The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-12-13
THE CITY BEAUTIFUL
What Makes a Town What a Town
OUGHT to Be Made

Ought to Be Made
At the Edwards church, Northamp-
ton, Sunday morning the subject of
the sermon was THE City Beautiful"
! Taking his text from Revelation 81,
verse 10, Mr. Butler spoke in part as
follows: I'VE may not be especially
attracted by the picture of the glitter
/ ing walls and the golden gates of the
! New Jerusalem, but their modern
equivalent sanitary houses and clean
s reefs should interest every one of
us. For the safety of the twentieth
century city is not threatened by an
army of invaders. The dreaded foes
Of the modern town are typhoid few
er and tuberculosis. Against these
and similar enemies it must be on its
guard continually. Every agency
which lowers the death rate and
which raises thestandard of health
and physical efficiency should receive
the cordial support of Christian peo-
pie. A church member, who owns
property that is unsafe or unsanitary
and who for the sake of a higher rent
neglects to provide his tenants with
the things which common decency de-
mands, deserves to be disciplined by
the church and scoffed at by those
who are outside the church.
The other day, down in Ludlow,
thirty people We're turned out of a
house of six rooms and yet this was
known as a model village" Last
year in a lodging house In this city
| am told that eighteen Polish men
were slowed away in one room and
it would be difficult to find darker
Railways or more poorly ventilated
stores than are to be found on our
Main street. How can you expect
children who are born and who grow
UP among the most degrading sur
roundings to be anything but vicious
young men and vulgar young women?
Money which a municipality appro
PIRATES for beautiful public buildings,
for parks and Fairgrounds, for the
planting and the preservation of trees
for the abolition of unsightly bill
boards and the erection of tablets to
mark historic spots is money wei
spent.
But clean streets. pretty homes AMI
recreation centers are not all that is
necessary to make the City Beautiful
Brick and mortar fountains and flow
ers do not of themselves make Holy
City. Unless it foundations are deep
~ imbedded in truth, unless it lieth
four-square to righteousness, unless
ii be lighted with the glory of God
its beauty will be no finer than the
golden glitter of a Monte Carlo So
more important than the material
side of city life, is the moral side And
there is nothing which would so raise
the standard of municipal morality as
the feeling on the part OF each citi-
zen that he himself is partly respon-
sible for the things that are going on
within the city limits.
Mr. Josiah Strong has said that in
the average American city there are
more law-abiding men than criminals
more people interested in pure gov
eminent than in corrupt, more good
men than bad but we have bad gov
eminent because OF the bad citizen
ship OF good men" Who are the men
who stand in the way of reform
They are the only one who vote mocha
nically for members Of the city gov
eminent without stopping to consider.
whom the candidate represents.
whether he stands for a special inter
est. or whether he represents the av-
erage taxpayer
They are the men who haven't suf-
ficient interest to vote one way or the
other on the license question; the
stay-at-homes, the blanks. the spine
less creatures who cant walk to the
polls and register their convictions.
am aware of the fact that some of you
are more interested in the economic
side than in the moral side of this
question, but it is the moral side
which should appeal to the Christian
citizen. Suppose taxes are raised for
year or so because no license fees
are coming into the city treasury
We are willing enough to pay for
public improvements which materi-
ally benefit the town but when we
are asked to back a moral movement
we decline on the ground that it is
too expensive.
The modern city challenges the
church. If we are to meet this chal
lenge We must get into touch with
actual conditions. We must study
our town as well as our Bible so that
we may know what is going on.
Everything that fosters public spirit
that creates a healthy public sentim-
ent, that wipes out lines of division,
whether they be racial, political. soc
ial everything that brings all the peo-
pie closer together and unites them
in the effort to further the common
good should receive the loyal support
of Christian citizens