Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/163

 THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

voLUMEiv SEPTEMBER, 1898

Number 2

MUNICIPAL PLAYGROUNDS IN CHICAGO.

A "return to nature" is as necessary a demand for the modern city as it was for the romanticists of the eighteenth cen- tury. There can be no successful life which ignores nature. This is as true of the city or the nation as it is of the country or the individual. The cities of the world which are today begin- ning to realize their possibilities are trying to conform to nature. One promise for the future of Chicago is that she, too, has begun to realize her natural advantages.

Chicago enjoys two great natural advantages — the lake and the river. The lake is appreciated for its shipping facilities, its abundant supply of fresh water for the use of the municipality, and it is beginning to be appreciated for its beauty. Since the world's fair and the expansion of the park and boulevard sys- tem, one can readily anticipate a future in which full use will be made of the lake front of Chicago.

The mention of the river usually provokes a smile. Its possible beauty is forgotten in the recognition of its value to commerce, to manufactures, and to the sewage system. The commerce will probably, in large measure, pass away, and with it many of the manufactures, as the development of the South Chicago district takes place. The river will then reniiun only a great sewer, unless the original ideal of the ship canal is realized, and a modern and scientific method of sewage disposal is introduced. Should this be done, there will again arise the possibility of the enjoyment of the river for the sake of its beauty. At present

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