compared with their financial relations to the community. Before a track can be laid, the city must award a franchise either by popular vote or through action of its governing body. No company would be willing to incur the enormous expense of installing a system without reasonable guarantees of opportunity for profit during a term of years. How much

money should owners of traction systems be permitted to make? If a five-cent fare assures reasonable profit when one hundred thousand people are served, may that not be too much when five hundred thousand pay fares daily? Or, suppose increased costs of operation make it impossible to continue at the fare agreed upon in the franchise. The system cannot

long operate at a loss and voters are usually very slow in consenting to an increase. The foregoing are the kind of problems which arise in every large city.

If it were an ordinary private business venture we should say, "If you can't afford to continue, just quit, or turn the business over to someone else." But the public cannot afford

to allow its transportation to cease, even for a day. The system may be so large and complex that only an expert can discover whether it is earning an income or losing money. The riding public is likely to be suspicious, regarding the owners as rich people taking money without doing anything in return.

Difficulties with franchises and in regulation of traction companies have led to city ownership in some cases and discussion of the plan even when it has not been adopted. Those who favor municipal ownership or control argue that systems can be operated profitably at very low fares, and that surplus earnings should go to the city thus benefiting the population at large instead of a few stockholders. If fares must be increased in order to continue service, voters are supposed to be more ready to consent, regarding the additional cost as necessary tax. Those who oppose city ownership, say that city governments have not usually been very successful in preventing waste, graft, and dishonesty in service and that there is no reason for expecting them to operate traction systems economically or in a manner satisfactory to their patrons.

5. Water Supply and Clean Streets. An adequate water supply is essential for trade and industry; a sanitary supply is necessary for preservation of health. A fairly reliable measure of a people's civilization might be the amount of water used in bathing. Fire protection calls for a steady and unlimited water supply. The modern city thus demands abundant, scientifically tested, pure water; a large number of typhoid cases is now regarded a disgrace since their relation to a polluted water supply is well known.

Clean streets are also related to health. An orange peel, a chewing gum wrapper, or apple core may be of little consequence upon a country road, but if all the thousands who walk city streets are careless with such minor items, it is a different matter. The street cleaning department is as necessary as the police system. Modern cities cannot afford "cleanup days"; they must be clean all the time. In keeping them so, boys and girls can co-operate with those who are appointed to keep streets clean and sanitary.

6. Industrial

Nuisances.

Manufacturing communities often meet peculiar problems in relation to the great plants which are the chief cause of their growth. A factory may be very noisy; it may give forth offensive odors or even dangerous gases. The interest of the entire population is always to be placed before the gains of even a large number; hence cities are solving such problems by requiring concerns which become a nuisance or a menace to find quarters apart from most of the population or to install equipment which will do away with the evil. The most familiar example of solving such a nuisance problem is the smoke consuming provision now almost universally required.

City Planning and the City Beautiful. People can seldom foresee in the rambling village or hustling small town the great city of the future. In the old world and in the older parts of the United States crooked paths seem to have become streets. Most American cities are laid out in squares or rectangular blocks, a great improvement over the irregular streets of earlier days, but modern traffic often finds its needs inadequately met by the unmodified rectangular plan. Wider thoroughfares and parks become necessary. Modern cities thus have much to undo because plans were not made earlier. Most cities are now developing commercial thoroughfares adequate for increased traffic due to the automobile. It is interesting to note that our national capital was laid out more than a hundred years ago in accordance with plans made by a famous expert. The "city of magnificent distances" it was long derisively called because it had been planned for a great future, but those who visit Washington now can see the significance of city planning.

The rapid and unplanned growth of modern cities has often resulted in ugly features. Of necessity much in all cities can

not be made beautiful, but we have accustomed ourselves to more ugliness than is necessary. A considerable amount of our advertising is more conspicuously shocking to refined taste than successful in attracting business. Many water fronts could be turned into little parks. Unsightly and unused shacks might be removed. Any keen observer is able to discover numerous ways in which "the city beautiful" may be brought to pass without interfering with "the city useful." Like all other city problems, educated popular taste will determine the city of the future; it will be as ugly or as beautiful as its inhabitants choose to make it. Those now studying about our government will soon be called upon to decide what kind of cities they shall live in.

Cities Willing to Pay for Service. To solve city problems and make needed improvements vast sums of money are needed and taxes must be very high. Nevertheless city people perhaps pay these high taxes with less protest than their neighbors in small cities and the country in the case of their much lower rates of taxation. City voters are accustomed to co-operation in more ways and the compelling necessity of working together is so evident that as long as efficiency and reasonable economy characterize the city government, money for established municipal activities is usually voted without question.