BUILDING CITIES FOR PEOPLE IN GERMANY.

Frederick C. Howe, of New York, spoke on this topic, and by implication he offered severe criticism of the methods in vogue in the development of cities in the United States, and this applies to Canada as well. Mr. Howe's address is of such general importance that somewhat lengthy excerpts are quoted:

"The main difference to me between the German cities and our own," he said, "lies not in the honesty or efficiency of the German city; it lies rather in the fact that Germany builds her cities for people, with an eye on the rights, comforts and happiness of all the people. Every German city is planned as we build a world's fair, from centre to circumference, and with a vision for comfort, convenience and happiness. Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfort, Munich, Dresden-it makes no difference which city one chooses-officials and people are thinking of the city rather than the rights of private business.

"It is with this idea in view that German cities universally own slaughterhouses, where all the meat consumed in the city must be killed. For the same reason railroad stations, terminals and approaches are built and operated with a view to beauty, harmony and service to all business. The harbors of the cities are part of the city, and are linked up with the railroads so as to cheapen transportation. Every bit of waterfront is zealously improved because of its beauty and usefulness. Street railroads, gas, electric lighting and water are treated as the plumbing system of the city. They are owned and operated just as is the plumbing system of a great building. They form the vital organs of a consciously designed city, designed to serve the people in every possible way.

"The land speculator must allot his land as the city decrees. He is not permitted to lay out mean streets, put in cheap sewers and pavements. The German city treats its streets as an architect treats the foundations of a splendid edifice. They are planned by the city far in advance of the building. They are paved and sewered by the city. Germans treat their streets with as much reverence as a cathedral. They recognise that streets and open places control the life and beauty of the community.

"All property is subordinate to the rights of the city. Officials think of the future as well as to-day. They will build with a vision of beauty, as did the ancient Greeks. The German city is planned as a unit, as a conscious whole. Germany appreciates that a city is our greatest agency of civilization."

THE SMOKE PROBLEM.

Thos. E. Donnelley, President of the Chicago Smoke Abatement Commission, told the convention about the four years continuous warfare against the smoke nuisance in Chicago, and he summarized the results secured by saying that the last annual report of the chief smoke inspector contained the statement that Chicago now is easily one-third less smoky than it was at the beginning of the campaign.

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE HOUSE FLY.

The house fly, against which an efficient crusade has been directed by the American Civic Association for two years past, was given an important place on the programme.

Mr. Edward Hatch, Jr., of New York, chairman of the fly-fighting committee of the association, presented a report in which he said that the real awakening of

the public to the need of exterminating the fly has occurred within the past twelve months. "Since the last annual conference on the fly pest, letters poured in upon the committee from all quarters of the country," he said, and we have caused to be printed and distributed more than 200,000 pieces of literature which served as ammunition in the innumerable "fly swatting" campaigns.

"In many cities newspapers organized swat the fly' contests for considerable cash prizes. The numbers scored by the winners ran into the hundreds of thousands, and the count-so many flies to the quart-in Baltimore alone reached 15,000,000. Washington boys and girls caught and killed only 6,386,600, but Washington can't boast of a really bumper crop of flies.

"Swat the fly campaigns help," Mr. Hatch continued, "but what we need most is to arouse such a consciousness of our duty to ourselves and to others that we will first swat out our flies by depriving them of breeding and feeding places, and then compel our neighbours to do likewise-compel them by force of public opinion and of the law as represented by that beneficent czar, the health officer. He is on our side, and, with the support which he is sure to receive from the people educated by our two years' campaign, eventually will be able to make house flies infrequent, if not absolutely extinct."

Prof. C. F. Hodge, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., made an address on the topic "Civic Fly Campaigns," and he referred to various fly swatting contests to illustrate the most active phase of the work of the past year.

