(Author of "_Aspects of Social Evolution_") said:
While agreeing with Prof. Geddes in his belief in the importance of
institutional and geographical studies as a basis for the investigation
of the development of cities, it yet seems to me that these studies
cannot prove of supreme value to society unless they are accompanied by
a detailed examination of the _natural_ characteristics of all
individuals who have been born into and existed in, or merely dwelt in,
these surroundings. It is not enough to trace out, however accurately,
the various stages of a town's growth from its commencement to the
present time, because _the cause_ of [Page: 126] the evolution of any
city aggregate lies deeper, is in large part animate, and not inanimate,
in character. The value of the surroundings depends at least as much
upon the capacity of the individual citizen, singly and collectively, to
utilise what he or she is brought in contact with as upon the
peculiarities of these surroundings themselves. Place, tradition, social
organisation, individual development, education, are factors in town
evolution that cannot safely be overlooked, and they all vary from age
to age and in place and place.
If it were possible to completely exchange the inhabitants of a large
town in England with those of an equally large town in France two groups
of changes would become more or less rapidly observable: (1) the French
and English citizens would adapt themselves, as far as they desired and
were able, to their altered conditions; (2) the characteristics of both
towns would gradually change, in spite of geographical position, in
response to the altered human needs. Similarly, a town composed of
individuals who are naturally uncultured and unprogressive will tend to
preserve its uncultured and unprogressive characters more than another
that has alert citizens to carry on its activities. Every profession and
every trade tends to foster its own social atmosphere; and towns will
vary with their industrial life, and individuals favourably disposed to
this atmosphere will come to the town, and those unfavourably inclined
to it will leave. _These changing citizens, as they act upon and react
to their surroundings and vary in their powers age by age, are the real
evolvers of the conditions in which they dwell_; hence the citizen must
not be omitted from our study if we are to understand city growth.
In other words, I think that every investigation of civic, and for that
matter country life should be studied from two aspects: (1) to note the
peculiarities, growth and development of the material, non-living and
non-thinking elements in the problem--the buildings, their geographical
position, their age, their fitness for past and present life, and the
distinctive local features that are evolving or retrogressing with the
multiplication of some trades and industries and the decline of others
in each area that is studied; (2) the change in the quality of the
citizens themselves through racial, educational, and other factors,
noting how far ideals are altering, not only in the mass of individuals
taken as a whole, but also by examining the changing outlook in every
trade and profession. With these two parallel lines of investigation to
study, we could then determine how far environment--social and
climatic--how far racial and individual characteristics have been
powerful in the moulding of the fabric around us.
With these two lines of study to our hands, we could predict the
vitality, the growing power, and the future possibilities of the social
life of which we are a tiny though not an insignificant part; we could,
knowing something of the response that we make to that which surrounds
us, form some estimate of how the future ages will develop, and, knowing
the [Page: 127] intensity of the different national desires for progress
_and the causes which are likely to arouse such desires_, we could
realise what will stimulate and what will retard all that is best in our
civic life.
PROFESSOR EARL BARNES (in moving a vote of thanks) said:
For years I have been accumulating a debt of obligation to Prof. Geddes
for ideas, suggestions, and large synthesis of life, and it gives me
special pleasure to voice the feeling of this meeting concerning the
paper read to us this afternoon. To me, as an American, it is especially
interesting to hear this presentation of life as an organic whole. Life
is but a period of education, and if there is nothing behind this
present moment of life it is all extremely insignificant. To an
American, who has lived at No. 1067 in 63rd Street, Philadelphia, and
at No. 1718 in G Street, in Washington, it is profoundly interesting to
think of the possibility of a man's so living that his whole existence
shall be significant, so that the realities of his world, geographical,
geological, and material, and all that long development of humanity
through the historic past--that all these things will be really and
truly significant to him. Prof. Geddes has himself shown us that is
possible. Any man who has gone to Edinburgh and seen the restoration of
the old life that has been carried out there under his hand knows it can
be done. I suppose we all came here to hear Professor Geddes speak on
practical affairs because his name is now connected with the plans for
making a city that shall be really expressive of all its potentialities
to all of its people. I am personally profoundly grateful to him for his
paper; and I move you that he be given a very hearty vote of thanks.
The Chairman. (MR. CHARLES BOOTH), in closing the discussion, said: I
myself entirely agree with what Mr Robertson has said as to the extreme
difficulty of bringing investigations of the kind referred to, to
practical conclusions--practical points. Practical work at present needs
the most attention. I perhaps am too old to do it, but I feel the
attraction of that kind of work, and that was one reason I was sorry Mr
Loch had to leave before we could hear what he might have to say. The
description I have given of London does seem to be a foggy labyrinth I
agree, but nevertheless I cannot but think that we do require a complete
conception if we are to do the definite work of putting different people
in their proper places in an organic whole, such as a city is. I do not
think we can do without it, and I regard the paper of this evening as an
important contribution [Page: 128] to that complete conception which I
feel we need. I should like each worker and thinker to have and to know
his place in the scheme of civic improvement; and I think it perfectly
possible for every man to know what it is that he is trying to do, what
contribution it is that he ought to give to that joint life which is
called here civics, which is the life of a city and the life in the
city. One man cannot possibly concentrate it all in himself. Within a
society such as the Sociological Society a general scheme is possible in
which each individual and each society shall play its acknowledged and
recognised part. It does not follow that the work done in one city can
apply as an example to another. Individuality has too strong a hold;
but each town may work out something for itself. I have been very much
interested in the work which Mr. Rowntree has done in York, on which he
was kind enough to consult me. He entered upon it on quite other grounds
from mine, but so far as the ground was common between him and me we
tried to have a common basis. Those of you who have not read Mr.
