farm.
Repair parts for farm machinery can be had without
such expensive and vexatious delays, and musical and
theatrical privileges are made possible.

The city may often induce railroads and trolley lines

148 ENVIRONS

to adopt more accommodating schedules, or It may aid
in the establishment of truck lines for freight, and bois
lines for passengers, where railway facilities are inade-
quate. One of its first duties is to see that the city's
streets which connect with arterial country highways
are well paved, lighted, and kept in good condition, and
that garages and stables furnish good service at rea-
sonable cost.

CHAPTER XV

RELIGION

Churches. — In considering the church as a civic
asset it is with the thought of the vaUie to the com-
munity of rehgion as a vital factor in human Hfe, rather
than the importance of the church, or any particular
church as an institution. The church as a civic insti-
tution has a dual function ; to help citizens to find their
true relationship to the universe, and to furnish the
practical means whereby religion may influence the life
of the community by the expression of the religious
purpose in the affairs of the city. That many churches
are decaying is evidenced by the lack of attendance at
their services and the weakness of their hold upon their
members. That this does not evidence the decadence of
religious thought and aspiration in the people is proved
by the throngs which today fill theaters, public halls,
and churches where the gospel of love and healing is
preached, where hope and joy predominate, and where
the works and sayings of the Master furnish the basis
for a new concept of the more abundant life to which
we all aspire.

Any human institution which becomes fixed begins at
once to decay. Truth is eternal, but our concept of
truth progresses and our institutions must advance with

149

150 RELIGION

that newer light. The church is no exception to this
rule. If it would help men to better lives it must lead,
not follow. If it would retain its hold upon the people,
it must develop spirituality, not alone in church rela-
tionships, but also in the social, industrial and political
life of its community. Present day holiness is not the
holiness of the convent cell, but is the holiness which
produces the "life more abundant" in all the activities
of the modern city.

Sunday Schools. — The Bible is properly regarded
as the greatest book of all ages. Its historical and liter-
ary pre-eminence is freely acknowledged even by those
who may doubt its sacred authority in every word and
teaching. Most masters of good language have had
their chief inspiration from its pages. To know good
English it is necessary to know this great book, and
when we add to its appreciation as literature a knowl-
edge of its value as a storehouse of scientific truth
directly applicable to our lives, when we make it the
anchor of our faith and the guide to our actions, its
influence is profound and universal.

Most of us look back to the time when enforced at-
tendance at Sunday School was irksome, but no intelli-
gent man, whatever his present religious belief or affilia-
tion, regrets that he was made to study the Bible in his
youth. Bribed by the approach of the annual picnic or
Christmas tree, encouraged by the rewards for regular
attendance or successful, attempts to memorize the
verses which had so little meaning to him then, he got
material and training of the greatest worth and bearing

RELIGION 151

upon after-life, and memories which are cherished as
long as thought remains. And he may have absorbed
an interest before which all others fade into insignifi-
cance. Better comprehension of Bible truths, scientific
development of Bible meaning and the new interpreta-
tions of applied Christianity, all simplified for the
youthful understanding, make the intelligent Bible
teaching of today far more attractive to the young than
was that of the last generation.

Forward-looking citizens of every shade of religious
belief will encourage and assist the Sunday Schools in
their home cities in inculcating knowledge of the great-
est book in any language.

Religious Societies. — Every church is, or should
be, the center for various organizations which are
formed for building up its membership or for carrying
on the many phases of social and charitable work which
it supports. Efficient co-operation in these activities
requires acquaintance, mutual interest and understand-
ing as well as devotion to a cause, and these societies
and clubs are the valuable training ground for other so-
cial activities which take in a wider circle of effort and
eventually expand into the interests of the neighbor-
hood, the city, the state, the nation and the world.

These religious societies have then a wider function
than may at first appear. They supply outlets for
energy, fervor in good works and the craving for op-
portunity for unselfish service which the Christian re-
ligion inculcates. They cultivate the "get-together"
spirit, and they usually produce results of importance

152 RELIGION

outside the particular church to which they are attached.
Many a movement for civic progress has originated in
the men's club of some church; many a comprehensive
social service got its start in the women's missionary
sewing circle; many a boy and girl received their first
lesson in co-operation for the common good in the
church young people's society. Any influence or asso-
ciation which produces and "develops public-minded-
ness, a sense of public service and responsibility" is
far from negligible as a civic asset.

The Salvation Army. — There is a large element
in every city which cannot be, or at least is not, reached
by the usual church agencies. It is an element which
needs religious influence and help as much as any other,
and any means whereby it may be brought into contact
with the saving force of Christianity is a real addition
to civic undertakings. If those who need the service
which the church gives will not go to the church, it must
go to them. Early Christian converts were sought in
the highways and byways by direct command of the
Master, and his own preaching was seldom within en-
closing walls or under the auspices of so-called organ-
ized religion.

The Salvation Army has re-introduced the ancient
evangelical method. It has grown to great size and
wide influence without stately cathedrals, impressive
ceremonies or rich endowments, but by sanctified ser-
vice to humanity in humble circumstances. Looked
upon in its early struggles with derision and contempt
by its more aristocratic neighbors in the religious field,

RELIGION 153

it has now won their respect and the approval of the
public by its consecrated service and its practical meth-
ods of ministration to the physical, mental and spiritual
wants of men. Taking as its motto "A man may be
down but he is never out," it has brought physical and
moral salvation to millions, changed despair to hope and
confidence, brought self-respect out of degradation and
put derelicts into the way of happy and productive life.
The Salvation Army has earned its way into the confi-
dence and respect of American communities and is well
entitled to take its place as an asset of the ideal city.

