places to live in as was the country itself, the outflow of population
from the cities ceased and an equilibrium became established."
"It strikes me," I observed, "that under any circumstances cities must
still, on account of their greater concentration of people, have certain
better public services than small villages, for naturally such
conveniences are least expensive where a dense population is to be
supplied."
"As to that," replied the doctor, "if a person desires to live in some
remote spot far away from neighbors he will have to put up with some
inconveniences. He will have to bring his supplies from the nearest
public store and dispense with various public services enjoyed by those
who live nearer together; but in order to be really out of reach of these
services he must go a good way off. You must remember that nowadays the
problems of communication and transportation both by public and private
means have been so entirely solved that conditions of space which were
prohibitive in your day are unimportant now. Villages five and ten miles
apart are as near together for purposes of social intercourse and
economic administration as the adjoining wards of your cities. Either on
their own account or by group combinations with other communities
dwellers in the smallest villages enjoy installations of all sorts of
public services as complete as exist in the cities. All have public
stores and kitchens with telephone and delivery systems, public baths,
libraries, and institutions of the highest education. As to the quality
of the services and commodities provided, they are of absolutely equal
excellence wherever furnished. Finally, by telephone and electroscope the
dwellers in any part of the country, however deeply secluded among the
forests or the mountains, may enjoy the theater, the concert, and the
orator quite as advantageously as the residents of the largest cities."
THE REFORESTING.
Still we swept on mile after mile, league after league, toward the
interior, and still the surface below presented the same parklike aspect
that had marked the immediate environs of the city. Every natural feature
appeared to have been idealized and all its latent meaning brought out by
the loving skill of some consummate landscape artist, the works of man
blending with the face of Nature in perfect harmony. Such arrangements of
scenery had not been uncommon in my day, when great cities prepared
costly pleasure grounds, but I had never imagined anything on a scale
like this.
"How far does this park extend?" I demanded at last. "There seems no end
to it."
"It extends to the Pacific Ocean," said the doctor.
"Do you mean that the whole United States is laid out in this way?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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