Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/25

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES influences taken together there have appeared in every democratic society in the world, and especially in the American democracy, industrial and social classes or layers and strong collective action in every class. . ..

"We have now demonstrated the rapid development of collectivism at the expense of individualism in three great departments of personal and social activity—industries, education, and government. The development has been constructive, not destructive, inevitable in consequence of other profound social and industrial changes, beneficial in the present, and hopeful for the future. It tends neither to anarchy nor to despotism. Its theory is accurately stated in such accepted sayings as these: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; 'As ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise'; 'Nothing human is foreign to me'; 'We do hold ourselves straightly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the whole by every one, and so mutually'; 'Each for all, and all for each.' Its object is that stated in the preamble of the Federal Constitution—'To promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.'"

Granting that means, private or public, can be found to undertake the drafting of a town or city plan, based upon a survey of local conditions, and to keep planning ahead; granting that such plans can be prepared with proper and well-defined controlling purposes, coordinating one part with another, how is the plan to be put in action? Have American cities generally the powers necessary for this rather new and different kind of city making?

The charters under which the cities of the United States operate vary greatly, and in general they convey but limited powers as compared with cities of Europe. Most cities, how-