The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-03-07
TOWN PLANNING IN
FOREIGN CITIES
INTERESTING COMPARISONS.
In IN Arttsis eetriek Ahersrsnb's
Ably gptAemfzes What the Principal
European Nations Nave Contributes
to the eeisnes OF City Making.

An opportunity to legrn how Ameri-
can city pianAing compares with that
of other nations h afforded by an arti-
Gle by Patrick Abercromhie of Liver
pool published In the Towp Planning
Review IL Is Impossible To print his
paper in tull. matter of regret. rs 1t
presents an Interesting analysis of
what each uation aS IA nati"n has con
tributt.d to the study OF town planning
and city organization The slatenruts
as to foreign nations may he thus sum
married.:
Gernany's town planning compp-
tence, as il has been called. has been
inherited for generations Practically
every German town has. aS Il matter of
course, its plan drawn in advance,
upon which the utmost care AMI
thought are expended Unlimited time
Is given to it, The growing of cites.
to separate manufactures from resi-
dences and to divide residential areas
80 that the further from the center the
fewer the houses will he: the CONVEX
sion of fortitications into wide ring
strasses;" the careful and admirable
preservation of the ancient centprS or
cities: the recognized value of acuulr-
ing large tracts of land outside the
town. which in StraSshurg amounts to
364 square yards per inhabitant and III
Clm to three-fifthS of its total area:
the practice of holding competitions in
street design for new areas and the im-
portation of the garden suburb idea
from England are declared 10 be the
striking characteristics of German city
planning. AS to housing Mr. Aber-
crombie says:
ION the whole. as compared with the
advantage of the English one family
house set In an unrelieved monotony
of dreary streets, Germany has the
tenement barrack in L wide street,
with some park. play space or prone
made always at hand. There is an abb
sence of meanness and an insistenre on
the cheerfulness of city life in the beer
garden. municipal band. etc. Some Sc
rious attempt is made ut studying the
art Of city life"
The genius of the French nation has
been directed toward the physical con-
struction of the town rather than its
organization or social study and to-
ward the more monumental and archi-
tectural aspects Of the former. Paris
is the school of Europe for formal
monumental town planning both in its
nj
vistas and gardens and squares-and
in the more recent work of Hauss-
mann.
Haussmann's modernization of Paris,
in its comprehensive grasp of traffic
hygiene. light and air. is the most
brilliant piece of town planning in the
world. 1t has. however, to be confess
ed that it does not complete the circle,
though it traverses three quarters OF
it. but from sociological standpoint
he hardly considered the question Of
the inhabitants apart from the streets
and public life. Recreation is family
thought of.
France cannot be twitted today with
neglect of social conditions. Her two
housing laws of 1894 and 1906 are ad-
mira5le. Paris possesses what Is
probably the finest institution In Eu-
rope for the scientific historic study Of
town-the Bibliotheque Historique
de la Vile de Paris.
England is declared to have made one
great contribution, but generally to
have been backward Traffic conven-
fence and monumental qualities have
alike been lacking.
The normal suburban development
consists In vast areas covered with
monotonous two story houses at the
rate of forty to ifty-six to the acre.
This may be considered as Il more air
healthy type of development than the
foreign tenement. but II results in a
soul depression manifested externally
In drab and dreary existence. more
terrible than disease. With the excep-
ton perhaps of the blocks of New York
there can be no conglomerance Of hab.
itations more distressful than the east
end Of London.
II X In the garden-vil lage- city suburb
idea that England has made its contri-
button. This movement is too well
known to nped recapitulating