URBAN COMMUNITY PROBLEMS 787 



found anywhere at the present time. Old cities, however, such as 

 Berlin, London, and Paris, are evolving toward it, and new localities, 

 such as Washington, some model villages or towns in different coun- 

 tries, and ahead of all Garden City, near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, just 

 now making its appearance, approach it still more closely. Moreover, 

 the city of the future is an ideal which every one should try to achieve, 

 since reflection and common sense command it. Let us then unite 

 to bring about the noble and desirable city. 



Here we have no time to spare, for it has become evident to all 

 thinking men that our urban communities frequently present a 

 regular state of anarchy, which makes one shudder with a feeling of 

 awe when looking at them. 



But some one objects: Why should not every landlord assert his 

 right to make the most of the property he owns and erect upon it 

 what he likes? If he dwarfs surrounding houses, deprives them of 

 their part of light and air, and, in fact, depreciates considerably his 

 neighbor's property, well, he is not to blame. It is the conflict of 

 human interests, the struggle for life which is to be found everywhere. 

 The weak shall certainly be defeated if they are too weak to protect 

 themselves. Look at the business competition; the department 

 stores crush the small shops, the trusts kill the small industries. 

 Look at nations with their rivalries and their wars for supremacy. 



This is, in some countries, a pretty general form of reasoning, but 

 that does not make it any more conclusive. Indeed, anarchy is 

 unorganized society, and if it appears that things have been allowed 

 to go adrift, it becomes then the imperative duty of civilized men not 

 to accept them, but to bring them under proper control. Moreover, 

 we do not hesitate in affirming that if unlimited power should be 

 given to private interests, such a state of affairs could not but end 

 in great distress, nay, in bloody and disastrous convulsions. And, to 

 confine ourselves to this point, let us proclaim again that cities must 

 be made convenient for men to live in, and that if they were to become 

 hells, this would be our fault and our punishment. 



There are three periods in the onward march of human progress. 

 First, the period of complaints, criticisms, and inaction. Secondly, 

 the period of intermittent, tentative, half-hearted efforts. Thirdly, 

 the period of thorough-going reforms, enthusiastically taken up by 

 every citizen conscious of the duty of the hour. 



The first period is absolutely fruitless. The second period presents 

 an apparent effort on the part of administrative bodies to enroll 

 themselves for the public good; but this interest is more apparent than 

 real, and what they aim at is not so much to make effective work and 

 go to the bottom of the evil as to avoid the reproach of being careless 

 or inactive if some evil should happen which might have been 

 prevented. It is then that conflagrations take place like those of the 



