Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 115, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1915 — Home Town Helps [ARTICLE]

Home Town Helps

NEED FOR CITY PUNNING Many Intelligent Men Do Not Seem to Understand What Is Meant by the Term.

Mr. J. Horace McFarland, president of the- American Civic association* took as the subject of his annual ad* dress at the convention of the association in Washington, “Wanted —American City Planning for American Cities." By way of introduction, he said: “It may truthfully be said that to the average intelligent American, be he mechanic or business man, doctor or professor, preacher or politician, the words ‘city planning* at once refer themselves as part of a vague propaganda for ‘the city beautiful,’ having to do with permanent or temporary courts of honor, extra illuminations, and other forms of municipal frippery. It serious fact that this complete misunderstanding exists to such large extent -among the many excellent people who call themselves ‘practical,’ and who really try to be good citizens. This fundamental error of conception prevents these good people, most essentially necessary to the efficient progress of orderly city making, from realizing that city planning which is at all worth while is concerned, first, witlfe means of intercommunication, with % transportation, with markets and house sites and factory locations, with water and sewerage, with parks and playgrounds, and all the other factors of prosperity, efficiency and convenience, rather than with appearance or ornament as essentials. When we shall have established in the minds of these unknowing citizens the plain fundamentals of that larger use of architectural and economic principles which have to do with the community efficient, there will be far less trouble in bringing about the use of common sense in those municipal operations concerned in th'e framework and structural details of our towns and cities.”