The Scourge of Socialist Charity in City Planning 1909

[Metro Jacksonville]

The Scourge of Socialist Charity in City Planning 1909



Adding a dash of cold water onto the high flying (and oftentimes fanciful and alarmist) rhetoric of the City Planning Conference of 1909 was none other than the US Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Speaker Joseph Cannon, a forbiddingly august looking fellow that seems to have stepped out of an H G Wells novel gave quite a lecture on the dangers of Socialism, and interestingly predicted a nation of 500 million people.  Join us after the jump as we continue to document the foundational essays of America's first national City Planning conference.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-aug-the-scourge-of-socialist-charity-in-city-planning-1909

[JUUC]

What a fantastical speech, but a bit naive. Maybe even more so naive than those other "theorist" Mr. Cannon speaks of.

"Those who live by the sweat on their faces [should be] given recognition in this country," without a doubt. Cannon exclaims to God that these other theorist "do not know what they're talking about," but it is he that is hoping for a utopia that never came into fruition. For it should be, those who work the hardest should have the most, but we know that not to be true. Eugene Debs put it the most eloquently, I think, when he said, "Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most — that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least" (Walls and Bars, 1927). Furthermore I don't think Cannon foresaw the style of capitalism that would make most average employees work 380x more than they already do if they wanted to earn what their CEO does in just one 1 hr. (Wealth Inequality In America, 2012). In no way do we exempt anyone from working or to live by the sweat on their face-- individual initiative is the catalyst for success but society, nay, humanity, is the mixture it's dropped in. 

In the styling of JUUC: city development can not happen without the people and it is the residents, hence "the people" that form community and permit the physical environment to be tangible. A social conscience must be practiced in the development of cities.