Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-11-28
THE CITY BEAUTIFUL"
Civic Pride A Matter Urged By
Citizens Committee AT Last
Nights Meeting.
CLEANER MEANS HEALTHIER.
Hygienic And Sanitary Condition On
Public Highways Discussed-A
Work To Be Accomplished.

The committee for the CITY Beau
tiful" met last night in the Chamber
of Commerce Hall and elected Mr..
George 7. Melvin permanent chair
man, and Mr.. Harry F. Sturdy secre-
tary. Mr.. Melvin then addressed the
committee as follows:
"In its consideration Of the general
interests of Annapolis, the Chamber
of Commerce has appointed US a COM
mittee on the City Beautiful; and
whatever tends to make pleasurable
to the eye and satisfactory to the
senses the physical appearance of a
community is properly a subject for
the activities of body devoted to the
improvement and advancement of
that community. | take it to be the
meaning and intent of the resolutiCn n
by which the Chamber authorized the
appointment of this committee that
we should assume the labor of promot-
ing the achievementgof "city beau
tiful, term which certainly repre-
sents many desirable and wholesome
things.
ga movement of this kind is
movement of progress. The cleaner
town, the healthier it is. To have
clean and well-kept streets is about the
first duty a self-governing community
insists upon. The public health is
foremost concern. Dirt and trash
in the streets breed disease, are a
menace to residents, unsightly and
abhorrent to the visitor A bad water
supply, imperfect drainage and sewer
age will not long be permitted in any
intelligent community. We expect
and demand of our city officials that
they spare no necessary expense, no
personal effort, overlook no derelic-
tion of duty of their subordinates in
maintaining the hygienicE land sanitary
condition of the public highways and
byways. Yet many of us have lit
tie appreciation of their irksome
task in this repect and seldom COM
mend their.faithfulness and good.work.
We must speedily do so when we
ourselves give the cooperation which
is needed to secure the best re-
suits.
Everybody in Annapolis will, if
the work in which we propose to
engage is carried on with spirit and
understanding. soon realize that this
cooperation of all haying homes in
the community means the largest
measure of advancement in city
health, cleanliness and attractiveness.
For our municipal administration
to clean up the streets and make
all public places attractive, is only
one part. though a most important
part, of the great work of making a
city beautiful. Citizens and resi-
dents must supplement the official
care of the public streets and alleys
by individual care of private prem.
ises.
Probably we of Annapolis have
a greater share of pride in our
town, more of civic attachment to
it, than other people in other com
munities have in theirs. We are fond
and properly fond, of course, of talk
ing of Annapolis, of its excellent citi-
zenship and kind and hospitable peo-
Pile; of its beautiful architecture and
its points of interest, colonial and
modern; of its peerless location on
the prettiest of American rivers and
it's natural site; of the fine territory
of smiling fields, and waters and woods
over which it looks; of its many
proud memories and its promising fu-
ture, and we should regard it as a
city unique and wonderful in more
than one aspect among the municipal
tiles of the country. With all this
we know it can be made better, bright
er, more beautiful. When there is
not grassless front to any home in
or around Annapolis, but lawn, trim
and pretty, instead; when any un-
slightly, unsanitary, unproductive back
yard dump is replaced with a garden
and a flower-bed; when every family
forming or. connected with the city
is interested in making that one home,
in its outer surroundings, a spot OF
beauty, then we will have a city beau.
tiful without blemish, and the ply.
sical Annapolis will be fitting seat
for the memories of the past and
an incentive for the achievements
ard growth of the future. 1t at.
tracts and pleases now, and how
II IluCn IuOIG Will IL dtlIdCl anu pi6dSS
upon the happy consummation OF
the work that has been begun by
the Chamber of Commerce in the
movement for a city beautiful?''
The discussion that followed tool
a wide range and was participated il
by Mayor Strange, Messrs. Feldmeyer
Armstrong, Hart, Gould, Little anC
Sturdy, who dwelt upon the work tt
be accomplished, and urged the mem
bers to take an earnest and activ,
part in whatever movements Itha
4 may tend to advance the city's wei
fare. Many suggestions were made a
to specific improvements that ough
to be urged upon our citizens. Th
committee then adopted the followin,
re solutions:
First-That it is the sense of thi
committee that the municipal author
tiles should be called upon to enforce
impair tally, the existing laws pertain
ing to the repairing Of sidewalks.
Second-That it is the opinion of thi
committee that all wires should b
slaid underground and poles removed