City, state, and nation; a text book on constructive citizenship for elementary schools and junior high schools

Front matter

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WILLIAM L.NIDA

Class Book.

Preface

The education of all American youth at public expense is usually justified on the ground that school training will make them better citizens and more faithful and loyal servants of the state. The state will therefore be perpetuated and the public welfare enhanced.

From this point of view it would seem that training in some sort of civics or citizenship should have a definite and prominent place in all grammar and high school curricula. This is, however, far from being a fact. Some of the best schools have no definite civics course whatever. The reason for this, the author believes, is not that teachers do not desire to give special training in citizenship, but that no suitable and teachable texts for young people have yet appeared. There are, it is true, scores of treatises on government ; but to the immature mind they are dull and lifeless — mere analyses of governmental forms. Such discussions are utterly beyond the experience of children and are therefore unintelligible.

Rather than waste the pupil's time with bare memory facts, many superintendents have banished the subject from the course, preferring to teach the elements of good citizenship incidentally. This has proved so unsatisfactory that there is to-day a growing demand for something teachable, tangible, and constructive on real citizenship.

This volume endeavors to look at government from the youth's point of view, putting the problems and needs of society prominent and foremost, and from these working to their solution through the government. This method is viii PREFACE

believed to be pedagogical, interesting, and stimulating to young people, not only inculcating lessons in patriotism, but, at the same time, developing the mental faculties with the live, practical problems with which society is wrestling to-day.

Many of these chapters have been tried out in our classes, and the way they have been received abundantly justifies our faith in this sort of civics.

WILLIAM L. NIDA.

Part I. The City Chapter

I. The City, a Problem

II. City Planning .

III. City Health

IV. The City Water V. Drainage and Sewerage

VI. Disposal of Garbage and Rubbish

VII. The Cleaning of City Streets

VIII. City Housing ....

IX. The Problem of the Poor

X. Municipal Markets .

XI. Smoke and Noise Abatement .

XII. Freight Terminals .

XIII. City Passenger Transportation

XIV. Public Highways XV. Trees for Streets .

XVI. Public Recreation .

XVII. Schools

XVIII. The Public Library

XIX. Fire Fighting ....

XX. Fire Protection

XXI. Taxes

XXII. Government ....

XXIII. City Government

XXIV. New Forms of City Government

ix

PAGE

I

IO

24 31 51 no

130 138

157 165

177 188

194 198 205

CONTENTS PART II. THE STATE

CHAPTER PAGE

XXV. Hereditary Types of Local Government . 211

XXVI. County Government 215

XXVII. State and County Prisons . . . .219

XXVIII. Charitable Institutions 230

XXIX. Commissioners and Country Roads . . 233

XXX. State Government 243

XXXI. The Voters 248

XXXII. Elections 251

Part III. The Nation

XXXIII. The Central Government

XXXIV. Congress XXXV. National Courts .

XXXVI. The Presidency .

XXXVII. The State Department

XXXVIII. The Treasury Department

XXXIX. The Post Office Department

XL. The War Department

XLI. Other Cabinet Departments

XLII. Political Parties

APPENDIX .

Chapter I The City, A Problem

City Growth in the Past Century. — The marvelous way in which cities are growing to-day is a movement of the last century. In no other age of the world's history have cities shown one half the rapid growth that is seen to-day in every civilized land. It is not uncommon in the growing suburbs of large cities to read advertisements such as : " Three more miles of new homes." Acres and sections of ground that were a short time ago open green fields are now covered with rows of buildings packed closely together.

In the year 1800 there were in the United States only six cities with a population of 8000 inhabitants or more ; there are now about six hundred, among which are some of the largest cities of the world. A hundred years ago a little more than three per cent of the population of the United States lived in towns of 8000 or more. In 19 10 a third of the ninety millions were packed into cities of more than 25,000 each. During the last fifty years the proportion of city dwellers has increased to more than forty per cent. Twelve per cent of all Americans now live in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Recently there died in Chicago a man who was the first white child born in the city. At the time of his birth there were, besides Fort Dearborn, only five houses in Chicago.

During his life of eighty-five years he saw the city grow from less than one hundred souls to a population of more than two millions of people.

Original owned by Chicago Historical Society. Chicago in 1834.

