Rmmim ^^^^^^^^^^nl ■ 1 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY CopS Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library DEC 2 !001 ?f> L161— 1141 OF THE What of the City? America's Greatest Issue — City Planning What It Is and How to Go About It to Achieve Success BY WALTER D. MOODY Managing Director, Chicago Plan Commission. Author of "Wacker's Manual of the Plan of Chicago" and "Men Who Sell Things" CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1919 Copyright , A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1919 Published, April, 1919 C^pyriehfd in Great Britain W. F. HALl PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAOO iv| H tCo iHp WSiitt ALWAYS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND REAL HELP 422790 PREFACE THE constant movement of people toward cities in the United States is unprecedented. The growth of cities in the past two decades has been phenomenal. This has brought about alarming conditions, and new and troublesome problems. American cities as a result of lack of foresight on the part of their proprietors have developed in a haphazard way. The result has been a change in the national character; a marked deteriora- tion in the physique of the people; vast economic loss; and an imperative need for bettering conditions. What we must do is to discover our needs, and how to go about supplying them. Making the cities more livable for the masses swarming to them is today the greatest issue of the United States. The Great War has served to intensify rather than to dim the need of the people in the cities. City planning has become a fad and something like two hundred cities in this country have taken it up ten- tatively with only fragmentary plans ; some with park ideals ; still others with civic center creations ; some with only transportation notions. Some few merely have single street improvement plans. All is called " city plan- ning" — that is exactly- what it is not and in the rapid development of cities may even be city unplanning. Of all the American cities that have attempted city planning, hardly a dozen have made any real progress be- vii PREFACE cause of their failure to realize the fundamental value of scientific promotional effort. Misapplied energy has also been a common fault. Two-thirds of all the failures in city planning in the country are due to these two causes. With the reconstruction period following the Great War, no energy needs more to be conserved and directed in effective channels than city planning. New and stu- pendous problems confront America, in which the ques- tion of the welfare of the people is of fundamental im- portance. Despite the fact that money will be needed in many directions, city betterment projects as matters of prime importance should receive helpful consideration. Grave pre-war municipal problems remain unchanged by the great world conflict ; but they have become intensi- fied. During the war American cities could act in defense of their welfare only as the national government decreed, and were temporarily lost sight of in the fervor and exigency of war preparations and maintenance. Now our municipalities are crying aloud for relief. As long ago as December, 19 17, the chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission called attention to the impera- tive need of preparing for peace when urging the contin- uation of preliminary work on certain city betterment projects. He indicated that the abandonment of city planning effort would leave our country as unprepared for peace as it was for war. The abrupt ending of the great struggle brought about the very conditions he fore- cast. The press of the country in advocating a recon- struction program called universal attention to the fact that England and France had a two-year start in the fight for commercial supremacy. viii PREFACE In England, according to press reports, as early as August, 1917, parliament created a ministry of recon- struction to solve the problems of demobilization and the return of the soldiers to civil life in such a way as to avoid unemployment and to provide proper housing, wel- fare, taxation, and industrial relation schemes and plans for commercial competition for the world's markets. Co- operation was to be the keynote of British commercial preparation ; cooperation between industry and banking to finance export trade ; between manufacturers in the same line of industry to reduce overhead and increase output; between business and the government to obtain commercial information. A comprehensive survey was early made of the nature and amount of the supplies that would be needed by the United Kingdom during the re- construction period, and the sources from which they might be obtained and transported. Standardization was also urged upon British manu- facture to lower the cost of production ; a new tariff was suggested; and various other means were employed to insure England's supremacy in the world's markets. Our unpreparedness, in contrast, only intensifies the urgency of vigorous and sustained effort along city planning lines, because of its fundamental importance in all that the word preparedness implies. Consequences of the most serious character cannot but result from any cessation of unremitting and aggressive city planning agitation and accomplishment in American municipali- ties. Beyond the certain conviction that national and civic needs can be coordinated, these pages are designed to PREFACE show city planning effort in the United States, what is necessary and how to go about it in achieving success. The aim of the author in this book has been twofold. First it was hoped that in these pages the professional city planner might find inspiration and guidance from Chicago's accomplishments and experience. The other purpose was to indicate to citizens their obligations toward city planning movements and, by depicting the cultural, commercial, and elemental conditions in Chicago which culminated in its city plan, to inspire and spur to action the citizens of other municipalities. These two reasons, supplemented by the fact that Chicago has under- taken in a large way the realization of a plan more comprehensive than has been suggested for any other American city, the author has felt, sufficiently justify the prominence given Chicago in this volume. I wish to emphasize that the credit belongs to the authors of the Plan ; its original promoters in The Com- mercial Club; its partial realization by dint of the unusual qualifications of the chairman of the Plan Commission; the altogether useful and unique organization of the Plan Commission; and the uniformly cordial and effective support of the newspapers, without which there would have been no accomplishment; as well as the receptive mind and cooperation of the people, together with the timely action of the city authorities. But for these and my experience with the development of the Plan of Chicago, it would be impossible for me to advance anything for the good of American city planning. My contribution to the result attained in Chicago by the Chicago Plan Commission has been only PREFACE in the capacity of a vehicle through which some work has cleared. This book was designed to meet the avalanche of assist- ance-seeking inquiries which continually flow into Chi- cago from cities great and small of the United States. It is hoped that it may point the way to those engaged in city planning endeavor, and also inspire the people to action, by showing that nothing can be accomplished in the move toward city betterment without public under- standing and appreciation of city planning needs, prob- lems, and advantages. The author has endeavored to employ a readable style and appeal to the general public. Uppermost in the preparation of this volume was the fact that the ballot box always precedes the city planner, and the thought that only through a quickened civic conscience lies the hope for country-wide city planning achievement. Man is a gregarious animal. He is magnetized by his fellows. Nothing so allures and attracts him as does the city. The future tragic heritage will not be the saddling of the generations to come with the burden of paying for war but, as a noted economist has declared, with the burden of disease, of shattered men, and other vast economic losses. What of the city — the home of the majority of our citizens ? Modestly is the hope expressed that this humble effort may accomplish its mission. I desire here to express my sincere appreciation of the devotion and able assistance of my secretary, Eugene S. Taylor, of the gracious and efficient aid of Miss Ella xi PREFACE M. Todtmann, and of the cooperation of Charles E. Nixon, Miss Caroline M. Mcllvaine, W. N. C. Carlton, Richard Fairchild, C. W. Andrews, Samuel B. Allison, Herbert E. Hyde, Georg-e W. Eggers, Carl B. Roden and Thomas Ryan. W. D. M. Chicago, January 31, 1919. xn CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Starting with a Right Understanding ... i II The New Profession — City Planning . . . i8 : ^^\^^ What Is City Planning? 28 IV American Cities — Their Growth, Needs, and Dangers 3^ How to Go About City Planning 61 Elements to be Harnessed 74 Publicity . 83 Misapplied Energy 112 Municipal Authorities 120 Some Reasons for Haste 132 Chicago Men and Things — Cradle of the Great- est Plan 150 1, Inspiration and Influences — Music, Art, and Authors 216 Other Influences — Libraries, Schools, and So- cial Centers 27"/ ^-^-.^E^yThe Plan of Chicago 313 XV America's Greatest City Planning Board — Its ^--:-^ Work r . ' '■ ■ -352 — vaXVI Summing It All Up 412 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Chicago Plan, Grant Park, Bird's-eye View . Frontispiece Charles H. Wacker 4 New York City, Bird's-eye View 12 Birmingham, Alabama, Business Center 20 Pittsburgh, Bird's-eye View 30 Spokane, Main Street 36 Philadelphia, Broad Street 40 Denver, Bird's-eye View 44 Seattle, New Business Center .50 Dayton, Ohio, The Great Flood, 19 13 52 Sir Christopher Wren 5^ Panama Canal Slides 5^ Detroit, Griswold Street 64 Los Angeles, Business District 74 Portland, Oregon, Bird's-eye View 84 Minneapolis, Principal Shopping Street 92 Chicago School Teachers and Principals 100 Kansas City's Heart 108 Dallas, Center of Tall Buildings 116 San Francisco, Gateway to Orient 128 Chicago, Looking Southeast across the Loop . . . . 140 Chicago, South Water Street, 1834 152 Chicago in 1845, from the West 152 United States Map of Railroads Serving Chicago . . 162 Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago . . . .168 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 176 Statue of Lincoln, Chicago 184 Drexel Boulevard, Chicago 196 Ogden Park Playground, Chicago 202 Statue of the Republic, Chicago . _ 208 Jackson Park Beach, Walk, and Drive 214 The Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago .... 222 Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago 232 Garfield Park, Typical Scene, Chicago 232 Monument of Kosciuszko, Humboldt Park, Chicago . 242 XV ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Garfield Park Conservatory, Interior, Chicago . . . 242- Forest Preserves, Typical Scenes, Chicago .... 254 Illinois Centennial Monument, Logan Square, Chicago . 269 Newberry Library, Chicago 278 John Crerar Library (New), Chicago 288 University of Chicago Group, Chicago 298 Northwestern University Group, Evanston .... 308 Daniel Hudson Burnham 314 Court of Honor, World's Columbian Exposition, Chi- cago 322 Daniel Hudson Burnham and His City Planning Col- leagues 324 Paris from an Aeroplane 328 Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann 334 Plan of Chicago Streets, Parks, and Playgrounds . . 338 Freight Yards, Typical Scene, Chicago 342 Railroad Map. Central District, Chicago 342 Charlottenburg, Germany, Diagonal Streets .... 348 London. Oxford Circus 348 Stockholm, Diagonal Streets 356 Paris, The Place de la Concorde . 356 Plan of Chicago, Business Center 364 Twelfth Street Improved, Chicago 368 Chicago Plan Improvement Map 370 Michigan Avenue before the Improvement, Chicago . 372 Michigan Avenue Obstructed, Chicago 374 Rush Street Bridge, Chicago 376 Michigan Avenue Bridge (New), Chicago .... 376 Michigan Avenue Extension (New), Chicago . . . 378 Michigan Avenue Extension (New), Chicago . . . 380 New Union Station, Chicago 384 Old Union Depot, Chicago 384 New Post-Office Site, Chicago 388 Lake Front Park Plan, Chicago 390 Waste Disposal Map, Chicago 392 Illinois Central and Field Museum Group, Chicago . 394 New Illinois Central Passenger Station. Chicago . . 398 South Water Street Reclamation, Chicago .... 406 South Water Street Connection with Michigan Avenue, Chicago 412 Clarendon Beach, Chicago 420 xvi WHAT OF THE CITY? What of the City? CHAPTER I .STARTING WITH A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING WHEN I was on the witness stand in tlje famous Twelfth Street widening case in Chicago, an attorney who was fighting the city, somewhat disturbed by my answers to his questions, finally stopped short, approached the witness stand and, with a menacing look and threatening gesture, asked, "Are you an architect?" "No, sir." "Are you an engineer?" "No, sir." " Are you a mechanic ? " " No, sir." "Do you call yourself a city planner?" "Yes, sir." "How is that?" "My identification with city planning is promotional, not technical. My profession is scientific promotion." " Aha," questioned the lawyer, " scientific promotion, is it? Well, perhaps you will tell the court in what fancy school you learned this fancy profession?" I replied, to the merriment of the audience and appar- ently the amusement of the court, whom I was momen- I . WHAT OF THE CITY? tarily in fear would fine me for contempt, " Largely in the school of experience. " That word caps the whole category of city planning — human experience. More experience and less theory is what is most needed to advance city plannlngTvery where in America. Theiawyer moved that the court strike out all testimony of the witness on the ground that he was not qualified to testify because he was not an expert. The motion was overruled by the court, who admonished the attorney to be less captious and querulous, with the state- ment that one who was qualified to speak as an expert was one who had given a sufficient length of time to the specific study of an object or a condition to have estab- lished and classified knowledge concerning it. Again that definition of science puts to rout impracti- cal theory. Science/is knowledge established and classi- fied. That is just what is lacking in the aggregate of city planning experience in America. The importance of promotional and educational effort, I regard as of the first magnitude in all city planning endeavor. It is basic and indispensable. In 1909, three weeks prior to the presidential election, at the close of the now historic annual dinner of The Chicago Association of Commerce, at which the speakers were the leading candidates for the presidency of the United States — Charles H. Taft and William J. Bryan — Charles D. Norton, afterward secretary to President Taft and later Assistant Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, approached me with a query which later lead to an offer to take over the work on the Plan of Chicago, then the exclusive promotional property of its STARTING RIGHT sponsors, The Commercial Club. Mr. Norton had in mind my identification with this work for the sole purpose of assisting in "putting the Plan across." I was then the general manager of The Chicago Association of Com- merce. This was two years prior to the organization of the Chicago Plan Commission, which body was created by the City Council of Chicago as the guardian and promoter of the Plan. Later, when a second offer came to m.e, this time from Charles H. Wacker, the newly appointed per- manent chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, it was accepted. This accounts for my identification with city planning work. To clarify the atmosphere in possible technical quarters where there might be a desire to rule out my testimony, as in the case of the disturbed oppos- ing attorney, I make cjear the Jact Jliat I am not a maker of citjjplans — merely a promoter thereof. In addition to that, I may take strongly to preaching and possibly some teaching before I get through. I strongly suspect that I shall enter both the field of the clergyman and the pedagogue ; the reasons for so doing will manifest them- selves as we proceed. This reminds me of the occasion when I was delivering an address on scientific promotion before the students of a certain university. The dean of tlie College of Commerce, when I had closed, rose and said, " Well, fellows, I guess we have now had enough preaching and we will conclude the program with a few remarks from our worthy president." But it was a different conclusion than the one the dean expected. The president was scarcely upon his feet when he shot out, "Dean" — and I shall never forget the menace in that 3 WHAT OF THE CITY? word "dean" as he said it — "let me remind you now and for all time, in the presence of these students, that no teacher^is a great teacher unless he is a preacher, and that" no preacher is a^reaFpreacher unless he is a teacher." Much teaching is necessary in advancing city planning. I am not certain but that there is necessarily much preaching. There is no mystery about city planning. This book is not written for those who would have us believe that strange and peculiar qualities have been bestowed by an all-wise Providence upon a select few in the pro- fession, gifted to enlighten the world by befogging the real city planning issue. City planning is a simple, common sense procedure to make conditions more livable for the dwellers in chies. A single paragraph can describe what must be done to pro duce desi r ed results. _ IThe obje ct of this bookj is, first, to acquaint the people in cities with their necessary and important part in the realization of a city plan and, second, to tell the pro- fessional city planner how to go about making the plan which he has drawn in the workroom an accomplished thing. It is hoped that it may help to establish a national conception of city planning, and to firmly fix in it the factors of education and promotion. These must go forward, hand in hand, and first, before city planning results can be had. In America the ballot box must go before the city planner. Recognition of this, and compre- hension of what it embraces, will spell success. The reverse will show only disaster. There will be no marked accomplishment in city planning in the United States 4 Charles H. Wacker, permanent chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission. tt*V*^' *oO^^^>^''^ STARTING RIGHT until promotional effort of the right sort is employed. The reason for this is shown in the many things that must be undone, as well as the many things that must be done. Aerial navigation in the vast domain of theory and mystery has no place in the promotional branch of city planning. All that is needed is to keep our feet close enough to the ground to have something solid to set them down on when we grow tired of theory gone wrong on the rocks of practical facts. We shall come to what city planning really is in an- other chapter. Meanwhile, in some of its aspects, it may be likened to the age-old pagan query — " Whence did I come; why am I here; where am I going?" Mortal man has troubled himself in vain through all the ages to solve these questions. The best answer is in the example of Him who in His short earthly career was too busy going about doing good to find a place to lay His head. Whence did city planning come? The oldest known thing gleaned from archaeological research pictures the grouping of public buildings around a civic center. Belshazzar of ancient Babylon was de- voted to the material progress of his people, and under his administration the people were cleanly, as by law they were forced to bathe three times a day and their health did not suffer in consequence. Astronomy, arith- metic, and the alphabet all had their beginnings in Baby- lon. There the hour was first divided into sixty minutes. Babylon had a regular postal delivery, a sewage system, banking houses, and strict laws protecting the common citizen from oppression by the rich and powerful. There is strong proof, according to historic authorities, that 5 WHAT OF THE CITY^ the wise men of Babylon had some knowledge of electric- ity, and, arguing from this theory, it is advanced that the famed " handwriting on the wall " was projected upon a plaster surface by some mechanism kindred to the modern magic lantern. In our time stereopticon pictures are effective in showing the people the handwriting on the wall of modern-day unpreparedness, those things which augur for good citizenship, wise ruling, and livable conditions Jixxities. / N ational s aiety" means much more than military efficiency. It means putting the nation and its resources into the best possible condition. It means safeguarding the public health _ of the people in cities. It means obedience to the primary instincts of self-preservation, which is quite as inherent in nations as in men. It dic- tates the wisdom of making ourselves ready and able to meet whatever exigencies ma y arise . It means putting the nation into the best possible condition as to material, men, and measures for the well-being of all the people. The wisdom of this the chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission attempted to show the Secretary of War in 19 1 6, when requesting a permit to build bathing beaches along the "filled in" Lake Front, so the masses could enjoy what the Babylonians were ordered by law to. take three times daily. This is what he said: A Washington dispatch appearing in the Chicago papers stated that five hundred men had been added to the ranks of the army during two weeks' recruiting, and that this number was accepted from among more than two thousand applicants for enlistment. The number of rejections is alarming. What is the cause ascribed for 6 STARTING RIGHT the ineligibility of seventy-five per cent of all those offer- ing their services? Fi fty-thr ee per cent of the people of the United States now reside in cities. Does this not augur for more ample means for the healthful recreation of the people in cities? If physical deterioration is the principal cause for this wholesale rejecting of recruits, then indeed is our country face to face with another crisis which also demands preparedness but of another sort: preparedness for the conservation of the public health of our citizens — the nation's greatest asset. While we as a nation are making our plans for naval and military preparedness, should we not also make plans for pre- paredness in other directions which fundamentally affect our nation? Preparedness for the safety of the health of our people is graphically — almost dramatically — illus- trated in the desire of Chicago to turn its great Lake Frontjnto playgrounds for all the people, a permit for which is necessary from the United States government. It would be interesting and valuable to review the ex- perience of the War Department since this early and small beginning in raising an army. Such investigation would reve j,l a very alarming depleted physical condition among the hundreds of thousands called and examined for military service. As one writer puts it, " A distinguished peace promoter boasted in our ante-war days that if America was threatened, a million men would spring to arms overnight to defend her." Based on the courage and patriotism of the nation, he was doubtless right but, as this writer pointed out, ''b_etVk^en_ willingness. tQ_fight and fitness to fight is set a gulf broad and deep." Samuel Hopkins Adams, in Collier's, told the story of making our_army "fighting fit" and in reply to this prophetic enthusiast, said : WHAT OF THE CITY? Ten thousand army medical experts can now attest that if the prophet's million unsifted fiat defenders were put to the test of ordinary routine — let alone full mili- tary service — without long and painful preparation, the first fortnight would find half of them in hospitals, half of the remainder disqualified for duty by minor ailments, and most of the residue discharged or dead. Five per cent, perhaps, might measure up untrained to the purely physical demands of soldier life. Naturally the American army could be depended upon to take care of itself, but at what expense of effort and time was it necessary to make it fighting fit. This was accomplished, seemingly, with incredible speed and almost miraculous results, but how infinitely better it would have been could proper measures have been em- ployed in the cities for the physical well-being of the people prior to this emergent need. Thewar has taught us many valuable lessons. — none of greater worth than the lesson in preparedness in building a stalwart national physical manhood by making living conditions in the cities the best possible. Brilliant exploits have been achieved and more brilliant things may follow if a proper survey of conditions in cities may be had and a remedy provided, insuring a permanent, virile, and ca- pable people. When the history of the war is written there will outstand against all other achievements the remarkable contribution of the United States in organiz- ing an army of four million, the building of thirty- five enormous cantonments, the equipment of the army and the transportation of 2,225,000 soldiers three thousand miles across the Atlantic which ended the war, STARTING RIGHT all in the incredibly short time of eighteen months. Nothing in the history of the world is comparable to this thing and that was done in a pacific country where the very idea of foreign invasion was considered as almost entirely out of the question. Something of the genius, the dispatch, and the com- pleteness of this great achievement, if brought to bear upon the great civic issue — city planning — would effect similar noteworthy results and our nation would indeed be invincible. Why city planning is the greatest issue of the United States today is patent on the face af things. The tendency of mankind is to gather together in close con- tact, a trait which has always existed but is operating today more strongly than ever before in history. All over the world there is an astonishing and unparalleled movement of people toward cities. Naturally this move- ment is bringing up new problems in municipal govern- ment and new tasks in social science, or the science of maintaining good health and good order among people of different races when brought intimately together. The civic problems confronting the people a generation ago were very simple as we regard them looking back from today — namely, to supply gas (later electric light), water, adequate schools, and scientifically equipped institutions for the sick and the improvident. These were their major concerns. We consider need for God's sun- shine, air, sanitation, relief from congestion, facilitation of traffic, housing of the poor, organized charities and more ample means for healthful recreation — in a word, public improvements and more attractive surroundings 9 WHAT OF THE CITY? for the multitudes swarming to the cities. Belshazzar did not have these conditions in his time, but problems he did have, and the manner in which he met and mastered them puts modern municipal rule to blush. American cities have arisen to the rule of lack of fore- sight and haphazard develophient. ' BabylofTand Atheiis are examples of what was accomplished to serve the interests of the people in their far-off day. What we must do in America in this, the twentieth century, is to discover jhejiatui:e4iljQUJi.ij£eds^^jri^^ be ■g.ati.sfi_ ed^^^___ ^ ^ — ^....^ "V^^hat are we doing? Where is city planning going ?j These questions confront us. Many are answering them like the country editor in the generous old day of free railroad passes. He applied to the headquarters of a certain railroad for a pass to a distant city. Instead of receiving it, he got this message : " What is your paper and where does it go?" Promptly the editor replied: "It is devoted to the interests of my community; it goes everywhere; it will go to blazes if you do not send me that pass." Before the Great War city planning was going to blazes in a hundred directions in America because the experience and need of our day were ignored, and in their stead were advanced ill-considered procedure and frequently more ill-considered plans. The war put a temporary embargo on nearly everything of civic importance. Now that it is over it will be followed by the reconstruction period. The war ended, new and stupendous problems confront the nations of the world. The reconstruction period is lO STARTING RIGHT upon us with its vast, varied, intricate, and tremendously burdensome problems requiring solution. When the tre- mendous program of reconstruction is finally approved and launched, an exacting and long-drawn-out period of procedure must, of necessity, be undertaken the world over. Fundamental is the important question of the wel- fare of the people in the cities. Especially does this apply to America, where public improvement projects of local character were almost entirely abandoned or subordinated to the national needs. Cities of the United States discovered soon after the nation's entry into the war that they no longer possessed the power to decide questions and launch action on their local improvement projects upon their own initiative. This, if done at all, they soon realized could be accom- plished only by the decree of the national authorities. Seemingly this procedure was desirable in the United States — the richest and most resourceful country in the world — although there were many evidences of pro- gressive action upon municipal improvements in the coun- tries of England, France, and German3^ where the war burden and sacrifices of the people were infinitely greater and much longer sustained. Whatever new and continued burdens may be placed upon the people of the United States growing out of the readjustment following the war, the betterment of the conditions of the people in the cities must early be given masterful and aggressive impetus. The vast program of public work either in the making or partially under con- struction before the war must be reassembled and prose- cuted under the new urge that has grown out of the Vv'ar. II WHAT OF THE CITY? Conditions in the cities due to rapid growth and ill- considered development that had forced their attention upon the people in American cities not only could not, during the war, be improved, but on the contrary have become aggravated. No time should be lost in picking up and binding together the broken threads of municipal advance in matters affecting the general good. The world momentous fact has been clearly realized that a coalition of all the nations must be established looking to such readjustment and material modification of military and naval strength as will forever assure the peace of the world and its freedom from further warring strife, if civilization is to be kept from slipping back into such darkness as for six hundred years encom- passed the world following the fall of the Roman Empire. Not only has the imperative need of such action been developed but scientists have gone much further than that in indicating the desirable, if not probable, need of a combination of the nations to conserve the man power, money power, and material resources of the world so that human progress m.ay again assert itself and be sus- tained until the light of freedom from the toils of devas- tation is again unquenchably all aglow. In all of its appalling vastness nothing is so urgent for the reestablishment of the prosperity of the people in the United States as a quick and vigorous resumption of activities on municipal improvement projects in accord- ance with well-ordered local plans. Of essential impor- tance looms the need of restoring and conserving the de- pleted physical strength of our hundreds of thousands of returning troops who were heavily drawn from every 12 irti STARTING RIGHT section of the country, their reemployment where possible in the ranks of labor, the use of steel and other materials sorely needed in many directions and provision for the humanitarian relief of the stricken families of our sol- diers who, more than ever, will require better facilities for healthful recreation and other means for their normal rehabilitation — all of which is a matter of local obliga- tion and performance. Sternly facing the facts due to the Great War, it per- force must be admitted that if the condition of the people in the cities which required urgent attention before the war was admittedly bad, it is obvious that these condi- tions will multiply many fold after the war. Now more irrevocably than ever it must be realized that the pros- perity of the people in the cities — and in^ consequence the prosperity of the nation, for the majority of the peo- ple live in the cities — depends upon well-ordered munici- pal development. This can best be brought about through such remedial measures as ample means for healthful happiness in the open both within and without the city limits, relief from congestion, facilitation of traffic, proper housing and scientific districting, with its many practical provisions. In the wake of this constructive program for the good of the people in the cities there must also follow improved facilities for industrial or vocational education, and more reachable general educa- tional opportunities and their stimulating and wholesome influences. Naturally the Great War retarded city planning every- where in America. When the United States entered the war, the city of Chicago, after eight years of work upon 13 WHAT OF THE CITY? the Plan of Chicago under the direction of the Chicago Plan Commission, was engaged in the development of public improvements which, when constructed, together with land purchases, would amount in the aggregate to more than $150,000,000. Other pending recommenda- tions by the Plan Commission involved a further outlay of ten to fifteen million dollars. The value of these projects completed would add scores of millions addi- tional. The improvements under way — under actual construction or far advanced in procedure — were the widening of Twelfth Street, railroad viaduct, and new bridge, a part of the central street quadrangle ; the widen- ing and extension of Michigan Avenue across the Chi- cago River, including a two-level structure and double- deck bridge, also a part of the central quadrangle; the west side Union Passenger Station and freight terminal projects, including the widening and grading of Canal Street, a two-level street and double-deck bridge over the north branch of the river ; the building of several new bridge approaches and bridges, approach tracks, approach yards and general terminal layout; the Illinois Central terminal plans ; the building of 1,280 acres of Lake Front parks and waterways in connection therewith ; the exten- sion of Ogden Avenue for two miles, connecting that diagonal thoroughfare with Union and Lincoln parks; the acquisition of thousands of acres of forest preserves ; the purchase of a two-block west side post-office site on Canal Street; and a good roads system connecting the forest preserves and adjacent suburban highway sys- tems. Other recommended projects were — the widening of 14 STARTING RIGHT Western Avenue, the principal west side through thor- oughfare; and the reclamation, double-decking and widening of South Water Street — now occupied by a produce market — to form a part of the central quad- rangle. Work was actually begun on four of these proj- ects and procedure far advanced on all the others ex- cepting the latter two. The war almost entirely stopped everyone of these improvements. The signing of the armistice brought about an immediate and vigorous re- sumption of activity on all these projects, which had been unavoidably delayed by the great world conflict. Almost immediately following the signing of the armis- tice the Chicago Plan Commission issued its now famous " Reconstruction Platform," calling upon authorities and citizens alike to get behind the twenty-three improvements projected in the platform. Its appeal was primarily based on the need for providing work for returning troops, to safeguard labor in a possible period of depression, and as an economic necessity in the construction of a series of city improvements which, if speedily realized, would save the city untold millions of dollars in the future in repairing the mistakes of shortsightedness. Other than the war, an additional cause of delay has been public misunderstanding of the purpose of city plan- ning. In the beginning it was a mistake to signalize a city plan as "The City Beautiful." It is thus designated in America wherever city planning crops out. A city plan worthy of the name should be called "The City Practical." The term "beautiful" inspires objection at the outset by creating misapprehension. It is a strong stock phrase to be ridiculed and sc»ffed at by the pro- 15 WHAT OF THE CITY? fessional agitator. " Beauty doctors " this class like to call city planners. " The City Beautiful " is a misnomer because real city planning is more practical than beau- tiful. It aims at betterments and attractive conditions, not beauty which, however, follows as a natural result. It is a great step forward to anticipate the objection of the incredulous by avoiding the possibility of confusion in the minds of the people and by starting with the right name for the Plan. It has required, where serious work has been done, much patient effort to get the people to span the chasm between the practical ideals of a comprehensive city plan and the wretched order of physical development so unfortunately prevalent in Amer- ican cities. Hence city planning effort has been called an idle dream. Fortunately enough already has been accomplislied of a practical, worthwhile nature to forever take city planning out of the atmosphere of a talk plan or a picture plan. Vastly more will be accomplished when the cities in the United States which have started begin to realize the practical truths and necessities which underlie the whole progress of successful city planning endeavor. For twenty-five years I have been advancing things by the power of persuasion. For eleven years I have been professionally employed in public work — work where public spirit, vision, men, moral suasion, persuasion — in a word, organized effort, projected by educated enthu- siasm — were dominant requisites. For eight years I have been aiding in directing the furtherance of the Plan of Chicago. The views I shall advance in this volume are the results of my experience. i6 STARTING RIGHT My business is to say what I believe, based on my own experience and observation of the experience of others. Whether this pleases or irritates is not my business. With Romain Rolland — I know that, "Words once uttered make their way of themselves." In the undeveloped soil of American city planning, I sow them, hopefully expectant of the harvest. 