The Washington times., 1931-10-15
True to Type
ANOTHER ATTACK
OF PROPHET
MADNESS
BN GILBERT SELDES

/
also noticed that the Cardinals the world series and
that the weather has chilled perceptibly And I'll stick
to my story that the present situation of the world is
interesting and exciting beyond words; what's more,
will instantly unfold great scheme to make it perma
nent by putting millions of people to work entirely
useless projects One of them is called grandy "Antic
pating the Future the Devolution of Cities"
Stop Radio City
walking the streets of fairly large city New
York; the other day and being harried by traffic
nuisances decided that all the defects of urban life
due to accidental such greed for high rent haste
and thoughtessness in construction and overwhe-
ing desire to cluster round the of things Look
ing about me saw simple ways to remedy all our is
and the complete and beautiful solution as ap-
preached the two vast open squares which, unless can
prevent it, presently will become Radio City,
In one of those flashes which seem too bright to be
true, that the greatest service Mr.. Rockefeller
could do to New York would be to suspend building op-
erations entirely, and set all his workmen to the much
more desirable task OF making great park in the mid
town center of the city The empty space as it
lies now with the rubbish of ancient buildings with
derrlcks and diggers makes the surrounding buildings
more attractive With trees and lakes and flowers it
would be of the most beautiful gardens in the world
Do Not Concentrate
AS understand it, Radio City will be conglomeration
OF buildings devoted to making money out of entertain
ment The whole trend of entertainment has been to
spread itself wide area-witness radio and the
movies with their success against the concentration of
Broadway theaters with their floods of red ink on the
ledgers Why, then, build whole little city to concen-
trate the very thing which be easily distributed?
Just because there financial center and look at tD
and garment center, must there be entertainment
st. Patrick's Cathedral?
I Radio City as an example because it hasn't yet
too far The general principle is simple enough
ask the engineers who creating the machinery
of the future what their machines will be able Ask
inventors what aeroplanes will accomplish Is from
now. Ask about the distribution of power. Ask, in
short, whether it will be necessary to crowd human
beings together in great cities when all the things which
made cities necessary no longer exist.
Purely Practical
suggest that address ourselves almost entirely to
practical to that special group of practical
which dealing in futures It happens that they agree
with theorists to this extent: they admit the possibility
of distributing cities wide areas they inform us
that it will not be compulsory to live in eneents for
ever. The theorists merely say that these things
desirable
No believes that the city which created in the
of gas and the steam engine the only refuge of
humanity in the time of electric power traffic and
radio. Yet we go building skyscrapers and apart
ents which differ in no fundamental from the struc
lures of 20 years ago. Their function is the
if their comforts greater they the pur
pose and are guilty of the offenses.
Well Still Liv
suggest that life will go on 20 years from
and that we money and brains and labor to
create the kind of communities will want 20 years
from Outside of Boston, Chicago and New York
lie vast territories which have been beyond the COM
mutng limit until yesterday today they closer than
uptown was to downtown 20 years ago. Why not, in
stead OF building subways lay out cities far beyond sub
industries which do not have to be the retail buyer
with little air and outlying farms? Why not admit
that the telephone really works and that time may
when aeropIanes will stay in the air than half
hour.
Is Dickens Sweet?
suspect that the head of the Chicago Public Library
is defaming either his patrons his property when he
says "Calls for Charles Dickens and his contemporary
English writer's more numerous than ever before:
Chcagoans want literature that is syrupyeasy to take
My first wonder is whether Mr. Roden has read
Dickens; my second, whether Chicagoans aren't more
perceptive than their officials.
/ not abandoned Dickensian; do not swoon.
But just it would annoy if mathematician an
nounced that two and two never make four, if
statesman said that America had solved all the problems
of the world it irritates to hear talk of Dickens
syrup Because certain passages sugay to the point
of Sickness The tart malicious satc quality of Dickens
is completely forgotten.
Podsnap-Babbitt
Our moderns imagine that the attack on responsibility
began with them forgetting the unforgettable chapter in
"our Mutual Friend" which is called Podsnappery and
includes conversation between Podsnap and foreign
gentleman which nothing in Babbtt can touch "Mr.
Podsnap begins, was we'll to do and stood very high