To descend to particulars and localities, we may first record that women are becoming concerned about the transit approaches to cities and about the hideous stations which are all too frequently to be found in our towns, villages, and cities. The first approach to a city or village is of supreme importance in the feeling that residents, if they ever leave their home town and return, or visitors have about the place. The railway station therefore assumes a rÔle that is by no means insignificant. A most capable railroad station improver is Mrs. Annette McCrae, of the American Civic Association, who has worked for the Chicago and Northwestern. A story illustrating her point of view is told by Mr. McFarland in The American City:

“I remember that ... Mrs. McCrea ... discussed with the president of one of the eastern railroads the crude, glaring and unreasonably ugly manner in which his stations were painted. He listened with reasonable impatience, because Mrs. McCrea is a lady, and finally burst out with, ‘After all, Mrs. McCrea, it is a question of taste, isn’t it?’ To this, quick as a flash, Mrs. McCrea replied: ‘Yes, Mr. President; it is a question of taste—of good taste or of bad taste!’ After this the discussion languished, for there was no defense left to the apologist for mixing orange and brown before the eyes of the defenseless millions who had to use his steel highway.” Mrs. McCrae’s work is the result of a recognized demand on the part of the people, and of women as an aggressive element among the people, for attractive and inviting front and back doors to their urban dwellings.

Every section of the country has felt the urge of the request for attractive stations. In some sections, railroad companies have been induced to assume the responsibility for the improvement and in new sections railroads are glad to build attractive stations and beautify the grounds to draw residents. In other sections, railroads have been the greatest foe to station improvement and have absolutely prevented beautification of buildings and the grounds through their ownership of the surrounding area. Sometimes benevolently minded individuals and organizations have themselves financed or have aided in the building and beautification of the railway approach. Again where the villagers were rich colonists or the size of the center required rebuilding frequently, as in New York, a suitable station has resulted through the adaptation of the company to the environment.

Billboards were among the first items on the programs of the women’s clubs of the country as an evil to be attacked. A campaign for cleaner billboards in St. Paul, Minnesota, is thus described by Mrs. Backus:

It is impossible to be a teacher without realizing the tremendous influence upon the young of the books they read, the pictures they see and the plays they hear.

Miss Caroline Fairchild, a public school teacher of St. Paul, knowing this psychological truth, was very much impressed with the influence of poverty of thought and flabby morals exerted by the penny parlors, cheap “shows,” and by the billboards with their fierce men throttling shrinking girls or stabbing to the heart a hated rival.

She decided to attack first the evil which could be seen by every citizen riding in our street cars or walking along our streets—the billboard—and that her protest might carry more weight she secured the coÖperation of the Thursday Club and the public press.

The first step was a call upon one of the leading theaters, whose manager suggested a visit to the local billboard manager; this courteous gentleman referred the committee to the eastern theatrical managers. New York being almost too far away for a personal visit, it was decided that the campaign must be made general, so the following letter was drawn up to be sent to all managers of theatrical productions:

“Gentlemen: The club women of St. Paul have objected for a long time to many of the bill posters, advertising plays in this city. We feel that they have a demoralizing influence on the youth, and we would urge that posters presenting undesirable scenes, women clad in tights, or any pictures that will leave a bad impression on the minds of the young, be eliminated. St. Paul is not the only city which objects to this class of advertising, and we hope that the movement will become nation-wide.”

This step of the Civic Department of the Thursday Club had been indorsed by the Fourth District of the Federation, and members of other clubs had pledged their coÖperation.

To the joy of the committee, it was met more than halfway by the Poster Printers’ Association of America and by one or two journals devoted to the interests of poster printers and theatrical managers.

In March, 1911, the chairman of the Poster Printers’ Association issued a statement to poster printers, lithographers and theatrical managers, in which they were urged to use their influence against posters that might be deemed objectionable because of the titles used or the scenes illustrated.

The next step was the sending of lists of the leading producing managers—the men who control nearly all of the first class and popular priced theaters in the country—to every state president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in the United States, with a request that each state body take up the campaign for better plays and higher class advertising and make it a national movement.

Inquiries began to come in from other states in regard to a plan of work, showing the awakening of public interest. Local theatrical managers offered assistance, one manager asking that a committee be sent each week on the opening night to censor the play to run that week, promising to act upon suggestions made by the women—and he kept his word.

