FACTS ABOUT THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. The following tables, copied from a late number of the National Geographic Magazine, present facts about the countries of Europe and their situation at the outbreak of the present great war: The twenty-first anniversary of the Glasgow Corporation taking over the management of the tramways was celebrated a few days ago by a gathering of uniformed employes held at the City Chambers. Councillor Kirkland stated that when the tramways were taken over, there was a staff of 538 conductors and drivers; today there were 3,200 motormen and conductors in the service. Sir James Bell, who was Lord Provost when the tramways were taken over, said the corporation was told at the time that the enterprise was foredoomed to failure, but today the tramways were yielding a surplus profit of over £50,000 per annum. Tree Culture Pays In German Cities. In the principal German cities the parks in a limited sense are a source of income. That is to say, the whole acreage of municipal grounds, and other acres containing trees, are for certain purposes put under control of a forestry department, which, by a judicious and non-destructive harvesting of the timber of the municipal domain, is able to keep up paths and lawns, to pay all its own salaries and expenses, and to turn over as net profits 50 per cent of the gross revenues from the sale of timber and firewood. TABLE GIVING THE NUMBER AND PROPORTION OF FOREIGN-BORN IN EACH OF OUR CITIES HAVING 100,000 OR MORE POPULATION. POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES AT THE FIRST CENSUS, 1790. Thirteenth" 1910.. *Includes 953,243 persons enumerated in Porto Rico in 1899, according to the census of Porto Rico taken in 1899 under the direction of the War Department. Norwegian Pavilion at San Francisco. Norway broke ground for a Norwegian pavilion on the grounds of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco on October 31. Other nations have used silver and gold spades in the formal ground breaking, but Norway used two shovels of special significance, having a part in Viking romance. One is an ice shovel of the "paddle" type, made of wood from the ship Victoria, of the Sir John Ross Arctic expedition. The wood is held together by thongs and the blade is tipped with whalebone. Walrus tusks form a part of the handhold. The other shovel is one brought through the Golden Gate by Capt. Roald It was a Amundsen, discoverer of the Northwest Passage and the South Pole. part of the equipment of the Gjoa, which now rests in Golden Gate Park. Postcripts AN EXPERT'S OPINION OF THE "CHICAGO CITY MANUAL.’ "Great Delos F. Wilcox of New York City, a true expert, in his book, Cities of America," makes mention of the "Chicago City Manual" as follows: "One slight indication of the spirit of the city and of the civic pride and civic interest out of which all good things must come, is the publication by the City Bureau of Statistics and Municipal Library, of the 'Chicago City Manual,' which comprehends within its less than 300 pages, historical, departmental, and statistical information about the city and its various undertakings sufficient to equip the intelligence and stimulate the enthusiasm of any citizen desiring to do his part." Thereto let there be said, this: When the compiler of the experimental Chicago City Manual, the first of the series, that of 1908, was about to commence the work he had before him a deterring example in the monster heaps of neglected "Chicago Statistics" that had been expensively printed and systematically offered to the public, but with the result that only very few persons accepted them with any the least degree of interest. They were an array of tabulated figures, as repellant as they were dreary, which barely told how many miles of street paving, how many miles of sidewalks, how many miles of sewers had been laid down or constructed in the past year; and how many more, or how many fewer, miles of each there were as compared with those items for the previous year; what number of criminals of all grades had been arrested and exemplarily, or otherwise, dealt with in the same period of time, and how their numbers stood in relation to similar ones of the year before, etc., etc. Such and none other were the statistics their compiler presented to the unreceiving citizens. It was then that the succeeding City Statistician bethought him to compile a limited number of such tables, and besides to collect and present to the public statistics that should not be all figures. To begin with, he proved by reference to the earliest and best authorities on the subject that anything, and all things, of fact, either in prose or verse, are statistics. Following out on this as a plan, he has year by year, now for seven years, through the good will of the finance officers of the city, and with the approval of the City Council, given to the public the leading facts of legislation, administration, and executive initiative and enterprise, pertaining to the government of the City of Chicago. Great numbers of citizens and others have shown their appreciation. The City Manual is popular; each of the new, more popular than any of the preceding ones. Copies may be found in practically all the great libraries of this country, and in the offices of the mayors of all cities of the first class. And copies-requested copies-have gone to the ends of the earth. They are to be found in the book collections of many of the munici (217) palities of Europe, and also of the Far East. If any fail to reach Tokio in what, there, is thought due time, Tokio's high official writes again for it. The edition of the Chicago City Manual is three thousand copies, and in less than a year's time all are taken. Of the work for four years of the seven of the publication there are not even the necessary office copies on the shelves of the Municipal Reference Library. And were the numbers of the edition doubled, still they would all go out upon request in the twelvemonth. Gratifying as it is to know that the little book favorably advertises our city far beyond the city's boundaries, it is greatly more so to have daily calls at home for it, even though there are no more copies to be had of any of the seven issues. In the single week of this present writing, besides having requests for that of 1913 from the chief librarian at Liverpool, England, and from the town clerk of Sydney, New South Wales, there have been twenty-one individual requests by callers at this bureau. THE CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION. Mayor Carter H. Harrison, Honorary President Ex-Officio. John W. Beckwith, Corporation Counsel. Lawrence E. McGann, Commissioner of Public Works. John Ericson, City Engineer. Dr. George B. Young, Health Commissioner. Edward J. Glackin, Secretary, Board of Local Improvements. Charles C. Fitzmorris, Secretary to the Mayor. Michael J. Collins, President of Board of Education. Peter Reinberg, President of Board of County Commissioners. William F. Grower, President West Park Board. Timothy J. O'Byrne, President Lincoln Park Board. John Barton Payne, President Board of South Park Commissioners. Commissioner on Behalf of City Council. John J. Coughlin, Alderman of First Ward. |