August, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



119 



Civic Betterment 



Ways to Help : The Organization 



jypHE individual can do much; the organiza- 

 ^U tion can do more. It is obvious why this is 

 so. Civic betterment, to be good and to 

 accomplish good, must be conducted on a 

 large scale. It is not the single house and 

 garden that gives evidence of public spirit 

 within that is to be commended, nor even the single block or 

 street; wholesome progress is wholesale progress, it is prog- 

 ress on a large scale, evident in many places and in many 

 ways, and giving definite character to a whole community. 



The individual can not accomplish this general good, nor 

 should he seek to do so. Individual effort is limited, in most 

 cases, to the confines of one's own property. Outside of that 

 united effort is needed, and the organization comes into use 

 as the most effective means of reaching results. 



This organization may have several forms. It may be 

 purely local in its scope, and confined to the residents of one 

 neighborhood, intent only upon the betterment of their own 

 locality. It may be more general, and consist of citizens of a 

 district or ward. It may be a section of a general club. It 

 may take the form of a general body, seeking members from 

 every source, and undertaking a certain amount of general 

 work. It may be an organization maintained for a specific 

 purpose, or it may look to broader results, leaving definite 

 betterment in definite ends to other organization. 



Now, the striking feature of any organization is that the 

 body as a whole is stronger than the individual. The organ- 

 ization invariably carries more weight than the person. This 

 is due partly to the fact that an organization of indefinite 



duration can keep battling at a question longer than an indi- 

 vidual,' and partly because the connections and ramifications 

 of an organization are so indefinite that the organization has 

 a prestige which the individual can not possibly have. 



Hence the popularity of the organization as a means for 

 accomplishing civic betterment. It is not only a popular way, 

 but an effective way. It works continuously, for when the 

 individual's interest flags a new worker is likely to be at 

 hand to carry on the struggle further. Moreover, organiza- 

 tions have, in themselves, a prestige and a power that is often 

 very great, and which helps amazingly toward the de- 

 sired end. 



Membership in an organization is, therefore, a very ad- 

 mirable way to help on the cause of civic betterment. Mere 

 association, however, will not accomplish the best results. 

 Active work and leadership is needed from every source, 

 and the work to be done is, in a general sense, so large and 

 complicated that there is always something for every one to 

 do, some special interest for every one to become identified 

 with. This, of course, means more than the mere payment 

 of dues, beneficial as such a ceremony necessarily is. It means 

 the sinking of individuality, that the community may be bet- 

 tered. It means, or it should mean, the undertaking of tasks 

 that have reasonable likelihood of accomplishment. It means 

 work for the few and work for the many. It means labor 

 without recompense and for the benefit of others. It is noble, 

 unselfish work when unselfishly undertaken and applied. It 

 means doing something for one's own city and town, and 

 that is a good and useful exercise of the rights of citizenship. 



The Architect and Civic Betterment 



It is a strange commentary on the work of the architect 

 that much of the effort directed toward civic betterment is to 

 cover up and improve his misdeeds. The business of the 

 architect is to build, and he must build well and in a beautiful 

 manner, or he falls far short of fulfilling the purposes of his 

 calling. Yet almost the first step toward civic betterment is 

 to cover up, as best it can be covered, the shortcomings and 

 the bad deeds of the architect. Let us, is the cry, plant trees, 

 that unsightly buildings be hid. Let us cover our buildings 

 with vines, that unsightly spots be blotted out. Let us, in 

 short, hide our buildings, that our cities be more beautiful. 



The architect is at once the greatest offender against pub- 

 lic taste and the leader in civic beauty. Of all art laborers 

 his work alone has a quality of permanence. A statue of 

 stone may be readily broken, or one of bronze melted down; 

 the painter and wall decorator need a building for the dis- 

 play of their art, and the worker in the lesser arts needs a 

 structure in which they can be contained. But the architect 

 is sure of a certain permanency. It is true that in the rapid 

 march of events this permanency may be relative only; it 

 may not even survive the statue or the wall decoration with 

 which the building is adorned; but his labor, if not secure, 

 is concerned with permanent materials and is intended to 

 be permanent. 



The architect, therefore, is our chief permanent art 

 worker. Does he fulfill the sacred trust this implies? Does 

 he always construct buildings that are good and beautiful, 

 and which have an art quality as well as that of permanence? 

 The questions need only be asked to be answered in the nega- 



tive. The architects are doing better work than a few years 

 ago. The artistic standard of building is raising. The 

 artistic value of structures is being more and more appreci- 

 ated as better examples are being produced. But the sum 

 total of all this effort falls far short of the effort put forth 

 in the golden days of architecture, when building was truly 

 an art, practised by artists for art's sake as well as for utili- 

 tarian purposes. 



This, however, does not diminish the architect's impor- 

 tance in the work of civic betterment. That he has done bet- 

 ter things in other times is but an incentive to better work in 

 the future. And "never was his work more clearly marked 

 out for him than to-day, when his business very obviously 

 is to build good and beautifully. No one other single factor 

 is so important in the art of civic betterment. No other 

 laborer has so great opportunities nor so many. Each 

 building he does should be a distinct contribution to the gen- 

 eral good. 



The architect has no need to be told he should lead in this 

 matter; the leadership is his by right. And this is not be- 

 cause he may know better than others what to do and how 

 to do it, but because the opportunity of doing something 

 definite is his by reason of his profession. The campaign for 

 civic betterment has advanced to such a point that the author 

 of a badly designed building at once proclaims his incom- 

 petence, while the creator of a good building is a public 

 benefactor. The architect has many noble opportunities, and 

 he has no better work to do than to meet them nobly. His 

 is a responsibility that can not possibly be avoided. 