On November 10, 1911, we find the following notice in one of our daily papers:

“The civic committee of the Thursday Club is much pleased at the very evident results of its recent campaign for cleaner billboards. ‘I have noticed nothing objectionable in any of the posters advertising theatrical productions in St. Paul this season,’ says Miss Fairchild, ‘and the radical change in even the posters put up by the burlesque companies shows that the work of the club women of the country in appealing to producing managers and poster printers has had good results and been well worth while.’ Women have been on the lookout in many parts of the city and no protest has been disregarded; in one case the objectionable bill was found to be an old one which had ‘slipped in,’ but it quickly slipped off.”^[51]

The Commercial Club and the Woman’s Civic League of Pensacola, Florida, have worked together to restrict the billboard industry.

The Civic Club of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, “spent much effort and thought upon the regulation and taxation of billboards in Pittsburgh. Two bills and a tentative ordinance were drawn up and submitted to the proper authorities; the committee on statistics handed in a complete report covering the city and a number of telling photographs were taken.” The Civic Club is an organization in which men and women work in the closest and most responsible coÖperation.

The American Civic Association has for years been carrying on a campaign of education against billboards through lectures, bulletins, and press work. Its influence has undoubtedly stimulated local activities both of men and women but anti-billboard work knows no sex. The national association stands ready to help in local anti-billboard contests and it is showing now how definite results may be obtained in cities and states.

While seeking to clear our city streets of unsightly and even demoralizing billboards, women have given equal attention to the constructive work of beautifying streets by the encouragement of tree planting. Of woman’s service in this field, one competent to speak, Mr. J. J. Levinson, Forester of Brooklyn and Queens Parks, New York City, has written as follows:

Never before have people cared so much about other people as they do today. Social thought and sympathy are growing more intense every day, both among men and women. The woman of today is different from the woman of yesterday, not so much in her ideals or sympathies as in the expression of these ideals. Women have always been naturally idealistic and always will be, but the difference between their present and past idealism lies in the fact that today it is more far-reaching, extending to the interests of their neighbors and the community at large.

There is a new field opening for women as factors in civic improvement. Women have always set the moral and esthetic standard in the community in which they lived, and when they once get into this new field of making our cities more beautiful—a field which is really closest to their natural bent, they ought to accomplish wonders. Their confined life of former years gave them no chance to demonstrate their fitness for this sort of work. But today new interest in outdoor life together with new social relations is bringing out the wonderful esthetic and moral qualities that have been so long diverted from the problems of the city beautiful, and are now demonstrating a woman’s superior fitness to do much in this new field. The instances where women have helped to improve their cities with trees are numerous.

In Brooklyn it was women who organized a national city tree association and who started the first tree clubs among school children in this country. The association is located at the Children’s Museum in Brooklyn. In my own work, I find that it is always the women who fight for the preservation of their trees when some public service corporation tries to injure them. It was a woman and an energetic one at that who started our Children’s Farms in Brooklyn.

Last winter, I was invited by the ladies of Rome, N. Y., to come to that city and tell them what to do for their trees. Those ladies formed a civic organization, and collected sufficient funds to care for their trees all the year. In less than a year they have demonstrated the value of their work, and are now influencing the city authorities to appropriate sufficient funds for the preservation and planting of their city trees. In Morristown, N. J., the same thing occurred. It was a Massachusetts woman who founded the first improvement society in the United States. About ten years ago women formed a civic improvement association in South Park, Chicago, and within a few years not only changed the esthetic and sanitary appearance of their own section, but extended their influence to the whole city. At Lincoln, Nebraska, the women started their civic work on the school grounds, where they planted trees, and tried by this means to inculcate in the children a love for the beautiful. How much better are such practical lessons in civics than much of our routine teaching! Only the other day, I was in communication with the mothers’ club of a public school in Flatbush which started a campaign to plant trees around their school and in the neighborhood. In California women saved the famous Calaveras grove of big trees, a matter that has become a question of national interest, and has received the commendation of Congress and the leading men of the country.

