speculative experiment and will have further justification in fixing the character of the lines which are circulatory the direct through lines of communication whose aim it is to take care of the motor, tram and long distance traffic of the city. These streets are in all cases 200 feet wide allowing not only for three separate paved ways to accommodate tram and fast and slow vehicles, but for tree and shrub accompaniment to render them as satisfactory parkways as are narrow boulevards restricted to the aristocratic private vehicles and even with larger possibilities because of the greater importance in the structures facing them.

There are recreational drives through the public gardens, parks and mountain reservations. They form continuous lines along the embankments of the triple basins in the heart of the city which are arranged for circulation.

For the greatest proportion of the city streets however, the function of circulation is subordinate to that of distribution to and from the wide tram and vehicle ways. These tributary streets are of less width and formality with narrower pavements and greater areas of unintersected blocks proportionate to the less demand for publicity in the occupation served. It is not necessary that the precise nature of this street development be determined far in advance of the actual use of many of those districts lying between the main thoroughfares, and possibilities need not be denied to individual initiative and imagination to work out with comparatively free hand, architectural and landscape developments of recessed, courts, closes, quadrangle, terraces, driveway subdivisions, garden commons and irregular hill gardens.

There is better possibility for a satisfactory development to take place in this capital than has perhaps ever been afforded to a city.

Here is a whole district of 900 square miles to be held and controlled by a single unhampered governmental author

ity backed by the taxing power of the country starting with an organic plan and capable of directing improvement so that the immediate consequences of its activities to land values can be foreseen, even directed.

Starting with a mean site cost of $5 per acre the result from keeping forever the land rent for the support and development of the public works of the city, as is now the announced policy of the Australian government, can be realized by comparison with the tremendous values created for private owners during the past thirty years of governmental activity in Washington, D. C., with the rentals now raised from the square mile of the heart of Chicago that formerly belonged to the school district and of which the few scattered parcels that have been retained contribute so largely to the support of public education there or by citing the fact that the cost to Australia of repurchasing now the entire federal district is less than the amount required, for instance to obtain a suitable site in Sydney for a single parliament house.

It is on some such terms of leasehold as are now made between builders of city blocks and private land holders generally that the private improvers of Australia's capital will instead deal with the state.

Stimulus greater than elsewhere to easy development may be expected too from the avoidance through the policy of the inconveniences and the waste in useless travel and service equipment around a tremendous proportion of area that in our cities is vacant or withheld from effective use for private speculation in increment values.1

1 An American, Walter Burley Griffin, of Chicago, won the prize open to the citizens of all countries for the best plans for the new Australian capital (see NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW, Vol. 1, p. 136). This item is based upon the plans prepared by Mr. Griffin. It is interesting not only in itself as a contribution to city planning, but because of the prominence it gives to American architects in this particular field.-EDITOR

Seattle's Parks—The parks of Seattle may be taken as a guage of the growth, prosperity and public spirit of that enterprising city. Seattle has now 1267 acres of parks, equivalent to one acre to every 244 of the population. Altogether there are 34 parks, 20 miles of completed boulevards and park drives and 31 playgrounds, 12 of which are equipped with apparatus and supervised. The park board has control also of 59 small open spaces in different parts of the city. It does not control, however, the great high school stadium, one of the most remarkable open air public recreation centers in the United States. These figures make an enviable showing, especially when it is recalled that nearly all of this park making has been accomplished in a single decade-practically since 1903 when the Olmsted plans were approved and adequate powers granted. Notwithstanding the extent of Seattle's park system, its claim to having "the largest system west of Chicago" may be safely challenged by Kansas City. The parks and playgrounds of Seattle have cost nearly $5,000,000 and the annual appropriation for maintenance now exceeds $1,000,000, the regular annual park tax being threefourths of a mill on the assessed valuation of property. The public spirit of Seattle is shown in the fact that so many of its parks have been gifts to the city and further that the citizens have never yet been called upon to vote "No" on a park bond issue. Seattle is not content merely to acquire parks: it plans definitely to have them used. To this end, it prints and distributes through the libraries, schools, hotels, etc., an illustrated pamphlet describing the parks, with full information as to their character and location and the convenient ways of reaching them.

JOHN NOLEN.

Roadtown, The Endless House.-As a substitute for block dwellings and isolated houses and as a solution of the

problem of the best economic and hygienic arrangement of both public and domestic services and their supply from a common source for a large community, Edgar S. Chambless, of New York, suggests the latest thing in utopias, the roadtown, or the endless house. The Municipal Journal, May 27, 1910, thus illustrates the suggestion:

Cover up the London and Northwestern Railway from London to Liverpool, include gas and water pipes, electricity supply, and telephone conductors in the tube thus formed; superimpose a continuous three or four-story building for the whole distance; divide the building into, say, 50,000 houses; provide a means of access from each house to the underlying railway, make a roadway of the continuous roof, and you have "Roadtown" on a small scale.

