Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-06-09
I. v.AL.EDlcT' TO nv.
"The characteristics OF the American
People Expressed In lie Archl-
lecture"

1.-THE Characteristics Of the American
People Expressed In lie Archl-
lecture"
Miss Esther Tallman.
God made the country and man
made the town." is the utterance OF
an English poet of the eighteenth
century. Our attention, this year es.
pecially, is called to the wonders of
nature in America-to the grandeur
of our country's scenery, which can
not be surpassed. We have noted
how these geographical conditions in
tluenced the American people, and in
tensified many of our dominant char
acteristics.
May we not then expect to find an
expression of these characteristics in
those things that man has made and
directed? On every hand we see the
farsightedness, the creative genius and
the courage Of the American people
set forth in the building of roads and
highways, such as the recently COM
pleted Lincoln highway, in the extern
sion of our vast railraad systems into
the most remote and inaccessible
parts Of our country, and in the ex-
tension and improvements of our
waterways.
What better illustration have we of
the indomitable spirit and courage of
the western people, than in the re-
building of San Francisco? A city
completely wrecked by an earthquake,
is rebuilt within nine years in such
a way that the harmonious architec-
ture Of the buildings (and the plans
of the city as a whole) are causes Of
ever increasing wonder to European
people as well as to the American
people farther east.
Where do we find a more impressive
illustration of the creative genius of
the American people than in New
York, the city of skyscrapers? When
the city could no longer build out
wards, it built upwards. The past
generation has witnessed remark
able outburst of originality in the prob
lens of engineering and construction
of these skyscrapers. In many cases
they are INTELLECTUALLY failure, but
they are an evidence of real power,
and of the possession Of a genuinely
artistic imagination. OF the romance
Of these buildings, Arnold Bennett, an
English novelist, says: "A great deal
of the poetry of New York is due to
| the skyscrapers-at dusk the effect of
the 1nassed skyscrapers, illuminated
from within, as seen from any high
building, is prodigiously beautiful, and
it is unique in the cities of this world.
The early night effect of the whole
| city topped by the Metropolitan tow
er, seen from the New Jersey shore,
is stupendous, and resembles some en-
chanted city of the next world rather
than this
Our cities of the middle west show
intellectually another phase of the
American character. Do we not often
hear Minneapolis spoken of as the city
of homes? The apartment house may
have it's place in the large cities, but
it can never take the place of the in
dividual house. Here the solid middle
class which loves comfort, builds it's
homes, each a house detached. These
homes may not be beautiful, architec-
turally, but they are an expression of
a race that is incapable of running to
extremes; of a race that is sober and
honest; of a race that places the true
value on noble character.
These cities which have mention
ed display essential characteristics of
the American people; but is it not fit
ting that we, as citizens Of the United
States, turn to Washington, "Our
City" to find the expression of the
truest and noblest ideals of American
character?
How peculiarly appropriate even the
site of Washington is for the national
capital of freedom loving people. On
every hand nature lends herself to the
carrying out of mans plans for the
building of city not to be surpassed
in beauty and grandeur by the capital
city of any other nation.
Farsighted, deliberate in his decis.
ion, George Washington, the typical
American, seemed to look ahead to the
enormous growth Of this country and
so selected a site for the thousands
of years we hope will measure the des-
tiny of our nation.
Washington, LEnfaut, and Jeffer-
son, in their plans for the capital city,
have left frame work for it's deve!.
opment that the ablest architectures
and artists, now more than one hun
dred years after the plan was drawn,
have confessed themselves unable to
improve. With this plan completely
executed, Washington will be the most
beautiful city in the world.
In general the city plan may be de-
scribed as wheel laid on a gridiron,
the capitol, the hub of the wheel, from
which the streets radiate like spokes,
these streets intersected by others
laid in rectangular lines, plan which
gives varied and beautiful effect in
odd corners and open circles.
The mall, parkway, stretching
from the capitol to Washington
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