What is a Good Looking Town? 
By J. Horace McFarland, President American Civic Association. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
It is an especial pleasure to speak on 
this subject to this audience, because of 
what I see as I go about Florida. Com¬ 
paring the conditions I find now with 
those prevailing on my first visit to the 
flowery state twenty-three years ago, I 
can be sure that the state with its vast 
resources, its unique soil and climate and 
its wonderful opportunities, has awak¬ 
ened to its needs and its duties with re¬ 
spect to the sort of improvement work 
for which the American Civic Association 
stands. 
A quarter century ago Florida was 
dull, dirty, slow and lazy. Something 
has happened to change this state of 
affairs, for now I face alert men and 
women whose homes are lovely with the 
loveliness that belongs to Florida alone, 
and whose very air as they sit before me 
is that of prosperity and advance. 
Therefore in speaking to you on “What 
is a Good-looking Town?” I can almost 
say any Florida town is good-looking— 
almost, but not quite, for, as I shall show 
you on the screen, some Floridacommuni- 
ties have not yet awakened to their needs, 
their duties on their opportunities. Some 
towns do not observe how they are educat¬ 
ing travelers to stay away, how they 
are extending the repelling influences of 
disorderly surroundings along the rail¬ 
road to those whose money and help is 
so desirable. 
To talk about what makes a town good- 
looking one must adopt a certain system¬ 
atic order. First it is proper to consider 
the approaches to our towns, in relation 
to their looks, for in some way we must 
get into town, by trolley, by steam, by rail, 
or by water transportation, if we are to 
make any judgment or express any pre¬ 
ference concerning it. 
Now the approaches to American com¬ 
munities are not always encouraging. I 
show to you certain contrasts, some 
from the north and some from the South, 
dealing with good and bad conditions. 
You will at once agree that this bill- 
boarded filthy approach to Trenton, New 
Jersey, does not make it a good-looking 
town; nor does this mis-spelled advertise¬ 
ment of a liquor dealer who has located 
himself where every one who passes 
through Plqnt city must see what he has 
to offer. You will, on the contrary, agree 
that the trolley entrance to Hockanum, in 
Connecticut, and the pleasing premises of 
The Florida Citrus Exchange, near the 
station at Winter Haven, are of most 
attractive type and tend to attract visitors, 
while certainly helping to make good- 
looking towns. 
The other contrasts that I show you, 
as between Chicago and Paris; between 
San Diego in California and Lucerne in 
Switzerland; between Milwaukee in Wis¬ 
consin and Rotterdam in Holland, in- 
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