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being* smart, cute, and up-to-date. They know and have proved that 
it is a money-saving proposition. Listen to what Mr. Daniel H. 
Burnham, Chairman of the Committee of Fine Arts, U.S.A., and 
tlie creator of the Chicago Exposition, said at the London Confer- 
ence in 1910: — 
“The inception of great planning of public buildings and 
grounds in the United States was in the World’s Fair in Chicago, 
1890. The beauty of its arrangement and of its buildings made a 
profund impression, not merely upon the highly educated part of 
the community, but still more perhaps upon the masses, and this 
impression has been a lasting one. As a first result of the object- 
lesson, the Government took up the torch and proceeded to make a 
comprehensive plan for the future development of the Capitol, 
T\ ashington. This action was less than ten years ago, up to which 
time there never had been a Plan Commission in the United States, 
but since then every considerable town in that country has gone 
into this study, and there are many hundreds of Plan Commissions 
at work at the present time throughout the land. Is this a fad, an 
attractive occupation of the moment, an interest which will dissipate 
and pass away? Is it a mere plaything’, or does it mirror urgent 
needs, never before felt, but now becoming essential to humanity? 
A review of some of the organisations may help to determine the 
reality of purpose with which men have now gone into this work. 
The Washington Designing Board was appointed by the Govern- 
ment, the last President of the I nited States, and, still more, the 
present one are at the hack of it, and the Congress has passed an 
Act establishing a National Fine Arts Commission as an outcome of 
their efforts. 
1 hen came the plan of Manila, capital of the Philippines, made 
under Mr. Taft, who was then Secretary for War, the initiative 
having come from him personally. 
Then came Cleveland, Ohio, which State passed a special law in 
order to allow large towns to employ expert commissioners, who are 
t° design the public thoroughfares and parks, and who are to act 
as censors in all public art matters. * 
1 lien came San Francisco, where an association of private men 
undertook to back the work. And then came Chicago, where the 
work was undertaken by the Commercial Club, which appointed a 
committee of 15 of its members to conduct the enterprise. 
Other places have done the same earnest work, and have shown 
the same liberal spirit as those mentioned above. But the most 
significant aspect of this new phase of life in the United States lies 
m the kind of men who are actively engaged. Thev are the best 
and the strongest men of affairs we have. In Chicago,’ in three years, 
there were 200 meetings of the General Committee, at which* hun- 
dreds of public men— engineers, architects, sanitary, railroad, city 
transportation, and other experts— were present. There is not one 
