Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-11-21

| oust the smoke nuisance Commercial life
will settle down to a less hurried way.
There will be more time and appreciation for
| the theatre, museum, lecture hall and library,
upon which SO much of civilization rests.
Some, like Lady warwick, building on
swift and practically free transit in what
they call the Great State OF the future
expect the cities to disperse into many
smaller towns, with a very close interreIa-
tion BY this means they expect TO see the
advantages Of city life in education and
amusement brought to every ones door, even
to the farmers, and the city population put
within reach Of the fields, Everybody will
live in towns and everybody will live in
suburbla.
Philadelphia With Forty Millions
Another "diffusist," II. g. Wells, goes even
further These "railway-begotten giant
cities" are destined to such a process OF
dissection and diffusion as to amount almost
to obllteration." Philadelphia, he thinks,
will reach forty mlions but, by aid of
wider gauge and much swfter railroads. as
we'll as motor ways, it will be spread over
some thirty thousand square miles. Facto-
ries will not congregate in one spot. Such
business as book publishing and a hundred
other smaller enterprises will be operated,
by the aid of cheap telephone and messenger
service, from suburban houses. The city"
that remains will be centre for great stores
and the fountain head of recreation! lessen
TALLY bazaar, a great gallery OF shops and
places OF conCourse and rendevouS, a pedes-
trian place, it's pathways reinforced by lifts
and moving platforms, and shielded from the
weather and altogether a very spacious
brilliant and entertaining aggomeration."
One can't help feeling, however, that there
l. Co. - AzI-.
affect Of magnihcation. Railroads Of the
future may run with tho speed Of 200 miles
an hour, but that. enforces, rather than
alters, the fact that suburban life will ray
out like the spokes OF a wheel in long lines,
spreading rapidly away from one another.
High speed prevents branching: both by the
imposslbllty of stops and s1owings down and
by the fact that there must be very thickly
settled strips alorgside It's terminals TO
mako 1t pay financially. Every mile out
from city means great areas between the
few spolSes of transportation and these great
areas, If filed become virtual cities in them
selves. If men then find themselves living
In the crowded life that they once left the |
cities to avoid, nothing on earth will prevent |
them from becoming permanent commuters
to the Middle West.
The Shoestring City
Still another vision of future suburbla has
come out OF the last few years. More re-
than any OF the rest, and far more
bizarre and impossible appearing on the face
of 1t, Edgar S. Chambless' "Roadtown" does
take notice Of that tendency of rapid transit
to distribute population in straight lines.
Indeed, his scheme seems to have gone mad
on the subject For 1t is nothing more nor
less than a city one house thick and as long
as a river. Yet Edison has donated his
pouring patents to Roadtown and the
Boyes Monorail has offered itself as the
means of transportation.
The practical part OF the proposal Is to
build these Roadtowns out from the edge
Of great city; the inventors ideal Of seeing
It wrlggle endlessly over hill and dale-a city
IN itself-may be dropped for the moment
Mr.. Chambless proposes a sort of intermlna-
speed and local subway in the basement
along with sewage, water, gas and electric
ty with factories, stores and common dining
'ooms on the first floor, apartments above,
Ind on the long roof a promenade and
bicycle path. With all the services OF the
,ity within, 1t will have the fields and woods
II the country stretching beside it., clear to
he next Roadtown. Mr. Chambless proposes
o wed the city apartment and the farm
rouse. The hopes of suburba cannot 20
arther
Meantime, Philadelphia makes dash for
he 5:O3 or hangs to a strap for three-quar-
ers Of an hour with hopeful eve on
Director Taylor,