no STATE POMOIvOGlCAL SOCIETY. 



clean streets is now before the League, and I presume that will 

 be done, and one of our assistants in Lewiston has offered to 

 give a prize to the grade in the grammar school which will pro- 

 duce the best essav on clean streets. In Auburn the matter I 

 think has been attended to by the chairman of the committee, 

 Mrs. Atwood, and beautiful urns of flowers were placed upon 

 the public library grounds. They have also placed rest seats 

 at different places, and receptacles for w^aste. And so gradually 

 we are hoping to arouse a public sentiment to demand what we 

 know needs to be done and will have such an influence over the 

 tendency toward carelessness and filth and dirt and disease that 

 lurks wherever there is a chance for it in an illy kept, poorly 

 taken care of, city. 



Prof. Phelps: It seems to me that this subject of civic 

 improvement is one that we should look at from the very broad- 

 est standpoint, and the two standpoints which I wish to call to 

 your attention are the pecuniary advantages of civic improve- 

 ment and the cultural or educational advantages. Now the pecu- 

 niary advantages cannot be better illustrated than by the outcome 

 of our relations with Cuba. Previous to the Cuban war our 

 whole southern coast was menaced by that dread disease of yel- 

 low fever and the whole foundation of it was the filth and degra- 

 dation in that little island of Cuba. That was the source of the 

 whole contamination. What was the outcome ? As soon as the 

 United States took possession of that little island she sent a 

 commission over there to clean up those cities. Those cities 

 were thoroughly cleaned up and since that time we have heard 

 nothing about the dangers of yellow fever along our southern 

 coast. Now in a similar way results of the same kind may be 

 obtained locally. Wherever filth and dirt exists there are the 

 conditions which favor the growth of disease germs and fungous 

 organisms and all those things which tend to propagate disease, 

 and if you remove those conditions then you are working an 

 improvement that will be of advantage to the whole city or the 

 whole town. And so from a pecuniary standpoint you are 

 doing a great work of public interest. 



Then again, from a still more direct pecuniary standpoint, 

 what do our great railroads find? They find, as you have 

 already heard, they find that it is an advantage to them to deco- 

 rate their lines. They have found it out to that extent that 



