6. The City Plan.-- The first conscious con structive act of a community organizing itself• into a city logically should be the development and adoption of a city plan, to utilize to the greatest advantage the site occupied by the city and to guide the city's growth for the future. It would be an error to say that this funda mental duty has been universally and com pletely neglected by the cities of America; for in a number of cases, of which Washington and Detroit are notable examples, city plans have been laid down at the beginning and more or less closely adhered to in their larger out lines. Moreover, the laying out of a single street, the construction of a harbor, the de velopment of a sewerage system or of a municipal water supply, is in itself an act of city planning. Where most cities have lament ably failed is in the fact that they did not at the beginning exercise wise prevision and lay out a comprehensive plan of development when it was possible to do so. The purpose of the city plan is fundamental and complex. Every city has certain advantages of site which ac count for its existence. Through its location it establishes its relations with the outside world, upon which it is absolutely dependent not only for its growth and riches, but for its very life. As the sites of cities are of infinite variety and as the city plan must be made in every case with regard to the particular site, it is futile to attempt to work out a uniform city plan good for adoption by all cities. The plan must utilize the site by developing all its inherent physical advantages as a terminal for transportation and traffic, by removing so far as possible, even at great expense if need be, its inherent disadvantages and by opening convenient thoroughfares for all kinds of traffic. The importance of providing great radial highways reaching out into the surround ing country can scarcely be overestimated in the case of cities largely dependent upon direct communication with their agricultural environs. Where a city is situated upon navigable waters the development of the harbor and of the water front terminals in convenient relation to the distributing land arteries within the city or reaching out from it is one of the greatest factors in a good city plan. In this connection it may be noted that of the 28 largest cities in the United States, all but four or five have the advantage of navigable waterways and owe their greatness in considerable measure to them. 'Under modern conditions, since the rail roads have become the great land highways of the civilized world, the provision of adequate rights of way and terminal facilities for them is perhaps the most important single factor in the city plan, at least so far as it relates to the industrial and commercial growth of the city. But the city plan has other functions besides establishing convenient means of communica tion with the outside world. It is also to provide for the internal convenience of city life. Upon it depends whether the streets shall be wide or narrow, straight or crooked; whether street railway lines shall be conveniently laid out for rapid and comfortable transit; whether swamps shall remain undrained and hills undeveloped; whether there shall be playgrounds for the children and parks for all; whether available lakes and beaches shall be developed to their maximum usefulness; whether there shall be civic centres adorned with beautiful and con venient structures, or whether public buildings shall be dropped hit and miss about the city without reference to dignity of approach or convenience of use_; whether skyscrapers and hovels shall nestle aganst each other or through proper zoning and restriction of the heights of buildings, each section of the city shall be utilized to the maximum without the egregious inconsistencies so often character istic of unregulated development; whether the homes of the people shall be constructed with reference merely to the rents that can be extorted from the unfortunate or with reference to comfort, sanitation and the pro vision of adequate sunshine and fresh air. City planning in its broadest meaning com prehends all the fundamental and permanent civic improvements which are ordinarily paid for out of bond issues or special assess ments, as distinguished from the current operations of the city government, the expenses of which are paid out of taxes and other annual revenues. One of the most important and most difficult problems of the city plan is the adoption of adequate measures to control the development of suburban communities at the time outside of the city limits but which sooner or later will inevitably be brought in. This is an extra-territorial problem and the city cannot solve it in any reasonable measure un less it receives from the State drastic extra territorial powers, and in the exercise of such powers through a permanent agency brings all suburban land subdivisions and other basic im provements under strict control and into har mony with a plan which the city itself has worked out for the development of the larger community of which it is the centre.
