132 GARDEN CITIES 



already planted with fruit trees, vines, and lawn, at a rental of 

 twelve dollars and thirty cents a month? 



How can such superb opportunities be given at so low a cost? 

 There are three ways, each of which is exemplified by a different 

 garden city in England. The first is the plan of Lever Brothers, 

 soap manufacturers, who built Port Sunlight, a suburb of Liver- 

 pool at a cost of $1,700,000. It is the most beautiful of all, has 

 the greatest variety of buildings for social purposes, and the cheap- 

 est rents, but it has two serious drawbacks. First, the social life 

 of a community having only one interest is not as healthy as that 

 of a mixed community. The renters at Port Sunlight are all 

 employees of the same factory, and the magnificent social features 

 provided for their comfort and pleasure are not used as much as 

 they ought to be. Second, the city has never paid its makers any 

 direct dividend, although it is practically self-supporting. The 

 Levers firmly believe that they have received an ample financial 

 return in the increased efficiency of their employees. But we can- 

 not expect that the city life of the world will be revolutionized by 

 kind-hearted manufacturers. Port Sunlight is superb, but its plan 

 implies too great an investment for the ordinary manufacturer and 

 the returns are too indirect to appeal to the average business man. 



Both of these defects are remedied in the plan of Bournville, 

 which was founded by Mr. George Cadbury, the cocoa man- 

 ufacturer. In the first place, only 41 per cent, of the renters at 

 Bournville are employees of the factory. The others came from 

 anywhere and 'everywhere, and many of them spend their days 

 in Birmingham. Consequently the social life is that of normal, 

 mixed community not merely industrial or suburban. In the 

 second place, Bournville really pays. The city's chief source of 

 income is rent. Everybody pays 8 per cent, on the investment 