17 s CHAPTER II THE NEW PROFESSION CITY PLANNING INCE city planning has become so heralded in Amer- ica, something like two hundred cities have entered the arena, garbed in some sort of planning toga. Most of these have but fragmentary plans. Some have only park plans; others civic center plans; others transportation plans. Some few have single street improvement plans. All is called city planning and that is exactly what it jL (''! is not. ; ^*jy A streetjwideniiig unrelated to any other improvement t\ « or purpose is not city planning. The mere development Q of a"civTc center without a comprehensive stltdy ©4~the • t^rrfifiTcity is not city planning. These may, in the rapid development of cities, be city " unplanning." The reason for such little 'progress in city planning as was actually made in pre-war times was more often due to the wrong way of going about it than to bad planning. Too many planning boards have been made up largely of technical men who had no knowledge of promotional methods and no resourcefulness in educational work. There has not been realized that no matter how effect- ively developed on paper, city planning can only be ac- complished by especial promoti onal effort , nor was there even guessed the many ahd~pecuTiar ramifications of such endeavor. This fact is clear in the many failures that i8 THE NEW PROFESSION have resulted. City planning advocates must come to realize this truth and follow its tenets. Ignorance of the value and the part promotional work has had in successful city planning is nowhere better illustrated than in the survey of a certain Englishman who made an investigation of the subject in the United States in 191 3. He published the results of his research in a leading technical magazine of London. His article dealt only with theoretical deductions of experts, tech- nical drawings, and studies, and very little with actual accomplishment. His mention of Chicago was inter- esting for what it included as well as for what it did not include. He gave liberal mention to a host of technical experts and "other experts who have concentrated their attention to details or special aspects." City planning promotion had no place in his arti- cle. Nearly all of it was devoted to the accomplish- ments made in Chicago, so little ' couTd^ Tie find in otheT~citres," Hiif "not"" a word^ did he mention of- edu- cation, procedure, or the promotional efforts that made the Chicago work possible. The fact that most of the experts referred to had had no actual experience in things done seemed not to concern this writer. Ap- parently he was more interested in theory than accom- plishment. Either he overlooked or thought it unneces- sary to mention what Chicago has effected, not a par- donable blunder because of the very large part the pro- motional work has had in Chicago's achievement on its Plan. z^^y "City planning" has become a fad. Some cities have no plans — only a desire to catch the fad and become 19 '"TM^-vr'^ fUu/^-f p^yfi ^A\^^ ^^^^ v\^i-v^^, WHAT OF THE CITY? engaged in planning something ; anything so long as they can get in the picture. Others have passed the first inocu- lation of the bug and have appointed their commission, given it a few hundred dollars and set it adrift. It hasn't money enough to sail far nor does it know what port it is bound for. It only knows that it is a " city planner " because it feels the motion of the waves. Then there are a large number of cities, yet unkissed by the bug, which are frantically endeavoring to attract him. This urban impulse of the day is breeding a horde of city planning fledgelings. These are naturally re- cruited from the ranks of architects and engineers. There are some good men in the field, but not many. The tech- nical man thoroughly competent to be trusted with a commission to advise the city and prepare plans for it is rare. I know but few such men in the United States. The architect or engineer whose only knowledge of city planning is contained in what he thinks he knows is a dangerous factor. Nothing is more slanted, jagged, and bitter than the bias of technical men. Edward How- ard Griggs says that great men have never made the mistake that art exists for the sake of exhibiting tech- nical skill in the mastery of difficulties. They invariably have recognized that technical skill is never an end at all, but always a means — a glorious one — to something be- yond itself; but among lesser artists the superstition is widely prevalent. City planning is .as much .a_jiiat-t€JL.jil_Qhs£n:ation, opinion, and viewpoint as of technical knowledge orskill. If you want to have a lively circus of city planning dis- sension, get two or three aspiring technical "planners" 20 ^»&/c /Z^isL \J\ o«4f5}; ^^V J'(-r~^ V-, ~ WHAT OF THE CITY? from the hands of Burnham and The Commercial Club to the city, there was promptly created a Plan Commission, organized in its personnel to cope with the practical prob- lems of city planning, and provided with funds for the establishment of a promotional department. T he perm a- nent chairman of the_.conimission, appointed.,, by the mayor, was Charles H. WaHcer, one of the city's leading men of affairs — a man of tireless energy and possessing to aT marked degree the qualifications necessary for the successful realization of the Plan of Chicago. In the early development of this Plan — the most com- prehensive presented to any city since Haussmann's Paris — there sat in at the conference of the technical people a railroad president, ten of the world's greatest mer- chants, six bankers, an insurance official, six capitalists, a real-estate dealer, an iron manufacturer, newspaper .publishers, two farm-implement manufacturers, a coal dealer, a bridge builder, a lumber dealer, a corporation lawyer, a dealer in pig iron, a printer and publisher, a manufacturer of railroad supplies and a ship chandler. That, substantially, was Chicago's list of original city planners. They represented the promotive side, and were backed by other of the city's foremost business men who, while not doing the committee work, largely furnished the financial sinews of war. The technical business conferences instituted by Mr. Burnham and the members of The Commercial Club and maintained until his death have continued to be the prac- tice of the Chicago Plan Commission, with its consulting architect. Edward H. Bennett, who collaborated with Mr. Burnham in creating the Plan of Chicago. 26 THE NEW PROFESSION The example of this business organization actively- identified with a professional problem emphasizes the order of the day the world over in other directions of public concern. This is notably shown in the rumored " split in the British Cabinet," wherej_to create^ a^bd it was urged that " lawyer politicians " be supplanted to "some extent by naval and military experts and business m en wi th ^reat org anizing capacity who had proven their ability in their respective lines. The future of city planning in the United States, the function of the Plan Commission in financing the work under the "new" profession is a subject of sufficient importance to be treated in a separate chapter. 27 CHAPTER III WHAT IS CITY PLANNING? CITY PLANNING is not understood in America to- day and never will be until mistaken notions based upon popular tradition are effaced. It never will be un- derstood until the cobwebbed theory with which it is enmeshed is unskeined. It never will be understood until most that is popularly known is forgotten and a new and real start is made out of our own experience. This will be challenged, but that is not my business. My business is to state the truth about city planning. " Rot, rubbish, bunkum," choruses the city planning world, " what about Pericles, Caesar, Wren, Haussmann, and a hoslrof others, whose names are written high in the hall of city plan- ning fame ? Wt have their works to guide us ; w-e have the example of properly planned cities in Athens, Rome, Paris, Dusseldorf and others; we have the definition of city planning by scores of modern-day planners, archi- tects, and engineers ; and we have a w^ealth of data and expert theory on the subject." Yes, it must be admitted that we have all that and, having it, we have nothing. We have nothing because America has no experience. Here an ounce of ex.gmenc£ is worth ten tons of theory or the experience of others. Experience derived-^frSm'the almost forgotten ages in countries where the conditions and the needs of the peo- 28 WHAT IS CITY PLANNING? pie were different applies but little to America. We must make our own experience; then we can for a certainty tell something about what city planning really is. Pericles, five hundred years before the Christian era, made Athens architecturally the most beautiful city the world ever has known. Architectural beauty fits only a small part of modern-day, city planning needs. Its chief w^orth as exemplified in Athens is that it constantly holds before us the ideal of beauty. Beauty with Pericles was the essential. Practical needs came second. Pericles lived and swayed in an artistic age. Everything else was then subordinated to the beauty and effectiveness of art. Jie.^eaplejiad no voice in affairs and their real needs were not consideredr^^Everything was for outward show ; "nothing for inner helpfulness. The age alone was not responsible for this. Pericles was a man of ideals — ideals suited to the age in which he lived — and he had the power to satisfy them. His worth to the world will never be dimmed. That is not the issue. The issue is that the planning of Athens cannot widen streets in America; all the glory of her architecture cannot supply parks and playgrounds for a burdened people ; all the wonder of her ages cannot solve our transportation problems. All the powers of Pericles cannot substitute for the will of the American people, and all his execution cannot overcome the inertia of American municipal authorities. Athenian imperial decree cannot make light the cumbersomeness of Ameri- can procedure in things municipal. What would Pericles have done in Chicago in the twentieth century? Hauss- mann made Paris by imperial decree. Paris affords many 29 WHAT OF THE CITY? physical examples of practical worth to American cities, but not one whit of the procedure of Paris applies to American cities. Paris afforded the world examples of splendid street organization, boulevard beauty, standard- ized height of buildings, grouping of buildings, placing ^ „ ^ r. . oi monuments and statues, and in all this there is food '. ^^^ for the technical city planning mind. Valuable and pleas- - - - ^-, ing as these are, they do not tell us how to get things done >H^ri^ /i»y?r/^in America, and often they do not even apply to Amer- . ^^^ ican needs. _^/ . The ideal Paris boulevard and business thoroughfare ■* y* ' / combined did not apply to Chicago in widening Twelfth jy /^ Street. It was planned to boulevard Twelfth Street by ^ making it one hundred and fifty feet wide and to park it ^ // ]^ with a double row of trees. Practical investigation / showed that treatment would not fit the need. Twelfth ' ' Street is a business street coursmg its way through an intensive railroad and industrial area. A boulevard and a business thoroughfare combined seemingly is impracti- cable in America. In the case of Twelfth Street the people opposed it. They pointed out that where a part of the street had been boulevarded business had been killed. They did not want a street so wide that business would be lost in it. They wanted their street preserved as a distinctive business artery, which it was — destined to be one of the leading business thoroughfares in the city. And so it was decided to make Twelfth Street one hundred and eight feet wide. It was laid out clean from curb line to curb line to care for business and traction needs and traffic. Not Athens, nor Paris, but Constantinople gives the 30 WHAT IS CITY PLANNING? most encouragement to America. Constantinople has not the right of condemnation. If the city cannot acquire from private owners needed property for public use, it waits for a fire. Under the law, if the buildings on pri- vate property are consumed by fire, the city has the right to confiscate that property for public use without payment to the owner. Obviously, when Constantinople wants to make public improvements where pnv-ate property is needed, a fire is conveniently started and the rest is easy. The Constantinople method might tremendously help and simplify city planning procedure in American cities. What should be impressed here is that city planningj n Amerjca is npjLa„.m.ystenoiis something built up solely in the minds of a limited group of architects With city planning aspirations. It isthe simplest and most ele- , mentary proposition in the world. The planning of a city ((!'%«. 3^ ^ means making it what we would make our indtvi4iial O^^^i- home — a thing of order, of convenience, and of attract- ' / ,. ivenes_s. i he quickest way to brmg this about is to get ' . y the people truly to regard their city as their larger home. '^ '"^ ^^^ \ Technical skill is fundamental, of course, and that is where the architect and engineer step in, but more impor- tant than these are the tremendous tasks of stirring public opinion and securing public consent, after which comes the exasperating problem of complying with the manifold complexities of American municipal rule. That is where the technical man steps out and the promoter steps in. Education and procedure are basic in cit}^ planning in America, and until these facts are grasped by the people and the authorities, no substantial success will follow. City planning, rightly understood, should mean a boon 31 WHAT OF THE CITY? to all the people in the city. It should safeguard and d evelop the interests of all classes! What did Athens, glorious in works of art, really do for its people? Did Athens, a symphony of architectural beauty, serve the practical needs of the masses? It is not my purpose to depreciate the beauty of Athens, but to show that the principal asset to America in the lesson of Athens is in its attractiveness and to reduce that part to the practical needs of American municipalities. Charles H. Wacker, chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, has reduced the problem of city planning in the United States to this definition : " It promotes trade by supplying direct and easy ways for the extension and development of commerce; fosters city growth by mak- ing it easier and cheaper to conduct all classes of busi- ness; increases and insures all property values by pre- venting the many evils of haphazard building; makes every citizen a more efficient worker by saving time and money in transit of goods and people; and, above all, it assures to that city which adopts it a future citizenship sound in body, mind, and morals." Unless we solve these problems our cities cannot con- tinue to grow and our people continue to be healthy, happy, and prosperous. Thus it can be seen how impor- tant these things are to every man and woman in the cities of our countr}^ and why all should be informed about them. Salesmanship has been to me the biggest word in the dictionary, the most positive thing in life. Through salesmanship, I hold, the world makes the greatest prog- ress, and from years of devotion to that idea I am unable 32 " 'WHAT IS CITY PLANNiN6r^ to view city planning advance from any other standpoint. From that vantage ground has been done such wotk as it has been my fortune to be identified with. City planning work in all its practical essentials is a work of promotion — salesmanship. We know that in this country advance is possible only as we convince the majority of citizens that our plans for improvement of cities are for the "higBest public good. There is no im- provement on this side of the Atlantic by imperial decree, and the ballot must precede the builder. Before active work can be done in replanning our pres- ent cities — before streets may be widened or parks cre- ated — money must be provided. There is only one source for this money, as we all know, and that is the public purse. The same arguments which will open the private purse w^ill open that of the masses. The answer, it is submitted, is contained in the word salesmanship. City planning, when carried out, deals first with real estate, with the streets which the people own, with the parcels of ground on which they have erected their / , homes and places of business, and with the spacious parks 2)f t^^^ in which they find recreation. The trouble is, in the ^^ " United States our citizens have been drilled so thoroughly -^^"'''^^-it^^ in the ideas embodied in our constitutional rights and'"^^'^ ^ liberties, that most owners of property do not realize, or ""^"^^ » ^ refuse to admit, that their .ownership is an^ equiU^n '^'^ ^'^..VVf which is shared the rights and privileges of their ' - - - neighbors. ^ ^ ^ -ti^/^ ^^' ^ What do people who invest in real estate in any city / buy? It is not so much mere ground, so many feet this r^^-^Pftn way and so many feet another. What the people really |\ ^.o ^ 33 ;^}f^^ y ''''■■■ . 't>^ WHAT OF THE CITY? buy is civilization. They buy transportation, electricity, gas, glimpses of the ocean in one city, vistas of parks in another, and views of boulevards in a third. What is city planning?/ In its very essence, it is the inte nsification of civili - Thus the city planner, to succeed, must be a^salesman — a salesman of civilization, convenience, health, -aii4. beautj. These intangible things command the highest price because they bestow the richest blessings. Viewing city planning as a matter oi salesmanship, it^ is a problem of arousing interest, creating human desire, stirring the. spirit for better things and inspiring human action. Primarily to that end all effort should be devoted. New methods should be employed. It is obvious that no sales- man of civilization can win his way until he has over- come, as a first step, the obstacles of lethargy and indif- ference. It is not opposition which retards city planning in America. It. is non-education, indifference, procrasti- nation and lack of foresight These are the mountains to be moved. It is not difficult to convince the mature indi- vidual of the wisdom of city planning. The first diffi- culty is to get him to give serious attention to your argu- ments and, secondly, to stir him to action when con- vinced. There is something in that masterpiece of literature and inspiration which many of us read too seldom and too scantily, to the effect that "As the twig is bent the tree inclineth." In the employment of new methods, it is upon that idea 34 WHAT IS CITY PLANNING? as the foundation that work was begun for the future reaHzation of the great Plan of Chicago. The ultimate solution of all the major problems of American cities lies in the e3ucation of ou r, xhildren ^ to their responsibility as the future owners of our munici- palities and the arbiters of their governmental destinies. What startling changes have come upon American cities within the past few years ! The demand f^r s ocial justice is upon us. The people are clamoring for relief from evil conditions in all of our cities. The day of regeneration is dawning for the American city. Day- light cannot come except as we enlighten for good citizen- ship in our schools and shape the course of the developing citizen toward the realization of higher ideals. "TP^ r ja''^-<^- The true function of the American school system is the^^/v. v^ "h 'brain and building of the body has been blended with the'^-','^^^'''^ development of the higher qualities of soul and con- 5^^ c!f-iTt science. We have reached a time when the citizen, to do his duty, must give heed to the welfare of coming gen- erations and when our youth must be instructed in their obligations to their fellows and to the cities which shelter and develop them. In this right citizenship in relation to city planning is an essential reqiiisite. Our cities are coming into control of our nation, and if we are to have a sustained national patriotism, we must begin its development and cultivation by creating in the growing generation impulses for good order, cleanliness, honesty, and economy in the physical growth and political conduct of our cities. The most vital course to that end is the public school, and the best instrument for its accom- 35 WHAT OF THE CITY? plishment is the education of the children in the elements of city planning. Our cities are interdependent in their striving for better things. The glories that were Rome's and Athens' re- sulted from the creation among their citizens of the spirit of civic devotion, and there is little room for doubt that this work of fostering city pride and loyalty was started in the very early boyhood and girlhood of their youth. It found its fruition in the magnificent cities which today, from their ruins, bespeak for their builders the respect and admiration of the modern world. City planning is a science that is as old as the building of cities. A plan for a city is quite as simple as a plan for a residence. The latter has merely to do with our individual home — the former with our larger home, our city. Much may be accomplished in this generation^^^buLthe building of the future city is not in our hands. Itj s in ~~tKeT)rains"and hearts of America^children. The regen- eratioffof the AmericaiTcity and the preservation of the American nation must come from the efforts and the wills of an educated and civicly enlightened, scientifically cre- ated citizenship. It is not only the duty of every citizen to help make his city a clean and comfortable place in which to live but, incidentally, a splendid business investment to make it so attractive to everyone, both resident and nonresi- dent, that some of the millions of money spent elsewhere each year will remain at home. There is another and deeper motive in planning for the future greatness of the city than its splendid material upbuil4mgr This is of sig- 36 Spokane. Main Street, flanked by modern office buildings. In 1894 the site of the present wonderful city was a small trading post. WHAT IS CITY PLANNING? iiificance only as it expresses the actual social, intellectual, and moral upbuilding of the pepple, and so far as in turn it opens the way for further development of this higher type. City building, as Wacker declares, means V man X building." Who is there among us who is not lifted above sordid industrial existence into the realm of the beautiful and ennobling things in life by attractive sur- roundings? Beautiful parks; fine monuments; well-laid- out streets, properly lighted, paved, and amply provided with shade trees; relief from noise, dirt, and confusion — all these things and many others are agencies that make not only for the future greatness of the city but the happiness and prosperity of all the people within its gates. The ideal of a city must rise above mere commercial and industrial supremacy, taking the higher level of becoming an attractive, composite home for its residents, both of large and small means, as well as for the sojourner. Such a city would not only attract a multitude of people seeking a home offering all the best advantages of city life, but would also restrain its citizens to some extent from going abroad seeking the advantages their own city should give. While the wealthier class of citizens in any community can build up beautiful residence sections on well-laid-out avenues and boulevards, what will become of those who have neither organization nor money to aid them in intelligently planning the most meager comforts of ordinary home, surroundings? The interests of the inhabitants of the most unfortunate districts must be safeguarded beyond anything else, for they and their chil- dren form the backbone of the intelligent American labor- ing class. Z7 CHAPTER IV AMERICAN CITIES THEIR GROWTH, NEEDS, AND DANGERS THE destinies of the world's nations today hang upon the cities. Yesterday — fifty years ago — that is yesterday in the life of a nation — ninety-seven out of every one hundred people in the United States were rural residents. Today — fifty-four out of every hundred live in cities. The masses are swarming to the cities. The urban population is running a neck-and-neck race with the rural for supremacy in national affairs. What of the city? What is more sensible than increasing the nation's wealth by increasing the efficiency of the nation's greatest asset — the health and well-being of the urban popula- tion? The life of a nation is the life of its people. The national life is great or dwarfed just in propor- tion as the life of the people is broad and developed, or mean and stunted. In the days of the Civil War, the United States was nurtured by the sturdy, healthy, honest, and capable countryman. Now the country and the city equally sup- ply the storehouse of the nation with statesmen, navy, army, and civilians. What effect is this "fifty-fifty" proposition having 38 AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS upon the life of the nation — is it sound or wholesome? Is the nation virile ; are its red corpuscles untainted, up to the full normal count; or do the white parasitic cor- puscles with anaemic sickliness course through its veins ? The answer is to be found in the cities. Preparedness — the Great War brought new and sin- ister meaning to that word. America must have body, soul, and mind preparedness. The supreme nation of Tomorrow will be the nation of strong individual manhood. Whether the future reign of the world shall be peace- ful or turbulent, the nation strong of manhood will domi- nate. The world's Tomorrow may usher in a contest of wits among nations or it may bring a new and more terrible contest of brawn. In either case manhood will survive. The strongest nation will be that nation which does the most for its people in cities. Up to the present, American cities, spongelike, have drained their citizens. Precious little have they given in return for their massed material wealth. For those who can pay, yes, the cities return something, but poor is the compensation even for the rich. The tide of tourist travel away from America toward Europe, demonstrated in 19 12 how meager were the in- ducements of American cities to attract and retain in their own country the hoard of tourists' gold. In that year France received from American travelers six hundred million dollars. Switzerland received one hundred and fifty million dollars, and Italy one hundred million dollars. 39 WHAT OF THE CITY? America's manhood in cities must grow strong, aided by ample means for healthful recreation, by literature of •character, by music placed within the reach of all the people, and the allied arts and scien ces made easy of at- tainment. Industrial and vocational education, every means of self -advancement, cultural as well as industrial, hjgienic as well as psychological, must be supplied if the nation is to be kept from those pursuits and pastimes which cause decay, degeneracy, and disintegration. Those things must be supplied which make for good cTtizenship, and they must be placed within the easy grasp of the people. That is the debt the cities owe their people — a debt that has gone too long unpaid ; a debt that soon must be paid if physical, moral, mental, yes and financial, bankruptcy are to be averted in the nation. As rapidly as we have been bankrupting our national resources and our American manhood, as alarming as the results have become, these are as nothing compared with the tax burden that has been put upon the people of the world because of the Great War. ill providing our people witli means for healthful recre- ation and useful occupation. This means deYelo.ping_in r,ur nation.LQd^:,_^pul, and mind stalwarts. It means that such a nation can only attain development through the scientific planning of its cities. Back of all this is the fact that the success of the nation depends upon its commerce. A thriving commerce is un- restricted in its legitimate expansion. A stagnant com- merce is hampered and unaided in its efforts to expand. 40 ly — «y - Philadelphia. Broad Street looking north from Locust Street In two decades, from 1898 to 1918, Philadelphia grew from 1,219,463 to a city of 1,709,518 people. .^^^^^^' \i^^^ AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS Building cities as they should be, means supplying~tHe>,' v/^ greatest possible lubricant to an easy and successful com-il merce. __J When we properly improve and systematize city thor- oughfares, we facilitate transferring and thus is com- merce aided. When we make possible and accomplish the best devel- opment of railway lines, especially terminal facilities, we give a great boon to commerce. Whenever transportation of any kind is expanded and facilitated, commerce is aided and advanced. When we create parks, playgrounds, pleasure piers, and bathing beaches, we aid the efficiency of the people by increasing the public health. Commerce is also a bene- ficiary. In March, 19 17, the United States Supreme Court, by a vote of five to four, upheld the Adamson Law, which provided for a uniform eight-hour day for railroad em- ployes or the alternative of ten hours' pay for eight hours' work. It was estimated it would cost the companies fifty million dollars per annum to comply with this law. When the Adamson Law was introduced in Congress, the busi- ness element of the country, through a representative committee, attempted to secure the appointment of a Board of Arbitration for the purpose of analyzing the question both in the interests of the railway companies and their employes. This effort failed. The railroad side of the question had an insufficient hearing, notwithstand- ing fifty million dollars is fifty million dollars. It was generally conceded that the Adamson Law would not be held constitutional by the Supreme Court, but its adjudi- 41 WHAT OF THE CITY? cation, by a vote of five to four, is now a matter of his- tory. Immediately the railway companies sought relief through the Interstate Commerce Commission by de- manding a hearing before that body for the purpose of securing a five per cent increased freight-rate privilege to offset the burdensome tax of fifty miUion dollars im- posed upon them and to enable them to secure necessary capital for development work. I am not taking the side of the railroads in this controversy and I do not know whether the employes were just in their demands and if these should have been conceded, but I do know the dis- position in this country in recent years has been to harass capital by restricting legislation, which always tends to arrest natural development and expansion. There is something paradoxical in the whole situation of labor versus capital. My personal opinion is that there is ample room for revision of ideas and demands on both sides of the question. It is also a fact worthy the consideration of the laboring element that labor can be supplied and wages maintained only through the power of the great industrial companies to properly and legitimately expand. When expansion is restricted labor becomes a drug on the market — a condition labor seldom seems to appreciate. The very things the railway executives wanted reme- died at that time were remedied later by the government when it took over the railroads. Due to war conditions, it immediately raised the freight rates twenty-five per cent and the passenger rates — which the private owners did not dream of increasing — were varyingly increased, despite which the first year's operation showed an 42 AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS enormotK deficit. All America now knows — and no one more surely than government officials — how fright- fully our country was hampered shortly after it entered the war because of inadequate and clogged railway facili- ties due to long periods of hampering and restrictive legislation prior to the war. During the food shortage in the United States in the spring of 19 17, when prices were soaring beyond prece- dent in all directions, it developed that the situation was only partially chargeable to shortage. Congestion of freight cars in railway terminals cut a very large figure. On this point, the Chicago Tribune editorially said : The food crisis and soaring prices are complicated by the complete breakdown of the railroads in carrying. Our national policy should be changed. The nation can- not expect to control food prices unless it permits the organization of responsible food trusts and it cannot expect the railroads to bear the burden of industrial expansion unless it permits them to expand. We have been kicking the railroads and busting the trusts; the result inevitably has been chaos in their distributive sys- tem. So long as we stick to the idea of punishing organ- izations instead of regulating them intelligently, we shall have with us thousands of irresponsible speculators in- stead of a few responsible institutions. Our government, has persistently refused to see the necessity of protecting the railroads and fostering their expansion. It has failed to see that unless there are governing organizations, the responsibility for economic ills cannot be fixed on anyone. We cannot regulate prices if we would because we have not permitted the machinery for regulation to act. We cannot make the 43 WHAT OF THE CITY? railroads carry enough goods because we have not per- mitted the railroads to expand. Our food situation is the inevitable result of our lack of foresight. One thing is certain — the government has since gained a liberal education in both directions. What will come of it? Government ownership, or a sympathetic treatment of the present owners by the government? The latter would seem to be the wise policy. America is not ready for government ownership of railroads; it will not be ready for such a move for fifty years. Government own- ership leads to standardization; standardizing ^American enterprise now means the death knell of real progress. Government ownership in Europe, as shown by the case of Italy, has proven unsatisfactory. At the outbreak of the war plans were under consideration by the Italian government to turn the roads back to private ownership. The economic conditions of Europe are different from those of America, and conditions here for the next half century will not require the assassination of desirable but controlled competition. The human productive activity Of any great city or of any community has to bear certain overhead charges as a whole, just as has every business. The burden which comes to a community by reason of preventive sickness and death, which has to be borne by the community as a whole, makes up a staggering load of millions of dollars. It has been estimated that in the United States typhoid fever alone has caused a preventable loss of six hundred million dollars — every dollar of which was borne by the public. Every man who is cut off in the prime of his greatest productive activity by death, or who exists in a 44 i ll w^«l OL^S^ vvvv>^^^ AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS condition of impaired vitality or usefulness, becomes a charge upon the community. The value of health preparedness through the proper building of cities is strikingly illustrated in the construc- tion of the Chicago Drainage Canal. This great drainage system cost sixty million dollars. A health commissioner of Chicago is authority for the statement that, if the typhus death rate which existed before the canal was constructed had continued after it was built at the same ratio until the year 19 12, the loss would have been sev- enty-five million dollars — enough to pay for the canal and a great deal more. It was found that fifteen thou- sand citizens had not died of this disease between the time of the completion of the canal and the period men- tioned. This represented a monetary value of seventy- five million dollars. It is estimated by economists that the average value of each living human organism or life to the community or to society is twenty-nine hundred dollars per person. The wealth of a nation is rated by its population. On this basis, the economic value of the people of Chicago Octo- ber I, 191 5, was $7,155,105,400, which was equal to the estimated total wealth of the United States in 1850. Increases in population have taken place in the United States which would have been thought unbelievable two decades ago. This remarkable development in the growth of cities has not been confined to the newer or more potential sections of the country. It has been country- wide in its distribution. Boston, the metropolitan center of the nation's oldest civilization, twenty years ago had a population of 526,576; today it is 757,420. 