FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
187 
ly feasible to have it burned so as to avoid 
the ruin and damage of black smoke. 
Another of the nuisances which beset 
the community and which make it un¬ 
pleasant to look at is the billboard 
nuisance. You will see by the picture 
how the city hall at Jacksonville is made 
tributary to beer and the other things, and 
you will see also how the approach to 
Jacksonville from the railroad station is 
an alcoholic approach, by means of lanes 
of beer and booze. Unquestionably this 
is a misfortune and it cannot continue 
to exist in a community which is to be 
good-looking. 
Poles and wires are now going under¬ 
ground from economic reasons. There is 
no excuse for great pole lines, maintained 
altogether for private advantage on the 
streets owned by all the people. The 
methods of burying the wires are eco¬ 
nomical and advantageous. 
Recreational conditions must be taken 
into account in a good-looking town, not 
only because they are good-looking in 
themselves, but because they tend toward 
that service to the citizens which is a part 
of every self-respecting American com¬ 
munity. I show you pictures of how this 
work is done all over the United States, 
including the school garden, the Cleve¬ 
land sixeen-cent garden, and the parks 
and play grounds which are so notable 
and pleasant a feature of our American 
life. There are in the pictures some dread¬ 
ful contrasts which will point themselves 
to your eyes. You do not want in Florida 
gutter or street children. You prefer, 
I am sure, playground children. You see 
the value of recreational provision. You 
observe the advantage of the public bath 
and of all the other beneficences that are 
included in modern park and playground 
work, no longer considered as a luxury 
for the well-to-do, but instead as an in¬ 
vestment for the benefit of those whose 
prosperity is vital if they are to live and 
grow at all. 
All that I have said bears toward one 
end and one plea. I have tried to show 
you what a good-looking town is, and I 
now say to you that you cannot have it 
except by thoughtful planning. Good 
things do not often happen at random. 
City planning is the keynote of modern 
advance. It is not new, for the first 
great instance of it is in connection 
with the planning of our federal city, 
Washington, by the immortal “father of 
his country/’ who laid down its lines 
when the United States was a strug¬ 
gling nation, with barely three millions of 
population, hanging on with difficulty 
to a thin fringe of the Atlantic coast. 
Yet this immortal man could look ahead 
and plan for a hundred millions of people 
and provide for the building of a city 
which should distinguish and dignify 
us among the nations of the world. 
Washington, then, is the one greatest 
example of city planning. Other com¬ 
munities all over the country have 
taken up the subject, and whether it 
be the village of a thousand or the 
metropolis of a hundred thousand, 
the possession of a plan for the develop¬ 
ment is the sane, sensible and logical 
thing. It saves frequently its cost 
many times over in each year, and 
whether or not its provisions can 
always be directly carried out, it is, when 
once obtained, a check against unwise 