CHAPTER XVI

CITIZENSHIP

Honesty. — It has become a truism to say that
the modern city is not built of bricks and mortar, but
of blood and brains. No matter what the physical
condition of a city may be, or what its material assets
include, unless it contains a high type of citizenship it
cannot take and hold its place in the van of civic prog-
ress. And the first qualification for good citizenship
is honesty. That honesty which pays its debts and be-
haves so as to keep out of jail is well enough in its way,
but its way doesn't lead very far. Real honesty exhibits
itself first in honest thinking and secondly in honest
living. Honest thinking demands that our opinions
and conclusions be formed only after earnest effort to
collect and understand facts, to compare and test ex-
perience, and to weigh arguments. It forbids our tak-
ing our opinions ready-made from the editor, the
preacher or the orator. It involves the intellectual
courage which refuses to say it believes anything to
which it has not given earnest thought, and the bravery
which is not afraid to proclaim its conclusions when
they are formed.

Honest living acknowledges the debt which we- all
owe to society, and impels us to put back into life at

154

CITIZENSHIP 155

least a little more than we take out of life. We Ameri-
cans are all greatly indebted to the past. We acknowl-
edge benefits from a noble ancestry which was strong
enough to brave the terrors and endure the hardships
of pioneer life in a new world for the sake of liberty
of conscience. We recognize service to us in the service
to humanity of the great of all times and places, as well
as our immediate personal debt to society for free
government, protection of life and liberty and free and
abundant educational opportunities. All this the honest
citizen will strive to repay by passing on these good gifts
to those who will come after him.

Humanitarianism. — If we would attain to the
best in citizenship we must have regard for the needs,
the rights and the opinions of our neighbors, and not
particularly of our neighbors in the choice residence
section in which we live, but our neighbors of the lowly
suburb and the crowded tenement. Herbert Spencer
said, "No one can be perfectly happy until all are
happy" ; Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself." These inspired ones gave us a rule of con-
duct which cannot be disobeyed without serious conse-
quences : one which our better natures should choose
voluntarily, one which carries its own penalty for in-
fraction. The lives and fortunes of our children's
children may easily depend upon the way in which the
boys and girls now growing up in humble homes sus-
tain the obligations of citizenship.

Humanitarianism is not satisfied with alms-giving;
it involves real interest in the life problems of others

166 CITIZENSHIP

and real effort to solve them in the community interest.
It demands the exercise of that love which suffers long
and is kind, of that faith which looks beyond what men
are, to what they are capable of becoming. It regards
employees not so much as "hands" from which a certain
amount of labor can be obtained, but as men and citi-
zens, upon whose condition and progress depend the
future of the commonwealth. It recognizes the appli-
cability to all human relationships on all occasions and
under all circumstances of that universal rule of con-
duct : "All things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them."

Public Spirit. — Lord Bryce in his "Hindrances to
Good Citizenship" gives the leading places to "indo-
lence" and "private self-interest," that is, in good
American, laziness and selfishness. These are vices
common to us all, and to them may be traced most of
our failures to realize our ideals in municipal life, and
in our personal affairs as well. That our public interest
coincides with our private interest in its larger aspects
and in the long run, there is no doubt, and when we
realize this, we shall not be lacking in public spirit.
The demands upon good citizenship are continually
increasing by means of the newer tools of democracy
which are being put into our hands. The direct pri-
mary, the initiative, the referendum and the recall all
involve more thinking and more action on the part of
the voter, and there are many new civic activities, out-
side of government, which demand increased public
spirit from us all. He is a bad citizen who signs a peti-

CITIZENSHIP 15T

tion to his city council merely to oblige a neighbor,
to get rid of a persistent solicitor, or for any other
reason than that he indorses the object specified.

This is the age of propaganda. The woods are full
of selfish schemes which their sponsors try to make
plausible by distorted facts, specious arguments and
false conclusions in order to influence public opinion in
their favor. Those citizens who recognize the fallacy
of these proposals are often too busy or too indifferent
to contradict them* The only remedy, the only safe-
guard, is a thinking and public-spirited citizenship. An
ideal in the abstract is fine but useless. Ideals of citi-
zenship worked out in terms of human life and conduct
will produce that public spirit which will make us all
"soldiers of the common good."

Co-operation. — Co-operation is the main factor
upon which all civic progress depends. Great move-
ments which make for social and political advance may
have their beginnings in the mind of one person, but
they cannot come to their fruition without co-operative
effort. In any catalog of the personal requisites for
good citizenship, the ability to work harmoniously with
others for a common purpose stands at or near the top
of the list. The man who stubbornly stands for his
ideals and ideas in all their detail usually stands alone.
Life is a series of compromises, and while no one should
sacrifice right to expediency in order to attain a selfish
purpose, we may often gain a positive advance by
yielding in some less important detail.

Every human document of importance is the product

158 CITIZENSHIP

of compromise. Our great Constitution, most lauded
and revered of civic foundations, is a living example.
In its completed form it was unsatisfactory to nearly
every member of the convention which formulated it
and a few refused to sign it. Its endorsement by the
colonial legislatures was obtained only by the herculean
efforts of the statesmen to whom it was personally not
entirely satisfactory, and who showed their statesman-
ship by their willingness to yield personal opinions to
the common good as others saw it.