45 WHAT OF THE CITY? New York half a generation ago was 2,860,091 ; now it is 5,602,841. Philadelphia in two decades has grown from 1,219,463 to 1,709,518. Atlanta, little more than a "country seat," is today the metropolis of the vast southwestern area with a population of 190,558. Birmingham, the southern Pittsburgh, in twenty years has become a first-class city with 181,762. The real Pittsburgh has grown from 419,229 to 579.091. Staid old romantic New Orleans has felt the influx with an increase of thirty-six per cent. Chicago, the central metropolis, has soared from i,- 518,742 to 2,497,722. Each 3^ear Chicago has added to its population numerically a city the size of Peoria. Detroit, its neighbor on the east, ascending like a sky- rocket from 261,693, has attained an altitude of 603,993. Cleveland, the Hamburg of the Great Lakes, has cat- apulted herself skyward in nearly the same ratio. Dayton has grown from a trade center of farmers to a teeming manufacturing center of 127,224. Minneapolis, the nation's north-central outpost, has sustained an increase of eighty-nine per cent. Denver, a mile high in the Rockies, has kept her alti- tude with a one hundred and seven per cent increase. Oklahoma City, twenty years ago the center of the Indian Territory, and scarcely a dot on the open prairie now boasts of 95,265. At that time Dallas was budding forth with 43,445, timidly pushing up her first skyscrapers — a perilous oc- 46 AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS cupation then. It is now dotted with tall buildings, fine hotels, and is a hustling citizen army of 126,362. Houston has gone the same way, pushing Dallas liard. Kansas City has jumped ahead with an increase of ninety-two per cent. Los Angeles, the southern sentinel of the Pacific, has lead the western Marathon from a start of 96,853 to a finish of 519,206. San Francisco, the gateway to the Orient, devastated Ijy fire and earthr[uake, with the sublime spirit of Ameri- can frontier fortitude, leaps despite her terrible handicap, from 329,344 to 467,269. Portland, the Eden of the Central Pacific Coast, bask- ing luxuriously at the foot of Mount Hood, has fared sumptuously as shown in the increase of two hundred and eighty-tW'O per cent. Seattle, the Naples of America, wondrous of setting, gate to Alaska, thirty-five years old — is 348,639. Spokane, a ranchmen's trading post twenty years ago, is today a metropolitan city of 150,323. During these two decades the population of the United States increased from 72,080,516 to 102,017.312. Of this increase of 29,936,796, forty-four and one-half per cent went to the cities. The growth of our cities is phenomenal and the list as a result is too great to enumerate completely. There is more wonder perhaps in the remarkable increases in the old cities like New Orleans and Philadelphia, than the new cities of Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. The significance of this marvelous development is in its uniformity. Two hundred and sixty-seven cities in the 47 WHAT OF THE CITY? United States now have a population in excess of twenty- five thousand. The partial table shown is startling enough to stir us to action because, if cities are to be saved from them- selves and properly aided to continue their marvelous expansion, proper city planning must be effected. During all this amazing advance in the population of American cities, unprecedented in the entire world, what has been done for the city dweller? What has been the develop- ment of the cities along scientific lines? What, basically, has been done for the moral, sociological, and ph ysica l upbuilding of the people in the cities? Practically noth- ing. Yes, parks have been dieveloped, electric lights have flashed forth, rapid transit has come, our school system is expanding, charitable institutions have been nurtured and increased — but beyond these, what? Meager re- turns to the people who have increased the wealth in the cities to a vastly greater extent than the increase in popu- lation. The city dweller has been given nothing beyond the actual requirements of his direct needs for the promo- tion of his business or industrial welfare, the education of his children and the care of the improvident. More than this he deserves, more he is entitled to, more he demands, and more he most assuredly will get if the nation is to maintain its rightful place after the recon- struction following the Great War. The masses in the cities have a right to grow and ex- pand mentally, morally, psychologically, physically ►i^^^ yes and even financially — in the exact ratio in which they have made possible the tremendous expansion and wealth of the cities themselves. 48 AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS During these twenty years of neglect, not only have our people in cities been denied their rightful heritage, not only has their health been menaced, their morals stunted and their general prosperity and happiness shrunken, but to this there has been added a tremendous economic loss and consequent burden resulting from pro- crastination. Meanwhile the cost of these paramount needs, which eventually must be supplied, has not only soared but will constantly increase. America's greatest issue is the proper planning of her cities. This does not admit of haphazard or sporad- ic effort. When blissfully dwelling in the midst of peace and plenty, it was characteristic of the American people to become stirred to action only when face to face with dire need. Then too often we acted with hysterical haste and did the wrong thing. We know better now and in safeguarding our cities, we must not permit our old habits to control our actions. There is no further time to lose in beginning the proper building of cities in America. More breathing space; freedom from dirt, noise, and confusion; tpore attractive surroundings; easierun ea n s of -feFafSc_rnovement; better means for healthful recreation — all these are basic in scientific city planning. Eventually we will have to sup- ply vastly more. More than ever in_ the future will our cities require that we realize that our people must be given every ad- vantage for industrial education, every advantage of the arts and scTences, every advantage for healthful recrea- ttori, so that the body-soul-and-mind men may predomin- ate and the nation grow strong and endure to the end. 49 i-^' WHAT OF THE CITY? We move through life so thoughtlessly and carelessly, little do we suspect what may come upon us and nothing do we do to anticipate misfortune and vicissitude. Nations in this respect are like individuals; particularly is that true of our own country. How infinitely better it would be if we could learn to perceive our needs and prepare for them. On every hand are examples of our national improvi- dence. Seldom do we see evidences of foresight where it is most needed. Every year floods along the Ohio and Mississippi River banks cause millions of loss in a vast, rich, and populous territor3^ Each year new and tremendous loss is sus- tained. This has been our experience for years until it culmin- ated in the terrible tragedy, economic and human, with Dayton as the hub, in 19 13, which cost five hundred and twenty-one precious lives and the appalling money loss of $163,564,793. What criminal pity is there in the fact that govern- ment aid is not employed to the extent of the investment of hundreds of millions, if necessary, in the construction of works to prevent such loss. The initial cost would be great, but this would be saved many times in the end. From 1832 to 1913, according to the United States Weather Bureau, nineteen floods occurred, during which the w^ater was five feet or more above flood stage at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cairo. It reached a maximum of seventy feet, or twenty feet above flood stage, at Cin- cinnati April I, 19 1 3. Interspersed were many occasions 50 "^^ *»«* ®^•'"• AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS when the water was above flood stage in degrees ranging all the way from thirty-five feet up to the maximum. The great majority of these floods were due to heavy rainfalls in the Ohio basin. The great jlpod in March, 1913, was due to excessive rainfall upon a surface already saturated. More than 100 municipalities in Ohio were affected and the total population directly concerned numbered 1,388,000. The approximate number of residences flooded was 40,637, and of houses destroyed, 2,220. The railroad losses amounted to $16,168,565. The telephone and^ telegraph companies sustained a loss of $2,003,179. The total loss in fifteen districts on other properties such as buildings, bridges, highways, matured or prospective crops, farms and live stock, and losses occasioned by the suspension of business amounted to $149,393,049, making a grand total of $163,564,793. This frightful figure represents the loss of a single flood. If applied, it would pay for protective construc- tion. The loss of the 1913 flood alone would pay for tlje^^entire Plan of TThicago with lis contemplated 198 miles of street improvements, parks, boulevards, and transportation rehabilitation. I do not know what it would cost to construct engineer- ing works to prevent these periodical floods, but the cost of just one flood — $163,564,793 — is nearly half the en- tire cost of digging the Panama Canal. In all probability that one sum alone would be sufficient to protect the entire Ohio and Mississippi valleys from any recurrence of such deadly devastation. This huge loss does not include the monetary value of 51 WHAT OF THE CITY? the 521 lives lost. On the basis of the value of a human life $2,900 — this adds another $1,450,000. I suggested to a prominent engineering firm in the afflicted district that something might be done to prevent such loss and I was reprimanded by them for my ignorance of the whole subject. Coming on the heels of this, however, it is gratifying to know that, under the Ohio State Charter, there has been organized the Miami Conservancy District, with plans to spend $20,000,000 on initial plans to prevent a recurrence of the flood. Odd as it may seem, the thing to be adopted is the Dry Reservoir Plan known to engineers for hundreds of years. The people of the prosperous Ohio Valley — known as the Miami — have at last gone to work on the theory that the floods of the past have been unnecessary evils, and are now determined to be freed from such dangers for all time to come. This work is to be financed by bond issue and it is pointed out that the property affected will have an added value of $100,000,000, although the safety plans will cost but $20,000,000. Here is proper planning actually showing a huge profit — as is always the case — to say nothing of saving an enormous loss. The foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in cattle in the year 19 14 in the United States caused a loss to private owners of between five and six million dollars. One hundred and twenty-four thousand animals were killed in twenty-two states. Illinois was the worst sufferer — fifty-one. counties being affected. The first outbreak, it is said, was due to a wrong diagnosis by a government expert at Niles, Michigan. It is claimed that this cattle 52 Of Hit UHWERS»TY Of lU.tN<* AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS disease is hundreds of years old and has been practically stamped out in Germany and Holland. It has appeared in the United States on six different occasions — 1880, 1884, 1890, 1902, 1908, and 1 9 14. The 19 14 outbreak was the most serious. Instead of adopting preventive measures in the United States, we slaughtered whole herds of valuable animals and but partially compensated the owners with government money at the market price per head for cattle on the hoof. Did we have any special dispensation of Providence that a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic would not some day attack and destroy with terrible loss thousands of cattle in our own country ? No, with the sense of security of an ostrich with his head hidden in the sand, we made no effort to anticipate this calamity. As a result of our fashion of shortsightedness and unpreparedness, we per- mitted it to come upon us to be met with ruthless disre- gard of private rights or values. Avoidance could have been had in profiting by the experience of world-old cattle countries. In an attempt to make restitution for this enormous private loss, federal and state governments equally shared. Congress, before the close of its session in March of that year, appropriated $2,500,000 for the eradication of that disease and to aid in paying for the losses. Ener- getic efforts to stamp out the disease were immediately made by both federal and state officers. Thus with tre- mendous energy we attack our favorite pastime of lock- ing the stable door after the horse escapes. The total government appropriations for the Panama 53 WHAT OF THE CITY? Canal from 1902 to 1917 were $396,010,563.14. The excavations from 1904 to 1916 cost $248,520,343. Of this total, dry excavations cost $130,378,364; dredges, $118,141,979. During the fiscal year ending June, 19 16, the total amount expended for operation and maintenance was $6,999,750.15, more than half of that amount, or $3,513,350.06, being spent for dredging in the Gaillard (formerly Culebra) Cut. The increased cost was due to the slides on both banks of the canal north of Gold and Contractors hills, which caused the suspension of traffic and a great falling off in the tolls collected for the year. The total loss due to slides in the canal during 19 15 and 1916 amounted to the snug sum of $7,089,933.09. These are official canal statistics. General Goethals is authority for the statement that these slides, costing the government millions, never would have occurred had not the government taken the word of geologists regarding the nature of sul>strata in the canal zone. General Goethals' exact words on that sub- ject were: The W'hole thing might have been obviated had we taken borings down through that entire area for a mile on either side of the canal, and determined the bearing strength of the various strata of rock and then computed what that rock would have to bear under the new con- ditions when the chances are it might have been dis- covered. But the geologists predicted that in that par- ticular locality we were never going to have any trouble so that I presume in the early days it was not considered feasible to go to the expense that that would entail. .■54 AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS Naturally slides were not anticipated. But engineering science demanded that borings be made. Whatever this would have cost, it certainly would be a small fraction of seven million dollars and the end is not yet. If ever we are to learn preparedness, will it be only through dev- astation, tragedy, and economic loss? These will most assuredly be our portion. Out of them ultimately will the United States form stalwart national character. In 1903 the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago — that terrible holocaust which horrified the world — occurred at a matinee during the holiday week. Within half an hour after the first cry of " Fire," rang through the build- ing, nearly six hundred dead were heaped in the galleries, mostly women and children. Immediately the Chicago City Council passed drastic •ordinances. Steel curtains and sufficient exits properly lighted were demanded. It was ordered that a member of the_Ek£,Iiepartment be stationed in each theater dur- ing a performance. More than half a thousand lives were snuffed out in penalty for this belated precaution — our universal tendency of preparedness after the fact. The burning of the stearher Slocum, in the East River, New YoHc, in 1904, caused a loss of 958 lives. This terrible calamity, it was said, was largely due to rotten cork life preservers that dragged their wearers down. The captain of the ship was remanded to jail for crimi- nal carelessness for this human sacrifice to unprepared- ness. The lost lives could not be restored but the author- ities were moved to stringent and immediate action for the preservation of human life on shipboard. After the Titanic sank with its human freight of 1,517 55 WHAT OF THE CITY? in April, 191 2, the federal authorities, in our hysterical fashion of reparation, immediately devised laws for the regulation of steamships in respect to life-saving de- vices, so drastic that the ordinary vessel could not pos- sibly comply, with their terms. So many lifeboats and rafts were demanded there was scarcely deck walking room aboard for passengers. Another example of doing nothing at the right time and too much at the wrong time. Jaj.jj^a^ The overturning of the steamer Eastland in the Chi- j T cago River, which cost 812 lives, in the year 1915, was Cn/w )jj^, ^y^^^ jj- jg ^2i\d, to overcrowding and lack of proper in- spection. "~"" The list mounts up but this volume is not intended to be a chamber of horrors of non-performance of public authorities and citizens through not adopting preventive instead of curative means for safeguarding lives and money. These examples form an eloquent plea in their piti- fully mute appeal for preparedness instead of reparation. Preparation can be had ; reparation is impossible. The total loss in lives and property in this series of preventable disasters during a period of ten years, if computed, woulcj jar the United States into realizing that preparedness, at no matter what the cost, is cheap. In the field of city planning, a notable exam ple of lack^ of foresight is told in the story of London m rejecting the Wren Plan'. In"T666;~"after the disastrous fire, Sir Christopher Wren made a plan for rebuilding London ; it was adopted by the City Council but never carried out. Nearly two hundred years later. Baron Haussmann ('c^itTof fort&i^U-V pio.„^; 4f ^ t^^^U, ', n '- Nnr mti" ' '^- / n / / t^/ / ^ j.*t^vx.<^ Sir Christopher Wren, the famous EngHsh architect, who pre- pared a plan for the rebuilding of London after the great fire of 1666. Wren's plan was adopted by the City Council but, to the great detriment of London, was never carried out. m ^^tHS^'^'' AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS followed the Wren Plan as the basis for his Plan of Paris. London meanwhile became the metropolis of the world. Its physical development was a topsy-turvy, haphazard growth, enmeshed with crooked, narrow streets, in a limited area. Paris! Why describe it? The world knows that the Haussmann Plan made Paris the most beautiful, health- ful, convenient, and prosperous city in Christendom. The sequel to the lack of foresight of London is told in the recent cutting of Kingsway and Aldwych — to connect High Holborn with the Strand- — two of the busiest commercial arteries in the city's heart. The gross cost was $30,000,000. London's single street opening a mile long and one hundred feet wide cost twelve and one-half per cent as much as the entire Plan of Paris. The authorities at Washington, early in February, 19 1 7, were face to face with Germany's ultimatum estab- lishing a new blockade. This announced a resumption of her submarine warfare on merchantmen. It caused to be known an astounding state of unpreparedness in our navy. This was disclosed in the House of Representa- tives. At this, the greatest crisis for the United States in the first two years of the world war, during which many similar but slightly lesser crises had confronted our nation, loud talk was heard on many sides advocating severance of diplomatic, relations with Germany. The President's aides were of the opinion that diplo- matic relations should be severed unless Germany should give new assurances to safeguard the lives of Americans in the maritime war zone. .S7 WHAT OF THE CITY^ The opinions of certain powerful newspapers urged the belief that at last the moment had arrived for an ultimatum to Germany. During the excitement, Congress was informed that of one hundred and ten ships which had been authorized dur- ing the previous four 3'ears, only four had been con- structed, although Congress ordered sixty-seven rushed. Eight submarines, it was stated, which had l^een author- ized under the previous administration were unfinished. The House was told that the navy was short twenty-four thousand men ; that when the new dreadnaught Ari:;o}ia was commissioned shortly before, it was necessar}^ to retire to the reserve several other ships in order to make up a crew for it ; and that more than fif t}- per cent of the tonnage of the nav}- was at that moment tied up at the docks for lack of men. The statement was made that if war came to the United States, the navy w'ould have to go into battle either undermanned or manned wnth un- trained men and yet the secretary and officers of the Navy Department said: "We are ready to go into batde." That was the condition of affairs when the United States declared war on Germany. What has happened since is known to the whole world. The United States as usual has performed a daring and brilliant feat. Xotli- ing in the world's history can compare with it, but never- theless it stands as the severest indictment of our unpre- paredness. Many critics have endeavored to determine the respon- sibility for our pre-war military and naval unprepared- ness. AMiile it is wise that our national constitution gives us the right of free speech, we must come to learn, S8 OF m UNIVERSITY 0!» umo AMERICAN CITIES' NEEDS under that right, the di fference be tween constructive and destructive criticism, the difference between lionest ancT^ "unfair or dishonest criticism. All criticism is dishonest when it takes its poisonous darts from selfish quivers. It is merely stupid criticism when it aims them from the bow of bias and prejudice, although it may be none the less harmful. Our national isolation and traditional peace policy in- fluenced us as a people into believing there was no need for a big navy and army. We have learned better, but we could have learned sooner. When in all our history have our people been willing to stand for military pre- paredness in times of peace? Never. Let us acknowledge our fault and shoulder our share of the blame for our lack of foresight. Unpr£.gar£4ij3ess, from time immemorial, has been a glaring characteristic of our people. It took a world's war and our entry into it to teach us our fault. At last, with terribly tragic consequences, we have come out of our lethargy, and if the Great War produces nothing else than a lesson lasting and final on " Preparedness " not only of our national defense but of all things that affect the welfare of the people, it will be worth all the billions of dollars and the scores of thousands of precious lives that have been given. We have sadly but wisely learned that not bluff but strength, power, money, men, and material all conscientiously directed to a given end will accomplish that end. We have learned that our victorious troops icould win against the enemy by aid of these and these alone, and that all of our past indifference, carelessness, and inertia were parasites that were slowly but surely 59 WHAT OF THE CITY? sapping our national usefulness, manhood, and character. li the nation does not immediately adopt a rational sys- tem of universal training and service, it will only partially have learned the great and terrible lessons which the war has taught. ^>^_XJy Before the war " bluffing " was unknown anywhere in the world in the sense it was attempted in America. In the "national game," if a man bluffs, he is either prepared to kiss his pocketbook good-bye or he reasonabl}^ hopes to put the bluff over. If he stays in the game, he usually "holds a hand" when he is "called." In the war, the United States held a hand and bluffing was not necessary, although some of our statesmen apparently believed that the great conflict, so far as our nation was concerned, could be settled by poker-playing methods. Bluffing is a dangerous practice. As a profession, it is a foolhardy pastime. Wearing an air of confident assurance on a " poor hand " in an attempt to deceive an opponent and cause him to "throw down his hand" is foolhardy when applied to national affairs. Before the war the United States was rapidly crystallizing into a nation of profes- sional bluffers. Many of our motives, expressions, and acts were derived from games and sports. Outwardly there was "pep " in all of this but the war taught us that as a "clean-all," bluffing could be regarded only as a rank failure. Never again in the history of our nation will our national character rear itself upon the expletives of poker, baseball, the stock exchange, the race track, and football. We have learned to quit bluffing and that preparedness is the only real antidote. 60 CHAPTER V HOW TO GO ABOUT CITY PLANNING ASSUMING it is universally recognized that city planning requires a scientific plan, financial re- sources, and an organization for its promotion, two ques- tions promptly engage our attention. First, how to pro- ceed in the acquisition of these things and, second, hav- ing secured them, how may desired results be obtained? Many communities inspired with a desire for more attractive physical development are immediately in a quandary concerning the best manner in which to pro- ceed. Too frequently a false start is made and work that otherwise would have resulted in desired accomplishment ends merely in fine reports, much agitation and ill-con- sidered sketches. A well-grounded plan of operation, backed by wisdom and insistent endeavor, cannot fail. Rarely in this country is city planning work initiated by the municipal government. Where this is the case the highest degree of success is not attained. The best results have accrued where the city planning movement origin- ated with a group of substantial public-spirited citizens, or under the auspices of commercial or civic organiza- tions. The reason is that at the very outset adequate funds must be available for technical advice and for the conduct of preliminary work to the end that public senti- ment may be stirred. Appropriations by city administra- 6i WHAT OF THE CITY? tions for the first need are rarely sufficient. This is due to the fear of politicians that the censure of the commu- nity would be incurred by invading new and untried fields. Under the ordinary power of a city for making appropriations for corporate purposes the second need cannot be covered at all. It is necessary, therefore, after the question of city planning has been raised, to secure an adequate fund either by contributions from citizens or by appropriation from a civic organization. The fund in hand, there should at once be sought the services of a city planning expert. No attempt at city planning should ever be made without such counsel. ^An expert city plan once evolved, the next step is to create public sentiment, and when that is aroused, to secure recognition of the plan by municipal authorities. The obligation of the sponsors by no means eiids with the mere submission of the plan to the city authorities. Ac- companying their appeal there should be a well-thought- out plan of organization to be provided for b}- city ordi- nance. Until the time when city planning is established as a city department, the promotion of plan work should rest with a properly constituted quasi-public body. When such an organization has been authorized, and appointed by the mayor, adequate appropriation should be made by the city for its maintenance. City planning bodies vary in name, jurisdiction, and official recognition in various communities. There are self-constituted bodies, so to speak, and those created by appointment of the mayor on the authority of the City Council. A plan body appointed under city authority is 62 HOW TO GO ABOUT IT perhaps best named the " Plan Commission." Its organi- zation should embody all elements constituting the citi- zenship of a community; the mayor, his cabinet heads, and one alderman from each section of the city should be ex-officio members. The whole commission, under the ex- ecutive leadership of a chairman, a vice-chairman, and a secretary, should in the remainder be composed of leading business men, representatives of all professions, vmion labor leaders, newspaper publishers, and political leaders of all factions. The church of all faiths should be repre- sented, and especially where there is a mixed citizenship, all nationalities should have representation. Such a com- mission should be absolutely non-partisan and nonpoliti- cal, but political faiths should have recognition in ratio to the political life of the community, and especially .should the chairman be of one political faith and the vice-chair- man of another. This method of organization natu- rally should vary according to the size and citizenry of the city. The work of the Plan Commission should clear through an executive committee typical in its se- lection of the personnel of the larger body. An official headquarters should be established under the supervision of a director of works to seriously carry out the proj- ects initiated by the commission. The power of the Plan Commission should be advisory and not executory, and it should act at all times as the intermediary between the city authorities and the people, and as a safeguard against unwise city development. The Plan Commission should lend its first endeavor to the study of the Plan committed to it by the city. That reasonably accomplished, it should next recommend a 63 WHAT OF THE CITY? specific phase of the Plan for adoption and execution by the city. The method advocated in this discussion is the pro- cedure adopted in the creation of the Plan of Chicago by The Commercial Club of Chicago, under the direction of Daniel Hudson Burnham, and in the later organization of the Chicago Plan Commission. The experience of the Chicago Plan Commission as outlined in this volume it is hoped may contain something of value to other communities, insofar at least as it justi- fies the method of procedure described for the inception, adoption, and organization of city planning effort. Money is basic in city planning. Without MONEY no tangible results are possible. This applies in its first significance to city planning in its in- ception. Money is not only the root — it is the branches, the leaves, the blossoms, the entire tree from which to pluck the fruit of city planning aspirations. For success in America, city planning must be divided into three main divisions. A " fourth dimension " we hope later to indicate as a future potentiality. Pie who fails to proceed from this hypothesis will fail to get anywhere along the pathway of actual accomplish- ment. The shores of the mighty ocean of City Planning are lined with derelicts wrecked on the reefs and shoals of mistaken theory. That this is so is stupid when havens of facts are so easily attained. Right at this point, how- ever, is where the practical city planning mind deserts the Utopian dreamer — he whose futile energies germi- nate largely in the boundless Saragossa Sea of theory. ' . 64 at B5 53 33^3^33 B H 1 8 H Si i£ ijy-tt-Q lu B w 3E n ul lil iijj||.jri 3 . 