The Journal aptly comments upon the scheme of Mr. Chambless, "The economic aspects of Roadtown affords matter for interesting speculations."

Chicago Plan Shows Progress.-The immediate construction work by the city on the Chicago plan is progressing. The widening of Twelfth Street is now in the hands of the court commissioners. and the zone of assessment has practically been fixed, the valuations on buildings and property to be condemned are complete, and all is nearly in readiness for the trial of the condemnation suit, after which it will be necessary to submit the matter to the people in a referendum for the bond issue necessary to defray the expense of construction work. The improvement of Michigan Avenue is in the hands of the board of local improvements. Last July the board voted to have an estimate prepared of the cost, work on which is nearly complete. It has been a tremendous task for the municipal engineering department on account of the structural nature of the work entailed by the two level plan and the double deck bascule bridge over the river, the first of its kind to be constructed anywhere. The

improvement of the lake front has been delayed by a strong opposition on the part of a small citizen's committee, whose agitation forced the whole project into a chaotic condition. Concessions, however, are being made on all sides and a speedy adjustment of difficulties is expected.

Chicago Suburban Citizens take Hand in City Improvement.-Tired of seeing a row of unsightly business buildings as they alight at the Northwestern Station, twenty-five millionaires of Lake Forest have subscribed $10,000 each to clean up Main Street in front of the station and make the gateway to their wealthy residential district worthy of its position.

Des Moines Brilliant Financial Record Under Commission Government.-On the whole, no part of the commission administration of Des Moines is more brilliant than its financial record. During the five years of the operation of the commission government, the taxes for purely municipal purposes, have averaged practically 37 mills against 39 mills during the last eight years of the old plan of government, a reduction of 2 mills. This is true in spite of the fact that the. city has made more public improvements in the last five years than in any like period in its history, and that, furthermore, a very large part of the improvements were made out of current funds. Two years ago the city spent $50,000 out of current funds for building permanent roads into the country. The city has invested in its civic center $700,000, more than one-third of which has already been paid out of current funds. The city has been involved in litigation with the street railway, water and gas companies at an expense of $100,000 out of current funds, one result of which was a reduction of the gas rate from $1 to 90 cents per 1000 cubic feet, thereby saving the citizens $60,000.

Memphis Commission Government.— The Memphis commission government, in spite of a strenuous defense of its own existence, has had time not only to extend the sewerage and paving of the city but also to reduce the cost of lighting, establish an efficient purchasing agency and an adequate system of accounts, and inaugurate a municipal program including a tuberculosis and a communicable diseases hospital, municipal baths and a board of charities. Under its administration the tax rate was reduced to $1.59 per $100.

Street Car Sanitation in Kansas City, Mo.-Each year for the past three years the public health committee of the City Club of Kansas City has laid before the management of the Kansas City Metropolitan Street Car System and before the local board of health the committee's observations and recommendations on the ventilation and cleaning of the street cars and the prevention of the fouling of the cars by expectoration and dropping refuse.

The company's officers have received the committee cordially, have afterwards consulted with it as to methods, and are now sending most of their cars out every morning very much cleaner than before. The offending "expectorators" are now very often spoken to by the conductors-with a consequent lessening of the habit.

With the approval of the committee the railway has printed on the back of its "transfers" requests to desist from expectoration and from placing refuse on the car floors, but such transfers are used only during a short period in the spring. The committee advised their use at frequent intervals through the year and especially during the winter months. The committee's suggestion that "Do Not Spit" signs be placed in the cars was not followed.

At the suggestion of the committee the board of health has periodically arrested expectorators. This, with newspaper

publicity has been a salutary influence, but has not been carried on as constantly as the committee feels that it should be. The committee believes that conditions are very much better than they have been but that constant service and publicity must continue for years.

A perfect system has not yet been applied to the cars of this city. The ventilation of a street car should be automatic in action, and impossible of manipulation by either conductor or passenger. It has been noticeable this winter in the larger, new cars, that frequently the passengers were practically sealed up in air-tight cars or else were subjected to drafts and rain or snow through misadjusted ventilators.

SCOTT P. CHILDS.

San Francisco Municipal Street Railways. San Francisco will be the first large city in the United States to own and operate a municipal street railway system. The history of the undertaking begins with the expiration of the franchise of the Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway in 1908. Since that time the city has been pushing plans to reconstruct and operate a line along the route of that railway, and in 1909, the matter was well enough advanced for the city to issue bonds to the amount of $2,020,000. Various delays again retarded actual constructive work, and it was not until last May that contracts were signed under which real work has commenced. The route extends along Geary Street and Point Lobos Avenue to Fifth Avenue to Golden Gate Park.