The Movement World-wide. — This amazing growth of cities is not confined to the United States nor to the western continent. Throughout the world the cities have made a tremendous growth in the last century. In the forty years between 1850 and 1890 Berlin grew more rapidly than New York. Paris and St. Petersburg are each five times as large as they were a hundred years ago. Bombay, Tokio, and Cairo have likewise grown wonderfully in recent times. London is nearly two thousand years old, yet four fifths of its growth was added during the last century. From every continent cities may be chosen to illustrate this world-wide movement of people to the cities.

THE CITY, A PROBLEM

The Heart of Chicago.

Underlying Causes. - City life is more attractive than country life to most people. The chief reason for this is that man is a social being ; he likes the company of his fellows. Moreover, the city has many conveniences that the country lacks, such as clean, hard streets, gas, and electric lights ; especially have the modern electric light, splendid lire department, and the city water supply systems influenced city growth. Wages in the city are usually better, and working hours are shorter. There are more amusements, superior educational advantages, more opportunities to amass riches, more excitement, more pleasure, more life.

There are, however, several deeper reasons for the recent great increase in city population. One of these is the use of machinery in agriculture. It is said that four laborers with improved farm tools can now do the work formerly done by fourteen men. Before the reaper was invented it took three hours of labor for every bushel of wheat raised, while to-day each bushel averages ten minutes of labor. Since the world can only consume about so much food, a w

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Courtesy of International Harvester Co.

A Binder doing the Work of Ten Men.

large proportion of farmers have been forced to abandon farming and seek some other livelihood in a city or a town. The more improvements there are in agricultural machinery, the more food one farm laborer can produce, and the fewer men are needed to feed the world.

Another cause of the modern city's growth is the use of machinery instead of muscular power in manufactures. Steam engines and numerous other inventions have made many changes. Factory towns have sprung up and workmen have flocked thither to operate the machinery which makes the thousand and one things the world needs.

THE CITY, A PROBLEM 5

Strange as it may seem, while it lessened the number needed on farms, machinery increased the proportion of workmen needed in manufacturing. The explanation is that there seems to be a limit to the amount of foodstuff the world can use ; but articles of furniture, clothing, hardware, books, and luxuries find an unlimited demand. As the world advances in education and culture and wealth,

Courtesy of B. (f O. Railroad.

Bringing Food and Other Supplies to the Cities. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

there is an increased demand for such luxuries and conveniences. Machinery has so reduced the cost of all these things as to bring them within the reach of nearly every one. Since factories are growing larger all the time, there is a need for more workmen to operate the machinery, and this swells the town population.

The Influence of Transportation Facilities. — A third reason for the growth of modern cities is the quick transportation furnished by the railroads. It is now a simple matter to transport food enough for the millions of people gathered together in one city. In the old days famines occurred in one land when grain was rotting on the ground not a hundred miles away. It was almost impossible in those times to supply a large city with food, water, and fuel. Machinery and the railroads have changed all this, for the steamship and locomotive now transport food from one end of the world to the other.

The electric cars have played an important part in the making of great cities, since they carry people to and from their work and enable the city factories to draw their workmen from a wider city limit. The slowness of horse cars compelled the workman to live near his work, thus preventing the spreading of the population. The steam car was not practicable on city streets, but the trolley was a great success from the first. It made such speed that a workman might live three times as far from his work as before. In this way the trolley built up city suburbs.

After the coming of electric cars the cities grew marvelously and the street cars multiplied. The cars and vehicles in the heart of great cities like New York and Chicago became so numerous that they delayed one another and checked the progress of pedestrians. In order to meet this difficulty, about twenty-five years ago the elevated railway was built over the streets in some large cities, while in others subways were dug underground. New York and Boston have both elevated and subway railroads, while Chicago, already served by a large system of elevated roads, is planning an extensive subway system. Subways seem to be preferred to other means of transit because they are safer, swifter, and quieter.

The automobile with its explosive engine has come more recently, and the streets and boulevards are swarming with them as they hurry their occupants to and from

THE CITY, A PROBLEM

Court* j oj I'ii p tymemt • ■ [nterior of Double-deck Stepless Car. \\-\v York. Going to and from Work Comfortably and Quickly.

Courtesy of Prepayment Car Sales G>.

Double-deck Stepless Car equipped for Summer Service.

business. They enable city people to live far out in the country, even beyond trolley car service.

The elevator has helped to make possible the immense skyscrapers. By it the employees and the public reach quickly even the topmost office of these modern wonders of buildings.

Means of Communication. — The telephone enables the offices in the tall beehives to keep in touch with all parts of the city and to conduct their business from one spot. It brings together subscribers even when they live many miles apart.