3B Detroit. Griswold Street, its " Wall Street." Detroit's population ascended like a skyrocket from 261,693 in 1898 to an altitude of 603,993 in 1918. HOW TO GO ABOUT IT The three divisions of city planning properly desig- nated are — first, financial — second, technical — third, PROMOTIONAL. In the parlance of the day the wag would nominate them as contribution, evolution, and execution. If our " fourth dimension " is to have a future place it could well be named solution. Money must be had for plans. Plans must be had for promotional work. Promotional warfare must be w'aged before public opinion can be had, and without public opinion officials cannot be stirred to action. Each of these steps logically and in order takes its place in the successful city planning program. The re- verse of this procedure spells disaster. Science, like nature's laws, cannot be reversed. It is just as possible to reverse a lawn mower and attempt to cut grass by running it backwards, as it is to attempt city planning by putting the cart before the horse. The laws of many states restrict municipal authorities to the appropriation of funds for expert service only. Generally the statutes do not permit expenditures for promotional work. City planning is all promotional work in its inception. Reverse the order of delineation and grasp these facts from a different angle. The people are the first consideration in American city planning. Public consent can be had only after a compre- hensive and far-reaching educational campaign with an idea of equal benefit to all elements in the municipality. Before comprehensive plans can be had, experts must be engaged and then what do we encounter? Money. 65 WHAT OF THE CITY? Money in the beginning must be secured by contribu- tion from public-spirited citizens. Aside from these facts financial, the best origin for city planning is in the hearts and minds of the citizens of the community and not in the city administration. Because this truth is not real- ized, city planning failures are everywhere recorded. There are many reasons for this, but without too careful an analysis, we may again cite money as the leading factor. Municipal authorities, naturally, will not appropriate sufficient funds for the inception of a city planning move- ment, even if they can legally do so. Fear of public dis- favor of a too generous backing of an untried thing will deter them, if nothing else. Example of this is afforded in a city of half a million people where the appointment of a Plan Commission originated in the City Council. This commission was given an insufficient appropriation for the employment of experts in the production of an actual plan and nothing for its promotion. By the time an ill-considered plan was finished, the commission was discouraged. It had long before exhausted its funds and had accomplished nothing, because the support of the people was not secured as the necessary first step to success. Another example is recalled of a city of nearly a million inhabitants, wherein the state laws would not permit the appropriation of funds for any phase of city planning work. The advocates of a city planning move- ment there, without funds and without prestige, actually attempted to secure an enactment from the state legisla- ture to enable them to proceed. Failure was again re- 66 HOW TO GO ABOUT IT corded because it was not realized that before such legisla- tion could be had, public opinion would have to be aroused. This well-meaning, but misguided organiza- tion soon went into oblivion because it worked back- wards. Infallible proof again of the altogether necessary and almost priceless commodity in city planning — FAVORABLE PUBLIC OPINION. Public opinion costs money, because to secure it re- quires education. Educational work in city planning is most expensive propaganda. After public opinion has been secured, city planning has only just begun. The Plan Commission, if properly recognized, must continue as advisers to the city authorities. The maintenance of such work requires money. That is where perhaps the original subscriber should step out and special financial provision should step in. It is not reasonable that public-spirited men, in addi- tion to providing the funds for originating and promot- ing the city plan, should provide also maintenance funds for its progressive development. Neither is it wise to anticipate sufficient funds from city appropriations for all Plan Commission needs after the adoption of plan work by the municipality. Special financial means eventually must be provided. The idea of a city planning department as a part of the city government has been advanced. Under such an arrangement, naturally, ample funds could be provided from city sources. There is no established precedent for this theory. Whether at any stage in a city planning program a city planning department would be a desirable feature of 67 WHAT OF THE CITY? municipal government is debatable. It is obvious though that no new department can be established in any city without a public demand for it, and also that no public demand can be had until educational work has created it. To create the demand there must be plans ably drawn and vigorously promoted. The only way those essentials can be secured is by raising money from private sources and expending it in the manner indicated. After the plans have been created, after the educational propaganda has been waged, and after something tangible has been realized to prove to the public the benefits of city planning — then the question of establishment of a city planning department for the further development of the plan logically may be considered. Then looms up the question as to whether or not it is desirable, feasible, or possible for the people of a city to adopt officially plans which may require many years to complete. Further, as each part of the basic plan is developed, cir- cumstances within the city may lead to changes in detail in that basic plan which will require further educational work. A street which may have been laid out for a boulevard may be found, when the time for its develop- ment comes, to require such treatment as will make it a business street for heavy traffic, as was the case with Twelfth Street in Chicago. Changes in the plan, naturally require educational propaganda and it is extremely doubt- ful whether a department of the city can facilitate that propaganda. Therefore, is not city planning a thing apart, to be kept distinctive from city government? Should not the Plan Commission — the promotive agent — be left free to act as an intermediary between the 68 HOW TO GO ABOUT IT people and tlie city authorities, promoting the plan with the public on the one hand and with the city officials on the other? It may be too strong a statement to make that the death knell of city planning will be sounded when it is con- stituted a department of city government. In advancing the idea that it should be kept distinct from the city government, it is recognized that no rule is a good rule that is not elastic in some degree. There may be isolated instances where, under a favorable condition of physical needs and of statutory enactments, the reverse of this reasoning would be true. It may be conceded that in a small city the knowledge of the physical needs of the city is widespread. The average citizen there knows what his city requires. In no large city, however, is it possible for the average citi- zen to grasp the larger needs of the city with respect to transportation, recreation, and public health. It is only possible to advance city planning in large cities by public education. Such work can always best be done by a semi- official organization of citizens such as a Plan Commis- sion, and in the inception of the city planning movement, it cannot be done with any other agency or in any other manner. Every efficient architect and engineer realizes that highly skilled technical assistance will never subordinate itself to the rule of city politics or civil service — both necessary in the establishment and successful conduct of any city department. The efficient man — the man with the initiative — the specialist on city planning — always works best where he has a free hand. 69 WHAT OF THE CITY? Yes, city planning as a branch of the city government might succeed if every city could produce a Charles H. Wacker to lead. Public-spirited Trojans like Wacker, and city planning specialists of experience and training are not logical products of municipal departments. Great works for the benefit of mankind will continue to originate in and be fostered by the hearts and minds of public-spirited citizens. Welfare work for the people is inspirational and philanthropic. Always will this be the case in countries where there is no power conferred by imperial decree. Such power at least augurs something to the city planning advantage for people in absolute monarchies. Through the maze of underbrush incident to procedure in this country and through all the discour- aging and exasperating delays occasioned by cumbersome American red-tape and conflicting powers, the Plan Com- mission — ^the agent of the people and of public spirit for the betterment of the city — must remain stalwart and progressive. As indicative of the vital need of a Plan Commission in preference to a city planning department, it may be cited that in almost every city where extraordinary im- provements are contemplated, it is usually necessary for the city officials to secure the cooperation of business asso- ciations and of other quasi-public volunteer organizations in order to accomplish their aims, such as bond issues and the like, These arguments and these reasons are not mere results of theoretical research. They are based upon absolute contact with things municipal, the result of years of cold experience, gleaned from all the elements involved in city planning in a great American city. 70 HOW TO GO ABOUT IT The purpose of this discussion is to show that city planning in America can best originate in and be fostered by a quasi-public body acting as adviser to the City Council and city departments. By keeping the Plan Commission free from the city government it is in a position to act at all times as a check against possible abuses of all kinds and thus it is likewise in a position to give endorsement and encouragement to the city au- thorities when that is desirable from a strong expert source. To depreciate the willingness of city authorities to appropriate as generously as legally can be done for city planning work is not the intention of this discussion. In Chicago the Plan Commission has received, commen- surate with the statutes, generous financial assistance from the city. The moneys thus had, however, and used only for expert technical service, totals only one-third of the sums expended in originating the Plan of Chicago and its promotion, all subscribed from private sources. The Plan of Chicago, if aided only by such city appropriations as could be made under the limitations of the statutes, would never have been originated. In logically closing the subject, " How to Go About City Planning," we now give consideration to the fourth or final step — the perpetuity of city planning effort. This we have named the solution of the city planning problem. The answer is endowment. Why not? What more noteworthy humanitarian endeavor can there possibly be than making the cities more livable for the millions constantly swarming to them ? 71 WHAT OF THE CITY? Benevolent people have substantially endowed all man- ner of humanitarian projects. The world's work has been advanced by such endowment. City planning is a basic factor in all philanthropic movements. Without city planning no endeavor toward the betterment of conditions in cities can or will reach the high notch of success which may be achieved with the assurance of a properly organ- ized, well-defined plan for the growth of the city and its citizens. Safeguarding the health of our citizens means safeguarding the nation's greatest asset. Existing en- dowments for great humanitarian purposes include the Russell Sage Foundation, the ,Rocke feller Fund, the Carnegie Fund and a host of others. Why not city planning endowment? The interest on a donated investment of three-quarters of a million dollars would yield a sufficient fund for the annual maintenance of city plan work in the largest city. The city of twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand people could maintain its work on the investment of perhaps one hundred thousand dollars. The needs of a city would naturally correspond with its size. Whatever its size, each city could produce a philanthropist of means ample for the local endowment. Such endowments could be placed in the hands of a Board of Trustees, this board to direct the expenditure of the annual income and eventually invest the principal in such substantial manner as would perpetuate the don- or's meritorious public enterprise. In what more fitting manner could a man, while conferring lasting benefits of the most far-reaching character upon a grateful public, perpetuate his own name ? 72 HOW TO GO ABOUT IT When city planning history is written, credit should be given to three sources — the public-spirited men who financially backed the plan in its inauguration, the techni- cal people who created it, and the promoters who de- veloped it: There is a vacant niche in the city planning Hall of Fame for the endower who assures its ultimate realization. 73 CHAPTER VI V ELEMENTS TO BE HARNESSE D EVERY cit}'' has its distinctive elements, varying in extent and variety with its size, geographical loca- tion, and the nature of its habitants. These are com- plex in some, simple in others, but each city has its own . problems due to the elements it may harbor. These must be neutralized and assimilated in the successful city planning program. Harnessing all elements and making them energize for his success is a prim e missio n of the city planningjpro- moter. Advancing through harmony should be his con- stant aim. I elsewhere declared that the__d ty^ p lann ing promoter was a salesman of civilization. He is many kinds of a salesman, but he is primarily a harmon}^ sales- man. Sectionalism : private and corporate greed ; religion ; tradition; class distinction; political factions; labor unions ; foreign population ; reformers ; welf arers ; civic, commercial, and social organizations ; woman suffrage ; native prejudice; indifference, and technical bias — all play their part in the life of the city. These must be blended into a harmonious whole. What may be encountered in a single city is demon- strated by Chicago, preeminent in its multiplicity of ele- ments. It struggles for expansion between sectional prej- 74 (U ii^ ELEMENTS TO BE HARNESSED uclice and private selfishness. The north, west, and south sides are geographically divorced, the boundaries being fixed by rivers, railroads, industrial areas and lack of street connections. The interests of these sections are quite as local as those of Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Although much civic propaganda is neces- sary at times, these three entities are reasonably harmoni- ous on questions of policy and procedure affecting the whole city. Yet, as sections, they are individual and dis- tinctive. The law of self-preservation would instantly assert itself in either of them if city planning discrimi- nation were shown in the distribution of public improve- ments. Approval must come from all the people if public im- provements are to be financed by the whole city. Under this system one section of the city cannot be favored to the exclusion of another. Sectionalism is an important element.. It must be studied, met, and fairly dealt with. There are more organizations of various kinds — com- mercial, civic, fraternal, social, and religious — in Chi- cago than in any other city in the world. TTiej;digjousJife_of.the city plays an important part. in its activities, with varying doctrines and creeds. Chicago has woman suffrage — another ingredient for the city planning c aldron . -^■-•-^, Chicago is the political forum of the West. It has all the boasted political factions of any community, and then some. It has factions within factions, and does not stop even there. ''ojtf^ Chicago has twenty-two local governing bodies with taxing power. All of these overlap in their province 75 WHAT OF THE CrfY? and are .distinctly independent in their powers from the city. They are corporations on an equahty with the cor- poration of the municipahty itself. Chicago has twenty-seven separate and distinct tnink lines of railroads. Thirty-five per cent of the city's great throbbing hub of commerce is occupied by railroad prop- erty. "All bound 'round" with steel highways, switch tracks, and. terminals, the Toop cries for freedom, hem- med in on three sides by railroads and cut off by the lake on the fourth. Scarcely any procedure is possible in public improve- ments, especially street improvements, without obligation on the part of the city to deal with railroad companies; The first street widening undertaken in the Plan of Chicago required the cooperation of four governing bodies and twelve distinct railroad companies. Five-eighths of the nearly 3,000,000 inhabitants of Chicago are either foreign born or of direct foreign parentage. Thirty-seven nationalities are represented in its citizenship. Chicago, according to the 1910 census, had 265,948 Austrians and Hungarians. This is a larger population than any city in Austria-Hungary excepting the capitals, Vienna and Budapest. Chicago has 501,832 Germans — more than half as many as Hamburg, Germany's second city, and one-sev- enth as many as Berlin, the capital. There are one-quarter as many Swedes in Chicago as in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. There are 75,000 Italians. This is equal to one-eighth the population of Naples, Italy's largest city. Norway is here with 47,235, one-fifth the population 76 ELEMENTS TO BE HARNESSED of Christiania. Ireland is represented by 204,821, one- half the population of Dublin, the Irish capital. Twenty thousand Hollanders, 184,757 Russians, 20,000 Danes, 65,000 English and 7,000 French, with all the other foreign population, in 19 10 amounted to 1,693,918 residents of foreign birth or direct extraction. Truly^Chicago^js a '^melting pot" of citizenship and a caldron of civilization. The Plan Commission is a cru- cible for the assimilation of all these elements. Harnessing the elements in certain American cities is a lawn tennis pastime compared to Chicago's task as revealed by these statistics. Albeit, on that score I declare the cities toughest of assimilation are the so-called "all- native-American" cities. I will take my chances on the " melting pot" every time. The cities of nearly-native-American population are steeped in prejudice, traditions, and class distinctions. These govern to the extent that real progress of any sort is like the old arithmetical problem: "If a frog in a well every time it jumps up one foot slips back three, how long will it take him to get out of the well ? " Although Chicago elementally is beset with nigre_com- plexities than any other American city, they are a bless- irig iiTHTsguise — not a handicap. What Chicago is sur- feited with on the one hand she makes up for in civic spirit on the other. It is Chicago's " I Will " spirit which grips the world's attention. The hope of the nation lies not in such of its cities as are steeped in tradition, and rampant in class distinction. It rests upon and forever will remain vested in the com- munities which are thoroughly cosmopolitan. 71 WHAT OF THE CITY? Nearly everybody's failures are due to the wrong way of proceeding. Some fail through sheer carelessness; some through ignorance. Ignorance is an inexcusable negative, which only in small part can be charged to inexperience. Every man can use his own reasoning and perceptive faculties in deciding the right way, or he can use those of another. The trouble is that most people act upon assumption. Proceeding on assumption is like sliding down a plank fresh from a coarse buzz-saw in a gossamer garment. The slow and painful progress is always disastrous. Why do not more people consult others about what they themselves do not know? Is it an all-consuming conceit? They walk right into things, without taking account of precedent, human events, or human nature. It is easier to walk in, than walk out. The return journey is either a swift slide or a long and sudden fall. A thud is poor compensation in front of a goal. Wisdom and judgment are the sundials of experience with both men and things. " Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread " is more true of private individuals and citizen bodies dealing with public authorities concerning the people's welfare than of any other toboggan of ill-considered approach. The main essentials cgusi^in educating the masses and swmgii-ig~the" city authorities into \me. TTTFmain thing is now? That now is the'^itbffiai'ine wreclecome more or less critical and expert about such things. Adopt a popular style, cut out grades, levels, and " " Enough," cried the lecturer, interrupting her, " and thanks, awfully. That's just what I wanted ; honest, con- structive criticism is so hard to obtain." Then followed a final revision which terminated in a continued refining process of the lecture in which all the best points gathered from the field of experience were blended. The schools helped greatly in this lecture work. The Board of Education placed the assembly halls of the schools at the disposal of the Plan Commission without price. The more recently constructed buildings have splendidly equipped halls with seating capacities capable of accommodating from five hundred to two thousand people. The older buildings, while naturally not so well equipped, have comfortable halls seating from two hun- dred and fifty to four hundred people. There are in all one hundred and fifty assembly halls in the public schools. 105 WHAT OF THE CITY? These are neighborhood meeting places and, scattered about in all parts of the city, they are of wonderful ad- vantage to any civic campaign where speaking is a requisite. ^ How to attract the people to the Plan of Chicago lec- tures in the schools was the task. Invitation to the par- ents from the pupils by the teachers was rejected as im- practicable. Requesting the presence of the parents in this way did not appear quite personal nor comprehen- sive enough in its appeal. Besides, it was desirable to reach as many adults in each neighborhood as possible, many of whom have no children attending the schools. A plan somewhat expensive but very effective was finally arranged. The capacity of the hall in the school where the lecture was to be given was ascertained. An address- ing company was then instructed to prepare addressed envelopes for twice as many people as the hall w.ould seat, selecting the names from a territory adjacent to and surrounding the school. These envelopes, stamped and mailed by the addressing company, contained an illus- trated lecture circular and two free family tickets. The body of these circulars was prepared in advance by the hundreds of thousands and when a lecture was ready to 1d€ billed, the addressing company printed the invitation with all details on the front page. This gave an "only and original" appearance to each issue of circulars. Avoidance of anything stereotyped is of extreme value in such matters. This method of invitation never failed in season to fill the halls to their utmost capacity. As many as ninety of these school lectures were delivered in a single winter season. The schools were selected in io6 PUBLICITY order and to equitably cover the city. The lecturing was all done by the three officers of the commission. In this lecture work it was determined to have the Plan pub- licly discussed by only those who were intimately familiar with every nook and cranny of it, so that there could be no possibility of misrepresentation or misinterpretation by anyone not thoroughly familiar with the Plan work. The lecture circulars — a three-page folder — were designed after the style of the popular paid lecture prop- aganda. They contained, in addition to attractive illus- trations, a printed tour of the world's cities visited by the stereopticon, a definite outline of city planning by the chairman, stimulating reference to a better city for all, a solution of our problems, a sketch of the author of the Plan and what was expected from the public to insure its success. As many as one hundred and fifty thousand of these circulars were mailed to citizens in a single sea- son. Thus a large distribution of important Plan matter was had. This had its effect on thousands who did not even attend the lectures. During the first seven years of the commission, nearly four hundred lectures were delivered. Fully half of these were delivered on invitation from all sorts of organiza- tions — churches, lodges, fraternities, women's clubs, commercial organizations, factories, social clubs, colleges, special schools, and interests. One hundred and sev- enty-five thousand people — one in every fourteen resi- dents of Chicago — have been directly reached with the Plan message. The four great educational mediums in advancing the Plan of Chicago — the press ; the Plan booklet, Chicago's 107 WHAT OF THE CITY? Greatest Issue; the school book; and the lecture course — were not without their special ramifications. Chief among their effective publicity aids was a motion picture campaign. This consisted of a two reel feature entitled, A Tale of One City. It contrasted Plan pro- posals with existing conditions and was interspersed with scenes of human interest and attraction about the city. It was difficult to blend still and motion pictures in reel form, but withal the exhibition was creditable and ef- fective. The reels were shown in more than sixty Chi- cago theaters to an estimated audience of more than one hundred and fift}'- thousand people. The opening week was at the palatial Majestic Theater and on the opening night the audience, which packed the house to capacity, was as representative as a grand opera occasion. Many other cities sought and secured the privilege of showing A Tale of One City. Many specific publications have been issued by the com- mission. These pertain to the various Plan projects that required special explanation and promotion at the time of their initial advancement. Notable among these was a large, handsome, and strikingly effective printed argu- ment with full-page drawings issued during the famous west side railway terminal negotiations between the city and the companies involving a sixty-five million dollar project. Another notable pamphlet was entitled. Fifty Million Dollars for Nothing. It showed the people of Chicago how they could obtain thirteen hundred acres of Lake Front parks, playgrounds, and watercourses by utilizing the waste material of the city — excavation material, old io8 Kansas City's heart. From 1898 to 1918 Kansas City increased in population ninety-two per cent. iJL«Afn OF THE PUBLICITY bricks and mortar, street sweepings, cinders and ashes. It pointed out that by so doing the city could secure in twelve years park lands, ready for development and worth fifty million dollars, at no cost whatever to the taxpayers. The most comprehensive and far-reaching specific re- port published by the commission was on the reclamation of South Water Street. Here is housed the great food produce market of the city. It completely absorbs that street, a most needed thoroughfare for traffic in the city's congested center. It is a nuisance, a conflagration dan- ger, a menace to the health of the people, and a huge economic loss within a stone's throw of the world's lead- ing shopping district. The commission, in this booklet, showed how the people could remove it and annually save for themselves in cost of food handling, traffic ease- ment, city revenue, and other benefits, the huge sum of five million dollars annually — enough in a single year to construct the improvement. There were many other special pamphlets and reports but, to cap all, the commission issued a family affair booklet not intended for the eyes of outsiders. This was entitled Chicago's IVorldzvide Influence in City Planning. It was not so much an attempt at "converting the church " as it was an effort to " keep the home fires burn- ing " with community confidence and devotion to its own Plan as it was regarded by the rest of the world. This was a compilation of comments and requests for Chicago Plan literature from hundreds of experts, civic workers, municipal authorities, libraries, schools, colleges, and pub- lic-spirited citizens received by the commission from all over the world. 109 WHAT OF THE CITY? Following the signing of the armistice in the Great War and the announcement of the " Reconstruction Platform " of the Chicago Plan Commission, to which the Chicago newspapers devoted twelve columns, an ap- peal was made to the clergy of the city to preach from their pulpits upon the humanitarian benefits in the Plan of Chicago. The commission's Seed Thoughts for Ser- mons — a compilation of the humanitarian and social arguments that had been advanced from time to time in the various publications of the Plan Commission — pointed out the close harmony between the social work in the churches and the benefits in the Plan. This docu- ment, together with a resolution and the " Reconstruction Platform" was sent by the commission to every clergy- man in Chicago. The literature of the Chicago Plan Commission has been sent on request to one hundred and ten cities in thirty-six states in the United States and to thirty-six cities in thirteen foreign countries. Chicago's pub- licity campaign on its great Plan has been big, far-reach- ing, inspiring, and effective. It points the way to the man who undertakes city planning work in America, showing him why and how he will have to get down to bedrock in his efforts. It proves to him that he will have to deal with fundamentals, and these he is told are three — the conception, the creation, and the promotion of the city plan. Behind the conception of a city plan, the first step — inspiration — is made clear. Next is blazoned the way to stir the hearts of men and to inspire in their minds that desire for better city conditions which are the fruits of well-executed city planning. Finally it shows no PUBLICITY what is necessary to awaken the people to the need of city- planning, and how they can be moved to action. These are the questions which immediately rise and must be successfully coped with when city planning effort is con- templated. Ill CHAPTER VIII MISAPPLIED ENERGY IT IS impossible to get away from the fact that every day good ideas fail of realization because they are advanced at the wrong time or in the wrong way. We hear the expression, " He is a man of ideas," as characterizing successful men of certain types. In itself that amounts to nothing. Just being a man of ideas is of no value whatever. It is the man of ideas who can "put them across" that counts. The world is full of men with still-born ideas. Getting an idea across often proves a bigger task than getting the idea. Failure to negotiate an idea is due to any number of causes, hurry being the principal one. It is said that the man who is in a hurry shows that his job is too big for him. Hurry and haste are vastly different things. Haste is desirable, hurry never. It is infinitely better to take ample tim.e in preparing the idea for a safe passage over than to see it wrecked on hurry's iceberg, only to find with dismay that the life- saving devices are inadequate. Steering an idea on the wrong course with inexpe- rienced, stubborn, or egotistical pilots at the wheel is a most frequent and flagrant abuse of endeavor. Misap- plied energy covers it in two w^ords. Nowhere in my long and varied experience in trying 112 MISAPPLIED ENERGY to get things somewhere have I witnessed a better ex- ample of misapphed city planning energy than in a cer- tain New England city. The City Planning Council, they called themselves, invited me to that city. I think they got me with the statement that my audience would include the governor of the state and the mayors of the leading cities. These, it transpired, could not be present because of "previous engagements." But no matter; in accept- ing the invitation to address this council, I expressly stip- ulated one hour and three-quarters as the time I should require for my illustrated lecture on twenty-four cities of the world. This was agreeable and the time was allotted, the only exception being one other address " not to exceed twenty minutes." Arriving at the Culture Club, I found the council gath- ered, and there w^as not one left-over to spare — not even a poor, little, old mayor from a crossroads corporation, much less the governor. That audience was so limited and select I fancy they all belonged to the Order of Tub- bers, whose ancestors landed early in America, yet several centuries after the Indians. To have added to their num- ber would have meant contaminating it w'ith the blood of rank outsiders. That was not what roused the ire in my soul, however, although it impressed me as rather expen- sive to travel a thousand miles to talk to a handful of people. The thing that got professionally " under my skin " was the number and style of the speeches which preceded mine. That city was served up to me table d'hote, a la carte, frapped, seasoned, sweetened, and pre- pared only as it could be done by the original Order of Tubbers. I never knew the place was so important be- • 113 WHAT OF THE CITY? fore. It took seven speeches to convince me, and when finally, at ten-thirty, the toastmaster announced my ad- dress, I knew that not even these gigantic intellects hun- gering and thirsting for more knowledge, would stand for another hour and three-quarters. Disdaining the ros- trum, I took the center of the floor and hurled at them, " You will never get anywhere." I have crawled under the tent of a circus; scaled the height of bleacher fences; ridden in a box car of a cat- tle train in Indian Territory; traveled by scow, buck- board, and horseback through innumerable miles of raw country; tried to get a good seat in a church of fashion- able pew holders ; negotiated a loan on my personal note in a high and mighty bank; interviewed potentates, plu- tocrats, highbrows, autocrats, celebrities, and grouches in many states and lands; but I have never before witnessed such extraordinary evidence of misapplied energy as con- fronted me on this occasion. The "not to exceed twenty-minute talk" which pre- ceded mine lengthened into three-quarters of an hour on a local good roads matter. The other six speeches in- formed me of the virtues of my hosts' city and the man- ner of its procedure in city planning. Perhaps I grew vexed when they told me that their state had more city planning boards than all the rest of the United States combined, but I think it was the description of the way they were going about their planning problem that got me started. It was either that or the cold, barnlike room of the Culture Club. At all events, I abandoned my lec- ture and told th^t council it would fail to get anywhere because it was working backwards. There was more, but 114 MISAPPLIED ENERGY that was the "kick off," as we say in football. The next noon a special luncheon was provided for me at the lead- ing downtown club. At this club meeting one of the city's most soulful, sobful, rhetorical flame-throwers was se- lected to admonish me gently for my breach of New England etiquette of the night before. Properly chastised after the fashion of the place, I was again announced as the speaker of the day, " Well," I said, starting in, " I don't want to leave this city with the feeling that I have been ungracious, al- though I may have been untactful. And that reminds me of some things I left unsaid last night, and I will take this opportunity which you have so kindly provided to mention them." I did, and that was the last of it or nearly so. On my way back to the hotel, I was inter- cepted by one of the " regular " folk of the place, who greeted me with, " You certainly handed it out right last night. Why didn't you let us know you were coming, some of us business men would have been glad to tip off some things to you so that you could have made your arraignment even stronger than it was ? " That council, true to my prediction, failed to get any- where. The reason I told them they would fail was because one of the seven, who had extolled his city at the Culture Club meeting, informed me that the principal educational propaganda of the council consisted of an exhibition