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{
    "localId": "518259876",
    "label": "Records relating to Polar Exploration [2 of 2]",
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    "id": "518259876",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/518259876",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Records relating to Polar Exploration [2 of 2]",
    "description": "This file contains poems, articles, and letters relating to polar explorers Robert Peary, Ernest Shackleton, and Frederick Cook, and their expeditions.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/518259876",
    "collections": [
        "Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary Family Collection",
        "Memorabilia"
    ],
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{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/518259876",
    "naId": 518259876,
    "coverageEndDate": {
        "logicalDate": "1914-12-31",
        "year": 1914
    },
    "coverageStartDate": {
        "logicalDate": "1905-01-01",
        "year": 1905
    },
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{
    "seq": 16,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/dc-metro/coll-xp/4499090/518259876/4499090-008-006-0016.tif",
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    "ocrText": "THE SATURDAY EVENING POST\nCopyright.1 THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY,\nFounded A°D 1728 by Benj. Franklin\nEntered the Philadelphia Post-Office\nin the United States and Great Britain.\nSecond-Class Matter.\nPublished Weekly at 425 Arch Street by THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY\nLondon Hastings House. Norfolk Street, Strand,W.C.\nEntered as Second-Class Matter at the Post-Office Department, Ottawa, Canada\nVolume 182\nPHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER 30, 1909\nNumber 18\nSocial Engineering for a City\nA\nLL over the United States, just now,\npeople are trying to solve what is\nBy JOHN MAPPELBECK\nToday, however, there is a new sentiment\nat work all over the United States. For five\nknown as the problem of our cities\"\nyears or more the American people have\n-trying to find ways of running our cities\nILLUSTRATIO\nBUNKER\nbeen reading and thinking about business\nably and honestly. In one place dishonest\nquestions. Corporations have been investi-\nofficials are being prosecuted. In another, reform opposes corruption at the polls.\ngated and methods of great business leaders laid bare. The public has seen business\nEvery important American center has today some sort of activity looking toward a\nhandled in the mass, has followed tremendous constructive projects, and has learned\nbetter city; and everybody is thinking better cities, which is a pretty sound indication\nwhat makes our industrial machinery so effective. There has been some blame, but\nthat better cities are bound to come.\non the whole true business ability has won commendation; and the upshot has been to\nThere are only two or three important factors in this problem, anyway, no matter\nset higher standards for the business world without greatly hampering efficiency.\nwhat the city or where it is situated.\nThese new standards, in turn, must now work out in our public affairs everywhere.\nFirst, a city, town or even a village exists because of its business interests.\nWhat is good for putting a railroad on a paying basis, people reason, must also be\nManufacturing, trade and shipping have made it what it is. Were there no commerce\ngood for running a city. So, finally, it looks as though the ability that makes our cities\nthere could be no city, that's clear enough.\nmight have a chance to help in their administration.\nSecond, this business rests on the men who have made the city and keep it going.\nJust at present an important point seems to be to get these men actually working\nIt rests on mechanics as well as manufacturers. The clerk is a business man no less\nfor the cities-to bring the man and the job together. There are difficulties to be\nthan the merchant, and a switchman in the yards does his share along with the railroad\novercome. The business man shrinks from politics, and politicians look sideways at\npresident. All are business men in the broad sense, and their commercial ability builds\nthe business man. But the difficulties are being met in various ways all over the country,\nthe city.\nand the general trend is toward something both new and solid in city administration.\nThird, while these men are permitted to make our cities physically and commercially,\nthey have seldom had a hand in running them as cities; and there much of the trouble\nThe Boston Movement for a Better City\nlies. City management has been left to politicians of small business capacity. The\nrailroad president, assuming that running a city is somehow different from running\ntrains, has stuck to his own business. Or, if he became interested in city affairs, and\nTHE chief purpose of histarticle is to explain a plan of organization that has been\nfollowed recently in Boston. Under this scheme, dozens of merchants, manufacturers,\nwanted to give some of his executive ability to better administration, he had to go into\nbankers, attorneys and other men of affairs are giving part of their time to the city's\npolitics to do it. Usually he had to go in alone. Politics is radically different from\ninterests. They have no concern with politics, either-the work is all along normal\nbusiness. Any broad plans for sound administration, such as he would apply to the\nbusiness lines. Behind them stands an organization of several thousand other business\nrunning of a railroad, needed time to work out. While he was trying to show genuine\nmen who finance the work.\nresults the politicians were trying to discredit him. And they usually succeeded, for\nBoston's plan was based on experience in several other cities, as well as upon sound\nthey had all the arts and most of the machinery to manipulate that surface public\nprinciples learned in the management of men in business relations. Therefore, it not\nopinion which turns such issues.\nonly is suggestive to other communities, but has practical value for anybody organizing\nIn the end, probably, the railroader went back to his own shop, where comprehensive\nand managing people in business.\nplans could be worked out with certainty and in peace. Or if he stayed in politics it\nFor several years, now, Boston has been trying to express itself in a \"movement.\"\nwas likely for another purpose altogether-namely, to see that nothing whatever was\nIt wants to improve its commercial conditions, and attract new industries and trade.\nreally done in matters affecting his own business interests.\nAll New England stands behind the Hub in this.\nNew England is somewhat peculiar, commercially. It is to the United States what\nBusiness Methods in City Government\n*Old England is to the world. New England produces few raw materials of importance,\nand has no coal for power. Yet it makes high-class goods for the rest of the country\nSOME older countries public service is organized with a view to giving congenial\ndespite competition from newer industrial sections that have great natural advantages.\nwork to men who have been successful in business life. In return for part of their\nThe South, for instance, has abundant cotton and New England cannot compete with\ntime and ability a definite road to social advancement is offered.\nit in cheap fabrics; but when it comes to the best cloth, Southern cotton goes to\nIn our own country public service has offered hardly anything to business men.\nMassachusetts to be made up. The same with shoes. Cheaper grades are manufactured\nThere hasn't been compensation in it, nor the fun got out of other work, nor any\nin the Middle West, but, with few exceptions, the best shoes are made around Boston.\nparticular honor, nor even the chance to work quietly and get things done for the sake\nNew England lies farthest from the raw materials of the West, and also from its markets.\nof good work-which is all that a great many able men would ask. The public official's\nA dozen other ports are drawing away its ocean trade, and it lies off the main continental\nsubordinates have been of a different sort from those who worked for him in business,\nrailroad routes. Yet it holds a large proportion of the best trade despite disadvantages,\nand he has been hampered by lack of power to \"hire and fire.\" In business, getting\nlargely because it has exceptionally skillful mechanics for making high class goods.\nan appropriation for urgent work may be only a matter of days. In city affairs, years\nAt the outset several schemes for exploiting Boston were set afoot by politicians.\nmight be needed. Worst of all, there has been no popular good will behind the business\nPerceiving a demand, they supplied it. Money was collected from business interests,\nman who ventured into public service-on the contrary, his business connections\nbut spent in ways that, it is said, were not easy to trace. These projects were worth\nroused suspicion.\nwhat they cost, however, for they roused interest and led business men to take a hand\n3"
}