Co-operation should come naturally in a democracy
wherein the majority must rule. When we find our-
selves in the minority on a final vote we may comfort
ourselves with the thought that our ideas in the argu-
ment may have influenced the action of the majority,
and it is wholesome to acknowledge that, after all,
we may not have been in the right. Lincoln said,
"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true."
If we live faithfully up to the best light we have, we
will be able to co-operate for the common good.

Leadership. — Many American cities lag behind
the procession by reason of lack of leadership among
their citizens, or because potential leaders have not had
the faculties of leadership developed. Leadership de-
mands the possession of the qualities essential to good
citizenship, plus vision, initiative, resourcefulness and
persistence. True vision may be defined as spiritual
perception. In every community there are "practical"
people who abhor dreamers. They are content to live
(in theory only) as their fathers lived, and innovation

CITIZENSHIP 159

frightens them. They do not admit that the dreamers
of the past have contributed much to the present, and
are certain that no dreaming is essential for the future.
But leadership always sees visions and dreams dreams.
Initiative is the ability to start things. We can all call
attention to things which need doing, but only a few of
us can start them. Look about you, in your own city,
and you will immediately commence a catalog of civic
assets which your city does not possess. You want
tEem, but how shall you go about getting them? De-
velop your leadership.

Resourcefulness is the ability to find a way. Re-
sourceful men and women are not easily discouraged
by obstacles. They proceed when others lag or stop,
their eyes fixed upon the goal, their step firm, their
purpose sure. They believe with Epictetus that diffi-
culties contribute to the making of men, and proceed,
in one way or another, to overcome those in their path.
Persistence is the ability to stick. In spite of opposi-
tion, in spite of discouragement, in spite of lukewarm
support or determined antagonism, persistent leader-
ship clings to its vision until its work is accomplished
and the vision becomes a reality. Wise leadership is
the greatest of all civic assets, for by its means all others
may be materialized.

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll !
Leave thy low-vaulted past !
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea !"

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Selected List of Books

prepared by the Research Division of the

American City Bureau

New York City
Citizenship :

1. Americanization, Royal Dixon. The Macmillan

Co., N. Y., 1916. 106 pp.

2. Problems of Americanization, Peter Roberts.

The Macmillan Co., N. Y. 254 pp.

3. Citizenship : An introduction to Social Ethics,

Milton Bennion. World Book Co., Yonkers-
on-Hudson, N. Y. 191 7. 181 pp.

4. Community Civic, Field and Nearing. The Mac-

millan Co., N. Y. 1916. 280 pp.

5. A Course in Citizenship, Cabot, Andrews, Coe,

Hill and McSkimmon. The Macmillan Co.,
N. Y. 1920. 386 pp.

6. Community Organization, Joseph K. Hart. The

Macmillan Co., N. Y. 230 pp.

7. American Democracy, S. E. Forman. The Cen-

tury Co., N. Y. 1920. 474 pp.

8. Universal Training for Citizenship and Public

Service, Wm. H. Allen. The Macmillan Co.
N. Y. 1917. 290 pp.
161

162 BIBLIOGRAPHY

9. Woman's Work in Municipalities, Mary R. Beard.
D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 191 5. 344 pp.

City Planning:

1. The Planning of the Modern City, by Nelson P.

Lewis. John Wiley Sons, New York. 423 pp.

2. City Planning Progress in the United States, 191 7.

The Octagon, Wash., D. C. 1917.

3. City Planning; with special reference to the

planning of streets and lots, Chas. Mulford
Robinson. G. P. Putnam Sons, N. Y. 360 pp.

4. Town Planning for Small Communities, Chas. S.

Bird. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 492 pp.

5. City Planning, edited by John Nolen. D. Apple-

ton & Co., N. Y. 447 pp.

6. New Ideals in the Planning of Cities, Towns and

Villages, John Nolen, American City Bureau,
N. Y. 1920. 139 pp.

7. Town Improvement, Fred'k N. Evans. D. Ap-

pleton & Co., N. Y. 1919. 261 pp.

8. The Making of a Town, Frank L. McVey. Mc-

Clurg & Co., Chicago, 111. 1919. 201 pp.

9. Carrying Out the City Plan, F. Shurtlefif and F.

L. Olmsted. Survey Associates, N. Y. 1913.

349 PP-
10. Municipal Landing Fields, Geo. S. Wheat. Put-
nam Sons, N. Y. 1 92 1. 96 pp.

Fire Prevention and Protection:

1. Handbook of Fire Protection, by Crosby, Fiske

and Forster. D. Van Nostrand Co., N. Y.

. 757 PP-

2. Fires and Fire-Fighters, John Kenlon. Geo.

Doran & Co., N. Y. 1919. 310 pp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 163

3. Fire Prevention, Edward F. Croker. Dodd, Mead

& Co., 4th Ave., N. Y. 1912. 354 pp.

4. Fire Prevention and Fire Protection as Applied

to Building Construction, by J. K. Freitag.
John Wiley & Sons, 432 Fourth Ave., N. Y.

Foods and Markets:

1. City Milk Supply, by H. N. Parker. McGraw-

Hill Co., loth Ave. at 36th St., N. Y. 191 7.

494 PP-

2. Lower Living Costs in Cities: A Constructive

Program for Urban Efficiency, Clyde L. King.
D. Appleton & Co., 29-35 W. 32d St., N. Y.

355 PP-

3. The Price of Milk, Clyde L. King. J. C. Winston,

Phila., Pa. 1920. 307 pp.