City Zones. — It is this greatly improved means of transportation and communication that have made it possible to separate a city into zones or sections, some set apart for residence districts and others for business. In the best modern cities the people who swarm the stores and offices in the business district during the day may be at night in their homes from ten to forty miles away.

The Problem of Future Growth. — Men who have studied for many years this movement of mankind cityward declare that it is bound to continue and will probably increase for many years to come. This means more overcrowding, more disease, more unsightliness of streets and buildings in the places where thousands are forced to spend their lives. If this be true, the men of to-day ought to lay large and enduring foundations for the city of to-morrow.

Yet in America people have not yet learned to govern their cities well, and this is the most serious and important study of politics. The state and national governments, while not altogether satisfactory, are under far better control than is the average city. In the city it is difficult to apprehend the criminal and to stop vice and gambling. In many cases the city officials do not carry out the wishes

THE CITY, A PROBLEM 9

of the people. If we do not learn how to govern our city of to-day, what shall we expect of the city of the future with the continued spreading of city limits ?

The more persons there are crowded together, the harder are all the social problems to solve — the health question, the problem of good air, light, water, and gas. Added to these are the subjects of crime, of better transportation, safer housing, parks and playgrounds, and a hundred other topics that are pressing for consideration. In order that we may understand the city and how to govern it, we must know intimately the chief problems of city life and how the wisest city administrations have solved them.

1. How long has the remarkable growth of cities been going on?

2. Is the unusual growth of cities confined to the United States?

3. Mention cities elsewhere that have grown rapidly. 4. What makes city life attractive ? 5. How has the use of machinery in agriculture affected city growth ? 6. The use of machinery in manufacturing ? 7. What effect has the railroad had upon city growth? 8. Explain the effect of electric trolley cars. 9. Why have large cities come to use elevated cars and subways? 10. What effect will the automobiles have on cities? 11. What reason can you give for thinking cities will continue to grow ? 12. Name some city oroblems that we have not yet entirely solved in our count ry.

13. Is your city growing? 14. If so, give reasons. 15. If not, why not ? 16. What effect have railroads had upon your city ? 17. What reasons do people give for moving to your city ? 18. Have you street cars or interurban lines ? If so, how have they affected your city ?

The teacher should use each chapter with the questions appended as a basis for studying local conditions. With slight encouragement pupils will gladly investigate the conditions and problems of their own city and bring in valuable material for class discussion.

Chapter II City Planning

City Health Conditions. — When the Boer War broke out between England and her South African colonies, men were greatly needed to swell the British army. Most of the men who offered to enlist were city dwellers, and a large part of them were rejected. Sixty per cent of the men of London who offered themselves for service were found to be physically unfit for the soldier life. This was an alarming condition caused by their manner of living in a large city. The British Empire, whose fighting force must come largely from cities, trembled to know that not half of her city men were fit to be called on to defend their flag. Then London began to tear down miles of unhealthy tenements, and to make living conditions safer for her people by providing parks where her citizens might enjoy fresh air and sunshine.

It is said that the streets of London, like those of Boston, grew up along crooked cow paths. Such narrow, illplanned thoroughfares may serve a small town, but a large city demands more forethought. Up above these narrow streets tower mammoth buildings, story above story, each one a shelf of busy offices. One such building of twenty or thirty stories may shelter 6000 workers under one roof — a city population on one lot. Along other narrow streets are factories swarming with human workers. At the sound of the whistle the immense factories and skyscrapers send forth their thousands of employees upon the nar-

CITY PLANNING n

row, crooked streets to elbow one another in the rush for home.

The great cities of Germany, France, Austria, and other continental nations, as well as England, are at work in earnest to remedy health conditions. They are controlling their growth by rigid building laws. Laws have been made to provide a certain minimum of open space around each building, thus assuring a fair amount of pure air and light. A fixed amount of light and ventilation is required for each house and a limit to the height of each building, depending usually on the width of the street, has been established. Thus many of the dark, airless houses and disease-ridden tenements have been abolished, and no others will be allowed.

In order to control the future growth, certain cities have bought up and hold in public ownership large areas of vacant land both within and without the city limits. This will be sold with binding restrictions. Nothing that is of consequence to the city as a whole will be left to whims or profits of the real estate man. The restrictions have to do with the kind and character of the buildings that are to be erected, the size of the lots and the width of the streets.

One of the first needs of a city is enough streets, sufficiently wide and running in the right direction, to enable the people to go about the city quickly and conveniently. " Time saved is money earned." The day is made up of minutes, and every minute saved lengthens the day for the business man. Well-planned streets are worth many times more than they cost in what they save the people of the present, to say nothing of those in the future.

