CIVIC IMPROVEMENT. 67 



Paris after having spent $265,00.0,000 on the Haussmann Improve- 

 ment from 1854 to 1870 has found it a paying investment; for it is now- 

 contemplating spending $230,000,000 in a new development, exclusive 

 of the cost of buildings, statuary, sewerage and water plant. 



Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia and other European countries 

 are actively engaged in the same work. 



In Berlin the slums have disappeared since 1870. 



In Glasgow 88 acres in the cehter of the city have been remodeled. 



Berlin has transferred 93 acres of slums into streets flanked by ar- 

 tistic buildings. It would be impossible here to name the many plans 

 for the improvement of London which have been recently made. In 

 fact a new London is being built. 

 . In America the unit of design is the building. In Europe the unit 

 is the street, the district, the v/hole city. In Europe there is authorita- 

 tive supervision of all their buildings. Architects are required, as they 

 are not required in this country, to build in accord with the natural sur- 

 roundings. If expositions can be built beautiful and convenient, why- 

 can not villages and cities be so built? American cities in fact have a 

 greater advantage over European cities not only in age, but because 

 they have not followed plans which they felt it their duty to follow. 



Recently there appeared in a New York paper an article under the 

 title 'Wew York in Transformation." It applies not only to New York, 

 but to every community in the country of any size where its people are 

 active and up to date and are building for the future. Manila, the 

 capital of our last accession, is being remodeled after American ideas. 

 When our American troops marched into Manila, August 14, 1898, it 

 was the filthiest place in the Orient. Now it is one of the cleanest cities 

 and tourists who visit it pronounce it the most attractive spot in all of 

 the east and this has been done in this old city in eight years. 



Improvement has been going in the extension of park system in such 

 cities as New York, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Milwaukee, Portland^ 

 Chicago, Seattle, Staten Island, Cleveland, St. Paul and Minneapolis, San 

 Francisco, Baltimore, Kansas City. And Omaha for the size of the city 

 has one of the most beautiful park systems in the country. God did 

 much for us in making our hills and ravines. And I am pleased to see 

 the numerous cities of the country so earnestly advocating the improve- 

 ment idea. The Tribune of Minneapolis says: "The city's highest 

 charm by no means all lies in dwellings or splendid public and business 

 constructions. It is also in the development of its natural advantages 

 and the overcoming of its natural disadvantages. Every occupant of 

 a home, whether owned or rented, should feel under obligations to 

 keep it in good order so that the house and grounds may not be an eye- 

 sore to the public. 



Governor Pardee of California is giving his personal attention to 

 school garden literature. In Moline, special attention is being given to 



