News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-06-17
BY CHARLES MILFORD ROBINS

paIitieS BuIIt on the Via Lines
Proof of Virility, Not of Weakness.
BY CHARLES MILFORD ROBINSON
[Author Of THE Width and Arrangement
| of Streets-A Study In Town Plan
ning."l
A famous English landscape archi
tect has just been summoned to Greco,
to make Il city plan for Athens. TIT
| explanation Is that Athens bias beef
experiencing that growth which in re
cent years has been so marked fea
ture of city life throughout the world
| She finds it necessary to provide am
| pier facilities for her crowding traffic
new and shorter avenues to the sub
urban residence districts that arr
growing up around her, more anC
larger parks for larger population
from whom the growing city has beer
pushing the country farther and far
Their away.
Athens has been brought face tC
face with the common. worldwide
problem. She could be no more ex
empt from it than is the railroad juno
ton on the prairie, the mining town OF
Wales. the clean industrial city OF
Germany. She has had to send for
the city planner, as Topeka lately did;
as Calgary, Canada; as Houston. Tex,
and as staid New Haven did.
Everywhere the growing city has to
meet the problem of reimbursement.
The boy putting on long trousers
takes thought as to his future and il
better for doing So 1t is equally well
and normal for the city to do these
things. and all kinds of cities all over
the world are doing it.
So it has come about that what is
called city planning has developed
into one of those rare and epoch mark
ing world movements that are the
great milestones Of history and that
influence civilization.
For hundreds and hundreds of years
cities had been cramped inside of en-
comprising walls. The people were
huddled together for defense, and
growth of population meant an ever
closer crowding. There were no cleared
spaces then for Fairgrounds and parks
The very streets were narrowed to the
limit, many becoming no more than
mere Sits between the walls. This was
possible because the towns, being OF
such restricted area and doing almost
no manufacturing, had very little ve-
hicle traffic. If a person rode any
where he went on horseback. but 1t
was not too far to walk wherever one
wanted to 90. and there was little
freight to be TRANSPORTED.
Then very suddenly there came a Sc
ries of events that were dramatic In
their cumulative effect upon the city.
The engirdling walls We're taken down,
and the city could expand. At the same
moment there were development OF
manufacturing and a building of rail
roads that brought into the cities
rush of population that forced expan.
sion and choked their streets with
freight.
The cities had to expand. and the
more area they covered the greater. OF
course. became the use of vehiculaI
transportation. necessitating new street
The city boundaries were
pushed farther and farther outward.
and as fast as they went the means Of
improved. The slow and
numbering old stage, or bus. was fol.
lowed by the horse car. drawn more
swiftly and smoothly upon rails. Then
came the cable car and then the troll.
ley. A point four miles from the center
Of town became as near by street car
rs point only one mile out had been
As the streets were extended mile upon
mile they created a need for parks and
open spaces. and these in their turn
absorbing city land, FASTENED the
owns expansion. Now the telephone
md automobile have been developed
Ind are facilitating the outward march
If the town. 1t has been we'll said that
here has been more change in urban
i'm the last fifty years than
n the 1000 years preceding
What wonder that such new and
strange demands have swamped the
ABILITIES of cities built on the old plan,
What wonder that the new and now Sc
iously studied science of city planning
5 suddenly finding a broad field OF use
illness: what wonder that cities every.
Vhere are calling for readjustment and
alling the more loudly as they are the $
1ore progressive. 1t is proof of viril. {
", not of weakness. when a communi- {
Y takes up town planning. In Massa- l
husetts. indeed. the legislature has en-.
cted a law requiring every community S
10000 or more population TO have
tanning board.
To make cities" said Henry Drum
lond-"that is what we are here for. $
DR. the city is strategic. IL makes the {
WINS: the towns make the villages: 3
le villages make the country. he who Z
Iakes the city makes the world. After h
j. though men make cities. il is cities 4
'hich make men Whether our ma 4
onal life is great or mean. whether p
IT social virtues are mature or stunt Z
!, whether our sons are moral or ii
ciOus. whether religion is possible or u
lpossible. depends upon the city" =
hat Is the justification Of city plan q
ng a