Now being constructed as a part of the city plan prepared by the Technical Advisory Corporation and F. L. Olmsted, Special Adviser A GREETING FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION* EBENEZER HOWARD S an expression of my great interest in the United States I at once yield to the request of Mrs. H. V. Hubbard, and gladly stretch my hand across the sea to be grasped, as I am sure it will be, by friends in America and of many other lands, friends united with the strongest of all bonds, a common purpose for the common good. Perhaps I may tell the readers of CITY PLANNING a few of my American experiences. I left the State of Iowa with two English friends and a small party of Canadian Methodists for Nebraska in March 1872, the County selected by the Canadian party being Howard County. Shortly afterwards-not of course in the least because my Christian name was Ebenezer-the Methodists gave that name to their Church Fellowship. About September of that year I left Nebraska for Chicago, and for about four years-broken once by a short stay in my native land-practised as a stenographer in the Courts of that City and occasionally in Wisconsin and Michigan. Looking back on those days I often wonder whether, as my eyes wandered over the vast spaces which I traversed, my subconscious mind was not, even then, developing the thought of the splendid possibilities which lay hidden there; so that, as sound thinking and right feeling became more universal in your land and other lands, attention would be more and more consciously directed to the bringing forth of a truly noble civilization, which would gradually raise all mankind to a higher and worthier plane. Perhaps I may speak of another link that binds me "as with hoops of steel" to the people of America. In 1898 two very dear and intimate American friends of mine, George Dickman and his wife, Josie, helped me more than anyone else to take the first of many steps which led me forward in my life work. I had written a book "Tomorrow”—after* International Federation for Town and Country Planning and Garden Cities. wards entitled "Garden Cities of Tomorrow"-but no publisher would accept it. George Dickman, who was then Managing Director of the Kodak Company, but who died shortly afterwards, had taken some large premises in London and one day when I met him there, he said to me: "Ben, your idea is very simple. Just as I am designing these premises as a whole so you say cities should be carefully planned before they are started upon. You are quite right, and I want you to let me help you to realize your aims. Here are £50 towards the publication of your book." And soon afterwards the book was published. I then formed the Garden City Association to spread the idea and to take steps to put it into a concrete form. After four years' agitation and spade work that Association formed the First Garden City Company (1903) which acquired an estate of 3800 acres in Hertfordshire, 35 miles from London. On that estate there were then 375 people, but there is now a town of 14,000 persons with more than 50 industries; with its own water, gas, electricity and drainage and with an infantile death rate last year of about half the average of England as a whole. In 1919, aided by a few wealthy friends I purchased at an auction a large estate only 21 miles from London, on which another town is being built, and which promises, partly owing to enriched experiences, to be even more successful than the first. The International Federation for Town and Country Planning and Garden Cities was formed in 1914 by Mr. E. G. Culpin, then Secretary of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association. Of this Federation I have had, ever since its formation, the very great honour to be President, and I cannot resist the temptation to tell your readers that it is my ambition, not only to take part in the deliberations of this Federation, but afterwards to join hands with friends in America in carrying out, on a yet bolder scale and with more adequate resources, the great work of building a supremely healthy and well-planned town, industrial, agricultural and residential, an enterprise which, apart from its own great inherent value, will as we believe stimulate and encourage the forces which are now so actively engaged in the great work of making existing towns and cities yet more healthy, even as those forces will help us to make such an entirely new town a supreme success and the forerunner of many such cities in many lands throughout the world. PARK SCENERY FOR CITY DWELLERS A QUOTATION FROM FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, SENIOR "A man's eyes cannot be as much occupied as they are in large. cities by artificial things, or by natural things seen under obviously artificial conditions, without a harmful effect, first on his mental and nervous system and ultimately on his entire constitutional organization. "That relief from this evil is to be obtained through recreation is often said, without sufficient discrimination as to the nature of the recreation required. The several varieties of recreation to be obtained in churches, newspapers, theaters, picture galleries, billiard rooms, baseball grounds, trotting courses and flower gardens may each serve to supply a mitigating influence. An influence is desirable, however, that, acting through the eye, shall be more than mitigative, that shall be antithetical, reversive and antidotal. Such an influence is found in what, . . . . will be called the enjoyment of pleasing rural scenery. "Now as to this term scenery, it is to be borne in mind that we do not speak of what may observed in the flower and foliage decorations of a dinner table, window sill or dooryard, scarcely of what may be seen in even a large urban garden, as scenery. Scenery is more than an object or a series of objects; more than a spectacle, more than a scene or a series of scenes, more than a landscape, and other than a series of landscapes. Moreover, there may be beautiful scenery in which not a beautiful blossom or leaf or rock, bush or tree, not a gleam of water or of turf shall be visible. But there is no beautiful scenery that does not give the mind an emotional impulse different from that resulting from whatever beauty may be found in a room, courtyard or garden within which vision is obviously confined by walls or other surrounding artificial constructions."-- From Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park, 1886. A LETTER FROM PRESIDENT-EMERITUS ELIOT Dear Mr. Hubbard: Cambridge, Mass., I hope that "CITY PLANNING" will receive a subtitle, such as, with town and rural planning; because the improvement of the plans of cities ought not to be the chief occupation of the engineers, architects, and landscape architects who are going to bring real and lasting relief to the congested cities of the country. The only real relief for city congestion is moving the industries or plants which employ large numbers of mechanics or operatives out of the cities into suburbs or the open country beyond. To accomplish this, new buildings with suitable grounds must be planned for the industries or plants themselves and new boarding houses and family houses must be built for the operatives with gardens, and streets made as safe as possible for children. The real contribution, therefore, of the engineers, architects, and landscape architects who are going to give relief to the congested cities is to be done in the open suburb or the open country beyond. In order to make sure that the new villages or towns thus built will not deteriorate with lapse of time, it will be necessary to devise a method of leasing rather than selling the houses built in the district. England supplies a few examples of remarkable success for that policy. On this matter competent legal advice will be necessary before actual construction is begun. There will remain for the people who live in cities the great functions of coöperative buying and selling and of distribution; and city planners will be always needed to make and keep the conditions of life for city dwellers wholesome and happy. The city planners who are now attempting to bring about improvements in city streets, avenues, boulevards, bridges, and tunnels are not proposing or hoping |