33 2 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1905 



Civic Betterment 



The Meaning of Civic Betterment 



OR several years past — the actual number is 

 somewhat limited — artists and others have 

 been proclaiming the value of civic beauty or 

 civic betterment — call it what you will — 

 from the very housetops. Public attention 

 has been aroused on a new subject, and if 

 there is not yet a profession concerned exclusively with mu- 

 nicipal embellishment the time is not far distant when it will 

 be recognized as one of the artistic professions, and perhaps 

 one of the learned. 



The movement is not only one of great interest in itself, 

 but it is full of valuable and suggestive meaning. Its visible 

 result, of course, lies in the improved aspects of our cities 

 and towns; but behind that is a broader value, which consists 

 in the most widespread interest in things artistic that has not 

 been manifested in modern times in any artistic subject. The 

 movement is world-wide, so far as Europe and America are 

 concerned, and has even reached into the Orient, where the 

 new message of civic beauty has been carried by Western 

 practitioners. It is limited to no country, for all countries 

 of Europe have felt it and given visible expression to it. 

 Sometimes the results have been greater in one place than 

 in another: the small town and hamlet are not able to reach 

 the great results that may be attained in a large city; the 

 large city may not always be able to create the beauty it 

 would out of the difficult materials and conditions that exist 

 where real estate is valuable and vested interests are meas- 

 ured in large sums. But the movement has now become 

 so very general that hundreds of improvement and better- 

 ment associations flourish amazingly where, but a few years 

 since, their name and purpose were alike unknown. 



It would be too much to affirm that this means a quicken- 

 ing of the artistic public conscience. The public is not at 

 all interested in art as art. But if it can be shown that art 

 has a financial value, that better streets mean better houses 

 and better prices, the innovations proposed by civic better- 

 ment will be eagerly welcomed and the results the more ap- 

 preciated. 



There is so much to be done in the way of civic better- 

 ment in America that the first stage is largely one of better- 

 ing conditions rather than artistic revolution. The latter 

 represents the second, and perhaps the final stage, and may 

 be reached in time. Meanwhile, it is the goal to look for 

 rather than the goal attained. Practical matters are more 

 quickly realized by Americans than matters which do not 

 have an immediate practical aspect. Any one can value a 

 good road, because one travels on it and realizes in person 

 its superiority to the road that is not valuable. There is less 

 general regard for an agreeable house or a fine vista, for a 

 well arranged country place or a splendid business front. 

 There are things which seem to require some special train- 

 ing to properly appreciate, and unless appreciated properly 

 their value will be wholly lost. 



The real meaning of civic betterment is that the public 

 mind has been definitely turned to artistic matters in so far 

 as they relate to public embellishment. Appreciation of the 

 value of certain improvements is already recognized; ap- 

 preciation of the value of other improvements must follow. 

 This, at least, is the hope of the friends of civic betterment, 

 and the results already accomplished indicate that this end 

 will surely be reached. This, in itself, is a valuable result, 

 indicative of a better future. 



Road Improvement 



The agitation for good roads in America has had three 

 stages of progress which have amounted to an actual evolu- 

 tion. The first persistent and insistent voice raised on this 

 subject was that of the bicycle rider, who, once astride his 

 machine, was amazed to find there were comparatively few 

 roads fit for him to travel over, certainly few that afforded 

 comfort and ease. The period is not so remote that the ef- 

 fects of the bicycle campaign have been forgotten. That the 

 demand for good roads was not always wise and reasonable 

 is probably true, but the campaign, as a whole, was well 

 conducted, for results began to be reached, and they have 

 broadened more and more ever since, although the bicycle 

 as a force in politics, or in any form of current life, has com- 

 pletely disappeared. 



It is a singular fact that the farmers, while the original 

 foes of the bicycles and the movement for good roads, are 

 now the most zealous advocates of this indispensable modern 

 betterment. One can not blame the farmers for their dis- 

 like of the bicyclers, for the latter invaded the quiet rural 

 roads in a new and unheard-of way. They demanded the 

 best places on the roads and recognized no rights but their 

 own. The farmers were an easy mark for the city boys, 

 whose guying of them added fresh zest to the pleasure of 

 bicycling. 



But good roads began to be built. The bicyclers pulled 

 so many wires, they worked so many interests, that good 

 roads began spreading their way through the country in all 

 directions. The bicyclers regarded them as built for their 

 own special use. They did not go so far as to claim exclu- 



sive use, except for bicycle paths, but that they were especially 

 theirs they did not hesitate to conceal. And the farmers 

 used these roads, many of which they had paid for in whole 

 or in part, and found them very good. They found their 

 horses could pull heavier loads with less cost than on the 

 old unmade roads to which they had been accustomed. They 

 awoke to their value, with the true American appreciation 

 of cheapness and anything that led to cheapness, and the 

 second great factor in the spread of the movement for good 

 roads was enrolled, and enthusiastically enrolled in the good 

 work. 



The value of the farmer conversion to the movement has 

 settled the matter for all time. Bicycles may come and go, 

 but the farmer lives on forever. We can not get on without 

 him even if we would, and we certainly would not if we 

 could. The farmer's interest being thus assured, there is 

 no reason to look for any lessening of the general interest in 

 good roads. That a good road is expensive to build, that it 

 must be kept in repair, and that it is more or less a source 

 of constant expense, is undoubtedly true; but most people 

 now understand the benefits of good roads and there is no 

 longer need of arguing for them. 



A final element, so far as the present permits, has arisen in 

 the automobile. The automobilist requires better roads than 

 the bicycler, because he takes more space, goes further and 

 travels faster. But the farmers had already awakened to the 

 value of good roads before the automobile became a factor in 

 the agitation. The position of the automobilist is supple- 

 mentary to that which the farmer is now glad to assume. 