I will not cite the hundreds of other cases where women have been the prime factors in beautifying our cities with shade trees and well-kept parks, but I will say that here is a broad and interesting field awaiting the modern woman, a field that tends to make our surroundings worth living in and our citizens better and healthier; a field that requires every virtue a woman possesses—her good taste, her moral instincts, her love of the beautiful, her patience and perseverance. Because of these, her natural gifts, she is bound to excel man in this field of endeavor, for, after all, man’s sphere of influence, in a general way, is his work and this work too often tends to become a matter of such routine that there is absolutely no inspiration in it. Men too often cannot see the moral issues at stake in living on treeless streets or in sections devoid of parks. Here we are spending so many millions of dollars on our schools, and out of the 166 public schools in Brooklyn, 86 have not even one tree in front of them, and only 10 are completely surrounded by trees. I do not believe that women would tolerate this if they could help it. There is no doubt that women are the natural leaders for the realization of the city beautiful—beautiful not with a lot of expensive cut stone, formidable fences or marble columns, but beautiful with natural parks, with avenues lined with fine trees and with front yards covered with verdure and blossoms, and beautiful with children, healthy mentally and physically.

The whole subject of city trees and its vast opportunities for helping mankind has been greatly overlooked. Our schools and many other forms of civic improvement have received our attention because we have realized their importance to our health and development, but our trees, both in the parks and on the streets, have been slighted in spite of the fact that as a civic problem they are as important to our health and development and are as influential in the making of our future citizens as any other institution or form of civic improvement today.^[52]

Women have had to resort to law courts occasionally in their struggle for shade trees. In San JosÉ, California, they won in the courts against a corporation or mercenary property owner who wanted to override their love of beauty.

While coÖperating with state and national associations for civic improvement and aiding in specific reforms, such as the removal of billboard nuisances and the planting of trees, women in many localities have taken a large view of municipal advance and stirred their towns to important action. What a few women accomplished in a small community, New London, Iowa, is thus interestingly related by Mrs. Mary M. Pierson, president of the local Women’s Improvement Association:

It would not be correct to speak of the civic work “of the women of New London,” for many of them have not approved of women’s taking part in such matters. Ours is a town of about 1,400, and only 24 women belong to our organization.

One spring morning I was called to the telephone by Mayor T. E. Rhoades, who asked, “Will you act with two other ladies in town on the Internal Improvement Committee of the City Council?” I replied, “Yes, if the Mayor and City Council wish it.” “All right,” said he. “I will appoint you, Mrs. C. E. Magers and Miss Anna von Colen (assistant editor on our home paper) as members of the City Council Improvement Committee.” Thus was the ball set rolling.

We saw at once a great deal that was necessary to be done for the health and comfort of our little city. After counseling together, always consulting our Mayor, we called a meeting of the women of the town at the City Hall, and organized a women’s improvement association. The subject of finance came up at once, and it was decided to make the membership fee twenty-five cents. Quite a number did not see what we needed money for, and declined to join us. However, about 48 paid in their quarters and began work.

During our first efforts some very laughable things happened, but with the coÖperation of the Mayor we made progress. By his order a clean-up day was appointed, and on that day a tremendous amount of boxes, tin cans and trash rolled out of the town.

We then turned our attention to our little city park. We bought a $10 lawn mower and set the City Marshal and his assistants to mowing the grass, and finally brought the park into respectable and attractive condition. The Council made us a donation of $15.

Oh, how we worked! Finally, others, seeing that there was no stopping us, began to beautify their yards, and before long the town was a flower garden.

Then came the need for more money. Our band had gone to pieces, but wished to reorganize. There was a fine bandstand in the park, and we ordered it repainted. Then we gave an ice cream social, the proceeds of which served to get the band together again. We now have one of the best bands in the state, and the weekly band concert, from April to November, draws crowds of appreciative listeners.

As winter came on we saw the necessity of having money with which to purchase seats for the park; and as we live in the corn belt of Iowa, we decided to give a “Corn Carnival.” This was the biggest undertaking of the kind ever carried through in our part of the state, and was attended by Governor Cummins, who seemed well pleased with our efforts. A substantial sum was realized, and we ordered a car load of iron seats. When these were placed on the short-cut green grass in the park, facing the bandstand, and were filled with people listening to the sweet music of our band, we felt that we had indeed accomplished something the first year.