Health and Sanitaiion:

1. The Health Officer, by Overton and Denno.

Saunders, Phila., Pa. 1919. 512 pp.

2. Handbook on Sanitation, by George M. Price.

John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 1913. 353 pp.

3. Public Health and Hygiene, By William H. Park,

M.D. Lea & Febiger, Phila., Pa. 1920. 884 pp.

4. Vital Statistics, George C. Whipple. 517 pp.

5. Manual for Health Officers, by J. S. MacNutt.

John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 191 5. 650 pp.

6. Health Education in Rural Schools, J. Mace

Andress. Houghton Mifflin Co., 4 Park St.,
Boston, Mass. 19 19. 321 pp.

7. Hygiene of the School Child, by Lewis M.

Terman. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass.
1917. 417 pp.

8. Medical Inspection of Schools, Gulick and Ayres.

Survey Associates, N. Y. 191 3. 224 pp.

164 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Highway Building and Maintenance:

1. American Civil Engineers' Handbook. Mansfield

Merriman. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 1920.

1955 PP- „ , . 1

2. American Highway Engineers' Handbook, Arthur

H. Blanchard. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y.

1550 PP- ^ _ -

3. The Civil Engineer's Pocket Book, John C. Traut-

wine. D. Van Nostrand Co., 25 Park Place,
N. Y. 1913. 1300 pp.

4. Dust Preventives and Road Binders, Prevost

Hubbard. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 1920.
416 pp.

5. Elements of Highway Engineering, by Arthur H.

Blanchard. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 514 pp.

6. Highway Engineers' Handbook, by Harger and

Bonney. McGraw-Hill Book Co., N. Y. 1919.
986 pp.

7. Highway Inspectors' Handbook, by Prevost Hub-

bard. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 372 pp.

8. The Modern Asphalt Pavement, Clifford Richard-

son. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 1912. 629 pp.

Housing:

1. Industrial Housing, Morris L. Knowles. McGraw-

Hill Book Co., N. Y. 1920. 408 pp.

2. The Joke About Housing, by Charles H. Whit-

taker. Marshall Jones Co., Boston, Mass.
1920. 233 pp.

3. The Housing Famine, J. J. Murphy, E. E. Wood

and F. L. Ackerman. E. P. Button & Co.,
681 Fifth Ave., N. Y. 1920. 246 pp.

4. Model Housing Law, Lawrence Veiller. Survey

Assoc, 105 E. 22d St., N. Y. 1920. 430 pp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 165

5. Housing and Town Planning, American Academy

of Political and Social Science, Phila., Pa.
296 pp.

6. Housing and Housing Problem, Carol Aronovici.

A. C. McClurg & Co., 330-352 E. Ohio St.,
Chicago, III. 163 pp.

7. Good Housing that Pays, Fullerton L. Waldo.

The Harper Press, Phila., Pa. 126 pp.

Municipal Finance:

1. The Budget and Responsible Government, by

F. A. Cleveland and A. E. Buck. The Mac-
millan Co., N. Y. 1920. 406 pp.

2. Budget Making in a Democracy, Edward A. Fitz-

patrick. The Macmillan Co., N. Y. 327 pp.

3. Municipal Accounting, DeWitt C. Eggleston.

Ronald Press Co., N. Y. 1914. 456 pp.

4. Principles of Government Purchasing, A. G.

Thomas. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 274 pp.

Municipal Government:

1. American Municipal Progress, Charles Zueblin.

The Macmillan Co., N. Y. 1916. 537 pp.

2. City Government by Commission, Clinton Rogers

Woodruff. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 191 1.
381 pp.

3. City Manager in Dayton, Chester E. Rightor.

The Macmillan Co., N. Y. 286 pp.

4. Experts in City Government, Edward A. Fitz-

patrick. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 1919.

.363 PP-

5. History and Analysis of the Commission and City

Manager Plans of Municipal Government in
the United States, Tso-Shuen Chang. Univ.
of Iowa. 290 pp.

166 BIBLIOGRAPHY

6. The Initiative, Referendum and Recall, W. B.

Munro. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 1912.
365 pp.

7. Municipal Functions, H. G. James. D. Appleton

& Co., N. Y. 1917. 369 pp.

8. Municipal Government, Goodnow and Bates.

The Century Co., 353 Fourth Ave., N. Y.
1904- 453 PP-

9. A New Municipal Program, Clington Rogers

Woodruff. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 19 19.
392 pp.

10. Principles and Methods of Municipal Administra-

tion, W. B. Munro. The Macmillan Co., N. Y.
1916. 491 pp.

11. The City Manager Plan: Selected Articles, com-

piled by E. C. Mabie. The H. W. Wilson Co.,
N. Y. 245 pp.

12. Sixth Year Book of the City Managers' Associa-

tion, City Bldg., Clarksburg, W. Va. 183 ^p-

Parks:

1. Parks and Park Engineering, W. T. Lyle. John

Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 130 pp.

2. Parks, Their Design, Equipment and Use, George

Burnap. J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila., Pa.
1916. 310 pp.

3. Shade Trees in Towns and Cities, • by William

Solotarofif. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 287 pp.

Policing the City:

1. American Police Systems, R. B. Fosdick. The

Century Co., N. Y. 1920. 408 pp.

2. Crime_ Prevention, Arthur Woods. Princeton

University Press. Princeton, N. J. 1918.
136 pp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 167

3. Enforcement of Law in Cities, Brand Whitlock.

Bobbs-Merrill Co., University Sq., Indianapolis,
Ind. 1913. 95 pp.