Horsfall's volumes on Manchester would do well to do so. Prof. Geddes
gave us a vivid picture of a larger regional unit which culminates
geographically in the city as industrial climax. In his particular
instance he referred, I take, to Dundee. In Dundee there is at this
moment an inquiry being started, and I am in communication with those
who are doing it, and I hope it will add something to the completeness
of the picture we have of that city. In Dundee they have excessive
difficulties in respect to crowding and female labour. What I suggested
was, that they should make a special study of such circumstances as are
special to Dundee. Labour there is very largely sack-making and jute
manufacture, and there is a great deal of girl labour; and that is one
of the special subjects that will be considered in that inquiry.
Then, with regard to the preservation of such of the natural beauties
that do remain even quite near to busy town centres, surely it is of the
greatest importance that they should be watched and protected and
preserved. Prof. Geddes has contributed a portion of his practical work
to that practical question at Dunfermline. His charming volume on
Dunfermline ("A Study in City Development") shows what beautiful
features there are near Dunfermline, and how much may be done to
preserve and improve them in ways that are most interesting to study.
His use of photography in this matter is extraordinarily successful.
Prof. Geddes has photographed a scene as it now is, with its background
and distance and its squalid foreground, already ruined by the debris of
the city--old tin pots and every [Page: 129] kind of rubbish--thrown
down by the side of the stream, which is naturally beautiful. By
manipulating the photographic plates he wipes out that which he does not
want and introduces other features, including a little waterfall; and
you have, instead of a miserable suburb, a dignified park. Well now,
that is practical work. It has in it that element which he has described
by a question-mark in his diagram, the element of forecast. You have the
same idea in Manchester, in Mr. Horsfall's work. They have laid out
their map of Manchester and shown in what way it may develop, so as not
to spoil the beauty that remains on two sides of Manchester. There is
really exquisitely beautiful natural scenery close to Manchester, which
may be entirely spoiled or preserved, according as a forecast is made
and forethought taken. This is not a question on which there is reason
to think that people will disagree. The difficulties are always supposed
to be financial. It is a sad thing that we should be so hampered by our
methods of finance that we throw away opportunities to retain these
actual beauties which undoubtedly add to the actual money value of a
district. I cannot suppose that the way in which cities are laid out
with narrow streets really results in an increase of value. The
surroundings of our cities are undeveloped estates, which we have only
to agree amongst ourselves how to lay out, and everybody would benefit
by such joint action. There is an excellent illustration in regard to
that in Mr. Horsfall's work in connection with Germany. It must be said
that from Germany there is a great deal to learn in civic matters. In
one of its towns the properties lie in extraordinarily long strips. It
is the final result of properties having been measured by the length of
the plough's run. When that method is applied to town sites, it is not
convenient for streets; and there are some quarters in this German town
ruined in this way, and the people have agreed together to improve
matters. Every owner is to be given credit for his share in the total
value of the improvement that is found to accrue from the re-arrangement
of these undesirable divisions, and any difference of opinion as to the
just share and proportion is to be referred to an impartial arbitrator.
All the owners will gain, though some a little more than others. That is
an example that we may do well to try and follow, and in some way or
other improve the money value, and social value, and hygienic value of
towns, and if necessary compel the carrying out of improvements when
some few might be disposed to hold out against them.
[Page: 130] WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
From PROF. BALDWIN BROWN (Professor of Fine Art in the University of
Edinburgh)
I am glad of this opportunity of saying how cordially I agree with the
method adopted by my friend Professor Geddes in dealing with the life of
cities. He treats the modern community and its material shell as things
of organic growth, with a past and a future as well as a present,
whereas we too often see these wider considerations ignored in favour of
some exigency of the moment. A historic British town has recently
furnished a striking object-lesson in this connection. The town
possesses portions of an ancient city wall and fosse that were made at a
time when the town was, for the moment, the most important in Great
Britain. Yet the Town Council, a year ago, destroyed part of this wall
and filled a section of the fosse for the purpose of providing a site
for a new elementary school. No doubt, in that school, books "approved
by the Department" will instruct scholars in the past history of the
burgh, but the living witness of that history must first of all be
carefully obliterated. All the rest of this ancient and historic
enceinte was condemned a few weeks ago to complete destruction, merely
on the plea that the site would be convenient for workmen's dwellings.
The monument has now been saved, but it has taken the whole country to
do it!
Here were chosen officials, governors of no mean city, absolutely
oblivious of these important interests committed to their care, and all
for want of having drilled into them these broader views which Professor
Geddes puts forward so well.
He has himself done practical work in Edinburgh on the lines he lays
down, and I have lately had occasion to note, and call attention to the
advantage to the city of much wise conservatism in regard to our older
buildings which he and his associates have shown.
In Edinburgh we have the advantage that our older monuments, [Page:
131] in which so much of the past life of the city is enshrined, are
firm and solid; and it takes some trouble to knock them down. Hence for
some time to come we shall preserve here object-lessons in civic
development that will be of interest to the country at large.