In America we are suffering from lack of laws regulating building. The cities that have building laws seldom enforce them. Much is left to the greedy or ignorant builders, who are free to crowd people together by the hundreds in order to increase the rent. Towns and suburbs are growing up, and adjoining subdivisions are being developed with little regard to health or beauty, or to the future convenience of the people. The real estate man is determined to plan the city additions in the way that will best serve his profits.

Designed Cities. — Washington. — Though by far the greater number have grown up in a haphazard manner,

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Our Well-planned Capital — Washington. The White House, from which Diagonal Streets Radiate.

some few cities in the world have been designed, that is, built up after a carefully worked out plan. The city of Washington, D.C., is the most prominent example of a city scientifically planned. After George Washington had chosen the site for our national capital in 1791, a French engineer named Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who had done good service in the Revolutionary War, was chosen to prepare a plan for the town. With wonderful wisdom and rare foresight he made a design that not only met with the approval of George Washington and the commissioners who were then in charge, but it meets with the hearty approval of expert city planners of to-day.

The ground plan of the city of Washington is after the checkerboard fashion with a series of streets running east and west. These are crossed at right angles by another series of streets running north and south. This checkerboard plan for convenience to traffic is cut by twenty-one avenues running diagonally through the city and coming together at the Capitol, White House, and other centers and squares. The streets are lined with fine trees, they are wide, and there are many large squares. Washington has become famous throughout the world for its convenience and beauty.

Paris. — The renowned city of Paris half a century ago undertook to remodel its plan to meet the needs of its commerce, its traffic, and its growth. The work was put in the hands of M. Deschamps, who with splendid vision laid out a magnificent system of boulevards to be cut through the built-up part of the city. It cost an enormous sum, because thousands of buildings had to be torn down in order to make the fine broad avenues straight. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of carrying out the plan. People who were disturbed in business naturally objected, but the city was nevertheless remodeled on a grand scale in order to promote the beauty of its plan and the convenience of all the people, irrespective of the few. The great avenues centered in open spaces or places that were adorned with imposing monuments. From these may be seen the beautiful vistas stretching away for miles through the city. Paris remade, resembles Washington in its plan. But it cost an enormous amount of money to effect the change, while Washington simply grew along plans laid out for it.

Vienna. — The capital of Austria has been made over within the last half century. It was formerly a walled city, but suburbs had grown up outside the walls of the city, and the part within the walls was badly congested, or crowded, and unsanitary. Just outside the walls was a moat and a strip of unoccupied territory left bare for military purposes. When the people and the government had resolved to remodel their city, the walls were thrown into the moat, the ground graded, and all was made into a magnificent circular street or ringstrasse, which extends entirely around the city. A small part of the open territory was cut up into streets and the lots sold for enough money to pay for all the magnificent improvements. The rest of the space was made into parks and sites for public buildings and upon them have been erected splendid structures, famous throughout the world for their beauty of architecture and fine location. The ringstrasse of Vienna is considered by many the finest street in the world.

City Planning in America. — Almost the only city in America that lays claim to having been designed is Washington. Everywhere men have been too busy laying up wealth for themselves to give attention to the health, beauty, and convenience of their cities, which should mean so much to every citizen. Chicago has only recently made a magnificent plan that it will take years to realize ; but when the plans are carried out, her citizens will have every reason to be proud of the improvement. Cleveland is also alive and working along this line. Millions of dollars have already been spent by the people of Cleveland to group their public buildings and to reclaim for their dwellers the noble water front along Lake Erie.

Other cities, large and small, are agitating civic questions and considering what they ought to undertake. New- York has been busy wrecking buildings along some of the narrow, crooked streets, and cutting directly through a portion of the city to make room for the extension of its noble avenues. Millions of dollars have been spent on this excellent project. Baltimore has been working on the problem of its freight terminals, and has followed Chicago in appointing an eminent engineer to represent the citizens in helping to secure the proper plans and location.

Importance of Adequate Plans. — It is not always possible to tell in advance how large a city will become. The usual danger is that the city plans are too small. London and Chicago, with their congestion of crowded tenements, are examples of cities that have grown up without plans to protect the citizens of the future. When the city does not grow under an orderly plan, the result is cramped and congested districts which are both inconvenient and unsanitary. If a city has allowed itself to reach this wretched condition, the sooner it sets to work to correct them by cutting new streets, widening old ones, and making parks and breathing places for the people, the better. We have seen that the longer these corrective measures are put off the more tremendous the cost of the change.