of city planning drawings and data. It was actually devoting its sole energy to educating people who knew all about city planning. They are the only ones who attend such exhibitions. The masses who need en- lightenment, for they are the voters, do not attend. I 115 WHAT OF THE CITY? was also Informed that this council expected to influence the Legislature in the passage of an enactment giving •certain grants to cities to aid city planning. They had no plans, no public sentiment and hence no influence, but they were actually planning to secure an enactment from the Legislature. That is why I told them they were working backward. This council was largely composed of technical and professional people. It lacked the balance and support that could have been given it by a reasonable blending of prominent business men and leaders in other walks of life. The entire history of the world of promotion indi- cates that failure has often been due to organized effort made top-heavy with specific interests. Misapplied energy in city planning is a common fault. I have dwelt upon the lecture incident because it so aptly illustrates the subject of this chapter. It occurred in a city where city planning has been talked and projected for two decades — a city that boasts of its position in the world of city planning, but which has no plan of its own and no movement yet organized to obtain a plan. The fault of mistaken procedure does not lie in mak- ing mistakes but in repeating them and in refusing to profit by the experience of others. Our American cities are interdependent. Each needs every bit of practical experience that may be obtained from any source. The first evidence that a planning body is on the right track is shown in its reaching out for knowledge from every possible source. There appears to be less breadth among city planning authorities in this respect than in almost any other profession. ii6 bfl & c ji; -a 3 a o "O >, t« -n nj E :s -a c -o 03 \o fj . Tt -^ Ih r'j m Tt b/) '^ tn =! j^ J= u O rt XJ bf) G3 T7 t:^ T) yj ^%^^' MISAPPLIED ENERGY The first thing that made the Chicago World's Cohim- bian Exposition so marvelous an architectural triumph was the breadth of policy pursued by its director of works and its board of directors in obtaining the best talent the entire country afforded. When plans for the Administra- tion Building were under discussion, the question was asked, " Who is the foremost architect in the country on that particular style of architecture?" This query answered, the "best" man was commissioned at once. Next perhaps it was the Fine Arts Buiiding, "Who is the best for that style? " was asked. The right man hav- ing been selected, he was promptly requested to take over its planning and construction. " Who is the ablest land- scape architect?" came up in order. The right man named, he was invited to take that feature over, and so it went all down the line until there was assembled the most formidable array of architects and artists in the entire country, each being placed in absolute charge of the thing he, of all others, was fitted to do. This same broad policy was, to a greater or less degree, employed in the creation of the Plan of Chicago, so that today the whole technical world knows that the Plan's general recommendations are sound and will stand un- challenged. Details may be disputed when a phase of the Plan is put to the test of actual construction, but the principles have not been and cannot be controverted. People may be found in every community who are so constituted they cannot or will not ride with any pro- gressive program for the general welfare. People of this nature usually class themselves as " reformers " or they are classed as such. They attack everything of a public 117 WHAT OF THE CITY? nature not of their own making, but they seldom originate and they never do anything or follow anything con- structive. The Chamber of Commerce of a large middle western city invited me to lecture on " Right Citizenship in Rela- tion to City Planning." The Plan Commission in that city was not affiliated with this influential body and it was not a party to the invitation. The morning of the lecture — I had arrived in the city the night before — the president of thie Plan Commission, whom I had never met, called me over the telephone at my room in the hotel to say that he did not want me to say anything about their local plans during my lecture. He anticipated exactly what I had intended to do and I was surprised, of course, and considerably taken aback, because I had posted myself about the local plan and, knowing the city well, I had intended to give the Plan Commission a good boost, but I promised instead to say nothing. Seven hundred leading business men attended the lecture — a force greatly to be desired by that Plan Commission but which was denied it because of its repellent ways — and during the lecture a splendid opportunity was presented to say just the most helpful thing about local' city plan- ning. Forgetting my promise, I gave that commission the best send-ofif I was capable of, including its president. I called upon that great crowd of business stalwarts to fall in behind its plan and its commission and the sug- gestion was received with applause. The next day that same president took the more courte- ous route of calling upon me personally, instead of calling me up. Such a change in a man I never before have ii8 MISAPPLIED ENERGY witnessed. Of course, being a big man — for that is what at heart he really was — he profusely apologized and tendered me a private luncheon to meet some of his associates. He said, " I made a terrible mistake, because we badly need the sort of 'help you gave us, and especially do we need the help of the business men, which I realize only too clearly now ; but I am most worried over the way I treated you," "Well," I said, "don't lose any sleep on that account. Only, if you had not stopped me at the outset, you would have had full measure instead of half a loaf." That Plan Commission has made very little progress although it is in a city where the need for city planning is a UTost glaring one and its plan is really good. Now, with the reconstruction period following the Great War upon us, it means that a double burden must be carried — that of overcoming past failures and that of planning and executing new successes. More than ever American cities are now crying for long deferred betterments for their people, such as only scientific city planning can supply. Not an ounce of wisdom, energy, or execution should be lost through wrong methods of procedure. 119 CHAPTER IX MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES FREQUENTLY in America, in speaking of Ameri- can municipal rule, we hear the expression, " That coarse-grinding and slow-grinding thing." A companion expression to this is, " Graft is extant everywhere in our municipal governments." Neither of these expressions is fair to the situation. Graft we have, to be sure, and there alwaj^s will be graft everywhere in the world and there always has been in every form of government. Slow-grinding and coarse-grinding tactics and the prod- uct of these are encountered, and we know that the best economic results, the kind of results that are obtained in great private enterprises, are not had from city cor- porations. Knowing all these things and surveying the situation with a critical, yet fair eye, it must be admitted that the average of results for progressive, honest, and efficient government and a betterment of living con- ditions in cities is good. This average undoubtedly applies also to the graft situation. A general betterment of municipal government and a higher order of honesty and efficiency is unquestionably currently existent. The days of the political "muckraker," the "croaker," and the professional uplifter, and academic reformer have passed. They never have had any actual place in the sincere effort for betterment of municipal conditions in I20 MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES our country and their accomplishments to that end have amounted to little or nothing. The steady progress for the past decade toward better things in American cities is a direct outgrowth of the proper economic conception of improvements on the part of the people, and the adoption of more scientific ways of doing public things based upon it. One thing is certain — the character of our municipal government is in exact ratio to the desire and the decree of our people. Governments do not create themselves, neither do municipalities. These are made by the people and it is well, in considering them, to temper judgment with reason and wisdom. Nowhere is there a better ex- emplification of an " undesirable citizen " than is found in the man who stays away from the primaries and seldom goes to the polls Or any election. When he does go, hav- ing made no study of the qualifications of the candidates, he usually votes for the wrong man; and later, when his city is confronted with evidences of inefficient and dishonest government, he lifts his hands up in pious dismay and, in the most scathing terms, excoriates the rottenness of municipal conditions. Such a citizen is, as the lawyers would say, an accessory to the crime before and after the fact. There are no extenuating cir- cumstances in his case which entitle him to the mercy of the court. Those who have studied municipal development abroad know that in certain foreign countries cities are improved in the most orderly and attractive manner, that the government is highly scientific and therefore honest, and that these results are secured with economy and dispatch. 121 WHAT OF THE CITY? What is imposed upon the citizens of those countries to produce these results? Where is the American who is wilhng to admit he holds all his possessions in equity with his neighbor? In the matter of realty holdings, the average American citizen is satisfied with the most strin- gent laws insofar as they affect and regulate his neighbor's use of property but he does not willingly recognize any law whatsoever relating to his own. Undeniably the most scientific municipal government in the world is found in the countries of monarchical form of government. Monarchies, empires, and every- thing that smatters of the imperialistic and autocratic are despised things in the world today and justly so. How then in America can we do those things which are so clearly to be desired in our municipalities, and which in other countries are the result of imperial decree, unless we individually, as citizens, come to appreciate our own responsibility in such things? Graft? Well, as for that, the monarchical forms of government are not without graft. The difference simply is that there the potentates themselves get all the money, while in America it is at least pretty well distributed. The three richest men in the world have been declared to be the rulers of certain foreign countries. How were the colossal riches of these men obtained? This is not difficult to answer; they were the greatest grafters the world ever produced. The levies on the people in their respective countries for their enormous royal coffers cause to pale into insignificance the imposi- tions endured by the citizens in American municipalities. There is a lot of play these days on the word 122 MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES " efficiency " and the expression " get together," but common sense is blue-white quality, one hundred per cent proof, and selling above par today, just as it did when Moses' motheV placed him in the bulrushes. She knew what she was doing — there was method in it — if Moses didn't. The fact that he was too young to understand had nothing whatever to do with his becoming the law- giver. It is not always necessary to make the other felloW understand, but it is absolutely essential that you yourself know what you are doing. Then, when the time comes to make him understand, you will not back- reel on your own fishing rod. Nothing makes a public official so mad or so elusive as a committee of citizens who sally forth, with Civic Righteousness grasped in one hand and Ignorance cupped in the other, to tell him that old stuff about " the people's rights " and his " duty as a servant." How they love that "servant" stunt. I have seen citizens in city plan- ning forums wail and gnash their teeth in outraged civic impotency, only to return to nurse their offended great- ness and civic patriotism by inflicting it upon their neigh- bors and otherwise peaceful wives and children. Now, a public official is human. Besides he is not only a servant, but he is the representative, the plenipotentiary, you-yourself, clothed with power to sit in the seats of the mighty. You can reach him with the same tactics you wouM use to reach the Doctor of Divinity, the iceman, the physician, the janitor, the capitalist, Bill Jones, Pat Hogan, or Mrs. Grundy. A public official can hear you ; he will understand you if you walk right up to him, natural-like, and say, "This 123 WHAT OF THE CITY? is the coldest winter we ever have had, but it will be hot again next summer; perhaps hotter than last summer be- cause of this season's intense cold. We get an average amount of weather every year anyhow, and usually ex- tremes by contrast. This reminds me, we ought to do something about getting more playgrounds for the chil- dren. How many kiddies have you? Eh, is that so? I've got two fine boys myself. They are kicking about playing ball in the streets because the lots near us have all been built up so fast. We need more playgrounds under city management and you and I are both interested. I am going to send you a plan and some ideas we have worked out with our expert. Let's get together on this later if we can." This isn't highbrow but it's human. If it is used and followed up it will win. But so many would-be-reformers appear at the Council Chamber with hundred-mile looks in their eyes, and start in with, " Mr. Public Official, you're the servant of the people. Don't you ever forget that. We have come here to tell you that you are remiss, etc." When they get that far, "Mr. Servant" either tilts his big black cigar and blows the room so full of smoke that you can't see the issue, or suddenly he remembers an engagement in the anteroom and ducks out. The chair- man, who cannot go out because he is the chairman, smiles an anaemic sort of grin and says, " Gentlemen, perhaps you are right, but as there is no quorum present, I will ask you to file your papers with the committee, and " What happens? A new page is written in the history 124 MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES of misspent zeal in a good cause gone wrong in the hands of fooHsh citizens. " Nonsense," you say, " the only way to get along with a public official is to roll up a big wave of public opinion and then walk right in and tell him where he gets off." One of the funny things about this "getting off" busi- ness is that usually these self-constituted guardians of the public welfare forget to roll up the big wave. They tr}^ to hit it off alone. It doesn't require a Socrates to figure; out the result. " No use trying anything else," this crowd will argue, " aim true and hit hard." All they have to show for it is a row of broken knuckles. Do they get anywhere — -these hard hitters? They do not, and that isn't the funniest part of it. Because they fail somehow their resentment mounts and is perpetuated, and out of it is bred new generations of "hard hitters." Always you hear them say, " Straight out for the probos- cis is the only way. Tell 'em where they get off, that's the thing." Why do some people forget that our officials are good or bad — our government corrupt or honest — in exact proportion to the goodness or badness, the decency or the honesty of the people themselves? We must learn to be fair as well as accurate in our analysis af local conditions. Naturally, in advancing the Plan of Chicago, the Plan Commission has been in con- stant contact not only with government procedure but with the administrators thereof — the city authorities — and while our laws have been found cumbersoipe and our methods of procedure uneconomic and unscientific in 125 WHAT OF THE CITY? some respects our authorities have been aggressive and progressive. They have supported the betterment proj- ects of all the people with enthusiasm and vision. This they did when these projects were vague in the public mind because the idea of their benefits had not been sufficiently established and could not be until the im- provements were completed and fulfilling the needs of the people. It is folly and injustice to constantly berate public officials for nonperformance or misperformance when, in reality, the blame for these often rests with the sys- tem of municipal government and the niggardly pay in many instances of city employes. I remember a familiar figure about town — a roust- about — who had tried and failed at everything. Finally he disappeared for a long time. On his return, dressed in a battered top hat and rusty, frayed frock coat, he was greeted by an acquaintance who accosted him with, "Well, where have you been and what are you doing now?" " Preaching," was the prompt reply. "Preach- ing ! " exclaimed his acquaintance, " pretty poor pay, isn't it?" "Yes, and its pretty poor preaching, too," was the reply. The underpaying of most municipal and of nearly all other governmental officials apparently has been estab- lished in America as a measure of economy, but it has proven to be most uneconomic. It has been a case of pretty poor pay and pretty poor results. We should pay our public officials enough to attract good ones, see to it that we do get good ones and then back them up. When that is done, we shall have a vastly more beneficial 126 MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES order of things in America. Meanwhile we must do the best we can with what we have. For good order and poor order, whichever the case, the people are responsible, not those whom they elect. After all is said and done, it is likely that many public officials need encouragement more than condemnation. Our people do not look deeply into the reason for things. When these are wrong they do not condemn the system, when that is at fault, because this in its last analysis would mean condemning themselves, and so they blame those whom they place in office. In Chicago, in 191 8, the pay of an alderman was raised from $3,000 to $3,500 per annum. The increase was made by the aldermen themselves. Well, if an alderman of a city of first rank, the business of the City Council of which is the greatest in that city, is not worth $3,500 per year, what is he worth ? Not much, to be sure. We should not tolerate a condition of affairs that makes it necessary for an alderman to raise his own salary to obtain an ordinary living wage. Such matters should be adjusted by fair and proper constitutional enactments. Another flagrant evidence of injustice in our large cities is the salary of our school teachers, whom someone has characterized as "missionaries of God for the en- lightenment of the people," and to whom we entrust not only the education of our children but the development of their morals as well. Elementary school teachers do not receive a better wage than a stenographer or an ordinary office clerk. In certain instances they receive less. Little wonder that we stand aghast at the poor progress of our children, if indeed we give the matter any 127 WHAT OF THE CITY? thought at all. In fact, few salaries in educational fields are what they should be. Daniel Webster said : " The cheapest thing in all the world is brains — brains, the principal thing upon which everything in the world de- pends for success." We pay the president of the United States $75,000 per year. It is not many years ago that his salary was raised from $50,000 per year, and this was not accomplished without a great deal of grumbling by many of the repre- sentatives of the people in the national government. The president of the United States is the chief executive of the richest nation in the world. The king of England and his family receive $2,500,000 per year and that largely is a matter of tradition — to keep up appearances, so to speak — for his power and his responsibility are only a fraction of that of our own president. We can learn many very profitable points in matters of government and economic procedure in all things from the countries of Europe — not, however, from the pro- portion of the king of England's salary. One of the best things we can learn is to respect and support public men and private citizens who do meritorious things for their fellows. In some European countries, if a private citizen as- sumes large responsibilities of a public nature, he- is honored by his government by an award of special orders, conferred as a mark of esteem and appreciation. In America, too often, the query is: "What is he going to get out of it?" or "What is there in it for him?" This slur is a common practice in discussing public officials — "servants of the public," we term them. We 128 ^ 2 -a J^ 'u'^ fc . ii-^ ''' 5 ^ rt D s»\^ .s^^^ .^'^'^ MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES are all in the world for service, if we understand what we are here for at all, and the finest thing in the world is real service for others. The value of the service and the appreciation with which it should be received ought not to be minimized because it is paid for. "Servant" is a fine word; the term "public servant" was intended to be a mark of distinction, but we are prone to take the expression in its meanest and lowliest sense. The Chicago Plan Commission has achieved results by working hand in hand with the city officials. Upon this subject its chairman said in his address before the Fifth National Conference on City Planning: In Chicago, in our Plan work, we proceed upon the assumption — and it is an assumption that I believe is amply justified — that the average man in an official position is a man devoted to the faithful performance of his duty as related to the welfare of his city. I sincerely believe that the reason why many people interested in movements devoted to civic advance fail in their efforts is because they do not encourage the sym- pathy and gain the close acquaintance of the men who administer public affairs in the United States. In Chicago we place implicit reliance upon our city officials. We cultivate official acquaintance in all city departments which affect our work, and the progress we have made has been possible because, during the life of our commission we have had ii> places of power men of bigness in business capacity and of brain and of broad sympathies who have recognized the fundamental im- portance of city planning in the welfare of the people. We have frequent meetings to discuss city planning details and to project programs for immediate future effort and to these meetings we invite the administrative 129 WHAT OF THE CITY? heads of our city government. We keep closely in touch with and encourage the interest also of our state and county officials, from whom we hj^ve always had effective support. We are believers in " get together " meetings and we practice our belief in them all the time. The city planner and the public official must go hand in hand to get results. This course of putting trust in public officials is proving its wisdom every day. In evidence of this I cite the fact that even now, though the Plan of Chicago has not been officially adopted as a whole, there is a tacit agreement under which the Plan Commission is being consulted before the beginning of any great city work coming within its scope. This is good gospel and good practice to be fol- lowed anywhere but almost universally the reverse of these tactics is employed. It is a common fault of many citizen bodies to attempt to work out their plans without the knowledge or the help of the city authorities whom they regard as desirable to be avoided until they are ready to go before them for assistance when, to their chagrin and possible defeat, they receive in its stead only a cold shoulder. In a powerful editorial upon the subject, " Responsi- bility for Bad Government," the Chicago Daily News summed it up in this w^ay : If citizens who profess to desire good government vote for inferior, weak, unfit-men or fail to vote and leave the choice to machine-controlled elements, the ultimate responsibility for bad government falls upon them. The people in a democratic community have the kind of administration they wish or deserve. Active work on behalf of good government is and always will be the price of good government. 130 MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES This platform is frequently promulgated in every one of Chicago's powerful newspapers, the American, the Evening Post, the Journal, the Daily News, the Herald- Examiiwr and the Tribune — these are continually and in unison preaching the doctrine of good government. That is one of the principal reasons for Chicago being one of the best governed cities in the United States. Sel- dom has a graft scandal been heard of in Chicago; and on the few occasions when charges of graft have been thrust before the public notice, they have not been proven. All that is necessary to perceive the abundant evidence of good government in Chicago is to note the nature, extent, and quality of city betterments and to contrast these, considered as to the city's limited corporate revenue, with those of other large cities. The mission of the people is to elect fit men to public office and when that is done, to give them encourage- ment and backing. The mission of the public press is to ferret out the unfit in public office and to admonish the people to be more watchful and active and to urge the authorities to the maximum degree of performance in the public weal. In cities where these powerful allies of progressiveness and righteousness prevail there is little room for criticism by the people and seldom is any heard. Ever and ever is the world of men and things moving nearer and nearer its triumphant goal of cooperation and not opposition. The dawning of a new day will have begun throughout the world when " efficiency " shall no longer be a byword but the most purposeful and mean- ingful word of the civilized tongue. 131 T CHAPTER X SOME REASONS FOR HASTE HE most uneconomic thing imaginable is the man- ner in which pubHc improvements are made in cities in the United States. Europe would laugh at the way we do these things. Take a street widening or cutting project, for example. The time and expense needed to .educate the public ; the loss in time from the moment the city actually begins proceedings until the improvement is finished is enormous. Legal barriers over the property to be taken, entailing diminution in property values and rentals, and the cumbersome legal procedure necessary before the city can acquire the re- quired property, combine to put a hardship upon the private property involved, to deprive the people of the improvement for years and to cause a loss that, if it could be eliminated by better methods, often would be ample to pay for the improvement. There are many causes for this absurd and unscien- tific way of going about the undertaking. The fault is only in part due to the laws under wdiich a condemnation suit is tried, although the laws of themselves in most states where the right of excess condemnation is not provided for, are antiquated, cumbersome, and almost devoid of ordinary common sense or justice. But this is only one reason. Other elements causing long, un- 132 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE necessary, and expensive delays are : the objections of selfish property owners who attempt to hold up the city in a good deal; politics; the dilly-dallying tactics of care- less municipal employes and authorities; the foolish and unnecessary bickering of public bodies where more than one is a party to the case; and the machinations of pro- fessional agitators and the like who infest the public hearings with the intolerable nuisance of their presence. These prevail in every such case despite the pleadings of the Plan Commission, city authorities, and the news- papers. The press of a progressive city is always and uniformly in favor of wise public improvements. State laws can be amended and simplified; larger powers may be granted the city without in the slightest degree taking that which rightfully belongs to the prop- erty owner. Fewer expensive experts and lawyers would be necessary to bolster up the city's case if cities had the rights and powers which eventually they must acquire if city planning is to be facilitated in America. Changing and improving the laws, however, would only partly correct the faults that cause interminable and expen- sive delays whenever a public improvement is under- taken. A better knowledge of the benefits of city planning will stimulate the people to action and put to rout the mischievous and vicious agitator. The people also have the power to regulate designing political office holders and employes. The most difficult thing of all is to curb the selfishness of the property owners who, in every improvement for all the people, see only an oppor- tunity to enrich themselves. Then, too, there is every once in a while a property owner who opposes an im- 133 WHAT OF THE CITY? provement through sheer ignorance, as in the Ogden Avenue improvement in Chicago, where the only one objection that was raised by a property owner was based upon the claim that the extension would wipe out a busi- ness corner. This single objection was caused purely through stupidity because the facts in the case showed that the location in question, by slight alteration to fit the new street, would be a more remarkable and strategic business point than ever before and greater than could possibly be the case if the new street were not put through exactly as planned. Another serious element of delay is the frequency of changes in political offices. The average office seeker spends months in campaigning to secure an office. If he is successful, months pass before he is sufficiently well established in it to give attention to city planning matters. Scarcely has he begun to get the swing of things and to lend his support to Plan projects when another election rolls around. If he is reelected, it is not so bad; but if he is defeated, the process of reestablishment must begin all over again for the city planner, only to be repeated every time an election comes, which, to the patient planner, seems to occur wellnigh every other month. Where a city, at work on a plan, is obliged to deal with the federal, state, county, and city administrations, it is not an infrequent experience that no sooner is every- thing straightened out and running smoothly with one body when along comes an election and upsets everything Math another body. Every project in the Plan of Chi- cago, whether only recommended by the Plan Commis- 134 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE slon or adopted by the city, has survived three changes in city administration, two national, three county and three state. Not a single one of these projects is as yet finished. It is because of all these things that it is clearly the mission of every citizen who has the city's welfare at heart to study the needs of his city, to familiarize him- self with its plan, if it has one, and to get behind that plan and help to push the work as rapidly as possible. When there is added to all other delays public indifference and inertia, then city planning becomes a long, hard, expensive struggle for which, in the end, the taxpayer foots the bills. He plays against himself and cheats himself in the bargain. If the situation were not so serious, the time it takes to realize any public construction project in America would be a joke, but it is no laughing matter. A gentle- man in a neighboring city told me he was a member of the Public Library Board that, for seventeen years, had been trying to get a new building and which only then was nearing completion. No wonder the people grow discouraged or look with apathy and suspicion on pro- posed new improvement projects. Most of them expect to die long before a shovel of dirt is turned or a brick laid, and they are not greatly interested in who shall come after them. The average citizen will cheerfully back a public improvement of which he expects to enjoy the benefits; but it requires a tremendous amount of exer- tion to induce him to pay for parks and streets and build- ings for his children's children's children, and there is no reason why he should. Every generation might easily enjoy the benefits of as much city planning as could be 135 WHAT OF THE CITY? carried out in its day if the people would only come to realize this and demand action by the authorities. H they can be convinced that a street widening- may be secured in two or three years, including every step of negotiation and construction, instead of in five or ten years, then they will see to it that reasonable haste is made. The best example that possibly could be cited of what may be accomplished when speeding up public im- provements is recorded in the statement of Charles M. Schwab on *'Our Industrial Victory" in winning the war. The Tuckahoe, a fifty-five hundred ton cargo boat or collier was built in twenty-seven days. The Invincible, a twelve thousand ton vessel, was built in twenty-four days. The Crawl Keyes, a thirty-five hundred ton boat was built in -a Great Lakes shipyard in fourteen days. This was a freighter. The Gray's Harbor Motor Ship, a wooden vessel, was built in seventeen and one-half days. Mr. Schwab adds that: Before the war the Tuckahoe would have taken a year or a year and a half to build, the Invincible, nine months or one year, and the good Lord only knows how long it would have taken to build a wooden boat. In Chicago it is fifteen years since the great plan for Lake Front parks was first proposed. There are no parks yet. It is eight years since the first step was taken to widen Twelfth Street. This was only pardy finished when our country entered the war and the work on it was practically stopped. It is ten years since the north extension of Michigan Avenue was seriously proposed 136 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE and five years since the ordinance for its construction was passed. Yet, in the summer of 19 18, this was only half accomplished. In the same year the city became engaged in building the famous Franklin-Orleans Street bridge, although it had been proposed twenty-two years before and periodically urged ever since. Apparently the best or at least the only way to do things in American cities is to jam them through regard- less of "custom, law, the pope, or the king," if an official can be found who is willing to assume such tactics and aggressive methods. That is exactly what Michael J. Faherty, president of the Board of Local Improvements in Chicago did. But for his pains he earned only the condemnation of many of his associate authorities and very little appreciation from the people. Some day Chicago will realize that Faherty did a great thing by doing, in the quickest way, the right thing, even if some- times contrary to prescribed "proper procedure." The trouble with many of our authorities, most of our laws, and practically every lawyer is that they are hide-bound with "proper procedure." The main thing is to accom- plish a task — do it according to the proper code if possible — but if you can't, do it anyway. The people of Chicago wanted the Plan projects recommended by the Plan Commission and adopted by the City Council carried out as quickly as possible and Faherty found a way to do it. The usual process is by extended and expensive propa- ganda by the Plan Commission to educate the people and arouse them to action. That accomplishes an instant and willing response by the people. Then the interminable 137 WHAT OF THE CITY? delays which for various reasons beset the pathway of every pubHc improvement. Without Plan Commission aggressiveness to keep the projects alive, a man would be bold indeed who would undertake to predict the time when a city would get its improvements. Of course this is not applicable to Chicago. It is intended for the other cities where such conditions prevail and the picture will hold true generally. The benefits of city planning have not been understood in America; therefore little has been accomplished. The laws under which public improvements can be made re- quiring the taking of private property, have been based upon limited theory and do not fit great improvements costing millions of dollars. For petty cases like alley and street-paving requirements they have served fairly well. Imagine the utter absurdity of a law that required the city in a street widening case, to pay a property owner for all his property and allow him to retain title to the re- mainder where the whole piece is not required. A case of this character is on record in the Chicago Michigan Ave- nue widening case, where the city needed only a portion of a lot. Under the law it paid for the entire parcel but the owner retained title to the rest. Within six months after, this owner sold the remaining piece for $266,000, which was a far larger sum than the entire lot was valued at when the case was in court. His huge profit, due to the betterment of the thoroughfare, was made on a very small piece of his original holding, the majority of it having been taken by the city for the widening. As for the property owner who refuses to accept a fair and full cash price for his property and fights to 138 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE exact a big one from the city, no law will ever be made to eliminate him, but he will efface himself in time by experience with the courts. When these experiences be- come known they will help to efface the rest of his ilk. While the laws were made in ignorance of real city planning needs and based somewhat on fear that, if the property owner was not over-protected, public opinion could not be mustered behind an improvement, a new order has obtained in cities. We have come to learn that the good of the few must give way to the good of the many, just as we learned in the Great War that indi- vidual interest must give way to national interests. In- adequate as the laws in most states are, and notwith- standing they favor the property owners rather than the city as an inducement to the property owner to assist in the making of public improvements, it was never in- tended that these advantages and benefits to the private individual should encourage him to hold up the city, or that, failing in this he would refuse to part with his property and fight the City to the highest courts for the exaggerated value he set upon it, which meant also fight- ing the city to keep it from obtaining the property. A case now more or less celebrated in Chicago occurred in one of its great street widening projects where the court appraisers set a value upon the property based upon ex- pert survey of surrounding values and the most recent sales. The owner came into court with an array of ex- perts, which cost him $90,000 in retainers' fees, and at- tempted to show that he should receive from the city four times as much as the court commissioners' valuation. Meanwhile the city, desiring to avoid long and expensive 139 WHAT OF THE CITY? litigation with this single owner, offered him twenty-five per cent more than the court appraisal for a settlement out of court. This was a considerable sum, amounting to about $150,000. It was refused by the owner and he allowed the case to go to trial, demanding a jury trial. It took three months in the hearing, costing the owner and the city about $200,000. The jury evened things up in the fair interests of all the people by awarding him in their valuation $25,000 less than the original court ap- praisers had valued his property at and $175,000 less than he could have obtained from the city in a private settlement and $275,000 less than his entire loss amounted to, including the fees of his experts paid to beat the city. This owner appealed his case to the Supreme Court but that tribunal upheld the findings of the lower court. It will not require many results of this kind from court action in major public improvements to educate the grasping unpublic-spirited property owner more rapidly and effectively than any amount of plead- ing, dickering, and negotiation could possibly do. Sectional prejudice is a cause in some cities for de- lays. A city plan has to begin somewhere. The common sense place for a beginning is where improvements affect- ing the most people are worst needed. Wisdom also dic- tates making them in localities where values are changing so rapidly as to make needed improvements almost pro- hibitive if delayed too long. Besides these reasons, natu- rally the logical place to begin the construction of the plan of the city is at the foundation. In such matters the citizens must be broad, and they usually are. They must realize the need of the whole city first and of local sec- 140 .