4. European Police Systems, R. B. Fosdick. The

Century Co., N. Y. 191 5. 442 pp.

5. Policeman and Public, Arthur Woods. Yale

University Press, 120 College St., New Haven,
Conn. 1 91 9. 178 pp.

Public Utilities:

1. Proceedings, Public Ownership Conference, No-

vember 1 9 19. Public Ownership League of
America. 290 pp.

2. Municipal Franchises, Delos F. Wilcox. Mc-

Graw-Hill Book Co., N. Y. 1910. 2 vols.,
710 and 885 pp.

3. Municipal Ownership, Carl D. Thompson, B. W.

Ruebach Co., N. Y. 114 pp.

4. The Regulation of Municipal Utilities, edited by

Clyde L. King. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y.
1912. 404 pp.

5. The Results of Municipal Electric Lighting in

Massachusetts. E. E, Lincoln. Houghton
Mifflin & Co., Boston, Mass. 484 pp.

6. Selected Articles on Municipal Ownership, com-

piled by J. E. Johnson. The H. W. Wilson
& Co., N. Y. 334 pp.

Recreation and Social Welfare:

1. Community Center Activities, C. A. Perry. The

Russell Sage Foundation, 130 E. 22d St., N. Y.
1917. 127 pp.

2. Education Through Play, Henry S. Curtis. The

Macmillan Co., N. Y. 191 5. 380 pp.

168 BIBLIOGRAPHY

3. Community Recreation, by Playground Associa-

tion of America, New York. 122 pp.

4. The Play Movement and Its Significance, H. S.

Curtis. The Macmillan Co., N. Y. 1917.
361 pp.

5. Popular Amusements, R. H. Edwards. Associa-

tion Press, 347 Madison Ave., N. Y. 191 5.
250 pp.

6. Play in Education, Joseph Lee. The Macmillan

Co., N. Y. 191 5. 523 pp.

7. The Social Center, edited by E. J. Ward. D.

Appleton & Co., N. Y. 19 13. 359 pp.

Schools:

1. Schools of Tomorrow, John and Evelyn Dewey.

E. P. Button & Co., N. Y. 316 pp.

2. New Schools for Old, Evelyn Dewey. E. P.

Dutton & Co., N. Y. 337 pp.

3. Learning to Earn, Lapp and Mote. Bobbs-

Merrill, Indianapolis, Ind. 1915. 421 pp.

4. Establishing Industrial Schools, Harry B. Smith.

Houghton Mifflin Co., N. Y. 1916. 167 pp.

5. The Gary Schools, A. Flexner and E. P. Bach-

man. Houghton Mifflin Co., N. Y. ig.16.
265 pp.

6. Readings in Vocational Guidance, Meyer Bloom-

field. Ginn & Co., N. Y. 19 15. 723 pp.

Taxation:

1. The Principles of Taxation, Hastings Lyon.

Houghton Mifflin Co., N. Y. 133 pp.

2. Shifting and Incidents of Taxation, E. R. A.

Seligman. Lemcke, Buechner, N. Y. 427 pp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 169

Waste Disposal:

1. American Sewerage Practice, Metcalf and Eddy.

McGraw-Hill Book Co., N. Y. 3 vols. 747,
564 and 878 pp.

2. Sewage Disposal, George W, Fuller. McGraw-

Hill Book Co., N. Y. 767 pp.

3. Sewage Disposal, Kinnicutt, Winslow and Pratt.

John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 436 pp.

4. Municipal House Cleaning, Capes and Carpenter.

E. P. Dutton Co., N. Y. 231 pp.

5. Modern Destructor Practice, W. F. Goodrich.

J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila., Pa. 278 pp.

6. Collection & Disposal of Municipal Refuse, by

Adolph Hering and S. A. Greeley. McGraw-
Hill Book Co. 192 1. 653 pp.

Water Supply and Purification:

1. Water Purification, Joseph W. Ellms. McGraw-

Hill Book Co., N. Y. 485 pp.

2. Water Purification Plants and Their Operation,

Milton F. Stein. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y.
265 pp.

3. Waterworks Handbook, Flinn, Weston and

Bogert. McGraw-Hill Book Co., N. Y. 824 pp.

4. Waterworks Management and Maintenance, Hub-

bard and Kiersted. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y.
429 pp.

5. Microscopy of Drinking Water, George C. Whip-

ple. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 19 14. 409 pp.

6. Meter Rates for Water Works, Allen Hazen.

John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 217 pp.

7. Elements of Hydrology, Adolph F. Meyer. John

Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 191 7. 487 pp.

8. Hydrology, by Daniel W. Mead. McGraw-Hill

Co., N. Y. 191 7. 650 pp.

170 BIBLIOGRAPHY

9. Examination of Water, W. P. Mason. John
Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 1917. 186 pp.

10. Public Water Supplies, Turneaure and Russell.

John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. 808 pp.

11. Water Supply, W. P. Mason. John Wiley &

Sons, N. Y. 528 pp.

12. Chlorination of Water, Joseph Race. John Wiley

& Sons, N. Y. 1919. 158 pp.

