Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-31
THE CITY

HNHE country is known by its daytime.
i Work is accomplished, calls made,
meals are eaten in the daylight hours, and
as twilight deepens the birds and the beasts
and the people all go to bed The city is
known by it's night AS darkness falls, the
city bursts into new splendor, blazing with
electric signs and white arc lights, strident
with changing cars and sirens crowded with
galy dressed people in holiday mood. 1t Is
after dark that the city rouses itself to its
remembered activity and charm.
Curiously enough, In spite of its slums and
sweatshops it's concentrated misery and
vice, it is this gay, irresponsible night life
of white lights and lobster palaces and
chorus girls, which-for the ut-of-towner-
fairly symbolizes the city. To suburbanites
and visitors, the name New York instantly
calls up vision of the Great White Way.
Whether it is that most of the magazines
are published there because 1t is our
metropolis, most of the articles on city life
in the magazines refer to New York. OF
10 such articles in the current magazines
five are about cities in general or groups
of cities and five refer specifically to New
York
discriminating analysis of what con-
sttutes city life, and of it's proportion of
influence in our national life. is given by
Walter Weyl, writing in Harper's Monthly
%:
The America of washingtons day was
primtively, racaly rural The country out
numbered the city 80 to /; it outvoted and
out-influenced the city. BY 1920, in
every 20 Americans lived in cities; by 1900
almost one in three Within five years there
will be more people in the city than in the
country districts.
The city attracts because 1t offers much
for little; because, heretlcal though the
statement may seem, living there is cheap.
you get more for each dollar spent. The
city is the home of wholesale and therefore
cheap amusement. The moving picture
show, the variety theatre, the open trolley,
the boat ride. the amusement park are won
derfully cheap because so many share the
expense. Much Is offered for nothing. The
free lunch, the public library, the constant
spectacle of the dressed windows of fine
stores are all gratuitous.
To economic attractions social attractions
are added. Men are incurably gregarious.
They love to work, eat loaf and read poetry
in crowds. and the city provides the crowds.
II permits an escape from the rut
of custom. 1t spells independence, ihdividu-
ality, solitude.
The American city which arose out of a
precipitate, unordered, ultra a-individualistic
exploitation of vast natural resources and
grew up parentless and without traditions,
is now evolving new ideal OF democratic
cooperation and Is gradually impressing
that ideal upon the whole American nation,
There is an echo in the New Republic (2)
part of American cities this winter, when,
for perhaps the first time, they effectively
acted upon a recognition of the practical
value of concerted action on their part, in
the creation of a Utilities Bureau for the
benefit of all cities in their dealings with
the public service utilities;
Suppose the citizens of Jonesvile make
up their minds that the rates charged by
the gas company ought to be lower. Jones'
Vile has 10000 inhabitants. Their gas COM
pany is capitalized at 800 600. The contest
does not look unequal. II would not be un-
equal If the gas company were really as
isolated and self-dependent as JonesYile.
But the gAs company Is not dependent
upon itself alone II Is controlled by hold
ing company capitalized at $4,000 600.
Holding companies control nearly five and
a half of the eight billions invested In Amer
ican gas, electric, street railway and inter
urban railway companies. The Middle West
Utilities as an example operates in
~ states and 3l5 cities Naturally these
companies have their own bureaus for coll
lecting the facts they need. The Mayors
OF American cities, at their conference in
Philadelphia on public policies as to mu-
nicipal utilities decided that the time had
come for attempting like work for cities
on national scale The result Is the Utill-
ties Bureau.
The functions Of this Utilities Bureau are
10 collect ana cOllate data as 10 rates sery-
Ice standards and cost factors ia municfnai
utilities. 70 prepare these data for the Use
- cities. Baba2 hedies corporations ane "a