Report of Charles Mulford Robinson for Fort Wayne civic improvement association online

age ; and today, in the competition of cities for a wholesomer
civic life, and the better community spirit that goes with better
living, the city that dares is the city that wins.

In Boston, an all-embracing movement has been started
with the purpose of making Boston by 191 5 just what Boston
ought to be. It is called the 191 5 movement, and a program
of achievement has been mapped out for each of the preceding
years, so that each one shall surely see the goal appreciably
nearer. The leaders of finance, of business, of labor, and of the
professions are shoulder to shoulder in the effort. That is a
good thing to do, and yet I would caution you against setting
your gaze too far ahead. There must be insistence on the op-
portunity of the present, on the achievement of this month and
year — of Nineteen Hundred and Now, as Edward Everett
Hale expressed it. Fort Wayne cannot do at once all the things
herein suggested ; the Report does look years ahead. But
there should be realization that each month's delay means
greater difficulty in accomplishment ; all that can be done should
be done quickly. Speaking generally, the most urgent work is
the acquisition of needed lands. Development, as already in
the matter of your parks, can follow more slowly.

Financially, Fort Wayne is exceptionally well able to act
quickly and with energy, in order that she may make real the
new dreams of a better future. I have been looking over the
financial statements of a selected list of cities, having popu-
lations of between 50,000 and 65,000. Included in the list — the
figures being those of 1906 — are such typical and far scattered



Fort f Fay lie Civic Improvement /Issociation 121

Conclusion.



There is temptation to add a few words in summary, for
there has been unfolded a long program of diverse undertak-
ings. It is no small matter to recast a city — readjusting it to
its higher destiny, and shaping it for a greater trade and in-
dustry and larger population than had been foreseen. But the
very need of so doing is inspiring and calculated to give cour-
age ; and today, in the competition of cities for a wholesomer
civic life, and the better community spirit that goes with better
living, the city that dares is the city that wins.

In Boston, an all-embracing movement has been started
with the purpose of making Boston by 191 5 just what Boston
ought to be. It is called the 19 15 movement, and a program
of achievement has been mapped out for each of the preceding
years, so that each one shall surely see the goal appreciably
nearer. The leaders of finance, of business, of labor, and of the
professions are shoulder to shoulder in the effort. That is a
good thing to do, and yet I would caution you against setting
your gaze too far ahead. There must be insistence on the op-
portunity of the present, on the achievement of this month and
year — of Nineteen Hundred and Now, as Edward Everett
Hale expressed it. Fort Wayne cannot do at once all the things
herein suggested ; the Report does look years ahead. But
there should be realization that each month's delay means
greater difficulty in accomplishment ; all that can be done should
be done quickly. Speaking generally, the most urgent work is
the acquisition of needed lands. Development, as already in
the matter of your parks, can follow more slowly.

Financially, Fort Wayne is exceptionally well able to act
quickly and with energy, in order that she may make real the
new dreams of a better future. I have been looking over the
financial statements of a selected list of cities, having popu-
lations of between 50,000 and 65,000. Included in the list — the
figures being those of 1906 — are such typical and far scattered



122 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

municipalities as Schenectady, N. Y. ; San Antonio, Texas ;
Evansville, Ind. ; Waterbury, Conn. ; Salt Lake City ; Harris-
burg, Pa. ; Tacoma, Wash., and Holyoke, Mass. In this
prepared list of prosperous and progressive municipali-
ties, there are named only two cities that have funded debts
of less than two million dollars — the smallest debt re-
ported is $1,825,000 — and there are several in which
the debt exceeds four millions. Fort Wayne, with a
larger population than any of them, has a funded debt of only
$589,900, and against that has $91,000 in the sinking fund!
Putting the matter another way, and turning to the Census
Report for 1906, in which every city is given, I find that the
city with population nearest at that time to Fort Wayne's, was
Holyoke, Mass., it having about a hundred and fifty fewer
people ; that the per capita debt obligation, less sinking fund
assets, amounted then in Fort Wayne to $16.68 — it is less than
half of that now — and in Holyoke to $51.30 ; that of the eighty-
seven cities of the United States with a larger population than
Fort Wayne, only four had as small a per capita debt as her's,
and that of the first twenty with a smaller population only
two did not have a larger per capita debt. As compared with
rivals, Fort Wayne is thus in a position to do a great deal.
The per capita debt of Kansas City, Kas., at that time was
$39.32, "which," says a statement issued by the business men's
club of that city, is "less than most cities of the same class."
The total debt was then over one and a half millions, and is
now about $2,175,000, as compared with the half million in
Fort Wayne ; but the bulletin of that energetic organization
prints with approval, after the debt statement, these words;
"Every time we improve our city we help to increase its popu-
lation. I believe that as a business proposition a judicious out-
lay of three or four million dollars for improvements in this
city would be a splendid investment." That is the spirit that
brings things to pass. Kansas City, Kas., is a type of a large
class of cities that are in competition with you, and that, with-
out half so favorable an opportunity financially as has Fort
Wayne, are daring and doing more.



Fort Wayne Civic Improvcmoif Association 123

I have spoken of the money aspect of the question of im-
proving Fort Wayne, because it was sure to be broui^ht up.
But the more important consideration is not financial at all.
It is the question whether the people who live in Fort Wayne
have the wish, the grit, the love for their city and faith in it,
to make of it what it can be made so easily — the workshop, con-
venient and wholesome, facilitating and drawing business ; the
home, affording opportunities for healthful exercise and pleas-
ure, and bringing beauty into the common life — whether, in
short, the community really means what it says, and puts heart
in its slogan.

Fort Wayne With Might and Main.

In the recently submitted Report of the Metropolitan Im-
provements Commission for Boston, there is this true state-
ment: "The mental attitude of the citizens of any community
towards its growth and future prosperity is an element of no
mean importance in the shaping of its destiny. Confidence
and civic courage have frequently ha^l the power to achieve
that which doubt and hesitation would have rendered an im-
possibility." Respectfully submitted,

CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON.
Sept. 28, 1909.



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