INDEX

Abnormal school children, care

of, T2.-yz
Accounting, methods of, 13-14
Addams, Jane, work of, 100
Aerial transportation, 52-53
Agriculture, near cities, 141-
142 ; work of farm bureaus
for. 143-144
Alleghany, Pa., municipal or-
gan recitals in, 135-136
Alleys in cities, 30
Americanization, teaching of,
76-77; work of clubs in con-
nection with, 99
American Museum of Natural

History, New York, 82
Animals, drinking fountains
for, 24-25 ; work of humane
societies for, 118-119
Architecture, of public build-
ings, 78-8o,_ I37;;i38; use of
landscape, in city improve-
ment, 123, 139
Art, free public enjoyment of,

82-83, 136-137
Ashtabula, Ohio, hotel at, 117
Asphalt for pavements, 17-18
Associated charities, purpose

of, 1 19-120
Athletic fields, public, 126-127
Attleboro, Mass., jewelry-man-
ufacturing center, 55
Auditorium, the civic, 80-81 ;

use of, as social center, 98
Automobile apparatus, repair

of, at fire-station shops, 8
Automobiles, parking of, 127
Aviation fields, establishment
of, 52-53

Baker, Newton D., quoted on
right attitude of public prose-
cutor, 109
Ball fields, municipal, 129-130
Band concerts, municipal, 131-

132
Baths, public, 128-129
Begging, professional, 1 19-120
Boise, Idaho, natural public
heating and refrigerating
plants in, 42-43
Bossism in cities, 3
Boston, Mass., kindergartens
in, 63 ; public forum move-
ment in, 75 ; Women's Mu-
nicipal League in, 100; pro-
bation system in, 108; public
gymnasiums in, 126; munici-
pal band in, 132; orchestras
in, 133; advisory art commis-
sion in, 138
Bottling-works inspection, 87
Boulevards, need for, and con-
struction of, 123-124
Boy Scouts, value of, 75-76
Bridle paths in boulevards, 123-

124
Bridges, care in building, 22-23
Brookline, Mass., public play-
ground in, 124; public baths
in, 129
Brooklyn, N. Y., children's mu-
seum in, 82
Bryce, James, "Hindrances to
Good Citizenship," quoted,
156
Budget, preparation of, 14-15
Building code, need for an ade-
quate, 85

171

172

INDEX

Buildings, public, 7S-8S
Bush, Irving T., quoted, 62

Camp-Fire Girls, organization
of, 75-76

Camp grounds, city provision
for, 127-128

Canneries, inspection of, 87

Cemeteries, municipal, 95-96

Chamber of commerce, value
of, 113-114

Charity organizations, 1 19-120

Charter of city, 2-3

Chemist, the city, 9-10

Chicago, public playground
movement in, 100; Psycho-
pathic Institute in, 105; ju-
venile court in, 105 ; court of
domestic relations in, 107 ;
boulevard system in, 124;
public playgrounds in, 124;
public golf course in, 130;
landscape gardening in, 139

Children, separate court for,
105-106

Christmas trees, community,
102

Churches, considered as among
city assets, 149-150; as cen-
ters for religious societies,
151-152.

Cincinnati, curriculum changes
in schools of, 66

Citizenship, aids and hindrances
to good, 154-159

City, relation of state to, 1-2;
forms of government for, 3-6

City hall, architecture and con-
struction of, 78-79

City manager form of govern-
ment, 4, 5

City planning, 5-6, 138

Civics, place needed for, in edu-
cational scheme, 69
Civil service, reform of, 10-12;

pension system in, 12-13
Cleanliness, civic, 18-19
Cleveland, Ohio, municipal
farms in, no

Clinics, school, 88-89; for com-*
municable diseases, 89-91

Clubs, social work in, 98-99;
women's, 99-100; in church
organizations, 152

Coal, supply of, as a public util-
ity. 43-44

Cobble-stone roadways, 17

Coleman, G. W., Ford Hall
movement developed by, 75

Colleges, education in, 70-71

Colorado, home rule for cities
in, I

Columbus, Ohio, junior high
school in, 67

Comfort stations, public, 25-26

Commission form of govern-
ment, 4

Commissions, charter, 3 ; rail-
road, 48; art, 138

Community centers, need for,
80

Community singing, growth of,

133-134
Cooke, Morris L., publicity

work of, in Philadelphia,

16
Co-operation, dependence of

civic progress on, 157-158
Correctional institutions, 104-

112
Cost accounting in public work.

Courts, police, 104-105; juve-
nile, 105-106; of domestic re-
lations, 106-107; relief of, by
probation system, 107-108;
work of public defender in,
108- I 10

Crematoriums, municipal, 95, 96

Dairies, inspection of, 87
Dances, municipal, loo-ioi
Delinquents, school, 72-73
Democratization in industry, 61-

62
Denver, juvenile court in, 105,

106; municipal band in, 132
Docks, public ownership of, 51

INDEX

173

Domestic relations, court of,

106-107
Dover, N. H., social center in,

98 ; theater in city hall in, 138
Drainage, importance of good,

86
Drama, public support of, 138-

139
Duluth, Minn., park and boule-
vard system in, 124

Economics, study of, 69

Education, work of city relative
to, 63-77

Electric light and power, con-
trol of, 37-39

Elmira, N. Y., federation of
social agencies at, 120

Emergency purchasing, 9

Engineers, lighting, 19

English, desirability of study
of, 69; taught in night
schools, 70

Environment, relation of, to
delinquency, 73 ; attention to
that of cities, 141-148 ^

Europe, juvenile courts in cities
of, 105-106; architecture of
public structures in, 137

Evening schools, enrollment in,
70

Factories, location of, 54-55;

switching tracks for, 55-56;

supply of power for, 56-57 ;

branches of public library in,

80
Faith healing, progress in, 94-95
Farm bureaus, work of, 143-

144
Farms, municipal, iio-iii
Farms and farm life, 141-142
Federal form of government, 4
Field Museum, Chicago, 82
Fire department, organization

of, 7-8; pension system in, 12
Fire limits in cities, 85
Flint, Mich., industrial sites in.

