THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



9 



mittee to determine what units should be 

 executed first. 



This committee is known as the 

 Chicago Plan Commission. It is non- 

 partisan, non-political, having advisory 

 but not executive powers. It has a mem- 

 bership of 325, representing every sec- 

 tion of the city, every interest, and every 

 shade of public opinion. The municipal, 

 county, State, and Federal officers whose 

 work has any relation to the several 

 projects provided for in the plan are 

 ex-officio members. 



In order to provide for a continuing 

 executive head, Charles H. Wacker was 

 made permanent chairman ; and though 

 city administrations come and city ad- 

 ministrations go, the Chicago Plan is 

 never lost sight of ; indeed, it finds each 

 new administration realizing more than 

 the preceding one that it is a people's pet 

 project. 



How firmly rooted in the mind of the 

 average citizen it has become is disclosed 

 by the referendum held in the November 

 election with reference to the improve- 

 ment of Michigan Avenue. That im- 

 provement was authorized several years 

 ago by a popular vote, which approved a 

 bond issue of three million dollars for 

 carrying the project into effect. 



But the war came on, and with it such 

 a tremendous increase in prices that the 

 work could not be done unless the bond 

 issue authorized was more than double 

 the amount originally asked for. Yet. the 

 people, having already burdened their 

 pocketbooks by putting four Liberty 

 Loans, a Red Cross drive, and an allied 

 war-work drive "over the top," re- 

 sponded with an overwhelming majority 

 in favor of the new bonds. 



A REMARKABLE CENSUS 01? TRAFFIC 



How hard it is to carry improvements 

 through is well illustrated in the case of 

 this undertaking, the details of which will 

 be discussed later. Under Chicago law 

 it is necessary to prove that an improve- 

 ment is of local rather than of general 

 benefit, in order to tax the property- 

 owners of a given assessment zone for 

 that improvement. 



To do so in the Michigan Avenue in- 

 stance a studv had to be made of all the 



traffic entering and going out of the Loop 

 District. A great staff of census-takers 

 was set to work keeping a record of the 

 comings and goings of every vehicle pass- 

 ing in or out. By checking up the num- 

 bers it was shown at what hour the 

 vehicle came in, what route it took, where 

 and when it stopped, and where it went 

 out again. 



How thoroughly the census was worked 

 out is illustrated by the experience of a 

 Chicago motorist. A friend, happening 

 to be recording the passing vehicles at 

 Rush Street bridge one evening, saw the 

 motorist and his wife pass in their car. 

 He set down the number, as the work 

 required. Later he saw the wife going 

 back alone, and still later saw the man 

 and another woman go out of the district 

 in a taxi. 



When the watcher reached headquar- 

 ters he checked up the motorist's move- 

 ments, just to see whether one car could 

 be followed from the time it went into 

 the district until it came out. 



A few days later the traffic census- 

 taker accosted his motoring friend : "I've 

 got a line on you now !" he exclaimed. 

 "Last Wednesday evening you crossed 

 the Rush Street bridge at 7:40 o'clock. 

 Your wife was with you and you went 

 to the Auditorium for dinner. After 

 dinner you sent your wife home in your 

 car, and at 9:39 you took a taxi at the 

 Sherman House in company with another 

 woman. You drove down Randolph 

 Street to Michigan Avenue, stopped at 

 the Blackstone "for thirty minutes, and 

 then drove up Michigan Avenue and 

 across the Rush Street bridge." 



The motorist admitted that the census- 

 taker had correctly stated his journeyings 

 of that evening, but wanted to know what 

 he meant by such "sleuthing." The taxi 

 trip was a perfectly proper one, but it 

 did serve to show how careful was the 

 census. 



But even the taking of such a census, 

 which resulted in the accumulation of 

 tons .of figures, was only the beginning of 

 the difficulties. Eight thousand lawsuits 

 had to be litigated before the work could 

 be done ; then the people themselves had 

 to pass judgment on the improvement by 

 voting for or against the bond issue. 



