THE PARK SYSTEMS OF AMERICAN CITIES 
By Andrew Wright Crawford 
11.—Harrisburg-Baltimore 
P ARTY politics is not concerned directly 
with the acquisition of park systems. 
Such improvement of towns or cities is 
generally accepted as desirable by both par¬ 
ties. Occasionally there is opposition by the 
party out of power to the purchase of the 
property that is needed for recreative pur¬ 
poses, not on the ground that the need is 
not apparent, but that the money is more 
imperatively required for other objects. Park 
systems have heretofore been regarded as in 
a large degree a luxury, a view that is being 
more and more forced into innocuous desue¬ 
tude by the advance of medical science, with 
its greater and greater insistence on open air 
treatment of diseases, particularly of con¬ 
sumption. Politics has occasionally felt 
the force of the park movement as a decisive 
factor. A marked example of its energv in 
recent years is afforded by the city of Har¬ 
risburg. The campaign for the election of a 
mayor was fought out on the question of 
the issuance of bonds to secure public im¬ 
provements, among them a park system. 
Mr. Vance McCormick, a Democrat, whose 
platform was the necessity of the approval 
of the bond issue, was elected, although the 
Republicans are normally in the majority. 
The proposed issue of bonds in Harris¬ 
burg was the result of an idea which has 
been given the name, “ the Harrisburg 
Plan.” A number of citizens subscribed to 
a fund of $5,000 to secure the services of 
three experts in examining the needs of the 
community in three general directions, viz., 
the improvement of the water system and 
* 
n 
ill 
! 
I 
11 1 
Jy|i 
tfil 
i 
THE RIVER FRONT OF HARRISBURG 
A Rare Opportunity for an American City 