55

Foods, testing of, 10; supply of,
as a public utility, 43-44; in-
spection of, 87-88

Ford Hall movement in Boston,

75
Forestry, practice of, 142-143
Forums, public, 74-75
Fountains, drinking, 24-25 ;

kinds of, 25
Franchises, street-railway, 22
Freight terminals, railway, 48-

49

Game fields, municipal, 129-130
Garbage disposal, problem of,

2,(^-27
Gas, public control of, 34-35
"Get together" movements, 97
Golf courses, municipal, 129-

130
Government, forms of, 3-5
Grades, separation of, 26-27
Grade schools, 64-65
Graft in cities, 3
Greenfield, Mass., town meeting

form of government in, 4
Gymnasiums, public, 125-126

Health, public attention to, 86-

96
Health centers, movement for,

93-94

Health department, work of
testing laboratory for, 10

Healy, Dr. William, quoted, 105

Hennessy, Okla., municipal the-
ater at, 138

High schools, value of, and
course of study in, 65-66

Home rule for cities, growing
demand for, 1-2

Honesty and good citizenship,

154-155
Hoover, H., quoted on child-
feeding in public schools, 72
Horse drinking fountains, 25
Hospitals, municipal, 92-93
Hotels, functions of, 116-117;
for women, 120-121

174

INDEX

Hot-water supply, natural, at

Boise, 42
Housing, laws affecting, 86-87
Houston, Texas, waterway at,

50
Hull House, Chicago, 100
Humane society, work of, 118-

119
Humanitarianism, spirit of, 155-

156

Ice, supply of, as a public util-
ity, 43-44

Illinois, school lunch statistics
in, 71-72

Indianapolis, children's court
in, ids'

Indolence, a hindrance to good
citizenship, 156

Industries, sites for, 54-55 ;
switching tracks for, 55-56;
power for, 56-57; influence of
market on sites of, 57-58; re-
lation of labor supply to, 58-
60; exemption of new, from
taxation, 60-61 ; democratiza-
tion in, 61-62

Isolation hospitals, modern, 92

Jails, improvement of, 111-112
Jitney bus, a nuisance, 41-

Junior high schools, organiza-
tion of, 66-68
Juvenile courts, 105-106

Kansas City, visiting nurses in,

Kindergartens, value of, 63-64
Kitchen refuse, disposal of, 36-
37

Labor, supply of, for new in-
dustries, 58-60

Landscape gardening, city, 123,
139-140

Leadership, qualities of, 158-
159; the greatest of civic
assets, 159

Libraries, public, 79-80; social

centers in, 98
Lighting, of streets, 19-20;

electric, 37-38
Lindsay, Ben, judge of Denver

juvenile court, 106
Lindsborg, Kansas, music in,

133
Los Angeles, harbor of, 50
Lunchrooms, school, 71-72

Manufacturing. See Industries

Market, relation between, and
location of industry, 57-58

Markets, public, 83-85

Massachusetts, tuberculosis dis-
pensaries in, 90

Mental healing, 94-95

Merit system in civil service,
10-12

Milk, examination of, 10, 87-88

Milwaukee, public baths in,
129

Model City Charter of National
Municipal League, 2

Motor bus, use of, 41

Museums, public, 81-82

Music, facilities for enjoyment
of, 131-136

New Orleans, sewerage prob-
lem of, 36; dock service in,
51 ; Mardi Gras in, 102

New York City, ownership of
water front of, 52; study of
English in night schools in,
70; American Museum of
Natural History in, 82; tene-
ment-house law in, 87; com-
munity Christmas tree in,
102-103; children's courts in,
106; horses in, 119; Central
Park in, 122; public play-
grounds in, 124, 125 ; advisory
art commission in, 138

New York State, public bath-
ing facilities in, 129

Night schools, value of, 69-
70

INDEX

175

Northampton, Mass., municipal
dramatic company at, 139

Nurses, school, 89, 90; visiting,
90, 91-92

Orchestras, municipal, 132-133
Oregon, home rule for cities in,

I
Organ recitals, public, 134-136

Pageants, public, 102-103
Paintings, means of enjoying,

136-137

Parks, provision for, 122-123;
athletic fields as part of sys-
tem, 126-127; band concerts
in, 132; acquiring land for,
145-146

Passenger stations, railway, 47-
48

Pavements, street, 17-18; rela-
tion of street-cleaning meth-
ods to, 18

Philadelphia, municipal pub-
licity in, 16; public museums
in, 82; advisory art commis-
sion in, 138

Physical culture in public gym-
nasiums, 125-126

Pittsburgh, Pa., kindergartens
in, 64; municipal organ re-
citals in, 135-136

Plan of cities, 5-6, 145

Playgrounds, public, 124-125 ;
reserving sites for, 145

Poles and wires, on streets, 21-
22 ; location of, in alleys, 30

Police courts, improvement of,
104-105. See Courts

Police department, organization
of, 7-8; pension system in,
12

Port facilities, provision for,
SI

Portland, Me., municipal organ
of, 135

Power for industries, 56-57

Probation system, use of, 105,
107-108

Publicity, securing of, for mu-
nicipal reports, 15-16
Public defender, office of, 108-