^ ^% >.>\>^* SOME REASONS FOR HASTE tions second. In all things relating to the welfare of the city where the vote of the people is necessary, the citizens usually take a progressive stand. The fault is that they do not take the proper initiative in making their position known to their representatives in public office. The fact is, we elect our public officials without de- termining, in the first instance, whether they are fit for the public duties to which they aspire, and, in the second instance, when they are elected, we turn them loose and forget all about them. Everything has its day and even- tually the public official who ignores the expressed will of the people comes to grief. A better day is dawning for some phases of city planning. Citizens whose property is directly affected are beginning to learn that cooperation and not opposi- tion is the sensible and economic course to pursue. Usu- ally, in the past, groups of owners have been organized to fight the Plan, but they have learned that locking horns with the city authorities results only in delay and increased expense to both parties. The only quick, efficient and mutually satisfactory course is for the prop- erty owners to organize in advance in order to cooperate with the city and the Plan Commission. Only highly beneficial results to both sides can result from such a relationship. There were many examples of the unwise reversal of this policy in the famous Twelfth Street widening and Michigan Avenue extension improvements in Chicago. One of the best examples of dispatch in modern-day city planning relates to a public improvement in Buenos Aires. That proud and beautiful city, known as the 141 WHAT OF THE CITY? *' Paris of South America," was, on occasion, to enter- tain an international conclave. With all of the city's beautiful development, it was not proud of a certain squalid area near the center of the city. Buenos Aires determined to correct this fault so that it would not offend the eyes of its visitors from all over the world. The city went at the task with a will and in ninety days several blocks of property had been condemned, the buildings removed, the space graded and the entire area planted to grass, shrubs, and trees. When the visitors arrived they saw a fine park surrounding an imposing building. The people of Buenos Aires looked upon their city as their larger home. They were about to entertain com- pany and they wanted their guests to have the best possible impression of their city. This idea would be an excellent angle from which to proceed in America, although a well-ordered home should be a matter of cul- ture and not of pretense. In the trial of the condemnation suits of Michigan Avenue and Twelfth Street, Chicago was fortunate that its legal interests were in charge of a lawyer of exceptional legal acumen as well as high-mindedness for his city's welfare. This was Eugene H. Dupee, special counsel of the Board of Local Improvements. Mr. Dupee is not only a gifted lawyer especially trained in the condemnation branch of the law, but he comes from one of Chicago's fine old families. Dupee had the best sort of heritage for city planning inspiration, besides having been es- pecially assigned to work on the Plan of Chicago for the city from its very inception. His knowledge of proce- dure was exact and complete. 142 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE The laws under which public improvements are made differ in each state, but the Illinois Local Improvement Act is generally conceded to be the best measure of its kind yet enacted in this country. At that it is cumber- some and the cause of much unnecessary delay. Indicative of the almost universal difficulty and ex- cessive length of time required in making public im- provements in any American city, let us trace from begin- ning to end the procedure which must be followed in Chicago. In the first place, under the state law all improvements are either " local " or " general." A local improvement is one mainly benefiting a specific adjacent locality, and can be paid for in whole or in part by special assessments upon benefited property. A general improvement — one of benefit to the entire city — must be paid for out of the city's general funds or through a bond issue. Two restrictions affect the issuance of bonds. The first is the small limit — five per cent of the assessed value — placed upon the city's borrowing power by the state legislature. The second is the need for a majority vote on such bond issue at an election. In the case of local improvements, where only part of the cost is ob- tained by special assessment, the city's share for public benefit must be secured through a bond issue. General improvements are made under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Public Works, while local im- provements come within the authority of the Board of Local Improvements. In Chicago this board consists of five members, appointed by the mayor and the City Council. 143 WHAT OF THE CITY? Suggestions for local improvements may be made by property owners to this board, or the board can itself begin proceedings for the making of such improvements. The first step is the adoption by the board of a resolution describing the proposed improvement. This description must note any private property to be taken or damaged and must include an estimate of cost. The size, character, and location of such an improvement determines the length of time required for the preparation of this esti- mate and resolution. The time needed may vary from several months to several years, as exemplified by the Twelfth Street and Michigan Avenue improvements. The board's resolution must set a date for a pul^lic hearing concerning such improvement, not less than ten days after the adoption of the resolution. Notice of such improvement proposal and of such public hearing must be sent to the owner of each lot fronting on such pro- posed improvement. Frequently such notices are sent to all property owners in the zone of assessment as well. although that is not required by the law. These notices must be mailed not less than five days before tlie date of the public hearing. This means a delay of at least half a month between the date of the board's adoption of the resolution and the date of public hearing. At the public hearing any citizen may appear and speak either for or against the improvement. Anyone has the right to endorse or object to either its necessity, nature, or cost. Here there is a chance for considerable delay. Public hearings can be continued from time to time over a period of years before the board acts on any suggested project. 144 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE Then after the board reaches a favorable decision, thirty days must elapse before anything else is done. This time is allowed for opposing property owners to present objections. Tf, during this period, more than half the property owners along the path of the improve- ment sign a protest against it, no further action can be taken upon it for one year. After thirty days have passed without a majority pro- test, the board formally approves the improvement. This is in the shape of a recommendation to the City Council, accompanied by an estimate of cost and an ordinance describing the proposed work in all its details, together with the land to be taken or damaged. The information in this ordinance must be so complete that contractors can bid from it for the actual construction work. Months may be required in its drafting, and great care must be taken, as it cannot be amended. Even under the most favorable conditions, there must be considerable delay in the City Council. All ordinances before they can be acted upon must be published in the council proceedings, which causes at least a week's delay. Most ordinances have to be sent to some council com- mittee for consideration before the council as a whole takes action. Here again comes delay. All proposed improvements are open to full public inspection and consideration before such council committee. This involves more public hear- ings, more debates, more objections, more delays. Fre- quently changes are ordered, and- this causes additional delay. At these council committee hearings any citizen may be heard at length, either for or against the project. 145 WHAT OF THE CITY? Some public improvements have been held up for years before action was had by council committees. After favorable action by the committee, indefinite delay is possible if the City Council does not give prompt consideration to the ordinance, or if it again refers it to a committee for changes suggested by any of its seventy members. Or it may refer it to another council commit- tee, whose interests might also be affected, where the same tedious procedure must be repeated. The mayor becomes the next factor in an improve- ment ordinance, having the power either to veto or approve it. As the next step, the city files a petition in court, asking the court to determine the just amounts which the city should pay the owners for propert)^ taken or damaged. The court is asked also to determine what property will be benefited, and the amount of such benefit to each owner. Two commissioners, appointed by the court, act with the secretary of the Board of Local Improvements to determine the value of land and buildings, and the amounts of damages or benefits, as well as to select the area that will be benefited and apportion the exact amount of benefit to each piece of property in the zone of assess- ment. This court commissioner method often unnecessarily delays public improvements, as the longer the commis- sioners take to prepare their report the greater their finan- cial reward. Even at best it is a big task to determine the value of several hundred pieces of property, to decide the exact amount each piece is injured or benefited, and 146 SOME REASONS FOR HASTE to value all buildings, machinery, and other fixtures, to say nothing of leaseholds and the like. Their report must describe each piece of property, name its owners, and fix the amount it will be damaged or benefited by the proposed improvement. This report must be accom- panied by an affidavit certifying the correctness of the names of property owners and other details. The time required for its preparation as well as for the complet- ing of the commissioners' report, depends on the nature and extent of the improvement. In case only a part of the cost is to be borne by special assessment, it is like- wise the duty of these commissioners to determine the exact amount of public benefit and of local benefit. Opportunity for still more delay is afforded in the projects involving a public benefit. It is then necessary for the City Council to pass an ordinance directing the election commissioners to place the bond issue question upon the ballot at the next election, which may be close at hand or months away. Refusal of the voters to au- thorize the issue would then necessitate the question being placed before the public again at a subsequent election, if the project is not to be abandoned entirely. When the report of the court commissioners is filed in court all property owners affected are notified. The court summons is not returnable in less than fifteen days after date of issue and service and if the commissioners' report shows that non-resident property owners are affected, a notice of the pendency of such court proceed- ings must be published once a week for four consecu- tive weeks, the first publication to be at least thirty days before the date set for the returji of such summons. Non- 147 WHAT OF THE CITY? residents must also be notified of the court proceedings by mail at least fifteen days prior to the return date. Property owners can have their attorneys appear in court and object to the right of the city to make the imi- provement under the law, and to the amount of their assessment or award for damages. The Illinois law gives extreme latitude to objectors, and in most cases the hearing on legal objections is the crucial test that determines whether the case shall survive or perish through legal technicalities. The time required to estab- lish the city's legal right to make the improvement may extend into a period of a year or more, depending upon the number, nature, and vigor of the objectors. Final decision as to legality rests in the Supreme Court. The point of legality established, the second part of the court proceedings commences — the determination by a jury of the justness of the amounts of damages and benefits fixed by the court commissioners. Two weeks must pass between the notification of the property owners and the beginning of the actual trial. Indefinite delay is possible here, depending upon the objectors, although it is possible to materially shorten the time by mutual agreement of the property owners to abide by the decision of the court and not submit their cases to the jury. Each piece of property must be tried separately, and when eight or ten thousand pieces of property are affected by an improvement, even under the most favorable cir- cumstances rapid progress is almost impossible. Like all other legal proceedings, the decision of the trial court is not final as to the money involved, and dis- satisfied owners may appeal to the Supreme Court. Ad- • ^ i,)S SOME REASONS FOR HASTE ditional delay, however, is not caused even in case the Supreme Court does not uphold the' lower court's deci- sion, or returns the appealed case for retrial. All that the city must do is to make provision for paying what- ever amount the Supreme Court may finally determine should be given the property owners. After the verdict is rendered by the trial court the city has ninety days within which to file its written elec- tion to proceed with the improvement. During these proceedings another possibility of delay exists in the contingency of an error being made in the ordinance or description of the property to be taken. Such an error may be vital, and no matter how far the proceedings may have advanced, the entire case must be abandoned and a new start made from the very begin- ning. As the Supreme Court can be appealed to on the point of error, it is plain that there may be an unnec- essary but extended delay in procedure from this cause. The last stage before actual construction can begin is the collection by the city of the assessments for benefits, and the payment of the awards for damages. Before the city can take a single piece of property for public use, the owner must be paid the amount awarded him in the condemnation trial. Then comes the bidding by contractors, and the letting of the contract to the lowest bidder, but even so the possibility of delay still remains, and is so prevalent in construction work on public im- provements that it needs no elaboration. However, the Plan Commission's responsibility ceases once the con- tracts for construction work have been let, and it is free to turn its attention to other phases of its general plan. 149 CHAPTER XI CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS CRADLE OF THE i\ -tW CH^ +K^-^ *^^k^ GREATEST PLAN tsof ' r ' ^^ HICAGO — Who can describe it ? Many have tried V^ — some with honest desire to do it justice ; others with mahcious desire to do it harm. All have failed. No one, with intentions honest or otherwise can ade- c^uately describe Chicago. It is also a certainty that no one wishing to malign the fifth city of the world can successfully do so. No city in all the world is more talked about than Chicago; none is less understood, less intimately known by the outsider. Hence, if any com- prehensive description of the mighty municipal giant of the twentieth century is given, it must emanate from within its own borders. Perhaps no city in America has been more abused, scoffed at, ridiculed, and praised than Chicago. The motives of these expressions have actuated from jeal- ous hearts, biased souls, prejudiced minds, and honest pens. In discussing cities, the difficulty of avoiding writing a history or compiling a Baedeker or borrowing too ex- tensively from the figures of the Chamber of Commerce confronts every author. On the other hand, many writ- ers are inadequate in their descriptions, preferring to give merely their impressions of various phases of the 150 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS city's life, or to confine themselves to an epitomization which falls far short of a real description of the causes, the peoples, and the conditions whiclijiiake the city. Tnconsidering these things which must, of necessity, form the background of any comprehensive description of Chicago, as of any city — location, transportation, in- dustry, surrounding natural resources, possibilities for expansion, physical development and population char- acter and analysis — I desire principally to dwell upon conditions, people, institutions — those things which are intimate to the real spirit and maintenance of the heart- throb of the city. Something of the cultural, the educa- tional, and the philanthropic, we will blend with the industrial_dgvelopment and the^atural^ad vantages which have made Chicago ajiying, rustling reality in the w;orld of bigness, where' peoptie and things are the chief ele- ments of progress or retrogression. The organized life of Chicago and the spirit of thg. men behind it will have p rominent p art in this narrative. A few days before Dani^ljludson Burnham sailed for Europe in 19 12, from which the Grim Reaper destined he should never return, he stood surveying Michigan Avenue and the lake from his studio window. The great architect, organizer, and city planner was in a reminiscent mood. I'\vas his only auditor. After the considerable silence which had fallen upon us, he turned suddenly away from the window and remarked, " What a wonder- ful lot of men Chicago has ; nothing remains to be accom- plished that cannot be done with our Chicago men as the power behind." Rapidly he named and characterized those in his mind whom he designated as " real forces in i.Si ^^ ^ WHAT OF THE CITY? ^the city's li fe and developmen t/' But history is not being written here and revelations cannot be made. "Wonderful men!" A. city possessed of wonderful men — what is such a city? What can such a city become ? Every city has its rich men who die and bequeath to the city moneys, art treasures, or products of historical research of various and valuable kinds. Some few do . these things during their lifetime. Chicago men do not die to serve their city and the benevolent acts of the living are not confined to a few. Scores of cap- tains of industry, finance, and commerce take from their bus^liyes and accumulated wealth, money and what is infinitely more valuable still, time, and these they devote without stint to the welfare of the whole city. Every avenue of true uplift — education, music, art, literature, civics, and philanthropy — has felt fhe touch of living men wfio regar^d their city as their larger Iiome, who feel they have a proprietary interest in it, who clo for their city what they do for their individual homes, surround it and fill it with things of beauty and attrac- tiveness, in a word, good order 6f the soul-ancWDrauTsortj Such devotion, I believe, is more marked in Chicago than in any other city in the world. The women of Chicago, too, have a proud place in the city's life and making. There, now I have the ex- pression I have been groping for — something that fits Chicago exactly — a great city in the making. This is almost a paradox, but it is literally true, and it differ- entiates Chicago from all other great centers. These, the traveler regards as having "arrived," or as being 152 ORIGINAL OWNED BY THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Chicago. Soutli Water Street, 1834. ORIGINAL OWNED BY THE CHICAQO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Chicago in 1845 from the west. Population 12,088. CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS established, permanent, settled or what you will; but Chicago impresses even its own people — nay, inoculates them — with the thought that although already great and impressive, the city is constantly " arriving." A Chicagoan, in a one-sided, half-interpreted, shorn-of- soul^ but true-in-part Chicago poem, almost too roughly expressed it as a city " laughing under the terrible burden of destiny, laughing as a young man laughs; laughing the stormy, husky laughter of youth half naked, sweating and proud of its big shoulders — to be the tall slugger set vivid against the little, soft cities." The women of Chicago did not wait for the franchise (it came to them in 191 2) before taking a big and active part in the city's welfare. The Chicago Woman's Club is one of the finest and most aggre^si^v^ag^enclerorcmc good in America. From this admirable organization of splendid women radiate many other women's clubs and societies of decided influence, initiative, and accomplish- ment in the city's progress. At the close of 1918 a plan was being projected which showed marked evidence of early consummation that will provide the women's clubs of Chicago with a woman's town meeting house, to contain a memorial to a most distinguished Chicagoan and one of the nation's fore- most women citizens, Ella Flagg Young ( deceased) . This is to be the largest building in the country devoted exclu- sively to the interests of women — a meeting place for all those interested in civic betterment. It is to be known as the Woman's Civic Building and is to be erected by the Chicago Woman's Club on a site already purchased. Chicago boasts of the possession of " America's only 153 WHAT OF THE CITY? newspaper for women" — The Women's Press — a highly constructive, voluminous, and ably edited news- paper published in the interest of all women. Twenty years ago transcontinental travelers called Chicago a "one hotel town." More recently an individ- ual of the type who sits on one ear while fanning him- self with the other and who had never been one hundred miles away from home, came out from the East and described Chicago as a " one street town." Still another interesting and facetious author, in a survey of the United States, devoted an entire chapter about Chicago to describing one of the city's notorious aldermen. His paint was not all black, neither is the alderman. Now and then someone comes to Chicago and goes away and wTites about it dramatically and sincerely as the subject deserves. Now and then, on occasion, the city — the "melting pot" of the nation — is portrayed in terms other than as a mere description of the Stock Yards and -the windiness of its inhabitants. The standard method of describing cities is to quote volubly from the statistics of the Chamber of Commerce, enumerating the things in which the city leads the world. Every city leads the world in something. H it doesn't, it is a despicable place indeed and it has no Chamber of Commerce. Who would think of London, Berlin, Paris, or New York in the term.s of their respective Chambers of Com- merce? Why attempt anything so provincial in discuss- ing Chicago? The mere fact that in 1916 Chicago manufactories numbered ten thousand; their finished products w^ere 154 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS valued at two billions ; and furnished work for three hun- dred thousand wage earners who were paid two hundred million dollars — tells the Chamber of Commerce story. Everybody knows that smokestacks, freight cars, trans - portation, and strategic geographic location make the higj city. EverybodyTmows that these are unrivaled cham- pions of Chicago's greatness. What added value is there in proclaiming the world's fifth city as the world's first city in live stock, in cement, in clothing, and in food production? These and like statistics are self-evident facts. It is of consequence, to be sure, but why dwell on Chi- cago's first rank in grain and flour receipts? Its world's largest iron^ steel, and machinery warehouse is interest- ing. Its unexcelled sixty-two mile electric subterranean freight system is important. The vast output of its iron mills is significant. Its largest open stocks of merchan- dise are of great value commercially. Chicago's dutiable imports in 191 5 amounted to $17,- -37'3i6. The duties paid were $6,084,152 — free of duty, $9,706,914. The value of merchandise exported directly from its port the same year was $3,965,755. Chicago has 335,350 buildings; 38,406 firms, 10,114 manufacturers, employing 452,202 persons, to whom is paid an annual wage of $303,630,000. Their annual products are valued at $1,482,814,000. Impressive facts, these. But these assets, important as they are, naturally fol- lowed in the wake of superior transportation facilities, and superior transportation facilities are the result of fortunate geographic location. 155 WHAT OF THE CITY? • Just as man does not live by bread alone, the meas- ure of THE city's true GREATNESS IS TOLd'^[N~ITS~ HEARTJ .IFE. ~" ^^ " " The fact that Chicago is the leading convention city of the American continent is infinitely more pertinent than all its material blessings in determining its heart- beats. Whole-hearted hospitality, climate, things that make life worth living in a great city, are the magnets which, in ever-increasing numbers, cause hundreds of thousands of Americans to make annual pilgrimages to Chicago — their favorite convention city. Chicago does not possess the glamour of New York. Blindfold a man, set him down in London; instinctively he knows he is in the world's metropolis. Paris charms the traveler with its beauty of surroundings, art, history, and romance; Berlin appalls one with her solidity, mas- siveness, and daring physical achievements ; Chicago , possessing all these in unpronounced but noteworthy degree, also possesses what these other cities have not — • true happiness born of friendliness, neighborliness, and kindred spirit. People visit New York for a fortnight but they grow weary for their "home town." Travelers revel in London's antiquity, research, and cosmopolitan glamour but they do not tarry there long. Tourists are fascinated with gay, lovely, careless Paris, but they do not remain. Wayfarers are amazed and admire Berlin's vigor'^and magnitude, but they go on. "Folks" arrive in Chicago, find all the advantages of the great city and finding also what is of far greater ^"■'"~" 156 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS value — human interestV-they send for their famiHes and become permanent residents, Hving in contented prosperity. The thing Chicago hates the most is the sel {-con- stituted paternaHsm of the East. Chicago has its faults and they are many and glaring, but it is not effete. The thing Chicago resents is expressed in the statement of a well-known scribe : Under all the jauntiness and cocksureness, the West is extremely sensitive to criticism. It lacks admiration and expects the eastern visitor to be properly impressed by its achievements, its prodigious energy, its interpreta- tion of democracy, and the earnestness with which it interests itself with the things of spirit. Above all else, it does not like to appear absurd. And listen to this from the same source: "Accord- ing to its light, it intends to do the right thing but it yields to laughter much more quickly than abuse if the means to that end are challenged." Could anything be more crude or patronizing? No one holds a brief to speak in defense of Chicago. The people of the West are not the product of isolated, geo- graphic boundaries. In 1906 a noted clergyman of Oklahoma City — then a city of eighty thousand which, two decades before, had been a mere dot on the map — told me, at the close of the Sunday service which I attended in his church, that the preceding Sunday he had admitted to membership in his church twenty-two people from eighteen different states. Verily, the spirit of the West is the spirit of the United States and not of an isolated section. 157 WHAT OF THE CITY? As for "criticism"' and "admiration," the people of the West are sensible and, being sensible, they are like-^ Avise busy — pastimes which do not admit of overmuch concern or pique at the superficiality of "eastern" critics. A busy city, like a busy man, overrides these things with aggressive zeal, concentrating its efforts on its own affairs. Why the people of the West should "yield" to either "abuse" or "laughter" is a question to be answered by the outsider — the idle, misguided pharisaic busy-body. Right-minded people neither laugh at nor abuse merit or industry. These are the measure and the result of true culture. Laughter and abuse are the companions of thoughtlessness, ca relessness , pique, jealousy, chagrin, ^egotism, and self-righteousness. ~" Chicago is western and thanks God for it. Chicago is established and concerns not itself with sensitiveness, laughter, abuse, or criticism . Chicago has no interpre- tation of democracy because true democracy is an expres- sion of the will and the spirit of "regular people." Chicago's citizens are "regular_people." One of Chicago's own sons, in his book about Chi- cago — like a grandmother seated in her comfortable. rocker with her numerous grandchildren gathered about her, exuding an aroma of mothballs and peppermint — laments the good old days that are gone, but praises the fact that Chicago's strenuousness is held in leash by its founders — vintage of the Pilgrim Fathers — and that its " New England conscience " is the leavening factor con- trolling the destiny of nearly three million people of seventy-five languages. 