I know that no word of mine can add to the force of this movement. I am
neither great tax-payer nor eminent sanitarist. I cannot hope to equal
others who have discussed the moral, æsthetic, sanitary, and economic
phases of the question before us. But, happily, there is no need of such
discussion now. The question of public parks has been submitted, in all
its forms and probable effects, to the ablest, keenest, wisest, of our
citizens; and there is but one answer. The answer is, that we need more
out-door life than our sedentary race enjoys, and that public grounds,
accessible to all, are not only desirable, but necessary to the moral
and physical health of our crowded population.
This is the verdict; and, granted this, there remain but two
questions,--"Is this the time?" "Can we afford it?" To some, the present
is never the time for any thing. Their motto seems to be, "Don't do
to-day what you can put off till to-morrow, because you may not live
till to-morrow, and then you won't have to do it at all." This principle
has been acted upon by short-sighted Boston too long; and the result is
a melancholy looking-back to the time when improvements could have been
made for a tenth or a fifteenth of the present cost. We are told of our
beautiful suburbs, as if they can be suburbs forever. Even now, they are
but for the rich. Beware of trespassing in the fields and woods: they
are private property. The roads seem to belong to blood-horses and their
owners. If you wish to know the future, look at the past. Look back, you
aged men, to the fields and gardens of Tremont and Boylston Streets.
Look back, you younger men, to rambles through South Boston farms, and
land at "South End" sold by the acre. Always comes the old conservative
admonition, "Wait!"--yes, wait till the great sea-wall makes City Point
of Castle Island,--wait till the now extended arms of Boston clasp
Brookline to the bosom of the metropolis,--wait till private avarice and
easy legislation, acting intermittently, deface the shore and basin of
Charles River,--wait till the dense and ever growing population,
bursting from its narrow bounds, spreads itself in streets laid out at
random, over what you are pleased to call our suburbs,--wait, in short,
till the inevitable happens, and where are your public parks? You may
have them, even then, I grant you; but you will have them where _the
people_ cannot reach them, and where the cost will be too great.
Remember that our city growth is like the growth of all cities in the
New World and the Old; and, if we want green places in the future
Boston, we must seize them now.
Can we afford the expense? Rather, let us ask, Can Boston afford to be
less comfortable to live in, less attractive, less healthy, than sister
cities? We can afford police, paved streets, light, sewers, scavengers,
a fire department, a board of health, and a score of other agencies, not
because they give salaries and employment to certain men, but because
the public health and safety require it; we can afford schools,
maintained at enormous cost, though it may be conceded that we could
live without education; we can afford pure water in abundance, be the
expense never so great, because we need it; and, if we need pure air, we
can afford to pay for it, to seize the means of having it, and keeping
it forever.
And suffer me, with due modesty, to say, that we in this
meeting--representing as we do the commerce, industries, and professions
of this goodly town--have a right to demand that what we ask shall be
given us, and that Boston shall take and hold for the use of its people
this needed reservation, while yet there is time. I trust our city
fathers will need no further admonition than this meeting gives; but, if
they should, we are enlisted for the war.
As Cromwell, grimly looking down on the fair fields and shining streams
of the land he came to conquer, said, "This is a land worth fighting
for," so let us, as we survey the magnificent area of shore and hill and
glade which fortune now permits us to dedicate to public use, exclaim,
"This, indeed, is worth our effort;" and let us strive for it till the
battle is won.
THE PRESIDENT. I have been requested to state that the well-known
physician, Dr. EDWARD H. CLARKE, who is too ill to be present here
to-night, has written a long and interesting letter on the subject of
this meeting, which will be published in the morning papers; and I
desire that every citizen present will make a point of reading that
letter.