PARK AND CEMETERY 
83 
maintained thoroughfares; when the streets are neglected, it 
is a sign of retrogression ; a going back to the cowpath period.” 
He might have added with entire propriety, that as the 
street is improved and maintained in cleanliness and decency, 
the homes and neighborhood respond. A readjustment of 
higher standards is slowly, but none the less effectively es- 
tablished. 
So it will be with the progress of good roads. Not only will 
outer communication be facilitated, but a new and more effi- 
cient civic conscience will be created through the introduction 
of new communal ideas. To illustrate — one of our own num- 
ber has suggested and is urging that the laws of Iowa be so 
amended that the townships of that state be given the right 
to build town halls and to surround them with suitable town- 
ship parks, so located that no farmer would be farther away 
than three miles from such a park. Such halls could be used 
for township, political and social meetings and made the 
center of township life. The park would likewise be a 
convenient place for all kinds of outdoor meetings and a 
source of inspiration to many whose lives are now all too 
barren of such influences. If this idea could be carried out 
in every state of the union, it would make for a sounder pub- 
lic life and a more homogeneous public sentiment. 
In the same line is the suggestion of the committee of fifteen 
of New York, which has strongly urged that the proposed 
Carnegie branch libraries in that city be utilized for similar 
purposes. There is no question as to the necessity for local 
meeting places where local needs may be freely, fully and 
openly discussed by those most vitally and directly interested. 
If in addition to affording such meeting places, these branch 
libraries could also be made beauty spots, surrounded by well- 
kept open spaces, who can estimate their benefit to the com- 
ing generations, who will form many, if not most, of their 
standards of life - from the objects and persons they come in 
contact with during their adolescence. 
The extension of the usefulness of schoolhouses is another 
influence at work, the importance and value of which cannot 
be easily overestimated. The old idea that a schoolhouse 
was something to be shunned except for five hours a day, 
five days a week for eight or ten months in a year is yielding 
to the newer and more wholesome one that the schoolhouse 
should be the center of communal life, a thing of beauty and 
uplift, and a factor in the life of every man, woman and child 
within sight of its walls. 
Mayor Low of New York is deserving of great credit for 
the courage and ability with which he has led the movement 
for an enlarged use of the New York schoolhouses, many of 
which are now open practically the year round. Not only 
are they used for the instruction of the young, but for mu- 
nicipal lectures of geography, history, natural science, art and 
kindred subjects for the adults and as vacation schools during 
the summer. Moreover, many on the east side are thrown 
open during the summer evenings as places of recreation. 
Band concerts, dancing pavilions -and sand piles are provided 
so that those whose lives are narrow and contracted with 
little outside of the usual round of hard duties may- get a lit- 
tle change and uplift under proper influences. 
Who can estimate the immense value of all these agencies 
in the coming generations? We have no standard by which 
we can gauge them, but of their beneficent influence there is 
now no doubt. They will all tell in creating a new race of citi- 
zens to whom the appeal to place public weal above private 
advantage can be made with increased chances of acceptance. 
Our rising generations are being quickened intelligently and 
morally to their own great benefit and the equally great bene- 
fit of the community in which they live. 
While it is unquestionably true, “men will be better by liv- 
ing in a beautiful city and a beautiful city will make good 
citizens,” it is equally and primarily true “that only good citi- 
zens can make a beautiful city ; that in some true sense, ma- 
terial loveliness can come only as the outward and visible 
sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” So every influence 
which tends to make good citizens must be carefully culti- 
vated and as the several agencies which we have thus far 
considered have this tendency, they deserve the hearty sup- 
port and co-operation of every lover of his country. 
Verily, there is a sound of “a going” in the treetops and 
verily, David is bestirring himself. Awakening America is no 
misnomer. Our land is awakening alike to its needs and its 
opportunities and herein lies the hopefulness for the future. 