Our company of workers has dwindled, but our influence is felt and respected, and when there is a question of bonding the town for schools, electric light, sewerage or water works, we not only go to the polls ourselves, but we see that the other women of the city go and that they have a right view of the matter under consideration.

Our electric plant burned down, and for a while there were so many objections to bonding again the already heavily burdened town that the loss of the plant seemed likely. The Mayor came and talked with me, and I called a meeting of the Association, which resulted in our starting out electioneering. Election day came, and New London got her lights. The City Council was strong in praise of the work done by the women.

The question of water works and sewerage is now before us. It was voted on recently, when 143 women cast their ballots. The water works question was carried, but the sewerage undertaking was lost by 23 votes, probably because there are but few modern homes in New London. The question will be voted on again in April, and the result will probably be different.

Last summer we were instrumental in organizing our first Chautauqua assembly. We pledged the sale of 300 tickets, and advanced $25. We sold over $700 worth of tickets, gave the people a fine week of instruction and social pleasure, advanced $25 for another Chautauqua next July, and cleared $200, which will buy more seats this spring.

We have had a great many things to discourage us, have been held up to ridicule, and have thought many times, “Does it pay?” But when a year ago our town was visited by an epidemic of typhoid fever and there were 60 nurses here where a professional nurse had never been; when so many homes were darkened by death, all because of the filthy condition of one drain that ran into an alley and poisoned a near-by well that supplied the water for our popular restaurant; then our physicians and men of better judgment (and women, too) realized the need of getting the help of the Improvement Association in cleansing and purifying our town. We are now considered an asset, and I believe we have come into our own.^[53]

Among the varied activities of women for civic improvement may be listed the following, paraphrased from The American Club Woman which is exceedingly rich in such data:

The Woman’s Club of Corte Madera, California, installed street lights costing $500 and maintained them until the town realized their value and took over the management and maintenance.

The Woman’s Board of Trade of Santa FÉ, New Mexico, founded the town library, and created an attractive plaza with seats, among other things.

The Women’s League for Good Government of Philadelphia in its educational campaign has given a series of illustrated lectures urging public support of such municipal improvements as have already been obtained in that city and suggesting others that are needed.

About $11,000 has been raised for an art gallery by the Woman’s Club of Des Moines, Iowa. The balance of the necessary $25,000 for the building will probably be secured by an extension of the present system of selling bonds.

Every new town in the state of Idaho is being laid out with a civic center around a city park or square, and every club is working for a city park, and planting trees, shrubs and flowers in public places. Nearly every club specializes in city sanitation and pure food.

Mrs. E. R. Michaux of the North Carolina Federation of Clubs has urged all the clubs in that state to work for municipal art commissions in the various towns and make their approval necessary before any public buildings, statues, etc., can be erected or streets laid off. Elsewhere women have secured such commissions and in many cities they are now serving on them.

The Municipal Order League of Chicago, a women’s society, has for its object the education of the people to the point of insisting upon health, cleanliness and beauty for the city of Chicago.

Many of the clubs of the various states have forestry committees whose object is to work both for the conservation of forest lands in the state and to secure local foresters and tree planting commissions. They have been responsible in numerous cities for the installation of a municipal forester and have been his main support in his proposals for shade trees and shrubs and their proper care. Arboriculture for decorative purposes has always been an interest of theirs in their own home plots and now they have extended it to the decoration of their municipal homes. They have also been largely instrumental in securing the general observance of Arbor Day by schools and outside agencies.

The State Federation of Club Women of California worked faithfully for forestry and Big Tree bills, cleaned up vacant yards, removed unsightly poles from streets, secured the care and beautification of the ocean front, secured the retention of street flower markets, the purchase and preservation of Telegraph Hill and of the Calaveras Big Tree Grove, the parking of the grounds and street about the Mission Dolores, and planted vines and trees on the barren slopes belonging to the Federal Government at Yerba Buena Island. In San Francisco they worked against the overhead trolley system which is so derogatory to the appearance of a city.

Throughout the South the work of civic improvement is being taken hold of by women with energy and idealism and practical sense. Parks and gardens that dot the states everywhere now testify to the labor and enthusiasm of women as well as of men.

