Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-07-02

tional facilities. In other words-the
words of the committee, in fact, "the
money will be spent to provide major
thorouphfare system, TO improve and
extend recreational facilities, for better
transit and transportation, to stimulate
home building and improve living con-
ditions, to protect and enhance property
values by proper zoning, and to make the
city beautiful as well as convenient and
efficient"
at is quite true" said the citizen who
| explained the scope of the plan to us,
that Pittsburg today offers fewer attrac-
tions to the business man, to the worker
and to the home builder, than other
cities do. Our cliff dwellers spend just
about twice as much time "a they should
in travelling the short distan ces from their
homes to their work They have few
facilities for diversion. For q long time
we had no difficulty in attracting all the
workers we needed, because we paid n
higher standard of wages, but now that
other cities have caught up with us on
this point, they are taking many of our
workers away from us"
"And what about the smoke-will the
elimination of smoke be feature of your
plan?" we suggested hopefully.
The citizen looked puzzled. "Why
Pittsburg isn't smoky any MORE" he
said
"Oh, ism it?" said we in surprise. well
YOU should have seen the color of the
poachcd eggs we had for breakfast this
morning"
And you should have seen Pittsburg
ten years ago." he returned "Then you
would have known what smoke really
was. Considering we're the greatest steel
and coal center in the country, we think
we're rather tidy now"
'fYos, rather" we assentod meekly, as
we tried but unsuccessfully to dislodRe
large cindcr from the inside of our collar.
"Whcn did the reform start?"
CAS- soon as it was demonstrated that
smoke meant an exonomic loss. explain
ed the citizen. You see. as long as smoke
remained largely an osthetic issue, the
business man refused to get very much
alarmed about it. He did not mind if his
own collar got little sooty, SO why should
he mind about other peoples collars7 He
moved his family out INTO a clean suburb
and joined the local country club. When
his lungs began to feel little choked,
he could always take the afternoon off
and play golf-so why bother? Then, n
few years ago, some scientists came along
and proved that large quantities OF smoke
meant large quantities Of wasted fuel, and
since then our manufacturers have worried
good deal about it. There isn't one-tenth
as much smoke now rs there used 90 be.
The committee has already completed
its survey of proposed playground facili-
tics, and has submitted its recommonda-
tions to the city council, which has a fund
of eight hundred thousand dollars ready
TO put them into effect. Tho second sur
vey, now in progress, is TO cover the cItys
thofOughfare needs, showing what addl-
tional streets are needed, which ones
should be widened, how old streets can b
better connected and adapted 10 their
present uses, and what bridges and wa
ducts should be built. Several millions of
dollars have also been voted to carry out
this work by an obliging city council,
which has become exceedingly ambitious
and unprecedentedly energetic since the
new census figures, have been published
These figures have been painful blow to
Pittsburgs pride, but they have also
provided the final evidence needed TO
convince the city that millions will be a
cheap price 10 pay for a plan.