ABSTRACT
A Baltimore engineer who sought public construction and ownership of a city-wide sewer system drew a parallel in 1905 between the efficiency of sewers and the quality of a civilization. Referrring to Europe, he stated that “completely sewered, with a low death rate,” Paris is “the center of all that is best in art, literature, science and architecture and is both clean and beautiful. In the evolution of this ideal attainment,” he continued, “its sewers took at least a leading part, for we have only to look at conditions existing prior to their construction to see that such a realization would have been impossible before their existence.” Although his sentiments were overblown, his statement conveyed some truth. A growing number of urbanites in early-twentieth-century America recognized an intimate relationship between technology and the social, economic, and governmental structure of cities. To harness new technologies to social needs was the aspiration of many so-called “progressives.” As landscape architect John Nolen put it in 1909: “Intelligent city planning is one of the means toward a better utilization of our resources, toward an application of the methods of private business to public affairs, toward efficiency, toward a higher individual and higher collective life.” 1