Outlining the campaign to be followed next year, Prof. Hodge said: "To completely free the city of flies is the purpose, and the more that are caught, and the quicker, the better. But the proposition must be reversed. To place the premium on the capture of the most flies pays a premium on filthy conditions, and even may stimulate breeding. The civic fly campaigns of the future will focus all prizes and honour on the complete absence of flies. Instead of crowning him winner who catches the most, he will win who has his district cleaned first, that is, who first can catch none. We can then rejoice in clean, wholesome stores and market places; a time-old, weary fight ended, and the most deadly enemy of mankind vanquished at last. This is now a perfectly possible consummation if every household will co-operate. It could all be done by any city at less expense and labor and time than are now required in extra window-cleaning and house-cleaning due to the presence of the filthy pests. If the campaign is begun with the opening of spring, and if the breeding places of mosquitoes also have been attended to, the time will have passed when we need screens in our windows.

"It has been claimed by some that the fly is a beneficent scavenger. The slogan to meet this contention should be 'Don't swat the fly, swat the man who permits the fly to breed.""

Dr. Woods Hutchinson, of New York, and Dr. L. O. Howard, of the Department of Agriculture, also spoke on different phases of fly-fighting.

THE BILLBOARD NUISANCE.

Mr. L. L. Leonard, of St. Louis, Mo., an attorney, who, as chairman of a committee of the St. Louis Civic League, for some years has conducted a vigorous campaign against the American billboard, delivered a very forcible address, in which he told how an ordinance had been adopted which had been declared constitutional. By means of lantern slides he contrasted the atrocious billboards of United States cities with the neat kiosks of European and even South American cities, which are owned by the cities, are very attractive and produce a large re

venue. Mr. Leonard stated that the city of Rio de Janeiro received a revenue of $92,500 a year from kiosks. In St. Catharines the billboard company is not sub

ject even to a business tax.

MUNICIPAL SHADE TREE CONTROL.

Wm. Solotaroff, Superintendent of the Municipal Shade Tree Commission of East Orange, N.J., gave an address on "Municipal Shade Tree Control."

Speaking particularly of the towns where the task of tree planting has been left to the property owners, he said: "It is often found that the trees on the same street bear evidence of a diversity of tastes of the planters. There may be half a dozen or more species on the same street, desirable mixed with undesirable, of all shapes and sizes, set either too closely or too far apart. In some cases the trees are not trimmed at all, and the limbs are so low as to touch the heads of pedestrians; in others they are pruned too high. Again, the trees have been left unprotected by guards; many of them have been bitten by horses; others have been injured by insect pests, and nearly all show uneven development because they have not been properly cultivated."

SENTIMENT IN GARDENS.

"A garden is a bit of ground in which plants and people grow and love each other."

With the expression of this sentiment, Leroy J. Boughner, President of the Garden City Club of Minneapolis, and a former Ontario boy, whose home was at Simcoe, Norfolk County, editor of the "Minneapolis Tribune," sounded before the convention the slogan of what promises to be one of the most aggressive campaigns next year of the American Civic Association, in the new work which it will prosecute to secure a more universal recognition of civic and economic values of “vacant lot gardens."

Mr. Boughner's address was descriptive of the results secured in Minneapolis in the summer of 1911 by the Garden City Club. He said the work was prosecuted almost wholly by the people of the office or prosperous laboring class, who were inspired to apply for and work in the vacant lot gardens largely by an appeal to civic pride. The idea that vacant lot gardens are charities was ignored.

People were brought to the belief that things other than tomato cans and weeds would grow on vacant lots by a strenuous campaign of newspaper publicity, and by addresses before lodges, unions and improvement associations. In the summary of the year's work he stated that the cost of plowing, planting and supervision in Minneapolis last summer was $1,000. With the experience gained double the same work could be done another year for $1,800.

The Garden City Club of Minneapolis in 1911 had planted in vegetables and flowers, 360 vacant lots, or approximately 2,225,000 square feet, of which 2,000,000 square feet were planted with vegetables. The city was divided into six districts, about 60 gardens to a district, each district being in charge of an assistant gardener furnished by the Minnesota Farm School. Careful instruction in gardening was thus universal, and an idea of the extent of the work may be gained from the fact that the club gave away 28,000 cabbage and tomato plants. The nasturtium was adopted as the official flower of the Club, and 22,000 packages of nasturtium seeds were distributed, in addition to which 40,000 packages were sold.