Objects in City Planning. — In planning a city many considerations must be kept in mind. The health of the people who are to dwell in it and their comfort and convenience must come first. It is of great importance that there is direct and easy passage from one part of the city to the other. The cost of transporting goods is enormously high in some cities, because of the inconvenience of the streets with regard to one another. There should be, if possible, one direct line from every outlying district to the business center. Beauty should also be considered, because a city ought to be pleasant to look upon. A public square with the public buildings artistically grouped about makes an attractive civic center.

Laying out the City. — Importance of the Business Section.— It is not uncommon for a large city to have its business section inclosed in a square or quadrangle formed by four streets considerably wider than other streets, to accommodate the heavy traffic about the business district. However the business section maybe situated, there must be provision for reaching it quickly and directly from all parts of the city. This necessity, indeed, greatly determines the city's growth.

The Ground Plan. — Most cities in America have followed the checkerboard plan which William Penn used in designing Philadelphia. If the site of a city is level, this rectangular scheme is easily carried out. The chief objection to it is that only a very few of the streets lead directly to the business center. Upon these few streets there is, therefore, congestion of traffic and delay. From the outlying residence districts, instead of being able to go in a straight line to the heart of the city, people must go along two sides of a huge triangle to reach their business, and so they lose much time.

Washington, as we have seen, has met this objection fairly well by her twenty-one diagonal streets, which furnish many sections of the city with direct routes of travel. There is, however, one objection to these diagonal streets. They cut through all the city blocks in their path, leaving many irregular, almost useless, pieces of land on the corners of the blocks. Such triangular pieces are not suitable for building, although the famous flatiron building of New York occupies such a corner. When a large city undertakes to provide enough diagonals to accommodate traffic, the number of these odd-shaped corners is very large. They may advantageously be made into grass plots with a fountain, or small parks with benches and shade trees.

In foreign cities the tendency is to use more curved and diagonal streets. The ring street is very common and very beautiful. If the site of a city is hilly or is traversed by streams, curved or winding streets may prove very convenient. Curved streets along water lines are very desirable, and the curves are more graceful and beautiful than the straight lines.

Perhaps the best plan of all would be to lay out a city like a spider's web, with the streets leading out of the center in all directions like the hub of a wheel, and with circular or ring streets crossing these and running entirely around the city. There should also be straight highways cut across the wheel at various points so that one may go directly from one side of town to the other. This does away with the many sharp angles made by the diagonal street in the checkerboard plan and it serves admirably the convenience of the people.

City Streets. — The streets in the retail districts of a large city like Chicago or New York should be from 80 to 100 feet wide, with smooth, quiet pavements. Such streets should be about equally divided into sidewalk space and roadway. Where the teaming is particularly heavy a little more than half of the street width should be given to roadway, and in this section the pavements should be of a kind to resist wear, even though they be noisy.

On residence streets, because of lighter teaming, there i8 is no need of the wider highway. A width of from twenty to thirty-six feet is sufficient. This does not mean that the street, as a whole, should be narrower ; but that more space should be given to parkways with grass, trees, and

shrubs that furnish a playground for the children and a spot of recreation for all the residents.

The avenues or traffic streets which carry through traffic from one part of the city to the other should not only be wide enough for double street car tracks, but must also be wide enough for the stream of vehicles moving on either side of the tracks to pass without interfering with one another.

It is unpleasant for those bent on driving for pleasure to pass through the crowded business section where the streets are full of traffic and teams. This has been avoided in many cities by building circular boulevards or ring streets to pass entirely around the business section. Some cities have two or more of these circuits, at varying distances

Broadway

New York. A Busy Thoroughfare.

from the center. Those designed chiefly for pleasure may connect the city's outlying parks. Other European cities besides Vienna were formerly encircled by fortification walls. In many cases, when the city outgrew these bounds the walls were torn down and the space left was made with little cost into a circular boulevard of great value and beauty. Such a boulevard serves the pleasure of thousands and thousands of people, providing as it does parkways with grass, trees, and beautiful buildings in the closely built part of the city.

Boulevards are handsome broad streets on which heavy traffic is forbidden. They are the avenues of fine dwellings with ample spaces ornamented with grass, flowers, and trees, and perhaps an occasional statue or fountain. The boulevards frequently connect the large city parks, and arcmade for pleasure driving and recreation. They help to beautify our cities and raise the ideals of the people.