Such an extreme outbreak of crime is related to the transition stage
through which the city is passing. Along with the intoxicating
accumulation and expenditure of wealth, the old type of dominating,
watchful, industrial and financial leader has disappeared,--that
which is typified by Mr. Carnegie, B. F. Jones,--whose firm continues
the largest independent steel concern in Pittsburgh,--the Parks, the
Moorheads, the Olivers, the Laughlins. The large industrial interests
are in the main turned into bureaucracies whose plans in detail are
decided in New York, and whose officials must guide their public
actions so as to serve the corporations' interests. The merchants
and professional men of the city who have always deferred to the
manufacturers, have only recently begun to assert themselves. It is
perhaps natural that civic co-operation should make a more effective
appeal to the merchants than the manufacturers, the merchants'
constituency and scene of action being very largely local. Mayor
Guthrie's election was a result of this new organized element in the
life of the city. His work has in the nature of the case been largely
the lopping off of old evils and the piecing together of a system of
administration which shall embody standards of honesty and business
efficiency.
Will the people of Pittsburgh be ready for the further stage of sound
reconstruction, for the unified, organic development of the city
as a thing in itself; for the application to the common welfare of
those coherent, adventurous principles which have made possible the
magnificent prosperity of the few? The proper answer to this inquiry
must regard the time perspective. A strong momentum of public spirit
and social service from out of the past, Pittsburgh, in becoming a
great population center, did not possess. But in the last ten years
the progress of this community, to one who can test it in varied and
intimate ways, has proved in such matters highly significant and
promising.
There are significant results, for instance, of the collective action
of business men for the enhancement of the general interests of the
city. Such effort leads first indirectly and then directly to the
improvement of the city as a place in which to live.
Two considerable changes in the layout of the downtown part of the city
have been brought about by special branches of trade. The wholesale
grocers and the wholesale provision men have been for generations
located on Liberty and Penn avenues west of the Union Station.
Recently the latter have taken possession of a territory beginning a
few blocks farther east and reaching for a quarter of a mile along
Penn avenue, and through to the Allegheny River. A large number of
the meanest tenement houses have been swept away by this process,
and facilities provided for receiving and distributing fruits and
vegetables, a distinct gain toward a hygienic urban commissariat.
The wholesale grocers have cleaned up an equally large and equally
unsanitary tenement area on the South Side, and have built vast
subdivided warehouses under a single general management. Perhaps the
most important aspect of these great co-operative improvement plans
is the suggestion they give of the capacity of Pittsburgh citizens
for making other broad modifications in the structure of the city,
such as the improvement of its river fronts, the proper planning of
its thoroughfares and public centers, and above all the sanitary and
adequate housing of its industrial population.
It is indeed by its bold pioneering in such directions as these that
the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, chiefly under the leadership
of H. D. W. English, has come to have an ever-growing authority in
Pittsburgh, and a rather unique reputation and influence in other
parts of the country. Greater Pittsburgh, as it is, with the provision
for further expansion from time to time, is largely the result of
the chamber's persistent effort. The improvement of the Ohio River
which is to be undertaken at once by the national government, and the
organization of a company to build the canal to Lake Erie, are also
results of its initiative. The reduction of the smoke nuisance, the
provision of a proper system of sewage disposal, the study of plans for
protection against floods, and, most noteworthy of all, the inclusion
of the hygienic housing of the people in the list of the city's chief
economic problems, are among the statesmanlike undertakings which
the chamber has been effectively promoting. The Chamber of Commerce
is reinforced by local boards of trade covering the chief outlying
sections of the city and including in their membership not only
representatives of business carried on locally, but downtown business
men who reside in the district. The boards of trade have been infected
by the broad spirit of the Chamber of Commerce, and are in essence
district improvement societies whose activities are focussed and
forwarded by their business-like motive and methods.
It can hardly be that any city has ever had so great re-enforcement
of its finer life from the beneficence of a private citizen as has
Pittsburgh. Under the general title of Carnegie Institute are included
a public library, a museum, an art gallery, and a music hall. These,
under one roof, cover an area of five acres. At a little distance are
the Carnegie Technical Schools with grounds covering thirty-six acres.
The total sum which Mr. Carnegie has given these different objects is
upwards of $11,000,000.
[Illustration: H. D. W. ENGLISH.