Since May the mayor has given orders to the board of public works to prepare plans for the construction of a road from the terminus of the Geary Street line at Geary and Market Streets, down Market to Sansome, where connection will be made with the tracks of the United Railroads, against which there is a decree of forfeiture by the superior court now under appeal to the appellate court. The Union Street line running from the

ferries to Columbus Avenue, to Union Street thence to the Presidio, will fall into the hands of the city December, 1913, by the expiration of franchise grants.

English Municipal Ownership Profts. -James Carter, borough treasurer of Preston, an English town of 117,000 population, has recently compiled the statistics of 86 towns of England and Wales bearing upon the effect of municipal trading for the year 1911-12. This compilation shows 82 of the 86 towns contributing something for relief of taxes. The total of these contributions was $7,156,285. Thirty-nine of these same towns, and four others, operated certain undertakings that were not self sustaining. Taxes to the amount of $1,822,795 had to be levied to meet deficits, leaving a net total of $5,947,400 contributed to the relief of taxation. Altogether only 13 out of 86 took more from taxes to support public undertakings than they took from the latter to relieve the former.

Two Harbors' Municipal Coal.-Under the authority of the council, granted December 4, 1911, the city of Two Harbors leased ground from the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad Company, which is a branch of the United States Steel Corporation, to build a coal shed and arranged with the Carnegie Fuel Company of Duluth for obtaining coal at wholesale prices. Under the municipal plans, the city took orders, bought against orders on file, collected payments and paid cash from a separate coal fund distinct from the city funds. The city announced a scale of prices 35 cents a ton under the established price for nut, 60 cents under for other anthracite and 75 cents under for soft coal. It contracted with a teamster to deliver the coal at 43 cents a ton, and had allowed 10 cents a ton for clerks' fees. The cost and charges left in the hands of the city on the first car of nut

$9.61, or about 35 cents a ton; and on two cars of soft coal about 18 cents a ton. The wholesalers of the city, as was anticipated, raised objections, and the fuel company declared that the city must be a member of the Retail Coal Dealers Association to continue to enjoy its privileges with the company. Application was made to the association, which is an organization covering six states, but membership was refused. Complaint has been made to the federal government, and the situation is now under investigation by the Department of Justice relative to the presence of restraint of trade. The dealers deny any unlawful practice, maintaining that the field is open to anybody but that the city is not a proper body for membership in the association.

English Municipal Coal.-The London Municipal Journal quotes an English newspaper as saying: "Remarkable scenes were witnessed at Middleborough yesterday. For hours a stream of people invaded the Town Hall to give orders for coal which the corporation had secured for sale at about half the prices charged by the retailers. No less than 300 tons were sold in 5 cwt, parcels at ls. 7d. to ls. 9d. per cwt." No wonder that Bradford, Glasgow and other English corporations are seriously considering plans for establishing corporation coal supplies.

Los Angeles Municipal Cement Mill.The Los Angeles Cement Mill is notable

for being the first and only one in the United States and for enabling the city to make large savings in the construction of its two hundred and forty miles of steel and concrete aqueduct by the introduction of tufa cement to American builders. The approximate cost of the tufa cement under municipal production was 85 cents a barrel. An article in the Municipal Journal thus comments upon this cost: "No cement mill in the country can compete with the city at this figure, and field and laboratory tests show the product to be equal, if not superior, to any hydraulic cement in the market."

Municipal Amusements.-There seems to be a good deal of uncertainty as to just where municipal functions begin and end. Municipal band concerts are a familiar form of entertainment all over the country. It remains for Houston, Tex., however, to elaborate the idea in carrying out the city's plans for concerts both summer and winter, and utilizing the auditorium, which seats 8000, for lectures and entertainments and especially moving picture shows which will be given on Sunday afternoons and evenings as well as on week days. A town in Kansas, (Haven) is now operating a "nickel theatre" giving moving picture shows at a nominal admission and free entertainment when a surplus is piled up. Another town in Kansas, Concordia, has the distinction of having the first municipal theatre, which is a gift from Mrs. G. C. Brown in memory of her husband.

Henry J. Arnold, the new mayor of Denver, elected by 20,000 plurality and all of his running mates upon the Citizens' ticket headed by Judge Ben B. Lindsey won. It was essentially a landslide in which the average voter buried the old city hall organization.

William G. Evans, a traction magnate, led the Republican campaign, his candi

date being Dewey C. Bailey. Mayor Robert W. Speer was the Democratic leader, his candidate being J. B. Hunter. It was probably the bitterest political fight in the history of Denver, where there have been many bitter political fights. As one commentator declares "Unless everybody forgets what was said in the heat of passion there should