CIVIC IMPROVEMENT. 69 



sprinkling of the city and holds monthly meetings in the schools to 

 arouse interest. The have places for waste paper, and insert in the 

 local papers the town ordinances in simple form, that all may know to 

 obey them. Every city and village should do that once a year. 



In Los Angeles the demand for seeds and plants on the part of the 

 children was in excess of the supply. In Duluth the school children 

 have raised funds by entertainments to beautify vacant lots. In St. 

 Joe 500 children have been interested in school gardens and have been 

 instructed by lecturers from the State University. The Home Garden 

 Association of Cleveland sold about 100,000 packages of floral seeds to 

 school children last year at a cent a package. In Minneapolis the busi- 

 ness men have taken up Civic Improvement. In Carleton, Mo., Civic 

 Improvement Is carried on by the women. Shame to the men, the 

 women are frequently the leaders in this important work. In California 

 the city of Petaluma for 10 years has given $25 monthly to the local im- 

 provement club and it has received more than its value in return. 



Another city has adopted the same plan. In Muscatine, Iowa, the 

 librarian, in an attractive manner, arranges upon the table in the read- 

 ing room books and magazines bearing upon Civic Improvement, and 

 states that he will furnish upon request magazines and articles bearing 

 on the same. A number of cities are doing the same. 



The Aberdeen Improvement League of South Dakota publishes the 

 follov/ing among other things: "The organization has converted Aber- 

 deen from one of the illest looking cities to one of the cleanest in the 

 state." After discussing various things it suggests how to plant various 

 things like the following: "To plant sweet peas plant them early in the 

 season. If possible let the rows run north and south so they can have 

 both the morning and evening sun. Provide a trellis of chicken wire 

 for them to run over. Do not allow seed pods to form. Plant old- 

 fashioned holly-hock in the rear of the yard," etc. 



In Philadelphia it is urged that there be provided a Civic Improve- 

 ment Commission whose duty is to prepare a plan for the development 

 of the city. 



The association has an endowment fund of $100,000. Washington, 

 New York, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Indianapolis have employed experts 

 for the same purpose. And other wide-awake cities will fall in line. 

 Harrisburg built anew under the plans of an expert who was paid 

 $5,000 for his services. 



Mr. Burnham, who planned for a beautiful Washington, and Manila, 

 was in his bungalow in the suburbs of San Francisco planning for the 

 model city of the world when the great disaster came. But such a people 

 as those will wrest victory from the jaws of disaster and defeat. 



In Kalamazoo, Michigan, the improvement club is making a raid on 

 loan sharks who have practiced most shameful extortion on poor and 

 destitute people in 264 cases and the Commercial Club is aiding the move- 



