The Playground Movement

1914

Up to a few years ago, it never occurred to the older people that Young America needs a place to play in. It was commonly supposed that a live boy would find plenty of amusement in selling newspapers, running errands, or hoeing the back yard garden. If he must have his game of ball once in a while, there was the street or someone's vacant lot.

As a matter of fact it often happened, even in the country town, that there was no place where a set of boys could play a game of ball without being ordered to quit.

Most American towns were laid out with no provision for the children. There was ample foresight for anything in which money could be made. Railroads and factories never lacked opportunities. Land was often given to attract them. But the cases where land was given where young people could play their games freely, and work off superfluous and threatening energy, were rarely seen.

In the larger cities the modern playground, with a tangle of yelling kidlets, is a sight to do a wholesome-hearted person good. The boy who is chasing a baseball is not robbing fruit nor standing on the street corner smoking cigarettes.

A playground entertaining a large crowd of children does not fully serve its mission unless carefully supervised by some competent person. The average boy gets altogether too much fun from tormenting some one under his size. Also the average crowd of 12-year-olds is very far from ready for self-government.

But even if a neighborhood or a village can merely open up a vacant lot and turn the youngsters loose, the results are worthwhile. In that case the parents will occasionally have to intervene to make Young America "salute the flag."

Home Town Helps — "The City Beautiful"

1913

Does Not Mean Prettiness

Term "City Beautiful" Has Been Much Misunderstood — Real Ends to Be Attained.

That term "the City Beautiful" sounds like tying pink ribbons around lamp posts. Even as applied to civic art, as distinct from city planning, the name is sufficiently misleading. It is the idea indicated by that unfortunate, falsifying phrase that Raymond Unwin, in his admirable "Town Planning in Practice," lampoons.

"Civic art is too often understood to consist of filling our streets with marble fountains, dotting our squares with groups of statuary, twining our lampposts with wriggling acanthus leaves or dolphins' tails, and our buildings with meaningless bunches of fruit and flowers tied up with impossible stone ribbons."

It is not the prettifying of cities that is the object of city planners. The building of intraurban, intercity and interstate transit facilities, the construction of sewers, of gutters, of garbage disposal plants, the destruction of unsanitary areas to be replaced by decent housing, the development of port facilities, the upbuilding of the health of the city through the creation of playgrounds and parks — parks primarily as health agents, not prettification measures — all of these and others are the chief aims of city planning. There will, of course, be a necessary improvement in the appearance of the city as the natural result of skill in city building, and that improvement is an entirely proper object, but it ought not to be permitted to paralyze the whole movement through the creation of an entirely incorrect understanding of the ends to be attained.

Other phrases have been suggested, which are useful as antitoxins to that "City Beautiful" phrase, but they generally accent some one phase of city planning at the expense of the others. "The City Practical," "The City Useful," "The City Scientific" are examples. One of the best is negative. It was coined by Robert W. De Forest and represents the movement as aiming to exterminate the "Unregulated City Hideous."

But no phrase yet suggested epitomizes the wide range of city planning, and least of all can it be said that the "City Beautiful" is the central thought of its exponents.

Advice Worth Reading, Heeding for Good Business, Success

1878

It is easier to be a good business man than a poor one. Half the energy displayed in keeping ahead that is required to catch up when behind will save credit, give more time to business, and add to the profit and reputation of your work. Honor your engagements. If you promise to meet a man, or do a certain thing at a certain moment, be ready at the appointed time.

If you go out on business, attend promptly to the matter in hand, and then as promptly go ahead on your own business. Do not stop to tell stories in business hours. If you have a place of business, be found there when wanted. No man can get rich by sitting around stores and saloons. If you have to labor for a living, remember that one hour in the morning is better than two at night.

If you employ others, be on hand to see that they attend to their duties, and to direct with regularity, promptness and liberality. Do not meddle with any business you know nothing of. Time is money. Never use quick words, or allow yourself to make hasty or ungentlemanly remarks to those in your employ, for to do so lessens their respect for you and your influence over them.

Help yourself and others will help you. Be faithful over interests confided to your keeping, and in all good time your responsibilities will be increased. Do not be in too great haste to get rich. Do not build until you have arranged and laid a good foundation. Do not — as you hope to work for success — spend time in idleness. If your time is your own, business will suffer if you do; if it is given to another for pay, it belongs to him, and you have no more right to steal it than you have money.

Be obliging. Strive to avoid harsh words and personalities. Do not kick every stone in the path; many miles can be made in a day by going steadily on. Pay as you go. A man of honor respects his word as he does his bond. Ask but never beg. Help others when you are able; but never give when you cannot afford to, simply because it is fashionable. Learn to say "no." No necessity for snapping it out; but say it firmly and respectfully.

Have but few confidants, and the fewer the better. Use your own brains rather than those of others. Learn to think and act for yourself. Be vigilant. Keep ahead rather than behind the times.