The Civic Club of Nowata, Oklahoma, secured a twenty-acre park which now has 1,000 trees growing on it; in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the park in the center of the city was laid out by a landscape artist employed by women who also offered cash prizes for the best lawns and alleys in the city.

The Palmetto Club of Daytona, Florida, raised $75,000 for a public park.

The Quincy, Illinois, Boulevard and Park Association saw fit to elect Mrs. Edward J. Parker president upon the death of her husband, under whose skillful and enthusiastic guidance, Quincy obtained results that are quite famous in that part of the country. Mr. Parker had worked for a parking system in the face not only of indifference but of hostility on the part of the public and of the city government. Since that attitude has not yet been overcome, but is merely in the process of changing, the election of the wife as president is an indication of the belief in the wisdom and ability of her leadership.

The club women of Minnesota have recommended town planning commissions for the beautifying of the villages and cities of the state.

A moving-picture film, “The City Beautiful,” has been prepared and circulated as educational propaganda by the civics committee of one enterprising woman’s organization which appreciates the value of public opinion.

In Idaho Falls, Idaho, the members of the Village Improvement Society are called “City Mothers.” “Fifteen years ago,” we are told, “this place was a treeless, grassless desert village. Today it is a city and an oasis. The hundreds of trees that line the streets were planted by the women of the Society. The lawns and flowers have been fostered by them through the giving of annual prizes. They have bought the land and are developing a town park. They have established and operated the town hospital and have founded a library and secured a tax levy for its support. They have supplied the alleys with garbage boxes and caused the passage of an anti-spitting ordinance. They have bought the site of a nest of vile resorts and caused the removal of tenants. They have also improved the cemetery.”

The Woman’s Town Improvement Association of Westport, Connecticut, laid 2,000 feet of sidewalk and generally beautified the town.

The Good Roads Committee of a woman’s organization in New Canaan, Connecticut, cut down the undergrowth, leveled hills and set up danger markers. What they did for the water supply has been told in the chapter on Health.

The Woman’s Book Club of Osceola, Arkansas, filled mud holes in three streets and planted trees along the sides.

The Woman’s Improvement Club of Roseville, California, planted 400 trees, set out 1,000 calla lilies and roses and magnolia trees to beautify the approach to the station, made a park in the triangle formed by the intersection of three streets and planted it with date palms.

The Woman’s Civic League and the Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs asked the city for an appropriation of $2,500 for a comprehensive city plan and at their further instigation Charles Mulford Robinson was engaged to devise a plan for the improvement of the city. They then arranged a conference between Mr. Robinson and citizens. When his plan was submitted it met the approval of the women, but the City Fathers did not manifest the same concern and the women of the Club have been constantly urging upon them the wisdom of adherence to the plan. The women also followed the city budget with this end in view. After conferring with city planning commissions in other cities, the Civic Club drew up the plan for a permanent commission for Colorado Springs and secured it from the Council. Members have been appointed from nominations made by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federated Trades Council, the Woman’s Club and the Civic League.

While in many places the work of women for civic improvement has won marked public favor, the spirit of fair play is not always in evidence as we learn from letters like this from Mrs. Harmon, vice-president of the Civic League of Yankton, South Dakota: “At first our existence was looked upon with much disfavor by the city officials, being regarded as a standing criticism of their administration. Our speedy demise was predicted. Now, after a year of existence and a campaign of education, the Civic League is referred to as an arbiter of difficulties and a court of complaint. We have largely succeeded in shutting up chickens. Alleys may no longer be used as dumping grounds. We have become the sponsors for the development of a new park to be donated to the city. We have interested the Commissioners in employing a landscape architect to make a permanent city plan. Further, we are in the field to stay.”

The women of the Lock Haven Civic Club have the distinction of having raised the money for a city plan for the smallest city in the state of Pennsylvania in order that it may be prepared for its possible growth and development. The Board of Trade is energetic in this little town and the women find coÖperation with it pleasant and sincere. The Outdoor Department of this league of women laid out and planted the Court House Park and assisted the city government in planting a city parkway. It has also induced property owners to supplant fences with private hedges and otherwise beautify home surroundings.

From an adobe pueblo, Los Angeles has grown in some thirty years to a commercial metropolis. Of city planning in this rapid development there has been none. Now, however, a Municipal Art Commission composed of five persons, two women and three men, has undertaken to bring some order out of chaos in Los Angeles and doubtless in the reorganization of the city the women who have worked so earnestly there for housing and district nursing and public health will exert some influence over the plans.