158 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS In the making of a country like America, are we not helped as much by the things we forget as by the things we remember? Is it not expedient, just, and wise to think of our country and all elements in it as the single fabric of many weavers, made from many materials into a wonderful whole pattern ? Having an English father and a French mother, and as one who has helped Chicago on its upward path to glory as a city, I like to think of magnificent Chicago — today the admiration of the entire world; with three- fifths of its citizens either foreign born or of direct for- eign extraction, including all the _mtionalities of the world — as the truest expression of real Americanism. If the work of Americanization is to have full swing and accomplish its altogether desirable purpose, there must not only be no more room for the hyphen, but along with its elimination should go all barriers to unity, justice, and neutralization. Societies of whatsoever character or name which are primarily for the purpose of preserving racial traditions and characteristics must all be classed with the hyphenated organization if real and permanent good is to follow. Cl^iCk^Q Va| ^^\ of-jriAvi^ J If the " melting pot " is to melt, the all-consuming fires of assimilation and neutralization must be allowed to do their work unhampered by the embers of self-asserted _; native priority and foreign nationalistic pampering from any source whatever. From all these the nation must forever be w^eaned. ~ Chicago was well founded and we owe much to and should be ever grateful for the " New England con- science " but the people who have made Chicago a great 159 WHAT OF THE CITY? city and who have maintained it and brought it to its present magnificent place in the galaxy of metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities — those who will urge it on to its inevitable splendid destiny — are its Lithuanians and Russians, its Slavs and Italians, its Swedes and Greeks, its Armenians and Servians, its Roumanians and Aus- trians, its Germans and Poles, its New Englanders and Irish, and a host of others — all good people, all x\mer- icans, and all for city and country. Arnold Bennett, in an article published in a Chicago newspaper in July, 191 8, simultaneously with the first real Franco-American victory against the Germans when they were driven back across the Marne, said on the subject : A world league of nations only can avoid a new war and the destruction of civilization. Either there will be such a league with full and real power over all armament, or there will be another war a thousand times worse than this war. Either there will be such a league or civiliza- tion as we know it will come to an end and the remnants of mankind have to begin civilization all over again as they did after the great cataclysms of the past. _The same urge that besets the natioiis^confronts the United States. The preservation of our national^ cliar- actei*, and a complete unification of our citizenry makes miperative a good and true valuation of all its fixed ele- ments. The naturalization of foreigners, of which our country has about thirty million, embracing thirty-seven nationalities and seventy-five languages, can be depended upon to weave its own part in an intelligent national program. 160 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS Governor Lowden of Illinois, speaking at the Swedish Old People's outing at Evanston, July 21, 1918, said: Through the fusion of races, democracy will crush autocracy and after the war an everlasting peace will rule the world Only this morning I looked over a casualty list and I found that, while there were ten names on that immortal roll all hailing from Illinois, those ten names represented seven nationalities. When I saw that list I knew that whatever foreboding we might have had in the past that our people have not been cemented into one people, into one nation, those forebodings were forever silenced by that immortal list of ten patriots representing seven original nationalities. During the days that followed, when the reports of casualties of Chicago's heroes reached the city, the Honor Roll showed no deviation from the statement made by Governor Lowden. Each list received showed mute evi- dence of the patriotism and the proportion of foreign- born citizens in Chicago who had given their lives for their country. This proportion was always the major number on the list. Another evidence of the strong loyalty and devotion of Chicago's foreign-born citizens in the war, and which speaks for them more eloquently than anything else could do on the side of good citizenship, is contained in the fact that in the third Liberty Loan the foreign division of Chicago, embracing twenty-one nationalities, sub- scribed $21,000,000 to the loan out of the total of $150,000,000 (an over-subscription of $24,000,000) of Chicago's allotment. This showing of Chicago's for- eign citizenry is significant when it is remembered that 161 WHAT OF THE CITY? the large wealth in Chicago, as elsewhere In the United States, is not in the hands of naturalized citizens. Meredith Nicholson's story, Chicago, in Scribner's Magazine early in 191 8 treated the subject with real care, true vision, and fine sympathy. I never have read a bet- ter description of Chicago, and I was amazed to discover how nearly his survey of the city and mine dovetailed, although I had not the pleasure of noting his narrative until after mine was finished. I yield to Nicholson. He is a litterateur. I am a com- piler. Too bad, however, that he could not have spent more time on certain important phases of Chicago's life and development. His survey was incomplete on certain important fundamentals, and careless in detail, complete as it was en masse. On that score I may stand the gaff of similar criticism and more for a too conscientious devotion to detail. A single sentence describes Chicago, it isj"he most draiZatic production pFliJas.-MuyTCTPAL history of THE WORLD. That is what Chicago is. A mind gifted with the"'slightest imagination will require little beyond this single line. From a frontier settlement to the fifth city in tlie world in the short span of eighty years more graphically indi- cates the truth of that single line than the words of the best informed or enthusiastic could possibly do. The romance of that marvelous fact can best be comprehended in the statement that a resident of Chicago who made his first trip to it in 181 8 in an open rowboat from Mackinac Island on Lake Michigan, when Chicago was an Indian trading post, uninhabited by a single white person, lived 162 T3 O, be tn.J. ^ ^^ g = rtU S -o-p: (U I c b*P u; ^ ^ c M ,^^ CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS to see the site selected for the World's Columbian Expo- sition of 1893. Doubtless he was the only person in the world's history who " bridged with his life-span the chasm between two epochs" of a country's history — primeval savagery and the intensive development of the highest civilization. Nor is the significance of that statement appreciated until it is realized that the World's Colum- bian Exposition was recognized in every civilized nation as the very personification of artistic development and perfection. This tribute was accorded the endeavors of the artists and the citizens who produced that result in a community that sixty years before was untrod by the foot of the white man and known only to the wandering savage. I use this single characterization because, since the days of Babylon, art excellence has typified the high- est expression of civilization. One hundred and forty-six firms in Chicago have been in existence for more than fifty years. Some of these date back to the incorporation of the city in 1837. Three hundred and seventeen old residents lived in Chicago in 19 18 who had lived here when the city had only 28,269 people. Forty-nine lived in Chicago who lived here when the city had only 4,479 people. Eighteen were still alive and residing in Chicago in November, 19x7, who had lived here since the city was incorporated in 1837. The oldest resident then living dated her residence from 1827. She w^as Ella Griffin, ninety-four years old. Mrs. Emily Beaubien le Beau, ninety-two years old, dated her residence from 1829, when the present city of nearly three million was a mere crossroads. Mrs. Eliz- abeth Outhet has lived in Chicago since 183 1. Mrs. 163 WHAT OF THE CITY? Susan Goeden came here in 1832 and liked the place so well she has remained ever since. Catherine Ludwig and Simeon A. Rexford were still residents of Chicago in 1 91 8. They came to Chicago in 1834 when it was incor- porated as a village. William Harman, who was still alive in that year, came here in 1835. The climate seemed to agree best with the women pioneers. Eighty years ago, when Chicago was incorporated as a village, New York was nearly two hundred years old ; Paris, 1,545 years; Berlin, 800 years; and London, 2,000 years old. One hundred and ninety-four years before Chicago had its city charter New York had five hundred inhabit- ants speaking eighteen different languages. One hundred and eighty-four years before Chicago was made a city with less than five thousand population, New York (then New Amsterdam) was chartered a city. One hundred and seventy-six years before Chicago saw the light of day as a city. New York had one thousand souls, and thirty years before our teething period, our big eastern sister had a street commission containing the names of some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence who recommended that all the north and south streets be made one hundred feet wide. This commission became exhorters for the public welfare, and it used the same arguments then in stirring the people to action that are employed today to show the people of the world's fifth city why they should hasten to carry out their great city Plan. They said in New York, with their then fifty thousand people ( 1807) that in fifty years the city would have four hundred thousand souls. Like all city plan- 164 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS ners, try as they would to plan big enough, they fell short fifty per cent in their forecast, for in fifty years New York had eight hundred thousand souls, and only a few of the commission's one-hundred-foot street rec- ommendations had been realized. The present European capitals were already great cities when the good civic stork left the basket containing the infant city on Chicago's doorstep. Berlin, by merging the two towns of Kollin and Berlin, was made a city eight hundred years before the birth of Chicago. The German capital had twice as many inhab- itants as Chicago had in its cradle, one hundred and eighty-seven years before Chicago's cradle was rocked. Berlin had a population of half a million when it was announced that Mother Chicago and the child were doing well. The Teuton metropolis boasted of a quarter of a million twenty-one years before Father Dearborn sent a hurry-up call for the doctor. Paris was old and big before America was discovered. The French capital had nearly a million people when Chi- cago filed its city charter papers at Springfield, and more than half a million thirty-seven years before that act. London! No one knows when the world's metropolis first opened its eyes. It is said to have been forty-six years A. D. The authentic history of the British capital dates from about the middle of the sixth century. Its population was exactly the same as Chicago's at its birth — six hundred and thirty-eight years before Chicago was born. It was a metropolis of half a million one hundred and seventy-six years before Chicago entered the world's arena of cities, and its population at Chicago's birth was 165 WHAT OF THE CITY? nearly two million, or about the same as that of Chicago in 19 lo. London was as big a city when Chicago was born as Chicago was at the age of seventy- three years. The progress of the world had set a pace in modern conveniences and many of the principal essentials of life were established when Chicago was classified among the cities of the land. The Erie Canal had been opened from Buffalo to New York twelve years before that time. The weaving and knitting machines had been invented. Steel pens were in use. The first association of dentists had been founded in New York and the first College of Dentistry in the world was opened in Baltimore. Fulton's steamship had made, its first trip up the Hud- son long before. Morse invented the telegraph the very year Chicago was incorporated and seven years later the first message was sent from Baltimore to Washington. Chicago then had a population of about ten thousand. Chicago was only thirty-seven years old when the first trans-Atlantic cable was laid and the first telegraph line constructed. It was thirty years old when the Pullman sleeper was invented and thirty-three years old when the first typewriter came into use. Two wars for independence were fought by the United States before a white man had set foot on the site of Chicago. The population of the United States was seventeen million before Chicago was staked out. There were five thousand miles of railroads in the United States before Chicago was on the map. , 166 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS When the first gun was fired on Fort Sumter fifty-six years ago, the population of Chicago was only 109,206. Now the world's fifth city, one hundred and ninety- eight square miles in area, with two thousand and seventy-nine miles of paved streets out of a total of four thousand six hundred and eighty-five miles of streets and alleys — more than twice the mileage of public roads in the entire state of Rhode Island and half that of the state of Delaware — with five thousand miles of water and sewer mains — a length one-fifth greater than the combined lengths of the Mississippi and Mis- souri rivers — with two thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven miles of railroad trackage within its bor- ders — enough to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific — one thousand three hundred and fifty miles of street railway tracks — the distance from New Orleans to St. Paul — little wonder that a local historian in 1909 described Chicago, the central metropolis of America, as " the marvel of all ages." Next to the most dramatic fact in municipal history — Chicago's development from a handful of pioneers to two and one-half million people within the lifetime of the oldest resident now living — is the prophecy of lo- gicians and empire builders like the late James J. Hill, who said Chicago would be the metropolis of the world when the Pacific Coast had twenty million inhabitants. The vast and sparsely developed empires to the north- west, west, and southwest of Chicago, coupled with the enormous increases in the population of the cities told in a previous chapter, does not re<:iuire the stretching of the imagination beyond the point of elasticity to com- 167 WHAT OF THE CITY? prehend Mr. Hill's foresight. A very practical and care- ful analysis of the history and growth of countries, cities, commerce, and railroads will indicate Chicago's reaching the inevitable goal of the metropolis of the United. States without any undue stretch of the imagination. In the three most important factors which contribute to the greatness of any. city, Chicago has been most boun- tifully blessed. The firstyls the extent of rich and popu- lous territory into which trade and commerce can be extended. The se'con^^ is the supply of raw materials near at hand for feeding and housing and for use in manufacturing products to be sold in the tributary ter- ritory. The th^.is the extent of railway and water transportation facilities by which commerce may be easily and cheaply handled. In all these three elements Chicago is equaled by no other city in existence. The richness and resources of the vast territory lying about Chicago are known to every school child. The wide prairies to the south, west, and northwest produce^orn, wheat, and oats. We have the cheap and abundant coal 'Trom the mines of Indiana and Illinois; the"oOpper and iron from Michigan and Minnesota; the zinc from Mis- souri and Wisconsin; the fruits, and vegetables from Michigan ; food products of every sort come to us from every direction round about. At the western edge of Chicago, almost within the present city, we have unlimited supplies of stone, which, crushed and mixed with the cement produced by mills within the city itself, give us cheap houses of enduring concrete. Brick we make from the clay underlying our city on every side. i68 ^1^ >>\^\H^^ ^^ CHICAGO AIEN AND THINGS Lumber comes to us by lake from the forests of the north. Steel for our buildings we produce from the iron borne to us by water from the northern mines. Finally, turning to transportation, we find Chicago already the greatest railway center in the world. Double-tracked steel highways stretch in every direction, running to the Pacific on one hand and the Atlantic on the other and skirting the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. These railways draw to Chicago an ever-increasing trade. Mag- nificent steamships enter and pass out of our river, and from our harbors carry their great burdens through hundreds of miles of lake and river water courses. And now we are on the verge of a new development of water traffic. People of Illinois have voted to expend twenty million dollars in beginning the development of water commerce across the state by way of the Drainage Canal and the Illinois River, intending to connect the traffic of the lakes with that of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Thrilling indeed is the story of man in his building of cities, but no more striking chapter in the story can ever be told than that of the upbuilding of mighty Chicago, reaching out through times of peace and war in the com- mercial domination of the wide empire surrounding her. In early times the supremacy of commerce and popu- lation was in Asiatic Europe. Since that period this movement has been steadily and gradually to the west- ward. First across Europe and then across the Atlantic to the United States, the movement of commerce and of people has always followed the development of trans- portation facilities, principally the railroads. In the 169 WHAT OF THE CITY? early development of European countries like our own, the metropoli were seaport cities. With the coming of the railroads and their penetration of the interior, it was only a question of time when an interior city became the metropolis. The simplest verification of this can be had in a review of the development of any old country. With two hundred and thirty thousand miles of rail- roads in the entire country, forty-three per cent or ninety- six thousand miles of these steel highways reach Chicago from every direction and from the uttermost parts of the American continent. Twenty-seven separate and distinct trunk lines of rail- roads terminate in Chicago. The total trackage within the city limits is two thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven miles. There is more trunk-line railroad trackage in the city of Chicago than there is in any one of the states of Ari- zona, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Connecticut, or Wyoming. Seventeen hundred switching engines alone are used in the freight and coach yards and forty thousand freight cars are handled daily — enough in a straight line, to stretch from Chicago to Cincinnati. The center of population in the United States is less than one hundred and fifty miles southeast of Chicago in the state of Indiana. Within a night's ride fifty-three million people live. The population added each year to Chicago equals cities the size of Fort Wayne, Norfolk. Peoria, Port- land, Maine, or Charleston, South Carolina. 170 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS In light of these stupendous facts half told, a bold man it would be who would challenge the certainty of Chi- cago's becoming the g^reatest city on the American con- tinent. Measured by the lifetime of a city, that result certainly is a mere handful of years away. Chicago is my city by adoption. I, therefore, can say some things that would not be so pardonable in a native son. I wish I had the power from the premises we have now covered to weave a description of its people, its energy, its devel- opment, and its spirit as I have encountered, known, wit- nessed, and breathed these things. We marvel at Chicago not for its size, Nature gave it the location that, under the touch of modern com- merce, produced the great city. It is not Chicago's growth that amazes, for that growth naturally accom- panied industry. It is Chicago's spirit which grips the world's attention. No city in America — perhaps none in the world — Jngj^irps^n^g reatly the Jox£jgjld-..dgX"^L"'^ ^i-i^LJ^^Pl^ as does Chicago. -*-'-« Four times within a short history of eighty years has Chicago proved to the world this soul-stir ring devo- tion to city. Sixty years ago, before the days of great engineering feats, Chicago's mettle was first proved and the Chicago spirit first evoked. It became apparent that to secure proper drainage the street levels of the entire city would have to be raised. It wa^ a tremendous task, for it meant raising all the streets and most of the buildings from the rfver to Twelfth Street, and also on the north and west sides of the city. The people of Chicago did it, amazing 171 WHAT OF THE CITY? the nation, for the work at that day was much greater and more difficult than to carry out the entire Plan of Chicago would be today. I The second great work was done fifty years ago, when Chicago undertook to acquire and improve a chain of parks extending around the city. This was done, at the time, not because the city needed the parks for use-Jmt 1 because its people wanted to make Chicago attracjtjye. J These parks were taken and paid for, and the load was ^ not burdensome even for the small city. Later came the need for pu rifying the water s of Lake Michigan and Chicago again arose and put sixty million dollars and years of work into the task of digging the Drainage Canal, Still later came the World's Fair, and there Chicago accomplished a work never surpassed either in scope or architectural beauty. To spend over twenty million dol- lars in grounds and buildings, as Chicago did for that project, was a surpassing feat of civic spirit for those days. Much has been said and written about the Chicago spirit — the "I Will" spirit, it is called. When at the height of my civic organization work in Chicago, a New York magazine writer of prominence asked me iiow the Chicago spirit could be acco unted fgr , and what it was. To the first question I replied, " The 2ptentiality of the city," and to the second, " The chara cter of her men ." " Define it," he said. '^"^ ' ' My threefold answer was : First, the spirit of Chi- cago is a medium of the ultra-conservatism of the ex- treme East and the unharnessed enthusiasm of the far 172 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS West. Second, it is a product of potentiality. Potenti- ality permeates every nook and cranny of Chicago. It has laid fast hold upon and inoculated every Chicagoan. There is everywhere present here that feeling of hope and faith which is so pronounced in every new Eldorado. This is due to Chicago's central locatioiV'tJi the country and~lts vast and~unmatched transportation facilities. ~Ali this is helj)ed..by. ii.ajCQ.sm£>politan_c^^ Third, Chicago business men are prosperous. They bejieve in their city. They see and recognize the great possibili- ties of the future city, and their faith in the present city ( is supreme and unshakable. They have the capacity for work — hard work — and they believe in organization. They pull together and work together in the full compre- hension that in so doing they not only help the city but they enrich themselves. The climate of Chicago, too, has more to do with the Chicago spirit than most of us realize. It is exhilarating. The average weather is good and tolerable, both in the extreme of summer and winter. The traveling class — those who can seek their ease as they desire — remain in Chicago all summer and most of the winter. The vacation period for Chicago's prosperous business men is from the middle of February to the first of April. Even the lightning-like and extreme changes in the weather are not without benefit. Not infrequently, in season, the thermometer changes forty deg^-ees or more in twen- ty-four hours. Contrary to the belief of most people, these sudden changes in temperature keep the people healthy and act like a tonic to jaded nerves. It is a well- established fact in the profession of materia niedica that, 173 WHAT OF THE CITY? in the treatment of certain nervous ailments, there is applied to the nerve centers along the spine the method of alternating applications of hot and cold fomentations. The common practice is to turn the patient on his stom- ach, run a piece of ice up and down his spine, and then to instantly apply thick flannel folds steeped in extremely hot water. The patient instantly responds to this treat- ment, although the place where his sensations of pleas- ure are supposed to exist may rebel against it. Chicago's death rate, too, is low, being only 14.93 ^" one thousand for 19 17. This is a decrease of ten to every thousand since 1891, and is less than the rates of Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Bal- timore, and Pittsburgh. During the world-wide plague of influenza in 19 18 Chicago had fewer deaths than any large city in the United States according to the govern- ment census. Chicago is a contented, unselfish family. The mean- ing of the words " home " and " neighbor " is still under- stood. The public health is good and prosperity is city- wide. During my eleven years of active identification with three great organizations in Chicago for the public good of city and nation I have had ample opportunity to survey the work of civic organization the country over. As a result of my intimate knowledge of such endeavor, it is my certain conviction that no city in America — perhaps none in the world — possesses the spirit of organization comparable to Chicago. There is not a trade, occupation, nor profession without its specific or- ganization. These number into the hundreds, and they typify the highest and most desirable element of efficiency 174 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS in their respective branches of the city's activities. Be- sides seeking knowledge, they find a useful place in the community life and needs. One of these organizations stands out in my memory as typical of all the rest. It is the Leather Belting Asso- ciation. On occasion I was asked to address its members at a business luncheon. Forty-odd members were pres- ent. During the luncheon, I said to the president, *' This amazes me. I do not know anything about the leather belting business, but I did not suppose there were enough dealers in this business in Chicago to form an organiza- tion. How many members have you?" "Seventy-five, but all the dealers are not members. There are nearly a hundred concerns in this business in the city." " What is your organization for?" I asked. "We are organ- ized," said the president, " for the mutual good of those engaged in our trade. We have materially increased the efficiency of our business through cooperation. At many of our meetings we arrange to dispatch our business as quickly as possible, then we have addresses on subjects of civic importance. This broadens us individually, makes us better citizens, and better business men." This is the universal practice in nearly all of Chicago's hundreds of organizations of whatsoever kind. Public men, writers, educators, and experts are in great demand as speakers. The supply falls far short of the demand and those who accept service in this respect are hard pushed. Most of these organizations find expression for their civic interest through individual membership in the great Association of Commerce. Every city worthy of the name has such a central business and civic organiza- 175 WHAT OF THE CITY? tion, but it is_niy_certain bdieJL that no similar body in AmericaTbegins to approach the Chicago Association of Commerce either in efficiency or influence. It has been imitated many times but never matched or excelled. The serious, scientific manner in which all committees are organized and conducted is a matter of admiration and gratification to the most staid Chicagoan. The policy of the association is a religion to every executive and worker in its ranks. In respect to this and the actual time invested and worth-while work accomplished, I think the Chicago Association of Commerce differs from any other organization of its kind in the world. Its presi- dents, selected from the city's business leaders, know before taking their post what is expected of them. They realize they are not selected for name or position but for work — soul and brain endeavor. The sacrifices of every president of this organization without exception constitute the finest of contributions to city welfare and a lasting tribute to city character. The nationally known weekly meetings of its Ways and Means Committee have an average attendance of four hundred and fifty mem- bers. The chairmen are of the same type and ability as their presidents. " Service — efficient, expedient, and sac- rificial," is the watchword of this truly wonderful body of men. Its influence has*made its mark on the nation, and has been felt across the water in Europe. The aw^akening of a civic conscience in Chicago dates from the organization of the Chicago Association of Commerce in 1903. Without an aroused civic conscience, the most potential city is like a ship in a storm without a rudder. Chicago is young. Most of its civic ills are 176 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS due to growing pains. These are a most healthful sign in any stalwart youth. For three-score years Chicago forged its way from a swampy Indian trading post to a city of a million and three-quarters, without taking overmuch thought of its soul. Then it paused in its quest for commercial supremacy and looked around to see how it could right itself, cure its ills and insure its destiny. For sixty years its citizens, for the most part poor, were rightfully engaged in building a solid footing beneath their businesses for the safety of their families. Then they began to take account of their larger home — their city — and its welfare. Since that moment Chi- cago's progress has been truly amazing. Its ideals have been defined; its place among the great cities of the world assured ; and its future as the greatest city irrevocably established. No worth-while element has been neglected. The sciences and the arts have been advanced ; its educational institutions have flourished and gained world-wide dis- tinction ; its religious life has quickened; social service endeavor has*^eT"a pace for all cities where the cancer of congestion breeds misery; and in the life of the city there has been no more pronounced and distinguished element of usefulness in attaining these ends than that superb and limited organization, The Commercial Club of Chicago. This club comprises one hundred of the city's leaders in every branch of business. Its name does not reveal its objects, which essentially are not commer- cial ; mere commercialism forms no part of the purpose of The Commercial Club. It is difficult for anyone intimatety acquainted with 1/7 WHAT OF THE CITY? the work and influence of The Commercial Club to record its far-reaching service, and the exceptional character of its persojinel without being accused of hero worship. ,The C omm ercial~Cfafar-is a remarkable group of men, whose influence is tremendous; such a group would be a power anywhere in the world. When you select a hundred leading bankers, railroad executives, manufacturers, merchants, newspaper pub- lishers, packers, and capitalists in Chicago, you select a hundred world leaders in their respective activities. Such a group, organized socially, but devoted to com - munity advancement, is an incalculable power for civic betterment. Fortunate indeed is the city, large or small, that can boast of such an asset. The secret of the worth of The Commercial Club ctf Chicago lies in the common interest s of its members. A commo n soci al a nd financial bo nd ties them together and these fasten, cement, and hold their identities and interests in unified action. There are only three other similar clubs in the United States. These are the Com- mercial Clubs of Boston, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, which were organized about the same time and with the same objects. Every member of the Chicago organization construes a request from an officer or committeeman as a command. Arduous work is done by this organization — work re- quiring large sums of money and great ability. Yet its set dues are nominal and the current surplus in its treas- ury is small. Everything is done by common consent, as in a brotherhood, That, in very fact, is what the club is, a brotherhood. A task is outlined; decided upon by 178 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS the executive committee; money is required for its ac- complishment. The amount is frequently measured by scores of thousands. Whatever it is, it is at once pro- rated among the members, a call is sent out and the checks flow in. There is no question, no debate, no hesi- tation. All is understood ; all is agreeable ; all is pre- cision. Such order and results could not be obtained except in a limited group, which is another argument in its favor. But why generalize? Why attempt the painting of a picture where the artist, colors, palette, brushes, and canvas are self-supplied? Let The Commercial Club speak for itself; it paints with a broad stroke. These one hundred men, by combining their brains, souls, and pocketbooks, contributed.. $303,400^ £oi^-+he creation and promotion oi a comprehensive city plan greater than anything ever before attempted by any American city, and which, when finished, was presented as'sTgift to the city. They, from their personal pockets, helped to provide their^ city , with, playgrounds for. poor children and gave to it and largely helped to maintain the Glenwood Man- ual Training School, a wonderful corrective school and home for wayward boys. They gave to the United States government the site for Fort Sheridan and the site for the Great Lakes Naval Training Station at Lake Bluff, Illinois. During the Great War more than thirty per cent of their membership was serving the government in war work of various kinds abroad and in this country. Such is a partial index of the wise and widespread 179 WHAT OF THE CITY? munificence of the members of The Commercial Chib. Naturally where is found such grace, wisdom, and bounty is found characteristic and befitting modesty. Unless some daring scribe, willing to risk being mfs- understood, tells of these things, they never would be heralded. The Commercial Club does not advertise itself. It seeks no publicity and it accepts less. In har- mony with true beneficence, it lets not -its right hand know what its left hand does. A delightful and one of the most important phases of the club's life finds expression in its dinners. On such frequent occasions its members and friends are the for- tunate auditors of unheralded public men — world lead- ers of political and economic thought and financial and industrial accomplishment. It is the custom for one speaker only to occupy the evening. He is given all the time he requires for his subject. He does not find himself on the same program with such subjects as " The War in Samoa," " Child Welfare," "The Great Northwest," and "Why Cook Failed to Discover the North Pole." How satisfying, comfortable, and beneficial it w^ould be if other organ- izations would "go and do likewise." These talks are not of the after-dinner variety; they touch the vitals of problems international, national, and local. Always the diagnostician is the premier specialist in his field. To be a guest at a Commercial Club banquet is a rare privilege — a distinction of great delight and profit. The Commercial Club is so many-sided in its activities I that a complete chronicle would read like a Baedeker of civic and national usefulness. Cataloguing its achieve- i8o CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS ments would touch every worthy phase of Chicago life and development, and would cover the v/idest contrasts. There would be» blended the cultural and the industrial ; the financial and the charitable; the commercial and the educational ; the recreational and the hygienic ; the philan- thropic and the religious ; the scientific and the artistic. Naturally business — the conservation and promotion of things commercial — is the mission of business lead- ers of any community. Only rarely — most exception- ally — is there found a combination of