The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-06-24
DEMOCRACY OF THE CITY


BY Walter e. weyl. in Harper's Mag
Yin
Many OF the evils Of American life are
exaggerated In the city, and many OF
the evils Of city life are exaggerated In
America. Our national ~fippancy reaches
tts elimination in the city, as does also
a certain glittering superfciality. From
the city spreads a virulent contag1on OF
successful vulgarity; an intense, ex-
ultant materialism; an over stimulated
hard gayness; an extravaganza; an os-
tentation, boundless, competitive and
self destructive, The city gives itself up
60 dissipation with the cultivated youth
fulness OF the old roue; II maintains IN
pleasure, as in business, the pace that
kills. There Is much that Is febrile in
the city's rush to make and spend money.
There 10 q certain deadening through ex-
cess OF effort, through excess OF stimu-
lus, through over specialization. 1t Is a
curious anomaly that in the monotonous
country the labor of each man Is diver
slied. and to that extent interesting,
while in the fascinating, multifarious
city the labor of each man Is minutely
specialized and to that extent monot-
onous .,....
INC yet, when all is said that can be
said against the city. when all is con-
sidered and weighed and balanced, the
fact remains that in a moral as well as
a physical sense the city advances more
rapidly than does the country, and that
II IS precisely In the city, with Its errors
and its carelessness and Its ruthless
ness, that the foundations are discovered
upon which is to be reared a great moral
democratic American civilization. While
mon, ~despairing Of our city civilization
cry, 'Rack to the land" forgetful OF the
fact that you cannot return an urban
population TO the fields or a g~raybeard
TO childhood, at this very time profound
--.-- f. faAaAn n.n 81 nHE nnd from
the heart OF our omnipresent city evils
themselves arises a new social civic ideal
This ideal Is broad. Everywhere l n
America city problems are being en-
yisaRed and attacked. City poverty,
city crime, city carelessness, city mis-
government, are being studied, analysed,
and ~conibatted. The housing problem.
the rapid transit problem, the health
problefn, the educational problem
these and 100 other problems of the city
are approaching a point where at least
a partial solution Is In prospect. For
merry cities were burying grounds for
rural immigrants; even within rather
recent decades the annual city deaths
aQuaIed the city births. All that Is
now changed. Year by year the city
death rate declines, and the time Is per-
haps not far distant when the expecta-
ton OF life will be as great within as
without the city walls.
In many ways, great n small, the
city In emerging from the lawless and
anarchic spirit which accompanied its
carly growth. To take a single in
stance. It was formerly assumed that
the further growth Of American cities
would mean riot, disorder and bloodshed.
saThe lower orders which inhabit Phila-
dalphia and New York." wrote De Toe
Queville, Constitute a rabble even more
formidable than the ~populace OF Euro
penn cities. " " I look upon the size Of
rarNaNu# A M nriraU RiffaQ and aqnACtallV
on the nature OF their population, as q
real danger which threatens the future
security OF the democratic republics in
the new world" This expected turbu-
lence OF American cities, however, never
mnterialized. Our cities have a their
share of our common lawlessness, but
riots nave not been many or in a large
sense serious. Popular education, a
more general suffrage, the lighting Of
city streets. the creation OF a municipal
police force, the organization OF a civic
spirit, have softened the former acute
fear OF desperate and sanguinary upris-
ings by tattered mobs.
The very dependence OF the city man
Cpon his thousands or II may be his mill
toms OF neighbors is the very source Of
the new civic spirit. A very slight pol
tttion OF the common thinking water may
lean q typhoid epidemic OF alarming cur
rency: an inadequate fire patrol may mean
y confiagration of city-wide proportions.
An the city grows, as the welfare OF each
Individual becomes inextricably united
with the common welfare, there arises a
civic conscience such as would not be
possible in a purely agricultural m
ity. In the midst Of the ~omnipresent city
dangers the. city finds itself. .
Today In all our American cities there
O. an expression OF civic ambition which
"a cutie new In our history. There is a
looking ahead, a city planning, a pre-
vision OF future difficulties, and a pro-
vision OF future remedies, ofsparks n
playRrounds schools and subways
ard water works. and Of moral agencies
which win but SLOWLY attain their full