The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-07-29

drove over the city and returned to the town
Shall to luncheons There was all the orderliness
Interesting than those al, ORDINARY din
ner, for they all talked Glasgow. Not as an
American city might talk to a river and harbor
for generous appropriation; it was not bust
ness. tonnage bank clearance. These men were
too big With Glasgow to talk about private bust,
lege men do at a fraternal banquet.
The motive Of 1t all? Men like to be In
the midst of big things They like to serve the
community that serves Them = said Dr. Robert
crawford, one of the city's most distinguished
citizens, a man who had served with distinction
on the council and had promoted its big health
and clearance schemes
= Its a sense of noblesse oblige," said Lord
Provost Primrose, ian ambition to make the
Portable place In which to liye'
It's my city, says the man on the tram.
Cleveland Is Growing.
In his article on 1.-The Cleveland Chamber of
Commerce, Mr. Howe says:
In such highly organized cities as Glasgow
and Berlin the town hall is the clearing house of
all semi-oficial activities. AS yet the Ameri-
can city Is not sufficiently well organized to do
this Some day 1t will be. But as yet we are
lacking in big city sense. When we speak of
the city in which we live we have not the
same municipal consciousness that centuries of
existence have given to the German or the Eng
.llshman. To them the city is little republic
commanding their veneration and love- TO us
the city Is place where we. happen to be;
IT Is an industrial accident In which men strug-
gle Tor living and occasionally vote for their
officials, Of whose very names they are fire.
quently ignorant. The American city is this:
but 1t Is coming to be some thing more. 1t is
rapidly changing, and gives promise of redeem
ing itself at tremendous space. For we are
beginning to think Cities to feel as cities.
ana to have sense of the significance Of city
life But the American city will never find IT.
sell, never believe in itself, never achieve it.
5seif, until there comes a consciousness of the
city like unto that which exists In other lands
AND so we need more than anything else
something to create sense Of city,-a feeling
al end nn11y and dependence Of common OBLIGATION
wise It may be In its expenditures OF efficient
N ITS departments until its people talk city and
think city. It may do It's work mazingly well.
1t may have an honest council and an efficient
mayor; but unless its people have something Of
the sense that inspired the medieval Italian cit
les a sense that is becoming very strong in
Great Britain, 1t will still remain but a CO..
operative business agency for the getting of ones
moneys worth out of government. What we all
want is city We can love and work FOR: n
city which commands the service of its people
because 1t serves the people in countless ways;
a., city that the citizens viii talk
e,me, much, ! fancy as the Florent1ne talked
ABOUT Florence In the days of SavOnarOla. much
as the Glaswegian talks about his GLASGOW to-
gay. Cleveland has something of this spirit.
Her people talk policies, not parties-they vote
so independently that the loses caste who
prides himself on voting straight ticket. #
Is city that Is finding itself rapidly. It Is
attaining self -government. It has had good
government for years How much the cham
per OF commerce contributed to this it is not
necessary to measure. For the glory of it all
Is not in who did it, it is~in the fact ITSELF y
t. When we turn from the discussion of general
principles and Of illustrative examples to the
case In hand 1t must, Of course, be acknowl-
EDGED that problem presents itself not without
difficulties in its solution And let If he nm.
derstooda that we indulging in prophecy
prophecy in the double sense of foreseeing and