306 
VRE EGE 
The use of air-craft as a factor 
among all sections. It is bound to give a wholesome im- 
petus to the wave of municipal improvement that seems to 
have swept over the country since the appearance of the 
report of the Park Commission appointed by the United 
States Senate, to prepare plans for the development and 
beautification of the city of Washington. The elevated 
position of the aviator gives him a map-like view of a 
city and enables him to take in at a glance the sundry possi- 
bilities for betterment. Anyone who has stood on the top 
of Mount Royal, with Montreal spread out below him, may 
form a faint idea of the aviator’s vision. 
The advantage for getting comprehensive views enjoyed 
by the occupant of an aerial machine can easily be imagined 
when we remember that at the height of one mile he can 
see ninety-six miles in every direction and that the range 
of vision is limited only by height and the amount of haze 
in the atmosphere. By virtue of his altitude he gains a 
perspective denied the man whose goings are always hori- 
zontal. As a painter working on a large canvas, or a 
sculptor modeling his clay, now and again stands at a dis- 
stance to measure effects, so may the city planner rise above 
his work and grasp in a twinkling the requirements of his 
problem. 
It has already been pointed out that aviation reveals the 
iniquities of design, the squalor, the unsightliness in a city 
and all the other things that are generally unseen, though 
they may be within a stone’s throw of us. These defects 
being brought to light, thanks to aeronautics, can be 
remedied. But more important still, it cannot be denied, 
are the impetus and inspiration thereby given, not alone for 
remedial schemes and remodeling, but for constructive plan- 
ning of lines along which a city may make its future growth. 
There is no inherent, reason why a city should be left to 
chance and individual caprice and not rather pursue its 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
September, 1912 
LUPE RY PETC 
in civic betterment may be looked upon to develop a greater appreciation of the value of orderly roof designs 
growth according to a well-ordered and rational design. A 
town of haphazard growth may indeed be picturesque, and 
often is, but its lack of arrangement usually means a prodi- 
gal waste of space as well as a daily waste of human time 
and energy. Such a town is apt to be incoherent, like a man 
beginning a speech in the middle of an involved thought. 
He struggles and strives to express himself, but cannot find 
the happy turn of words he needs. City planning by one 
man or by a group of associated men may be formal and 
academic, but in the end results will justify the practice. 
Three cities, Washington, St. Petersburg and Alexandria, 
were built according to the design of one prescient intellect, 
and they speak for themselves. 
Only by deliberate, premeditated design shall we ever 
secure due provision for parks and gardens. Now to all 
phases of physical civic betterment, to remodeling and 
cleansing squalid districts, to the opening of avenues for 
the relief of trafic pressure, to the better designing of our 
roofs, to proper and efficient municipal lighting, to the intel- 
ligent establishment and treatment of parks, public gardens 
and waterways, aviation will supply a strong and ever- 
increasing stimulus by the very clarity and force of its 
revelations. 
Aviation gives us a chance to look at ourselves from a 
new angle, and the sight is not always flattering to our 
pride; it is a bit like the power to “see oursels as ithers see 
us.’’ However, the experience is wholesome if humbling, 
and if aviation is only a means to open our eyes and make 
us think and become dissatisfied with our shortcomings, it 
will have done a world of good. If we, ourselves, prefer 
to walk the earth like the old woman who said with true 
Malapropian felicity of phrase that “terra-cotta”’ was good 
enough for her, we must remember that many others 
are going to fly, and it is clearly our duty to adapt 