7. The Disposal of Wastes.— The primi tive method for the disposal of sewage and liquid wastes is based upon the fact that water runs down hill. Most cities, up to comparatively recent times, have drained off their surface waters and their sewage as best they could into the nearest available stream or body of water that would carry it away or absorb it, but the obviously diastrous results that come to a city from pouring its sewage into its own water supply early led to the taking of some precau tions against this particular civic blunder. For a long time, however, every city was careless of the welfare of communities further down the stream which often were dependent upon the same river for their drinking water. At one time it was the theory that sewage-laden water would purify itself by running a few miles, so that the down-stream communities need not be afraid, but the immense increase in urban pop ulation and the consequent increase in the vol ume of sewage has compelled cities willingly or unwillingly to spend enormous sums of money to carry their sewage for away or to establish purification plants for treating it before the in nocuous effluent is permitted to run into rivers or other bodies of water. The disposal of wastes, however, includes much more than sew erage. It includes the collection and final dis position of garbage, ashes and household wastes, the removal of dead animals and the provision of cemeteries or crematories for the disposal of the human dead. These problems are far
from simple and their complexity multiplies as cities become large. Ashes and cinders, if not mixed with garbage or other household wastes, may be profitably used for filling in and even as material for the construction of certain im provements, such as roadways and sidewalks. Garbage is one of the most persistent nuisances of the city. The efficient handling of the gar bage problem requires the close co-operation of the individual householder with the civic au thorities. The health of the community, espe cially during the warm months, requires that the garbage should be kept isolated from the time of its production to the time of its final disposition. This means tight cans, covered wagons and prompt cremation or reduction. But the very process of cremating it or of re ducing it is so offensive that cities often find difficulty in securing proper and convenient lo cations for the garbage works. Cemeteries and crematories are very often established and maintained by private organizations, but in every case the city must see to it that the ceme tery is not located so as to endanger the pub lic water supply or otherwise affect the com munity's health.
8. The Public Water Supply.— It is the custom in the country and in very small vil lages for each householder to develop his own domestic water supply by means of a well. But in some locations individual wells are extremely expensive and in any case villages do not be come very populous before the danger from the general use of well water is recognized on account of the possibilities of its contamination. No general sewerage system is possible until a public water supply under pressure has been developed and so the very inability of the young communities to dispose of their sewage increases the danger of their primitive water supply and hastens the time when a public sup ply must be developed. As cities grow larger and the volume of water required for domestic, industrial and public purposes becomes greater than any suitable supply available in the imme diate vicinity, it becomes necessary to build aqueducts and pipe lines to distant watersheds and to spend enormous sums of money to pro tect the purity of the supply, to bring it to the city and to distribute it to the people for its various uses. If mountain water is available, it can generally be delivered by gravity and needs no special treatment for purification. If water has to be taken from rivers or lakes it re quires expensive pumping machinery to lift it from its natural level and force it into the dis tributing mains under pressure. If the public water supply has to be taken from the ground it requires the construction of infiltration gal leries or series of wells, often very deep and expensive, with elaborate collection works and often double sets of pumping machinery to make it available for use. If the only available water supply is in its natural state impure or otherwise unsuitable for domestic or industrial uses, it has to be treated by filtration or by the use of chemicals to render it safe and suitable for use. It is noteworthy that of all public utilities the water supply is the only one (if we except sewerage) which has come to be gener ally recognized in the United States as appro prtate for municipal ownership and operation. Many cities, especially the small ones, are still served by private water companies; neverthe less, the public investment in water supply far outweighs the private investment. It is some times suggested that water, which, like air and sunshine, is provided by nature for the necessi ties of all living creatures, including man, should be as free as air and sunshine to the denizens of cities. While there is something to be said in favor of this proposal, nevertheless water differs from air and sunshine in that it has to be collected, stored and distributed and in some cases really manufactured by the purifying process in order that it may become available for use. It is, therefore, the general policy of those cities which furnish the water supply to sell it as a commodity to consumers, thus pay ing the expenses of the installation and opera tion of the waterworks. This practice involves the city in the difficult problem of rate-making and the establishment of rules and regulations for the curtailment of use and waste. Even if water were to be furnished free to the con sumers it is obvious that they could not be per mitted to use it extravagantly or to waste it without limitation. Such a policy might bank rupt in a little while the richest city in the world. As a means of distributing the costs of the water supply justly among the various consumers and as a means of curtailing waste, the metre system has been adopted in many cities. The administration of the metre system involves large expense for frequent inspection, reading and testing of metres and for repairs and renewals. The city is thus confronted with all the difficult problems involved in the con struction and operation of a public utility and the maintenance of amicable commercial rela tions with all its citizens. The water supply is vital, not only for the health and convenience of domestic and business consumers, but also for public purposes, particularly for use in the ex tinguishment of fires, for the flushing of sew ers and the sprinkling of streets. Without an adequate water supply, fire protection is im possible. The double purpose for which water is provided involves the city in the question of the proper distribution of costs between the in dividual consumers and the city at large. In many cities all the expenses of the waterworks are charged against private consumers and no allowance is made the water department on ac count of the water and other facilities fur nished for fire protection, street-sprinkling and other public purposes. Where this system pre vails the consumers of water, a prime necessity of life, are in effect indirectly taxed for the benefit of the city at large. The adjustment of this problem involves one of the most import ant and difficult problems of municipal account ing. Certainly a city cannot afford not to keep its books in such a way as to enable the public to tell what the water supply costs, what its actual revenues are and what is the fair value of the services, if any, which it renders with out charge.