Some Cities San Fran. Resurgam | Page 8

rational conclusion.
Always the march of intellectual development has been from east to
west, the old East dying as the new West bursts into being, until now
west is east, and the final issue must here be met. In the advent and
progress of civilization there was first the Mediterranean, then the
Atlantic, and then the Pacific, the last the greatest of all. What else is
possible? Where else on this planet is man to go for his ultimate
achievement?
Conviction comes slowly in such cases, and properly so. Yet in
forecasting the future from the light of the past cavilers can scarcely go
farther afield than our worshipful forbears, who less than a century ago,
on the floor of the United States congress, decried as absurd settlement
beyond the Missouri, ridiculed buying half a continent of worthless
Northwest wilderness, thanked God for the Rocky mountain barrier to
man's presumption, scouted at a possible wagon road, not to say
railway, across the continent, lamented the unprofitable theft of
California, and cursed the Alaska purchase as money worse than
thrown away. In view of what has been and is, can anyone call it a
Utopian dream to picture the Pacific bordered by an advanced
civilization with cities more brilliant than any of the ancient East, more
opulent than any of the cultured West?
Rio de Janeiro! what have the Brazilians been doing these last decades?
Decapitating politically dear Dom Pedro, true patriot, though
emperor-he came to me once in my library, pouring out his soul for his
beloved Brazil-they abolished slavery, formed a republic, and
modernized the city. They made boulevards and water drives, the finest
in the world. They cut through the heart of the old town a new Avenida
Central, over a mile in length and one hundred and ten feet wide, lining
it on either side with palatial business houses and costly residences,
paving the thoroughfare with asphalt and adorning it with artistic
fixtures for illumination, the street work being completed in eighteen
months. Strangling in their incipiency graft and greed, after kindly
dismissing Dom Pedro with well-filled pockets for home, these
Portuguese brought out their money and spent hundreds of millions in
improving their city, with hundreds of millions left which they have yet

to spend. Thus did these of the Latin race, whom we regard as less
Bostonian than ourselves.
With this brief glance at other cities of present and other times, and
having in view the part played by environment in the trend of refining
influences, and remembering further, following the spirit of the times,
that nothing within the scope of human power to accomplish is too vast,
or too valuable, or too advanced for the purpose, it remains with the
people of San Francisco to determine what they will do.
It is not necessary to speak of the city's present or future requirements,
as sea water on the bills, and fresh water with electric power from the
Sierra; sea wall, docks, and water-way drives; widened streets and
winding boulevards; embellished hillsides and hilltops; bay tunnels and
union railway station; bay and ocean boating and bathing; arches and
arcades; park strips or boulevards cutting through slums, and the nests
of filthy foreigners, bordered on either side by structures characteristic
of their country-all this and more will come to those who shall have the
matter in charge. The pressing need now is a general plan for all to
work to; this, and taking the reconstruction of the city out of politics
and placing it in the hands of responsible business men.
If the people and government of the United States will consider for a
moment the importance to the nation of a well-fortified and imposing
city and seaport at San Francisco bay; the importance to the army and
navy, to art and science, to commerce and manufactures; of the effect
of a city with its broad surroundings, at once elegant and impressive,
upon the nations round the Pacific and on all the world, there should be
little trouble in its accomplishment.
And be it remembered that whatever San Francisco, her citizens and
her lovers, do now or neglect to do in this present regeneration will be
felt for good or ill to remotest ages. Let us build and rebuild
accordingly, bearing in mind that the new San Francisco is to stand
forever before the world as the measure of the civic taste and
intelligence of her people.
Resurgam
The question has been oftener asked than answered, why Chicago
should have grown in wealth and population so much faster than St.
Louis, or New Orleans, or San Francisco. It is not enough to point to
her position on the lakes, the wide extent of contributory industries, and

the convergence of railways; other cities have at their command as
great