Evening star., 1909-05-18
PROGRAM IS MADE UP DEATH OF MEREDITH
Committee Ready for City Novelist Aged 81 Years. Dean
Planning Conference of Letters in England
OPENS FRIDAY NIGHT HIS ILLNESS WAS BRIEF
Taft Expected Make Career 0veappd That
Address Thackeray and Dickens.
SESSIONS CLOSE WITH BANQUET
Mean Poet-Abandoned
on Exhibi During Law to Young
the Confer
OPENS FRIDAY
President Taft Expected to Make an
Address.
SESSIONS CLOSE WITH BANQUET
Plans From Forty American and For
eign Cities on Exhibition During
the Conference.

l. Rapid progress is being made in the
plans for the coming sessions of the
national conference on city planning,
which will be held here Friday and Sat
urday, May 2122. The conference Will
be formally opened at the Masonic Tenn
pie Auditorium Friday night. when the
President. Commissioner Macfarland,
Gen. George NJ Sternberg and other dis
tinguished men will speak. Saturday
morning and Saturday afternoon will be
given over to meetings, to be held in
the boardroom of the District building.
The sessions will be brought to a close
Saturday night with banquet at the
Raleigh Hotel.
Throughout the time the conference Is
in session there will be an exhibit in the
banquet hall of the Raleigh showing
the plans Of various cities in this coun-
try and abroad for the improvement OF
conditions in city life. Most of these
| exhibits are self-explanatory. but The
committee in charge has arranged to
have well informed guides on hand to
| tell everybody all about them.
Origin Of the Movement.
The city-planning exhibit is the result
of the efforts Of group of citizens In
New York city who undertook to discover
IL the sociological evils of modern city
life could not be prevented as we'll as
cured. The question suggested itself.
What have other cities, in other coun-
tries. done to this end? Noboay knew.
This group OF men then procured by sub
ton to the Sage Foundation. and by gen.
eral contributions, money and supplies
aggregating $4,000. With this money
there has been brought together an ex-
hibit showing the forethought which mu-
inequalities all over the world are taking
to their own future.
The displays are founded chiefly upon
the need for preventing congestion. slums,
the spread OF disease, an untOward growth
along old lines, and providing in advance
for park space and Fairgrounds, the con-
structiOn of houses which shall offer op-
portunity for the making of real homes at
low rentals. and the safeguarding OF
breathing space everywhere. Most Of this
Is shown by charts and maps.
A National Problem.
| Benjamin Clarhe Marsh. executive secre-
| tary of the committee on congestion OF
population in New York, is here in charge
Of the exhibit.
"City planning is a national problem, "
said Mr.. Marsh today. 1T is an econom-
| ical question, not an aesthetic one, al
though In the work of improving city con-
/ QltlOnS our 1Qed Is I'd pay as MUCH dtteIl-
ton to art as possible, provided the safety
and healthfulness of the home are taken
care Of first. The statistics show that
congestion in cities is growing to fan
| alarming extent and If anything is to be
done 1t should be done at once, for five
years hence, with the inevitable rise in
| the value Of city land, the cost of such
improvements will be increased enormous
| ly Action now means q great saving in
money.
"At this conference will be represented
fifteen or twenty states. Conditions in at
least forty cities. fifteen of which are
foreign cities, will be shown In our ex-
hibit."
The Local Committee.
Everything possible is being done by
the members of the local committee
which represents the Chamber of Com
| merce, the Board of Trade and the Pres
ident's home commission to make the
conference a success. The members of
the Washington committee are:
Allen D. Albert, jr., chairman; Thomas
Grant secretary; William II. Baldwin.
Charles j. Bell, Ira f. Bennett, Mabel
r. Boardman, Scott c. Bone, Glenn
Brown, d. J. Callahan. Appleton p
Clark, John Joy Edison, William +. Guide,
Justina r. Hill. Myron J. Jones. w. v.
Kober, A. Lisner, A. c. Moses, T. c.
Noyes, James f. Oyster, Cuno Fl. Ru-
dolph Miles M. Shand, A. Leftwich Sin
clair. John b. Sleman. jr.; j. II. Small,
George nj. Sternberg. Joseph Strasburger,
Washington Topham, Walter S. Ufford.
Frank Upman. John l.. Weaver. Walter
Wyman.