CONSERVING THE BEAUTY OF NATURE 



69 



nature which city congestion has within 

 a single generation made almost impos- 

 sible for multitudes. 



While the exclusion of bad influences 

 needs to be unremitting, the good influ- 

 ences — fortunately for crowded urban 

 populations — need not all be incessantly 

 in action. An occasional holiday in a city 

 park or garden, a week-end in the coun- 

 try now and then, or a fortnight's vaca- 

 tion in summer may make deep and last- 

 ing mental impressions, and supply both 

 children and adults with wholesome ma- 

 terial to fill the mind and direct its ener- 

 gies for months and years. 



Hence the importance of better city 

 and suburban planning, of public reserva- 

 tions of all sorts in city and state, and 

 of national parks and monuments. All 

 these modes of public action tell not only 

 on the physical well-being of both urban 

 and rural populations, but on the mental 

 training of children and on the cultivation 

 in the whole population of thoroughly 

 healthy spiritual interests and uplifting 

 enjoyments, both individual and social. 



The profession of landscape architect- 

 ure is going to be — indeed, it already is — 

 the most direct professional contributor 

 to the improvement of the human en- 

 vironment in the twentieth century, be- 

 cause it is devoted not only to the im- 

 provement of housing and of town and 

 city designing, but also to che creation, 

 preservation, and enlargement of op- 

 portunities for human enjoyment of 

 mountains and valleys, hills and plains, 

 forests and flowers, ponds and water- 

 courses, spring blossoms and autumn 

 tints, and the wild life of birds and other 

 animals in their natural haunts. These 

 are the things that city dwellers need to 

 have opportunities to see and enjoy ; these 

 are the things that serve as antidotes to 

 the unwholesome excitements and ten- 

 sions of modern city life; these are the 

 delights which, by occupying the mind 

 and satisfying the spirit, keep out de- 

 grading thoughts and foul desires. 



THE VITAL PROBLE;m TODAY IS HOW TO 



T?t^T> THE MENTAL HEALTH OE 



MULTITUDES 



That good environment can modify 

 favorably the effects of heredity is as 



true of nations as of individuals. The 

 vital question of modern life is how to 

 feed the mental health and spiritual 

 growth of multitudes. In the modern 

 world life is tightly packed against life, 

 and one life is interwoven with many 

 others. Neither freedom of mind nor 

 health of body can be secured in isola- , 

 tion; for both blessings the individual 

 must hereafter be dependent on social or 

 collective action. 



The present evils of city life and the 

 factory system — bad conditions which 

 civilization has itself created — have de- 

 veloped their destructive forces in this 

 country in spite of the schools and 

 churches and of free political institutions, 

 and in spite of many happy influences 

 from art, poetry, music, and the drama. 

 Clearly, society needs to develop a new 

 and better environment for the general 

 life — an environment favorable to both 

 bodily and mental health and to the at- 

 tainment of genuine happiness — not of 

 mere momentary excitements, pleasures, 

 and gratifications, but of solid content- 

 ment, and the lasting satisfactions of life 

 enjoyed in quietness and peace. What 

 are the means of compassing this end ? 



The readiest means is good planning 

 of city, town, and landscape — first ap- 

 plied to areas still open, and then gradu- 

 ally to areas already occupied in unde- 

 sirable ways. The new planning must 

 take into account the interests of the 

 whole community, as well as the interests 

 of individual owners, the social or col- 

 lective interest always prevailing. 



The immediate objects to be sought are 

 more light and air for dwellings, offices, 

 shops, and factories, and thus a spreading 

 out of cities ; the transfer of factories to 

 suburbs and to country sites along the 

 lines of railway; the multiplication of 

 playgrounds and open decorated areas, 

 and above all the attachment of a piece 

 of arable or garden ground to every fam- 

 ily dwelling. Many of these results can 

 certainly be attained; and indeed much 

 work of this sort is already started in 

 regulating the height of buildings, trans- 

 ferring factories and setting up new 

 plants in smaller towns, enlarging school 

 yards, and creating public parks and gar- 

 dens. 



