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TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



port of the main office at Brussels but agrees 

 to do a certain amount of documentary re- 

 search work for the benefit of the entire or- 

 ganization. By this means none of the cities 

 and towns is affiliated directly with the In- 

 ternational Union but with their National 

 Union. In Holland a National Union func- 

 tions for most of its towns and co-operates in 

 regard to documentary research with the In- 

 ternational Centre, but certain of its larger 

 cities affiliate directly with the International 

 Union. Then it is arranged in certain coun- 

 tries where there would perhaps not be any 

 good reason for some time for a subsidiary 

 National Centre, that cities and civic organiza- 

 tions or societies may join the central or- 

 ganization direct, subscribing a fee depending 

 upon the population or special conditions and 

 agreeing also to furnish the central office at 

 Brussels with documentary data in regard to 

 their own and nearby conditions. 



A fourth method permits the establishment 

 of a subsidiary National Centre of Civic Doc- 

 umentation by a National Government — such a 

 "Centre" to be affiliated with the International 

 Centre at Brussels, paying thereto a fee de- 

 pending upon the circumstances in each case; 

 receiving therefrom its invaluable civic infor- 

 mation and contributing thereto, as in the case 

 of France and elsewhere, a certain amount of 

 documentary research work for the benefit of 

 the entire organization. Such a subsidiary 

 National Centre then distributes the material 

 received to all interested cities, towns and 

 civic organizations, wherever it will do the 

 most good. It is believed that under some 

 adaptation of this arrangement America can 

 perhaps be best served; its progressive com- 

 munities and civic organizations receiving in 

 this manner the important data in regard to 

 world-wide conditions which they so greatly 

 need and for which some of these now pay 

 large sums of money, the expense of investi- 

 gating committees. Specialists, experts and 

 savants, who by their functions, duties or 

 studies are interested in any of the many 

 branches of civic endeavor, also civic organiza- 

 tions or societies, are permitted to join the 

 central organization directly, paying a nom- 

 inal fee depending upon conditions and agree- 

 ing also to contribute documentary data, par- 

 ticularly, of course, in regard to their own work. 



These units, varying as we see from Nation, 

 to individual, all function together under the 

 guidance of the Central Office, and its Tech- 

 nical Department has worked out with in- 

 finite care the details that will enable the or- 



ganization to collect properly, examine, sift, 

 co-ordinate and digest or condense all this 

 contemporaneous material in regard to civic 

 affairs and then make it promptly available 

 and useful to the world — for it cannot be too 

 strongly emphasized that it is up-to-date, re- 

 cent and forward-looking material that it is 

 proposed to present, not passe or discarded 

 data. It must be very evident to all that no 

 separate city or National Government or any 

 private organization could possibly prepare and 

 distribute a similar amount of data of prac- 

 tical utility or comprehensiveness, and such 

 administrative entities are realizing this more 

 and more and the necessity therefore of creat- 

 ing and supporting a central international or- 

 ganization that will accomplish for one and 

 all the task of collecting, analyzing and dif- 

 fusing such data. This data is now being dis- 

 seminated by means of a series of pamphlets 

 containing brief reviews of Contemporaneous 

 Municipal Documentation and these notes or 

 summaries are printed on one side only of the 

 page, permitting members to cut them out and 

 mount them on cards assembling and classify- 

 ing the items as they arrive month by month. 

 These "Note Books" serve as the necessary 

 intermediary between the central collections 

 and the administrative organizations, for 

 whose use all the various collections arc des- 

 tined, and permit all who are interested to fol- 

 low in an abridged and condensed form the 

 broad and intense movement of municipal ac- 

 tivities that the literature of civilized coun- 

 tries reveals. 



The pamphlets or Notebooks ("Tablettes" 

 they call them) containing the brief reviews of 

 contemporaneous Municipal Documentation 

 above alluded to, are at present published only 

 in French but it is realized that for America, 

 England and her Colonies (Canada and Aus- 

 tralia are showing a marked interest) there 

 must be an English edition. Therefore your 

 representative was soon pressed into this ser- 

 vice and translated into English not only the 

 first of the Notebooks, the so-called "Editorial 

 Notes," that outline the Organization's pro- 

 gramme and methods of work, but also the 

 two recently issued on "Urbanism," City 

 Planning. It was most interesting work, and 

 as an important by-product familiarized your 

 representative not only with the details of 

 this Organization but with recent European 

 Literature on City Planning. 



But an even more important and interest- 

 ing work was the preparation in co-operation 

 with Senator Vinck, the Director of the 



