land in a much more satisfactory manner than is possible with an existing city where conditions are firmly established and more or less unchangeable. The housing standards in many American communities, both large and small, are not as high as they should be. Here again there is the contrast between the potentialities of the two situations. In the planning of new communities it is feasible from many points of view to apply housing standards that are much higher than in existing cities, especially the large existing cities, in such matters as the size of lots and the provision of light, air, sunshine and agreeable environment. Also the securing of neighborhood recreation and other essential facilities for family life, more particularly the requirements of children. PRACTICALLY WHAT CAN BE DONE? Must the control of the location of towns be left to accident or the sporadic promotion of the owners of property, as for example in Florida, or could such development be regulated and controlled in any way by the governing authorities? Would national planning and regional planning give opportunities to control the location of towns? No answer can be given now to these questions, but at any rate, here are some of the definite ways in which the development of new towns could be initiated and to some extent more wisely directed: (1) the Federal Government has had a great opportunity in the past, and still has some opportunity, to influence favorably the location and development of new communities; (2) the railroads have been instrumental in the past and might continue to be in the future in establishing and developing new towns of all classes-industrial, commercial and residential; (3) national industrial corporations, such as the U. S. Steel and General Electric, have it in their power to inaugurate in many places new towns planned to meet the new conditions of modern life, especially the industrial and labor conditions, combined with proper housing; (4) there is an unlimited opportunity for work along the lines represented by Letchworth and Welwyn, the garden cities of England, and by "Mariemont" and other new town associations in this country; (5) the Farm Communities Association, recently organized, could develop wellordered and well-located villages and towns in the country as new centers of agricultural life. In the formation of public opinion to stimulate, encourage and back up these various forms of action leading toward new town planning, might be mentioned the various national technical and popular groups concerned with this subject. Considerable influence could be contributed by the new technical town planning knowledge that is being developed at universities and special schools, such as Harvard University and various other institutions in this country; also the University of Liverpool in England, and higher art and technical institutions elsewhere. Above all, attention should be drawn to the International Federation for Town and Country Planning and Garden Cities, which would be especially useful because of the value of the international exchange of ideas and experience. The new order of community life, such as is here roughly depicted as being possible in the planning of new communities the better to meet new conditions, ought to include more of the things that make life worth living: decent homes; cities clear of slums; children well fed, with fit bodies and active minds; cities which see the sunlight and do not live in a canopy of smoke; cities more free of noise; safer cities. In these new cities we could, if we would, add to the decoration and adornment of life and its legitimate amusements and recreation. We could help to better physical and esthetic conditions, giving cities more color and individuality. We could have more libraries and a wider enjoyment of music and art. We could secure ample playgrounds, parks and forest reserves. Indeed, by building anew we could raise the whole standard of life, physical, mental and spiritual, and at the same time by good planning actually lessen the cost of developing and maintaining cities, because of the more practical ways in which provision would be made for the requirements of railroads and highways, of business and other economic factors upon which the welfare of cities rests. OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT OF ΤΗ BOSTON By ARTHUR A. SHURTLEFF among HE spoke-like arrangement of the main thoroughfares of the Metropolitan District of Boston is singular among American cities in at least four respects; first, these radials are many in number embracing about thirty-five, measured at a distance of eight miles from the center of the City; second, they are spaced with remarkable regularity as the first accompanying plan indicates; third, they are very direct in their general courses although none of them are absolutely straight except for short reaches; fourth, they are all crossed where they pass through villages, towns, and cities, by transverse roads which branch nearly at right angles. These cross-roads, near the local centers, are remarkable for their persistence all around the circle. They change orientation to correspond with the adjacent radial highway. To speak of these transverse roads as “cross-roads" is not accurate because as a rule an offset occurs in almost every case where they might be expected to carry smoothly across the corresponding radial. A useful system of circumferential thoroughfares would have been realized if these offsets were not present. These characteristic jogs came into existence in early days when the social and business interests of the villages and towns which surrounded Boston were not intense enough to carry across intervening communities. With the coming of the automobile era, lateral communication has become exceedingly important. A moment's consideration of the foregoing shows the plight of congestion into which Boston and its thirty-nine surrounding Metropolitan cities and towns are automatically forced. Boston is swamped with vehicles which pour into it from all sides through converging radials from which there are no well-arranged circumferential escapes or bypasses. Moreover, the surrounding villages and towns are needlessly congested with Boston traffic which clogs each "Main Street", especially |