IIO

Public ownership, of water
supplies, 33; of electric light
and power, 38; of telephones,
39; of port facilities, 51; of
cemeteries, 95-96

Public spirit, demand for, 156-
157

Purchasing, system of, 8-9;
emergency, 9

Railroads, grade crossings of,
26-27 ; service rendered by,
46-47; passenger stations of,
47-48; freight terminals of,
48-49; establishment of avia-
tion fields near urban or
suburban, 53; switching
tracks, SS-56; co-operation of
cities and, 147-148. See
Street railways

Rate making for public utilities,

44-45

Real estate, value of, stabilized
by zoning, 7

Recreation, facilities for, 122-
130

Red Cross, establishment of
health centers by, 93, 94; re-
sponsibility of women for,
100; importance of work of,
117-118; public support of
local branches, 118

Red Wing, Minn., municipal
theater in, 139

Religion, institutions relating
to, 149-153

Reports, municipal, obtaining
publicity for, 15-16

Responsible executive form of
government, 4

Riis, Jacob, 103 ; work of, for
playground in New York
slums, 125

Riverside, Calif., Easter Pil-
grimage at, 103

176

INDEX

Roads, building and care of,

147-148
Rochester, N. Y., social center

movement in, 97
Russia, soviet government in,

62; soap-box orators in, 74

Safety islands in streets, 23-
24

St. Lawrence canal project, 52

St. Louis, pageant in, 102; cor-
rectional institutions in, 112

Salvation Army, place of,
among city assets, 152-153

San Francisco, dock service in,
51; harbor improvements of,
52; city and county hospital
in, 92; municipal dances in,
loi ; landscape gardening in,
139

Schoolhouses, use of, as social
centers, 97-98

Schools, city, 63 ff. ; kindergar-
tens, 63-64 ; grade, 64-65 ;
high, 65-66; junior high, 66-
68; technical, 68-69; night,
69-70; of higher education,
70-71; lunchrooms in, 71-72;
problem of delinquency, 72-
73 ; supplemented by public
forums, 74-75 ; Americaniza-
tion work in, 76-77 ; branches
of public library in, 80 ; mu-
seums valuable as adjuncts
to, 81-82; art exhibits in, 83;
clinics in, 88-89; reservation
of sites for, 145

Sculpture, means of enjoying,

136-137

Seattle, Wash., ship canal at,
50; port facilities at, 52; park
and boulevard system of, 124

Sewers, city, 35-36

Shops, establishment of, in con-
nection with fire stations, 8

Sidewalks, use and abuses of,
28-30

Signs, street, 20

Singing, community, 133- 134

'Sites, industrial, 54-55; for

schools, 14s
Slaughter-house inspection, 87
Social centers, movement for,
97-98; clubs connected with,
98-99
Societies, religious, 151-152
Soviet, government by, 62
Spokane, Wash., shop estab-
lished in connection with fire
station in, 8 ; water supply of,
34; isolation hospital in, 92-
93; landscape gardening in,
140
State, relation of, to city, 1-2
Steam heating, public, 42-43
Street railways, as a public util-
ity, 39-41 ; motor bus as ad-
junct of, 41
Streets, pavements of, 17-18;
cleaning of, 18-19; lighting
of, 19-20, 37-38; signs for,
20; planting of trees along,
21 ; poles and wires on, 21-
22 ; bridge-building, 22-23 ;
safety islands in, 23-24;
drinking fountains in, 24-25 ;
comfort stations, 25-26; sep-
aration of grades, 26-27;
traffic rules for, 27-28; side-
walks of, 28-30; alleys and
their care, 30; widening of,
31-32
Structures, public, 78-85
Suburbs, homes in, 144-145;
park lands in, 145-146; roads
to, and transportation condi-
tions, 147-148
Sunday schools, as among city

assets, 150-151
Switching tracks, 55-56

Tacoma, Wash., stadium in,

127
Taxation, exemption of new

industries from, 60-61 ; for

support of colleges, 71
Technical schools, training in,

68-69

INDEX

177

Telephone, as public utility, 39
Telephone poles, street signs

on, 20
Tenement-house laws, 86-87
Testing laboratory, city, 9-10
Therapeutics, mental, 94-95
Toilets, public, 25-26
Town meeting government, 4
Traffic rules for streets, 2.T-

28
Transportation, on street rail-
ways, 39-41 ; by motor bus,
41-42; railroad service, 46-47;
by water, 50-51; aerial, 52-
53 ; "control of conditions of,
by cities, 147-148
Trees, on city streets, 21; con-
servation of, 142-143
Tubero-Jlosis, preventive meas-
ures, 90; hospitals for treat-
ment of, 93

Underground conduit for wires,

22
Urban transportation business,

40-41
Utilities, public, 33-45
Utility rates, fixing of, 44-4S

Veiled Prophet, pageant of, ii:

St. Louis, 102
Visiting nurses, 90, 91-92

Washington, D. C, advisory art

commission in, 138
Wastes, disposal of, 36-37
Water power for industries, 57
Water supply, city, 33-34; im-
portance of pure, 86
Waterways, transportation on,

50-51
Women, civic clubs conducted
by, 99-100; widespread activ-
ities of, 100; hotel for, 120-
121

Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation, 114-115

Young Women's Christian As-
sociation, 115-116

Zoning laws for cities, d-y, 85 ;
location of factories best di-
rected by, 55

Zueblin, Charles, on provision
of outlet for community ex-
uberance, 102 ; on public or-
gan recitals in Pittsburgh, 136

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