THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by International Film Service 



TABLET ERECTED AT THE SITE OF OLD FORT DEARBORX : CHICAGO 



Chicago is the youngest big city in the world. Men are living today who have seen it 

 grow from a motley village of nondescript structures into a magnificent metropolis, with a 

 population surpassing that of any one of thirty-seven of the sovereign States of the American 

 Union. 



It were too long a story here to relate 



the details of the formation of the Chi- 

 cago Plan, or to give more than a bird's- 

 eye view of its aims : but they show so 

 well what a municipality can do that it 

 forms a most encouraging example for 

 other urban communities. 



THE CHICAGO PLAX COMMISSION 



The realization that Chicago was grow- 

 ing fast and would outstrip its facilities 

 unless early action were taken came at 



the time of the "World's Fair. The Mer- 

 chants' Club and the Commercial Club 

 each took up the work of planning for 

 the future, and each soon found itself 

 duplicating the efforts of the other. 



They therefore merged as a new or- 

 ganization, raised funds for sending ex- 

 perts abroad, and in two years spent 

 S85.000 in creating a plan and publishing 

 a report. The plan recommended was 

 accepted by the City Council, which au- 

 thorized the Mayor to appoint a com- 



