Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-19
A NEW PHILADELPHIA TO RISE
ABOVE THE WASTE OF THE OLD
Great Opportunities Coming to the New
Administration with an Era of
Unexampled Building

COME of the plans recently suggested
~ for war memorials in this city and
elsewhere, based as they are upon thinly
disguised considerations of convenience
and utility alone. are reminiscent of the
man who at Christmas was accustomed
to give his wife box of the best cigars.
1t has become fashionable to sneer at
monuments of the sort that are purely
decorative or symbolical. The common
cry is for useful things. Yet there is
nothing to Indicate that Mr.. Moore and
the officers of the American Legion have
forgotten the essential purpose Of war
monuments in advocating the plan to
erect a great auditorium Oh the Parkway
as a memorial to Philadelphia soldiers
Who died in France.
Such Il memorial ought to have epic
significance. The art of sculpture is the
art of speaking magnificently in stone or
in metal, and the facades of any great
building can be made to express great
deal. 1t would be. "a mistake OF the most
grievous sort if the proposed structure
We're conceived for its utility alone. 1t
would have to be bea' tiful and actually
monumental in its general character.
The future would not be fooled if we
were to hand down to it only four great
walls and roof. 1t would know that by
doing a necessary work and calling it
memorial we proceeded under false
pretenses and evaded duty which we
owe not only to the soldiers themselves
hut to the future generations.
A building eloquent in its design. as
great cathedrals are eloquent, would be
acceptable in every way as q soldiers
memorial. 1t might easily be an inspira-
! ton to the architects who will plan other
| buildings on the Parkway. That thor
oughfare, when it is completed and built
! up, will be one Of the most imposing in
the world. And it will provide an eX-
I traordinary test of our native taste and
( intelligence. 1t will be no place for sheds
! or for freaks of architecture. The
! authorities, including the Mayor and his
committee and the Art Jury, should
! therefore, keep a careful eye not only on
! the builders but upon themselves.
Things that are merely ornamental and
! beautiful serve a very practical pur-
pose. though Americans have been slow
in coming to an admission of this fact.
; Great architecture is an Inspiration to
the life of any community. And builders
! and architects and the municipal officials
! ought to remember this now when we
are actually at the beginning Of a new
era Of construction that will surely
carry the city far from the dull practices
! Of earlier years. in which no one bothered
! about the looks of any building that could
be made to serve practical purpose.
This city has been peculiarly fortunate
/ in having had the services of some of the
most gifted minds in the world in the
course Of half a dozen years given to
thoughts and plans for architectural re-
construction.
Two or three administrations. assisted
and inspired by far-sighted private cit
liens, have given lot Of time to schemes
! devised TO retrieve some Of the beauty
lost in fifty years of reckless building.
Joseph Z. Widener did all immense serv-
ice to Philadelphia when he engaged the
first of European landscape artists to
draw plans for extensions of Fairmount
! Park which ultimately will reach League
Island. As this general scheme will some
day result in the reclamation of large
part of the Schuyllill river region from
! sordid accumulations of dirt and debris,
so the great Delaware bridge will ulti-
mately inspire a new fashion Of building
and commerce along considerable lengths
! of Delaware avenue,
In any serious plans for a war
memorial Mayor Moore and the American
Legion might take time for a survey of
the possibilities offered by the Camden
bridge The first plans for this struc-
turc were drawn almost ten years ago
The architects even then determined 10
make the towers and the approaches
beautiful and significant with monu.
mental sculpture. They did not have the
war for inspiration. Their plans vii
doubtless be revised because of changes
in the general layout of the bridge
terminals. But high towers that will be
visible over an extremely large radius
will be necessary part of the completed
bridge.
New Jersey is thinking Of war memo
riaIs and so arc We. II is easy tC
imagine that Pennsylvania and New
Jersey might express That they fee
about their soldiers and write thei
tribute superbly in metal and stone abovt
the approaches to the bridge on cacl
side of the river.
Almost all American cities have dom
appalling things with their rivers. Thi
city is one Of the worst Of the offender
Commerce, in virtual monopoly of tn
riversides, has insisted on a sort Of divin
right to be ugly and rcpellcnt, noisy AM
odorous.
1t is otherwise in most Of the Europea
cities. The people abroad have alway
felt that they had sort of vested righ
in their waterfronts somewhat like tn
, right which we are all supposed to hay
, in the green and blue spaces Of the ope
country. To the riyerfront, even in tn
cities, they go on summer nights to ge
, the air and rest in spaces reserved an
kept clean for them. In time when
: is demanded that people find happiness j
rational ways, rather than in dissipation