OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



155 



and these sentiments and emotions will all 

 be found to be closely related to that pur- 

 suit of happiness in which a free people 

 is always engaged in accordance with 

 their tastes and inclinations. 

 S The city plannings of which Mr. Park- 

 er spoke with so much discrimination 

 are, I suppose, among the most import- 

 ant of the problems presented to your 

 profession ; but they are full of great diffi- 

 culties in the face of the layouts which 

 most American cities have adopted. I 

 suppose that the uniform rectangular 

 layout of a city, without diagonal or radi- 

 al avenues, is the stupidest thing the 

 American people has done on a large 

 scale, and under different natural con- 

 ditions. That layout is extremely un- 

 economical, causing an enormous daily 

 waste of muscular and mechanical power, 

 and in many places it has destroyed 

 natural features of remarkable beauty. 

 Yet today our city planning must take 

 account of all these adverse conditions, 

 predetermined, and often irremediable. 



I dare say that some of you have felt, 

 from time to time, some discouragement 

 at the multitude and difficulty of the 

 problems in landscape architecture which 

 lie before the American people; but, as 

 1 look back on the changes wrought in 

 .\merican cities and their vicinities dur- 

 ing the last twenty years, it seems to me 

 that there is good ground for hope of , 

 large progress and ample improvements 

 in the years which lie immediately be- 

 fore the young men here present. I no- 

 tice that the strictly economic considera- 

 tions in favor of small breathing-spaces 

 and large landscape parks are less insist- 

 ed on and that many minds are accessible 

 to the considerations which relate to pub- 

 lic enjoyment. Thus I have seen real 

 progress made in this respect on the Is- 

 land of Mt. Desert, where I live in sum- 

 mer. That island, as an economic value, 

 is whollj' dependent on the preservation 

 of its rough natural scenery and the safe 



development of its various beauties. 

 When I first went there to live, in 1881, 

 the natives of the island hardly appre- 

 ciated the fact that the chief asset of the 

 place was its natural beauties. Their no- 

 tion of the value of the island was al- 

 most exclusively an economic one. It 

 was a good place from which to fish. It 

 had been a very good place in which to 

 build small vessels. It attracted, or had 

 begun to attract, a considerable number 

 of summer boarders. They now see clear- 

 ly the importance of protecting and con- 

 serving in every way the natural beau- 

 ties of the island ; and they are prepared 

 to assent to having several thousands of 

 acres of hilltops and partially wooded, 

 steep, rough slopes held by the Hancock 

 County Trustees of Public Reservations 

 in perpetuity for public uses, and to hav- 

 ing these thousands of acres perpetually 

 exempt from taxation. It is not only the 

 people born on or near the island that 

 have come to be influenced by this mixed 

 regard for economic considerations, on 

 the one hand, and considerations affect- 

 ing public enjoyment, on the other. The 

 summer people have, within the last few 

 years, arrived at a new comprehension of 

 the fact that the only way to preserve 

 the island as a happy and fortunate sum- 

 mer resort is to secure, first the preser- 

 vation of its scenery, and secondly, the 

 purity of its water-supplies. The action 

 of the givers of the money which put in- 

 to the hands of the Hancock County 

 Trustees of Public Reservations many 

 thousands of acres of these hillsides 

 shows that they appreciate the necessity 

 of preserving natural beauties as means 

 of open-air enjoyment for a population 

 which tends to become dense. 



This suggestion may be available for 

 you when you have to enter into discus- 

 sion with municipal authorities or state 

 authorities, concerning the expediency of 

 executing public works which you have 

 designed. Ever since 187 1, I have main- 



