Proposed additional arteries and street widenings (orange); the present park system (green); the proposed new parks and playgrounds (hatched green). The proposed diagonal arteries are in every instance extensions of those already existing, and around the center of the city they serve to create, in conjunction with rectangular streets, the proposed circuit boulevards. COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO ] [Illustration: LXXXVII. CHICAGO. VIEW LOOKING WEST OVER THE CITY, SHOWING THE PROPOSED CIVIC CENTER, THE GRAND AXIS, GRANT PARK, AND THE HARBOR. Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin. COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO ] [Illustration: LXXXVIII. CHICAGO. MAP SHOWING THE SUCCESSIVE CITY LIMITS, AND A LINE TRACED FROM THE SITE OF FORT DEARBORN THROUGH THE PRESENT CENTER OF POPULATION, REPRESENTING THE GENERAL TENDENCY OF GROWTH. COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO ] In all growing cities it has been necessary, as it is now necessary in Chicago, to break through the conditions imposed by the lack of an adequate and comprehensive plan at the beginning, and to create, at large expense, those thoroughfares and boulevards and public squares which the increasing demands of population and the larger requirements of civic life require. The longer the beginning has been postponed the harder has been the task and the greater the expense; but whatever the labor and however large the cost, the result has always been found more than compensation for the outlay. And so it will be with Chicago. Every year of postponement will deprive its citizens of advantages they might have enjoyed had they carried out improvements the necessities of which have been universally acknowledged. People flock to those cities where conditions of work are good, where means of recreation abound, and where there are attractions for the senses and the intellect. Persons of wealth and refinement seek such cities as their abiding-places; and those who have accumulated wealth in a city bent on improvement remain there. Moreover, there is no stronger appeal made to the American citizen of to-day than comes from the call of one’s native or adopted city to enter upon the service of creating better surroundings not only for one’s self, but for all those who must of necessity earn their bread in the sweat of their brows. Nor is the call of posterity to be denied. To love and render service to one’s city, to have a part in its advancement, to seek to better its conditions and to promote its highest interests,—these are both the duty and the privilege of the patriot of peace. [Illustration: LXXXIX. CHICAGO. DIAGRAM OF GENERAL SCHEME OF STREET CIRCULATION AND PARKS IN RELATION TO THE POPULATION. The various densities of population, ranging from 0 to 25 persons per acre to 250 to 300 per acre are indicated by different densities of red color. The center of population is indicated by a star. Railroads are shown in blue.