The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-20
CITIES PLANNED
 FUR THE FUTURE American Towns Begin to LeOk
 Ahead PARKS AND B0ULEHARDS
Waterways and Streets Are Being Beautified-The New Science of City Building in the
 United States.
By CHARLES MULFoR0 ROBINSON.

By CHARLES MULFoRD ROBINSON. Exclusive Service The Survey Press Blu reau. MT. Robinson is author of Mod ern Civic Art" "The Improvement of
 Towns and Cities" and "The Call of the City.'O
 Definitely to plan a citys future growth instead of letting it develop as the whim
 of the individual real estate owner, .snd chance, direct, Is something relat4ely new. But 1t Is such a common sense procedure that cities and towns every where are taking it up, not in the United States alone, but in England and Ger many and France. In this country some
 thing like 50 cents have now had experts plan their future growth. and dozens more are asitatng the subject; in Eng land and Germany 1t has been made
 national affair. regulated by the national
 laws, in recognition of it's exceeding im- portance to the welfare of the state. The movement Is new in It's widespread application There have been isolated | examples of it ever since men began to dream of cities beautiful The beauty of
 Athens and it's port were consciously | planned; Nero rebuilt Rome in compre- | hensive way; the spendor of Paris is not | the result of chance; the streets of Wash i ington were laid down on paper before | the wilderness was broken. But gener- ] ally speaking, the cities where business
 Is done, where goods are made and sold,
 have been suffered until the last few | years to develop haphazardly with what | delays of traffic, cramping of business. 1 crowding of people, and physical and i consequent mental deterioration of human labor, and loss in it's efficiency, all men know.
 Doubtless a reason for this was an idea that comprehensive city planning would concern itself only with the spectacular | 1n14 that 1t might be well enough for capital cities, like Washington; for great cities which were meant, not to be looked at, but to do business in, it was likely to be an obstructional and visionary sort Of thing.
 Then, gradually, as cities increased in number and in size; as, with the great development of commerce and manufac- turing, their high destiny came to be realized; as their internal development in water supply, sewerage, paving and lighting, came to be more perfected; 1t was seen that they were like great ma chimes or vast organisms, in which all the parts were correlated and that to bet ter their product, both in goods and in men, it was necessary to think In large terms and look to the future It is not, of course work that everybody can do.
 Along with respect for property rights, there must be elimination of the personal
 
 private interests where these are antag- onistc to the public welfare, of privilege if it be against common justice
 There Is need of infinite tact, even of conservation: need of great knowledge of municipal possibilities drawn from a wide personal observation. and above all, the capacity to comprehend the community as a whole, get at it's personality-for cities have this quality, and to love it, so that it shall not be simply an ab straction. He who studies a city to plan it's future Is dealing with fundamentals. Before him Is a great, living organism. His study is to better it's framework, or skeleton of streets and avenues. its lungs of parks. it's arms of transporta- tion system, by which 1t reaches the out side world, the hands with which it la bors, it's heart of civic center, the gen eral physical condition that reacts upon it's mind and spirit.
 There are only a few men, perhaps In
 this country a half dozen, who have | taken up this work They are greatly in | demand. They labor in all cities, except 1 their own. They cannot work there, | where personal interest might be sus- 1 pected
 1 Business men are taking up and now pushing along as never before the move
 ment to secure the planning of cities and 1 towns. They realize that 1t is scientific, | not only in the goal for which 1t strives,
 which is the best possible adjustment of
 a city to the work it has to do, but In it's
 perfectly sane method of trying to secure ! that adjustment.
 It does not seriously concern itself with l purely ideal conceptions. Prior to any | suggestion, there is earnest considera- | tion of the local contour lines, of the | present street plan, and of value of prop l erty There is study of the topography, i of the waterways, of the character of
 the tributary country, of the natural
 scenery of the environs, of the present
 railroad facilities.
 The problem is how best to fit that | particular city in that particular place l to the special work which that city may l do-man building, physically, mentally,
 and morally, instead of man-destroying,
 being interpreted as one phase of the l city's work Because of this dependence
 on local conditions. the city plan problem
 in no two communities is the same The attitude of the business community l toward this movement Is a recognition that merely to improve ones office sys- ] tenn and sales department, to get better | machines, to drum up new trade and try l to hold it as well as the old, does not
 comprise all the possible breadth of sue , cessful business and industry and that
 it falls far short of comprising the whole
 of life.
 Business acumen recognizes that to in-
 crease the efficiency of labor by better
 ing the employees physical and social con- 1 dition-for the true problem Is not one
 of housing only, but of home-building
 that to facilitate the ready movement of
 merchandise within and without the city, | that to increase the field of sales by so
 adding to the communfty's attractive
 ness that 1t shall grow in population, Is
 wise.
 Common sense perceives that truly to
 beautifv ones home, one cannot limit
 ones self to the narrow lot on which is
 the house in which one sleeps since one
 really lives not in the house alone, but in
 the town So are Joining in the move-
 ment all conditions of men and women,
 and those at first most doubtful of it
 are now Its staunchest champions. And
 because for success there is required a
 widespread cooperation. the very mak-
 ing of the plans results in a growth of
 civic pride and civic spirit.
 These are one of the first, but unlocked
 for, products of city-planning, and ath-
 wart the lengthening history of the move
 ment gleam, in increasingly countless
 numbers. shining instances of public
 spirit and personal self-sacrifice. It has 1 come to pass that they who reveal , citys Improvement possibilities, reveal 1 also a people to themselves.
 |
 His Theft Discovered.