these qualities and endeavors with things cultural and spiritual. Members of The Commercial Club are the leaders of practically every big and far-reaching agency of city- "■(vT3e"benefit in Chicago. These include permanent grand opera; the erection of one of the world's finest hostelries — the matchless Blackstone Hotel; the Art Institute; and the free site under government permit for the cen- tral location on the Lake Front of the great Field Mu- seum of Natural History, which, together with buildings and maintenance, constituted a gift of nine million dol- lars by one of its members to the city. It encourages musical study and production, and helps to sustain them. It aids the sciences and the arts — in a wordj-The Com- mercial Club is the. watchdog of Chicago's temporal ami jx pjri tual. w eliar e . Its provident acts are legion. It benefits the entire city and all elements in it in unprecedented and incal- culable measure. Such is the nucleus of inspiration and accomplishment in the world's fifth city, which someone designated as a " city without a soul ; given over entirely to Mammon's worship." i8i WHAT OF THE CITY? In describing Chicago, I did not know how to begin. I suppose that has puzzled every writer who has at- tempted it — and now I do not know how to continue. Chicago can only be painted with broad -stroke^.,.. The artist has not yet appeared who can fill the canvas "com- pletely and meritoriously. When I first'"saw- Chicago, its bigness and daring tool: my breath^way, and I di^^' not come from a small city. London did not affect me this way, nor did New York or Paris. Berlin — that is quite comparable. The growth and physical development of Berlin and Chicago are very similar. The same kind of dash and spirit which built Chicago made Berlin. Fifteen or twenty years ago American travelers in Europe visited Berlin bent only on business. At the outbreak of the war, the German capital was almost as favored as Paris as a Mecca of American tour- ists. This change in the tide of travel resulted from the marvelous and attractive manner in which Berlin has developed herself in the past decade, but that is another subject. There is an intangible, indescribable something about the energy of Chicago that grips the traveler when he first enters its gates. Of one thing I am certain — I shall not describe the Stock Yards. Nearly everybody who writes anything about Chicago contributes copiously to "packing town." So much has been said about the Stock Yards that some people, untraveled, couple this with Chicago's Indian citizenry of eighty years ago, and fail utterly to comprehend that pig sticking is not our only enterprise, and that the red man has long since ceased to tomahawk people on the corner of State and 182 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS Madison Streets. Albeit the Stock Yards is a wonder- ful institution. Any city could be proud of this indus- try and happy in its benefits. What I want to say about the Stock Yards is that the president of its largest single business, a typical Chicagoan of the heritage that made Chicago, in the days when the making was a Herculean task, typifies the spirit of what it is that is multiplied in its nearly three million inhabitants. This Napoleon of business, unlike some of our eastern brethren who shook the sands of America from their feet to take citizenship in Europe and hob-nob with its courts, expended several million dollars in reclaiming a large marsh acreage near the beautiful village of Lake Forest where he laid out and developed an estate that is to be envied by kings, lords, and dukes. Loyal to Chicago, his wealth remained in his native city to enrich thousands of laboring men and scores, of tradespeople. This is J. Ogden Armour, the premier packer of the Stock Yards interests. His father before him, Philip D. Armour, who was one of the great, stalwart pioneers of Chicago, founded in his city the Armour Institute of Technology which is accredited as one of the best insti- tutions of its kind in the country. Its policy, which is to assist worthy young men, is one of the noblest of any public institution in the land. Wealth and civic pride such as were blended in the Armours are incalculable blessings to Chicago and to the nation. Talk about your idealists — talk about a city without a soul — my work in Chicago has brought me in contact in some degree with every big man in the city. I have had liberal oppor- tunity in my travels abroad and throughout America to 183 WHAT OF THE CITY? observe men everywhere and I venture the ass ertion th at no city has more idealists''aiTlohg i"fs'''foremost business men than has Chicago. There is not an institution for the public good — no art, no science, no school, nor uni- versity — that does not feel the directing touch, personal and sympathetic, of Chicago's leading business men. One of these — a merchant at the head of an establish- ment doing upward of one hundred million dollars' worth of business a year — retired as president at sixty years of age to give more largely of his time to cultural and civic things. This merchant prince, whose taste turned to art, had never had a brush in his hand until he was more than fifty years of age. He established himself in a studio in a leading downtown building in the art center and took up painting — because he loved it — with such devotion and skill that he has produced some remark- ably good work and his collections have been on exhibi- tion in the Art Institute. As a patron of the Art Insti- tute, he contributed a special room and a collection of the paintings of one of America's most celebrated artists at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is a fair example of the acts, ideals, and influences of Chicago's business leaders. " The windy city," is the cognomen many know Chi- cago by. W'indiness applies only to her lake. A few of her citizens of colonial vintage deplore the boastfulness of her people, but they are not more breezy than those of other communities, they simply have perhaps more red blood corpuscles. Good health always finds exuber- ance in ways appalling to the anaemic and those afflicted with the hookworm, Chicago is not a city of boasters — 184 "" Chicago. Statue of Lincoln by Saint-Gaudens, America's greatest sculptor. South entrance to Lincoln Park. Uf «ARTf OF THE UNIYERBJTr Of ILUNO CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS it is a city of boosters. A lot of people do not know the difference. A good booster is a great asset in any locality. An army of them is invincible. No one needs to apologize for Chicago in this respect and the citizen who feels called upon to do so will not be unwelcome if he takes his departure for the region of his ancestors. As for the scribe who depicted Chicago as a " one street town " — this is amusing. His survey must have been made in a taxicab with his eye constantly on the meter. I think he was from New York, and he riiight have said the same thing about his own city. In truth, the average public's knowledge of New York's street system obtains pretty largely to Fifth Avenue, Broad- way, and Riverside Drive, but this trinity of world-fam- ous streets falls far short of describing the network of remarkable thoroughfares interlacing the nation's me- tropolis. Dealing with Chicago, if he had in mind the business center, would he refer to the world-famous Michigan Avenue or the universally recognized greatest shopping street, State Street, or to the Theater Way, Randolph Street, or Chicago's White Way, Dearborn Street? If so, he might have contrasted these to New York's Fifth Avenue, Broadway, Thirty-third Street, and Sixth Avenue. If he referred to Chicago's residential development, did he mean the beautiful Lake Shore Drive, the aristo- cratic Astor Street, the beautiful Sheridan Road, the wonderful Drexel Boulevard, or the palatial Grand Boul- evard — not to mention a host of others? If so, he might have contrasted these with New York's Riverside Drive, upper Fifth Avenue, Madison Street, Central 185 WHAT OF THE CITY? Parkway West and, barring a host of others, that des- cribes New York's residential section. Any adequate description of a great city based upon intimate and accurate knowledge must find true expres- sion in a survey of not only the entire city but its environs. When one is moved to describe Chicago, he should know something of the beautiful and almost incomparable suburban district on the north shore of Lake Michigan. The location, setting, and palatial development of Lake Forest, Evanston, Kenilworth, Highland Park, Glencoe, Winnetka, Hubbard Woods, and Wilmette form a back- ground to Chicago of physical charm and luxury as grand and inspiring as those of the most boasted of cities, old world or new. Let him know something of the finely developed residential section within the city's borders to the southward and in the vicinity of Washington Park. Let him know something of the highly developed and beautiful suburb, Oak Park, to the westward and her sister villages still farther out on the same course — Wheaton, Elmhurst, and Hinsdale. In order that their real significance may be the more appreciated, it is desir- able to give some attention to the area of Chicago with the astounding facts and contrasts it reveals. The area of Chicago is one hundred and ninety-eight square miles. It is twenty-six miles long and nine miles wide. New York, with more than twice the population, has only twenty-one per cent more area than Chicago, or twO' hundred and forty square miles. It is thirty-five miles long, including Staten Island, and fifteen miles wide. London, with three times the population, has thirty- i86 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS five per cent less area than Chicago, or one hundred and twenty-three square miles. It is fourteen miles long and ten miles wide. Berlin, with a million greater population, has forty- six per cent less area than Chicago, or one hundred and six square miles. It is eight and one-half miles long and five miles wide. Paris, with a quarter of a million greater population, has seven per cent less area than Chicago, or one hundred and. eighty-four square miles. This includes the depart- ment of the Seine, and extends the limits nearly five miles outside the walls. Paris proper has only thirty-two square miles and is seven and one-half miles wide and five and one-half miles long. The large area of Chicago must be given important consideration in whatever is said about it. In cities of restricted area civic and physical problems are reduced tremendously. The three cities leading Chicago in popu- lation but falling far short in area have a correspondingly increased corporate fund, which is of tremendous signif- icance when surveying the effects of intensive develop- ment and attractive surroundings. Chicago's area is greater than the combined area of Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. It is four times greater than New York's when that city comprised only Manhattan and the Bronx. This was as late as 1890, and it is nearly twice as great as present Berlin; six times greater than Paris proper; and a third greater than London. If Chicago was laid out in a perfect square, it would be 14.8 miles square. To circle the entire city one must travel eighty-six miles. To cross the city 187 WHAT OF THE CITY? on the diagonal of a square one would travel 19.8 miles. It is apparent on the face of these facts that New York, with more than twice the population of Chicago, and nearly three times the annual corporate fund for city improvement and maintenance, and with only one-fifth more area, makes Chicago loom up big in its civic accom- plishments. Imagine its limited corporate fund in con- trast with its vast area, and it will be realized at once that it is confronted with a tremendous task in properly policing, to say nothing of lighting, school development, sewage, water mains, park maintenance, and other com- mon public necessities. Withal it has two thousand and seventy-nine miles of paved streets and is the best paved large city in the world. One way of showing the bigness of Chicago's area is by the length of^ its longest stre et, Western Avenue, twenty-three and one-half miles long.,. Halsted Street is next and is twenty miles long. I never think of Western Avenue and Halsted Street with- out being reminded of the experience of my friend who was born and rearjed in a little burg in the hills of Tennessee, but who removed to New York to engage in business when a young man. On his first visit back to the home town, with considerable pride and an air of ownership, he was describing New York to a little group of village wags and wiseacres gathered around the stove of the single grocery. Both figures are familiar to every- one acquainted with the character and life of a cross- roads town. My friend had just pictured Broadway as a fourteen-mile street. The jaw of a bewhiskered old fellow dropped, and with a look half of awe and in- credulity, he said, " Be thar stoers all o' the way ? " CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS Small town people the country over are accustomed to judging the size of a town by its number of stores, or the size of the business center. In this town, where there were but three stores, this old man, who never had been away from it, had utterly no comprehension of a de- veloped stredt fourteen miles long, and his query was perfectly natural. I have often thought of it because it epitomizes exactly the estimate people have of cities in accordance with their knowledge and understanding. Just as the old man's three store street was his idea' of the size of a town, one may form a fairly good idea of the bigness of Chicago by its Halsted Street, and there are stores literally all the way from one end of the city to the other. It is the most important west side street of the city. The total frontage of stores and business houses, not including factories, in Chicago, if placed in a straight line, would reach from Chicago to Detroit, two hundred and eighty miles. There are one hundred and sixty- three buildings of ten stories and over in the Loop alone. Contrasting Chicago with larger cities, in the light of its restricted public finances and vast area, it will not be thought strange if its paving, as extended as it is and as good as it is, is somewhat sporadic, and if there are certain large areas which are not attractively developed. Neither will it be thought strange that the sections which are intensively developed and of the highest aesthetic character are interspersed with undesirable breaks in development. W^f '"V\> Chicago has been described as a: Tiaphazafd group of overgrown villages. That is not quite true, but it serves 189 WHAT OF THE CITY? admirably to indicate just what Chicago is from an or- ganized city planning standpoint. The real problem of the city planner is to bring all the unknitted parts together in a"siJitable garment as a whole. No other city of my acquaintance holds so many separate, isolated, and highly developed districts within its borders. In every section there are settlements of this character, any one of which would make a good-sized city in itself. Seven miles from the corner of State and Madison streets in the section where I live, there is a thoroughly metropolitan highly developed city of more than two hundred thousand peo- ple. It is only removed from the heart of the city by a series of parks, boulevards, and a better class of residen- tial development. Beyond it to the north and west is another stretch of seven miles of other groups of cities and inter- vening broken areas before the city limits are reached. This description will serve as a picture of what is true to a greater or less degree in every other section of the city. It is forty miles around the chain of boulevards which connect and hold together the great parks on the west, south, and north sides of the city. The Loop district, more famed by its name and char- acter than any other spot on the face of the globe, except- ing possibly "Little Britain" in London, is so amazing as to be highly dramatic. This seething caldron of com- merce, finance, traffic congestion, and humanity embraces only one-quarter of a square mile — one eighth-hundredth part of the entire area of the city. In this little patch — 'about the size of a good country town — there are nineteen streets east and west and north and south. On 190 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS fifteen of these streets are street-car tracks and cars turn- ing in all four directions at every intersection. There are daily ten thousand street cars, one hundred and fifty- two thousand vehicles of other sorts, three hundred and twenty-three thousand working population, and one million one hundred thousand floating population. This wildly pulsating heart is held viselike in the coil of the river, which bounds it on two sides, the railroads on the third, and the lake on the fourth. The river is spanned at every block with bridges, of which there are twelve in this central section. This constitutes a great menace to street tralfic, placing a burden of delay and congestion upon the entire movement and traffic system of the city — an unnecessary burden which should no longer be tolerated, as sixty-eight per cent of the lake commerce is now going on to lake port harbors at Calumet. That portion which is destined for the Chicago River should not be there at all. When it is gone and supplanted by lighterage instead of deep-draft vessels, the bascule or open type of bridge will go, and in its place will come stationary structures of monumental beauty to open up the congested arteries of the city's street system. Chicago's retail shopping district is world famous. In no city of any country may one delight in " window shopping" to such an extent as is afforded on State Street's seven blocks of intensively developed merchan- dising emporiums. The show windows in this limited section measure ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-four lineal feet. One hundred and seventy-three thousand three hundred and forty-four square feet of solid glass form a veritable 191 WHAT OF THE CITY? panorama — alluring, enticing, and as varied as the wants of man and pocketbook. Nowhere in the world has the art of window decoration received so much attention, either in study or skilful execution. Window artists from all the big cities of America, and even from across the water in England and the Continent, visit Chicago for the sole purpose of studying the wonderful window dis- plays. One of Chicago's great retail houses has been known to spend between sixty and seventy-five thousand dollars for decorative schemes for a single "opening" and between twelve and fifteen thousand dollars per window alone. The shop windows are remarkable in their variety and extent of merchandising decoration every day in the year, even in the dullest times, and during the spring and fall " openings " they are wonderful. The wealth of merchandise and artistic embellishment and the high degree of art execution and decorative scheme during these notable functions are not only stupendous but fas- cinating and instructive. Even the great stores devoted solely to the cheapest wares lack nothing in skilful and elaborate window ornamentation. J. Clarence Bodine, one of the foremost commercial artists of the country, who has been connected in a large way with store window decorative art in the lead- ing cities of America, has stated that: " The proper and effective display of merchandise is considered one of the greatest assets toward business building; it is one of the strong fundamental principles of selling. The educational value of this principle of display cannot be overestimated. T()2 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS " The modern show window is the means whereby mil- lions of persons that seldom visit a museum of art have the advantage of a commercial art exhibit, in which they can view a valuable art and an art with a purpose. The example of art absorbed through these exhibits gives a sane basis upon which the observer can build safely his attitude toward the fine arts. " This art is one which belongs to our day, our own civilization, and is one which is self-supporting. Our merchants feel that they do not spend thousands of dol- lars in this work, but rather that they have made a suc- cessful investment. Without the wonderful show win- dows the department store would be and appear noth- ing more nor less than a huge warehouse. " The department store is an original move on the part of State Street merchants in modern merchandising, and the show windows of these stores are the well-spring of wonderful settings or backgrounds as an accessory to the proper displaying of merchandise. In this departure of commercial applied art Chicago unquestionably is the pioneer and leader. The average department store will spend $60,000 per year for show window space, deco- rative settings, and maintenance." In no other city may one shop with the comfort, time, and money convenience as in this center of miniature World's Fair merchandising fame and reality. In richness of the wares, the finest department stores compare favorably with the most exclusive specialty shops, and the variety far exceeds them. The courteous attention of salespeople — to whom much schooling has been given — makes shopping pleas- 193 WHAT OF THE CITY? ant and profitable. Who has not been cheated and dis- appointed by careless, inattentive clerks in establishments where one's exact wants could easily have been supplied ? Volumes could be written of such experiences. Chicago has its "nit-wits" at the head as w^ell as the foot of the business ladder, but these have been reduced to the mini- mum in the better way, modern-day school of efficiency. ^^^J^scribing a shopping tour, a lady said to me, " ^^i^ stores', they are wonderful; unlike anything in the wo.rld ; and I have visited many large cities in America and abroad. You can shop all day in a single store and find anything you want. You do not have to hunt all over for it. It is there — -the very thing you desire, high price or low." " Isn't that true of other cities. New York for ex- ample?" I asked. " Chica go is dis tinctive in its big department stores," was thereply. "Nothing anywhere can compare with them. You do not find the variety in a single store in other places. They specialize in certain things and while they aim to carry everything, you quickly find that is not the case. In Chicago, when you are in a quandary as to price, not knowing whether you can be supplied at a minimum price instead of something more expensive, you do not have to hunt all over town to determine this. What you want is there. Besides, the clerks and de- partment heads treat you as though you were a visitor at a fair. Even when you do not wish to buy anything but only to " look around," you are conducted about and things are shown and explained pleasantly and intelli- gently as though you were a visitor in a strange land 194 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS sightseeing. Speaking of variety, I am referring to staples and regular lines, although the same is true of seasonable goods, but naturally styles vary somewhat as to location, but Chicago is in the front rank as a style center. Chi- cago originates styles but, in perfect fairness to this side of the question, what is stylish in New York may not be stylish in Chicago and vice versa." Michigan Avenue, with its array of specialty shops, exclusive in character, is at all times one of the world's most fascinating shopping thoroughfares and an alto- gether delightful promenade. Michigan Avenue delights one with its shops, as much as Fifth Avenue and the Rue de la Paix, and to these it adds the pleasure of spacious sidewalks. The vast width of the street — more than twice that of the others — flanked by the great open space in Grant Park — skirted by the beautiful, blue, dancing waters of Lake Michigan and the yacht harbor adjoining — truly justifies its designation as Chicago's " splendid mile." While in most large cities the jobber or " middleman " is largely a thing of the past, Chicago still excels in these oldtime princes of wholesale merchandise. The advan- tages believed to exist by certain of the country's retail dealers in purchasing direct from the maker are all found in the greatest of all "open stocks" in the wholesale dis- trict. Factory production, on the other hand, loses nothing of distinction in Chicago. " Made in Chicago" week has become famous throughout the great western, north- western, southwestern, and southern empires of the United States, where Chicago, "The Great Central 195 WHAT OF THE CITY? Market,", is firmly established. During this unique week the great retail stores throughout the city display in their windows and on their counters only merchandise " made in Chicago." Vast throngs of merchants from all over the country visit Chicago on buying expeditions at this time. The words of the war song, Where Do We Go From Here? surged through my head at this point in my narrative about Chicago. Chicago is so complex, so many sided, so intense, so big in so many big ways, that one is hard pushed to describe the city by any formal method of procedure. A business man in a middle western city said, " Chi- cago, I detest it; what can you find in it to keep you there?" " How much do you know about Chicago? " I inquired. " Oh, I knew it fairly well some years ago." "Have you seen much of Chicago recently," I asked. " No, but I don't like it," he replied, " that's why I do not visit it more frequently." " When did you last visit Chicago ? " I persisted. Slightly perturbed, the color mounting to his face, he blurted out, " Oh, I think it was thirty years ago, but I knew the place well then and I didn't like it." " Well," I said, " thirty years is a long time. It is a longer time in the growth of Chicago than in any other large city in existence. Two million people have been added to its population in that short period. Thirty years ago Chicago was shooting up like Jack's bean stalk. It is still shooting up. It has never ceased to shoot up. What you saw thirty years ago and did not like were J96 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS growing pains. During its maturing years, it has been taking on form, dignity, culture, establishment, and at- tractiveness, until today we have the mighty city, vast in area, vast in architectural development, vast in enter- prise and big and tolerant in all things and toward all people — a city with a soul and a mind to achieve its destiny." Thirty years is not long in the life of most great cities but ten years is too long in the life of Chicago for any outsider who has not visited it in a decade to judge the place. Dunng,jny_resid£nce of fourteen years in this city, physical changes have been wrought that appear almost unbelievable, and in that time I have witnessed Chicago's soul and mind expand as did that of Saul of Tarsus seek- ing the way and that of Plato seeking the light of knowledge. An eastern scribe who, to paraphrase his own thought, was not actuated by a *' spirit of timidity, of regularity, of safe mediocrity, who looked not over his own shoulder furtively in fear that he may have done something that was ncft nice," in contrast to some of his eastern brethren whom he described as " afraid to be themselves, afraid above all of being Americans, imitators of imita- tors, fourth-rate Europeans twice diluted," said of Chi- cago: The sharp winds from the lake seem to be a perpetual antidote to the Puritan mugginess of soul which wars on civilization in all American cities. In Chicago originality still appears to be put above conformity. The idea out there is not to do what others do but to do something they 197 WHAT OF THE CITY? can't do. This idea is the foundation of all artistic endeavor. Chicago as a center of culture will occupy another chapter, but before we leave the physical city, let us take a turn about the streets, boulevards, parks, and suburbs. The fascination and beauty of these- are comparable to those of any other city. In some respects their enchant- ment is superior to all others. What other city possesses a drive forty miles in length skirting a great inland sea, the spray of which in turbulent weather dashes over it close to where it courses the business heart? Such js Michigan Avenue, the Lake Shore Drive, and Sheridan Road which, blended with the boulevard system of the south side, wend their way from the South Shore Coun- try Club, nine miles south from the center of the city, northward thirty miles to Lake Forest and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. ' Starting from the South Shore Country Club at Sev- enty-first Street on the Lake Front, one may travel forty- four miles on a circuitous tour through the wonderful parks and over the connecting boulevard links without doubling back or crossing the city limits. This beautiful journey, requiring several hours, will not, in fact, take the tourist nearer to the southern border of the city than nine miles. On the west he will not skirt the limits by three miles or get nearer to it than six miles on the north. I have traveled in eight countries but I have yet to dis- cover a city where a wooded drive, continuous for nearly fifty miles, may be enjoyed that is so environed and inter- spersed with beauty spots; objects of natural, historical, 198 CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS and art value; and flowered and wooded expanses in never ending variety; shot through with sparkling sun- light and sentineled by the blue waters of a great lake. This is merely a circuit of the boulevards and parks. It does not include the miles of beautiful streets leading from or paralleling this circuit. It takes no count of the glorious miles of avenues dotted with enchanting villages adjacent to the city limits and reaching far out on the rolling prairies westward and stretching leagues northward close to the water's edge of the lake. We shall begin our boulevard trip from the South Shore Country Club, one of the most interesting and attractive in America — a country club (imagine such luxury) within the city limits midway between the center and the edge and nine miles from either. Such Edens of ease and recreation are always situated far from the city's noise and turmoil and away from its citadels of humming industry. Leaving the portals of the city-locked country club, the passage is made northward skirting the club's yacht harbor where myriads of pleasure craft are constantly haveried. Presently Jackson Park is entered at its south- ern border. Crossing its rich acres we traverse the beau- tiful expanse — now historic — which once housed the world-famed World's Columbian Exposition. Jackson Park, the largest of all of Chicago's wonder- ful parks, almost comprises a full section of land. Its five hundred and forty-three acres contain an eighteen- hole golf course and a smaller one of nine holes. Golf is here free to the public. To the right of the large course, the sojourner first 199 WHAT OF THE CITY? sees a sheltered harbor where, riding placidly at anchor, may be seen two of the caravels of the Christopher Co- lumbus expedition to America in replica — interesting relics of World's Fair days. Just beyond the large golf course, facing the lake as if in eye search of the mariners of old who sailed west- ward with Columbus, is the beautiful statue of the Re- public. In commemoration of the World's Fair site, upon which it stands, the great figure forty feet in height stretches its arms aloft to the skies — a silent and majestic token of the Old and New World proclaiming the dawn- ing of an everlasting day of fruitful expansion and se- curity for all mankind. Onward to the north a far-flung view of Lake Michi- gan with its ocean-like vastness greets the eye. Round- ing a curve in the lake shore, the German Building of the World's Fair — a gift to Chicago from the German government — is seen. Close by is one of Chicago's noted bathing beaches and adjacent is a picturesque pier for the protection of small craft, where in rough weather the sea dashes in majestic splendor, breaking its monster, foaming, seeth- ing mountains of liquid beauty against its formidable stone antagonist. Turning shoreward past the smaller golf course there is fascinatingly revealed the inspiring sight of the great Field Museum of Natural History. Like a dream of ancient Athens, the home of one of the world's most valuable museums rises in all its weathered glory, for this is the old Fine Arts Building of the World's Fair. Opposite, and as if to blend the ancient with the :?oo CHICAGO MEN AND THINGS present, leading out of the park are long avenues, with palatial residences set back in park environment. Westward from the museum stretches the Midway Plaisance, the World's Fair Street, then universally know^n as " the street of all nations." This bizarre thoroughfare perhaps did more to advertise the exposi- tion than any other of its many wonderful features. A mile in length, this broad mall is lined on the left with family hotels and pleasure gardens and on the right w'ith the towering and widely dispersed buildings of the great University of Chicago. Between the Midway and the University buildings, lies a great stretch of sunken playgrounds lined with stately trees like the country roads of France. The Midway connects Jackson and Washington parks — two of the greatest pleasure grounds in the United States. Washington Park — one-third smaller than her big sister close by, yet nevertheless a very big playground with her three hundred and seventy-one acres — is some- what more formal in her landscape architecture than other famous Chicago parks. Washington Park resembles a great private estate of a wealthy man — cultivated to the last detail. Tasteful in its platting and rich and restful of verdure, it is, with the exception of golf, exceptionally well equipped with games and sport facilities of the less common sort, such as archery and fly casting. It has magnificent floral ex- hibits in its mammoth conservatory and is unusual in educational botanical facilities. Leaving Washington Park via Garfield Boulevard, the 20 1 WHAT OF THE CITY? eight mile trip to the west side parks is varied and in- teresting. The first of the great municipal gardens sit- uated far westward from the lake is Douglas Park. The journey in six sections, over boulevarded streets all the way, is by w^ay of Garfield, Western, Thirty-first, Cali- fornia, Twenty- fourth, and Marshall boulevards. Over this rectangular course many interesting features of the great city are encountered. Small parks, fine residences, splendid apartment buildings, small shops, public institu- tions, churches, reformatories, hospitals, grain elevators, railway shops, mammoth industrial plants, technical schools, and river, ^and canal passages lie along the route connecting Washington and Douglas parks. Directly in this course are three of the world's most beautiful and completely equipped playgiroun ds for ch il- dren — Sherman. McKinley, and Gage palrlcsj" Bisecting it are the Union Stock Yards — the greatest in the world — the intensively developed Central Manu- facturing district and, cut in twain by it, is a vast area in w'hich are domiciled people of many tongues and races. This wonderful chain of boulevards varies the monot- ony of commonplace thoroughfares and, like oases in a desert, supplies attractiveness and beauty such only as' broad, well-paved street expanses lined with trees, flowers, shrubs, fountains, and statues can do. In most cities boulevards are the highways. oLthe_dch. In Chicago the poor and rich alike share in their fascinat- ing miles, which are legion. Douglas Park contains one hundred and eighty-two acres. It is replete with recreational features, designed to delight and refresh the people of the crowded west 202 ll AH\>