So that our development may be harmonious it behooves us 
to look around about us and take counsel as to immediate 
needs and future policy. One that confronts us at the very 
outset is the need for a full realization of the immensely im- 
portant part which urban communities must play in the up- 
building of the national character and the development of the 
world. It seems trite to make such a point; but experience 
teaches that no matter how trite it may be to the average 
intelligent man, we are very far from acting on a realization 
of its truth and importance. Cities have become the centers 
of influence. They are determining our destinies. As they 
rise or fall, so will our country rise or fall ; and yet notwith- 
standing this fact, this gravely and portentously important 
fact, what are we doing to make the city a worthy influence? 
In our universities and other educational institutions we have 
courses in engineering, in social and political science, in archi- 
tecture, in the various arts and sciences, but which one offers 
courses in city making, or in citizen making? 
True, there are many beneficial influences at work in every 
city making for a better city and for better citizens. I have 
already referred to some of them ; but, after all, these efforts 
are mostly voluntary, mostly spasmodic and often without any 
correlation to similar efforts. A haphazard policy, lacking 
unity and co-ordination, prevails. Our great educational insti- 
tutions must step in and supply the need and give to these 
important questions careful, systematic and scientific treat- 
ment. The National Municipal League has already taken up 
the matter of instruction in municipal government and citizen- 
ship in American educational institutions ; it remains for 
the American Park and Outdoor Art Association to take up 
and agitate for appropriate courses in city making. 
The movement inaugurated at Chautauqua to build a “model 
city” there is in the highest degree commendable and if con- 
summated will constitute a most telling object lesson. The 
very agitation of the question will prove helpful and stimulat- 
ing. Likewise, the determination of the managers of the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition to create a “model city” in 
connection with the World’s Fair of 1904 will serve as a 
striking and imposing example. The influence of the White 
City at Chicago in 1893 has been of incalculable benefit and 
now that the idea is to be extended still further and developed 
as it is now proposed at St. Louis, we may reasonably expect 
that there will be given a great momentum to the efforts of 
those who are seeking the reconstruction and regeneration of 
our cities. 
We have spoken at some length of the multiplication of 
organizations in city, state and nation. While this is to be 
regarded as an auspicious and hopeful sign of the times, we 
must not regard a mere increase in the number of associations 
and societies as in itself evidence of healthy growth. At the 
present time what we most need is a conservation of energy 
and a concentration of effort, but I am afraid we are not get- 
ting it everywhere. We find, all too frequently, that much 
energy and effort are wasted in the mere maintenance of or- 
ganizations, instead of being applied, as they should be, to the 
advancement of the common cause. What we need in our 
cities is a complete and thorough understanding as to the work 
to be done and the part each is to play in accomplishing it. 
Duplication of effort and consequent friction must be elimi- 
nated if we are to make real progress. A merging of societies 
in most cases is out of the question, but federation furnishes 
the solution and affords an easy and an effective means for 
bringing about important results of the highest value. 
The same policy holds good as to state and national effort. 
While merger may be possible between certain bodies, federa- 
tion is the means whereby the difficulties and dangers of the 
present situation may be overcome, and existing agencies mar- 
shaled for a vigorous forward movement. It is a matter for 
congratulation that steps to this end have been already taken 
and a civic alliance of all bodies interested in the higher 
welfare of the land is in process of formation, as a result of 
the movement inaugurated by this association a year ago. 
Important and essential though organized effort may be, 
we must not overlook the need for personal effort and re- 
sponsibility. In the present era of great organizations we are 
sometimes prone to- overlook the fundamental importance of 
individual endeavor. Associations and societies can and do 
accomplish much in this and every other line of endeavor, but 
they must depend primarily upon the individual. 
“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” This is eternally 
true and has a special application to our present theme. We 
might appropriately paraphrase it and say, “as a citizen think- 
eth in his heart, so will he act.” We cannot expect to make 
an artistic whole of our city unless those who are concerned 
in the welfare have artistic inclinations. We cannot expect a 
public spirited administration of affairs where the constituency 
is sordid and self-centered. 
A beautiful city can no more be successfully imposed from 
without than a good character can be so imposed upon an 
individual. A beautiful city and a beautiful public life must 