The Wichita, Kansas, Improvement Association began as a woman’s organization but soon felt that it had made a great mistake in limiting its membership to women. “Obviously,” it says, “the concerns of any town-development organization are the concerns of everybody in that town and the membership should consist of the members of that community.” A reorganization was therefore effected and men were brought into the Association. In writing about this change the Association says: “The keynote of the new society thus became the keynote of all society: ‘The responsibility of adults for conditions which shall conduce to the health, morality, happiness and general good citizenship of the young people.’ For, if the adult society is working for this, then its own health, morality and happiness are finding promotion.”

Boston has a city planning board on which Emily Greene Balch is serving. Its duty is to “make careful studies of the resources, possibilities, and needs of Boston, particularly with respect to conditions which may be injurious to the public health, and to make plans for the development of the municipality, with special reference to the proper housing of its people.” The secretary of the board is Miss Elizabeth M. Hurlihy. The Women’s Municipal League is rendering valuable assistance to this board.

Where civic pride and organization promote intelligent efforts in a city to control real estate speculation, unregulated building and congestion, it often happens that the area just outside the city accepts all the evils cast forth by the city. A factory or plant, pushed to the outskirts where a suburb is quickly developed by land speculators to meet the new housing situation, may easily, and does often, become the center of a community totally without plan and where the evils of congestion appear in their most exaggerated form. In some cases, civic leagues of men and women are forming to prevent suburbs coming under such influences, as the city, to which they are neighbor, agitates for the removal of its factories to the outskirts.

Attention has been directed to this serious matter, and some suburban planning started in time, by Mrs. Rollin Norris and others in the suburbs of Philadelphia, organized in the Main Line Housing Association.

The work of this association doubtless had its effect on the legislation in Pennsylvania which provides metropolitan planning districts for the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton, in order that they may control developments at their borders for a radius of twenty-five miles. Other states—six of them—have made a similar attempt to prevent unwise expansion at the rims of cities, but Massachusetts now leads with city planning by its recent law providing for city planning commissions throughout the state for towns and villages. It is interesting in this connection to observe how well women have worked in Massachusetts on the problems of housing and allied questions which are vital elements in this planning.

At present these schemes and ideals for suburban planning are in the stage of agitation only and have not been concretely applied on any extensive scale. A private achievement of notable worth has been obtained in Roland Park, Baltimore, but it is a high-class residential neighborhood. The Roland Park Civic League, an incorporated association of the citizens of this district, maintains a controlling interest in the Roland Park Roads and Maintenance Corporation and elects nine of the twelve directors. They prohibit certain nuisances, the erection of any building for other than residence purposes and the submission and approval of all construction plans. Women are members of the Civic League and share equally with the men in the government of this residential district which is comprehensive enough to include: tax collection and expenditure, labor employed in the sewerage system, the repairing and cleaning of roads, care of hedges and sidewalks, removal of ashes and rubbish and other services. It is a marvelously beautiful place. “Woman suffrage is in action in Roland Park.”

Forest Hills Gardens, the New York suburb built by the Russell Sage Foundation, financed by Mrs. Russell Sage, is also a beautiful middle-class residential district, with the same restrictions that safeguard Roland Park.

From this cursory and necessarily imperfect review of women’s work in civic improvement, it is evident that whoever labors for the city or town or village beautiful in the United States may find intelligent and hearty support on the part of women’s associations, even though they are, in many places, merely organized for literary or “cultural” purposes. Thousands of men may loaf around clubs without ever showing the slightest concern about the great battle for decent living conditions that is now going on in our cities; but it is a rare woman’s club that long remains indifferent to such momentous matters. Nor, as we have seen, is this movement for civic betterment confined to the greater cities. In thousands of out-of-the-way places which hardly appear on the map, unknown women with large visions are bent on improving their minds for no mere selfish advancement, but for the purpose of equipping themselves to serve their little communities. They form local associations. These local associations are federated into state and national associations. The best thought and experience of one community soon become the common possession of all. Thus we see in the making, before our very eyes, a conscious national womanhood. Here is a power that will soon disturb others than the village politicians.