The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-11-30
Boston Man to Address Mass
Meeting and to Paint
Picture Of Future
City.
TO USE LANTERN SLIDES
Gathering Will be Held in the
Opera House and the Public
is Invited to Attend
Session.

AAOuo0 ACAI u6Sudy evening. JOIN
Nolen, the most prominent expert on
city planning in the country, will
have a great deal to say about what
other cities are doing in the way Of
development and extension along
practical lines. But more especially,
Mr.. Nolen will consider the future OF
Keokuk. He has written to William
Baninger that the Keokuk plan has
worked out in excellent shape, and
that the charts and pictures he is
bringing to Keokuk will be OF partic~
ular interest and value to owners Of
property in particular and citizens
generally. MI. Nolen's talk will be
fully illustrated by stereoptican views
1t will begin at s O'Clock, and no adj
mission fee will be charged.
Cities all over the United States
are giving the question OF city devel-
opment along practical lines great
deal Of attention. It is not matter
Of tearing up cities and rebuilding
them, or even parts of them, from
| the ground up. On the contrary, the
work must be slow. For instance, Mr..
! Nolen in his plans for the develop
ment Of Keokuk, is looking many
years ahead, generations in fact.
Changes necessarily must be made
from time to time. and the main
proposition is that some definite plan
should be adopted SO that when those
changes come, they may be made
along practical lines, to conform to
an accepted scheme. In this way the
development Of the city becomes uni
1 form rather than slip-shod.
George e. Kessler, in an article on
parks and boudevards, has this to
say. relative to the advances that are
being made by the more modern
cities along certain lines:
Advances Made In Other Cities.
The attitude toward these de-
velopments is expressed in the phrase
Let the city do It," the average tax
payer forgetting that the individual
is the city, and that all the concur.
| rent public necessities should be car
ried forward in we'll balanced
scheme of development and permit
ting none of the important elements
of municipal improvement to lag be-
hind.
The scheme OF government in
American cities does not, however,
encourage uniform progress in all the
several important needs of com
munity. The natural result is con.
dition which the people working on
so4called city plans and those inter
ested in these city planning confer
ences must face and alleviate.
As cities cannot be built without
the lands upon which to place their
necessary structures and the public
thoroughfares giving access to all Of
these, SO none of the public improve
ments can be made without ample
means to accomplish these needs. In
every community there exists feel
ing of resistance against enforced
form Of taxation, and therefore, nat
urally low limit, as rule, of pow
ers of taxation for public purposes
is maintained. The extraordinary
growth OF urban population has,
therefore, increased the demands up
on current revenues in all munich
palities usually far beyond the or
6dnary sources of revenue The ordin-
airy expenditures of the municipal
government for absolutely essential
functions In the safeguarding of life
and property, which leaves no per-
manent record in existence, almost
| invariably absorb all general annual
| funds The newer communities in the
United States have, therefore, sought
a further source of revenue for the
establishment and maintenance OF
supposedly permanent improvements
such as betterments Of streets, a
great portion of drainage work, and
/ to some extent the purchase and i'm
provement Of parks and bpulevards
i The older communities Of the coun
try are still relying largely upon an
nual revenues or upon the issue o.
bonds based upon municipal credit
OF course general taxation, not spe
cial.