778 THE URBAN COMMUNITY 



" ' Jean Jacques, love your country/ said Rousseau's father to his 

 son. This should be our motto. We look with suspicion on globe- 

 trotters whose country is nowhere. The soul, the soul of the city, 

 I tell you, should be looked after in the first place." 



II. Material Reforms 



" (a) General Principles. But since you have come here especially 

 to investigate the material structure of our city, a walk through the 

 streets will serve as a practical lecture on the subject," continued 

 Initiator, and we then began to visit the new city. As we went on 

 along wide streets broadening into squares or across gardens and 

 crescents enlivened by unexpected vistas of sky, our guide enlarged 

 on the principles which have inspired the founder of the up-to-date 

 urban agglomeration. I was amazed both at the simplicity and the 

 grandeur of the scheme. 



" Plenty of air, and sun for everybody! Air, an abundance of air, 

 everywhere! Down with stuffy buildings! Light and air are 

 primordial necessities. The sun brightening dwellings and streets, 

 even the humblest of huts! Let us benefit by the progress of science! 

 We know now upon the best authority that a dwelling deprived of 

 light is predisposed to be the receptacle and the nursery of per- 

 nicious microbes. Among them there will be found the germ of 

 tuberculosis, the most terrible plague of modern times, causing 

 more victims than war and cholera together. An Italian proverb 

 says that where the sun does not go, the doctor surely will. Air 

 and sun! this is the problem in a nutshell, but gre.at difficulties had 

 to be overcome. Our end could not be attained without a consider- 

 able outlay of money. Well! there is no reason to regret the ex- 

 pense, which proved an excellent investment. A badly built city 

 means a superabundance of invalids and an increase of the death- 

 rate. Therefore, from a business point of view, a sacrifice of money 

 to the public health is a saving to the public purse. Prevention is 

 better than cure. 



" In our city, as in all towns, the ancient part stands shoulder to 

 shoulder with the modern quarters. It was not easy to harmonize 

 these two parts so different one from the other, and our success has as 

 yet only been partial. At all events, we have done our best to 

 prevent the old quarters from becoming more objectionable, by 

 improving them as much as possible. First of all, we have drawn up 

 a plan of rectification which we are gradually working out to the best 

 of our ability. Our municipal authorities buy up numerous houses 

 situated on the lines of projected streets and especially those which 

 pay a fair interest. With the sanction of the law, we appropriate 

 others at fair prices. Indeed, according to our improved regulations, 



