Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 253, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1914 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE]

HOME TOWN HELPS

CONGESTION TO BE AVOIDED Clty tjf Today Should Profit From the Errors Which Have Been Made In the Past. , Theiy are much more important and more fundamental objects than esthetics in city planning—-objects that are altogether within the reach of modern civic effort; many lines, indeed, in which thd modern city has already surpassed: ’older efforts, and will and must do 80 still mnpe. If civic art is the .sublime flower flnally can be hoped for, the necessary roots, stems and leaves must be found in the economic, social, hygienic and recreftytional life of the coinmunities. Industry and transportation; transit and rapid transit connections between economically and hygienlcally' developed factories, business districts, and healthful, enjoyable fepmes; plenty of playgrounds, open-air and indoor schools and public parks, are the logical objects of modern city planning—the. necessary foundation on- which civic life and civic beauty must rest before anything worthy to find expression in art radiating toward a physical and beautiful civic center can be developed. Those somewhat utilitarian objects of the new civic art are susceptible of a high grade of development unheard of in the plans for the cities of former times. City planning is the science of investigating and achieving these results. Extraordinary efforts and quite new departures must be made, in order to develop a new type of city, free from the old plagues. The city of the old type was built to house only a small percentage of the nation; and this small percentage was destined to an early death in the second or third generation. The cities did not continue to exist by their own increase of population, but by the continuous influx of people from wide agricultural areas. The old congested city, therefore, was essentially a place to die in; the modern city must become a place to live in. In the beginning of the nineteenth century only a small percentage of the population in the United States lived in cities, a condition which has changed materially today.