Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-06


that must be the destiny Of Philadelphia
that expansion will he unstable and
undesirable II II Is not part and parcel of
profound and far-sceing policy OF social,
industrial, sanitary, educational and artistic
betterment
! A CITY Is a social organization that, like
! II man, has n life Of its own, Independent to
a certain extent Of its surroundings or vari-
| Gus parts. Like.a man it can survive heavy
losses, comparable to the amputaton Of a
| limb; or it can take on weight" put on
| crude muscle or fine, train down its fat and
assume healthier tissue, accompanying this
| process sometimes with beneficial political
| surgery.
Also. like a man, It has stages Of growth
| call them three in number The end of the
! first stage came for Philadelphia when she
| looked around her and frightened the unframed
| members, which were the villages and country
| roads that Joined them, into the conscious
singleness of her unified purpose. That
the end of her childhood. The second stage
is ending today. She has learned her fun
powers; she has completed her youth, and
she is to put away childish things.
1t is true that at this, the beginning Of her
third stage, the city can count over with
complacency the amazing list of her sources
of wealth. the wealth of the wealthiest of
call of commerce waits at her door But he
is fool who says we are fated to prosper
there is to he no fatalism in this growth, no
trusting to the inevitable. or we die. Nothing
is inevitable. The Mesopotamian meadows are
Uttered with dead Philadelphias whose ruins
are too base to shelter Turk and Christian,
now fighting there from each others bullets.
Susa, Babylon and Nineveh were fatalistic;
they destined to be great" and when
they ended their second stage of growth they
died. They looked to no third stage as the
greater Western world did. They went the
way of dreaming, pagan Asia.
Cities must see their future-see It con-
cretely, or they will have no future.
Chicago. With population of 900 in the
'S0s provided before they came for the $4,000
that were rushing to her yearly. Streets that
were little more than country roads were
lighted as brightly those in the heart of the
city; streetcar lines ran in paved thorough
fares where there were earms; so the $4,000
kept on coming, and brought more.
In making it's investments for the future
city cannot dare to lag behind private corpo.
rations and citizens; yet sober-minded and
wary chiefs of corporations take far more
daring financial risks than Philadelphia does.
We are taking a great though late stride in
the initial cost of a few millions is on n par
with what many private corporation could
invest without nearing bankruptcy; and yet
this investment is an essential to the future
health of whole big city. The way for a
city to be Independent of and outstrlp lawess
corporations whether they be composed of
political cliques ruthless financers dab
bling in public utilities is to go beyond them
in making sound investments.
The city of the future will have great
breathing spaces-"lungs" that shall purify
the blood by the arteries of boulevards Pri-
vate capitA' often clears n block without
wincing. Cannot a great city afford TO do II?
And the corporation may go to the WALL but
though the city's investment may lie fallow |
ten years, it is sure to reap harvest in the |
long run. Suggest to a New Yorker to cut
up Central Park into building lots and see
what he says. Who can estimate the value
of Logan Square-of Rittenhouse Square? |
They are worth more than millions; they are |
worth lives.
The city of the future-that Is the city of |
today, plus an imagination-sees for itself |
better and bigger schools than it needs now, |
and builds them; better and bigger libraries |
than it has now, and builds them. Has it |
one of the greatest orChestras in America? |
Let II be brought 10 the people who cannot |
now afford the dealism of great music. Meet.
ing places, improved housing for the people, !
whether they use the facilities at first or not, |
are ordered by that city, for if there is to be |
the loyalty to a city that it needs IN order TO
live, how can that loyalty be better trained !
than by the city a unit providing for its
children, instead of letting them dinghy pro-
vide for themselves piecemeal?
The city is to make the largest loan in its
history-five or six times larger than any |
other on its record 1t is not really a loan; it .
is a modest investment to a mind that can
comprehend what big city Is, For these in
vestments are made-in transit port develop |
ment and the other public needs-precisey as
the investment in essential machinery is made /
by a manufacturer. The manufacturer must |
invest or go out OF business. The city must /
invest or decay