The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-11-29
FOULKE COMPARES
CITY WITH ATHENS
Declares Commercial Club Is
Doing Much For City's
Welfare.
ART HAS DEVELOPED
Says Richmond Should Con-
tinue AS ''City of
Homes"
ART HAS DEVELOPED
BY WILLIAM DUDLEY FoULkE.

BY WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULkE.
The Richmond Commercial club was
organized to promote the welfare of
the city and while business interests
led in the formation of the club our
commercial prosperity is not its only
nor its most important feature. We
are constantly considering those 1arg-
er measures, philanthropic and even
political, (in the non-partisan and best
sense of the world for promoting the
common good, many of which are not
at all connected with pecuniary profit.
Thus the preservation and extension of
our shade trees. of which We are just
ly proud, the creation of a hospital for
the treatment of tuberculosis, other
problems connected with the health Of
our citizens, the promotion of a new
lake and park project, better pro
vision for criminals and for those
awaiting trial than is furnished by our
jail and calabOOse, the desirability of
voting machines, the commission form
of government, the patronage of a mu-
steal festival of high order are only a
few among many such questions con-
Sidered at our meetings. These things
indicate that the club is occupied very
largely, perhaps generally, with ques-
ttons of public well being which rise
beyond the region of mere money get
ting and they show that although we
may desire to have a rich and prosper
Gus community yet we have also high
er ideals of what a city ought to be.
Good Place to Live in.
We realize that Richmond is today
in many respects far better place to
live in than many a richer city. We
have not, for instance, the resources
and population of Pittsburg, but we
have also not the sordd conditions,
the wretched housing and cruel treat
ment Of the very poor which was re-
vealed not many years ago by the
Pittsburg survey, conditions such as
still exist in many Of the large cities
of America.
What then are our ideals for our
city?
First, we want Richmond to con-
. tinue to be emphatically and increas-
ingly what it has been in the past a
city OF homes modest dwellings most
of them well kept, with trim and
shady dooryards and comfortable
rooms and owned, as far as may be-
by the workmen or the business men
who dwell in them.
Second, we want our city to be
beautiful. We have one fine public
park and we are opening another by
private enterprise. We have our lake
and our drives and we are planning for
boulevards and a further extension OF
our park system. Our public build
ings are creditable, our schools, par
ticularly the newest ones. are excel
lent models of architecture, and so are
many of our private residences. The
country around us abounds in natural
beauties and we are resolved that the
city, and its surroundings shall grow
In attractiveness.
Art Development Center.
Third, we desire that our city shall
be a center OF art development. II
were asked now for the thing by
which Richmond is best known to the
outside world, both in remote parts of
our own country and even outside its
borders, would say that It was not
so much for our widely known manu-
features. our agricultural implements
or pianos or even our roses and chrys-
anthemums, though all these are
known in many remote parts of the
world but it is the fact that Rich
mond led in the movement to de
velop the artistic sense in the smaller
communities of our country, and to
bring the best paintings gratuitOusly to
the knowledge of the people by fire.
quent periodical exhibitions and finally
to collect a permanent gallery and eX
hibit 1t with these periodical colleC-
lions in rooms devoted to the purpose
in our high school. and largely for the
use Of the pupils in all our schools
thus making instruction in art and
familiarity with art part OF our com
mon school education. That is the
one thing for which Richmond is pre-
eminent | hear of 1t where | go in
other parts of the world and where
do not hear of it | try to spread the in
formation myself This has been done
without any great drain upon our re
sources by the energy and good taste
of comparatively few who have been
interested in the movement
The wonderful development of mu
steal instruction under Professor Ear
90 hart reached point from which still
which will place Richmond in a front
rank among cities of its size, in this
department.
City's Literary Product.
Fourth. l think we would all like tC
see our city take a leading place in
literature. If we would estimate the
rank of various cities in the past We
find they depend very largely upon
their literary product. Athens and
Florence are chiefly illustrious today
on account of the great works which
were produced within their borders
and Stratford upon Avon in England
and Weimar in Germany, both com
paratively small places, will remain
immortal because Shakespeare and
Goethe have crowned them with i'm
mortality. 1t may we'll be that in the
future the capital of our own state
will be better known as the place
where Riley wrote his poems than or
account of anything connected with
its natural progress or prosperity. Tt
any who will examine the record. the
output of Richmond in literature has
not been inconsiderable. Let US hope
that that which has distinguished its
past may be small in comparison
with that which shall adorn its future
Fifth, we want our city TO be bene
ficient, animated by the spirit o.