miles by six. Its population grew 46 per cent in the decade 1910-20. It is today over 140,000, nearer 150,000, if there is included territory separately incorporated but contiguous and essentially a part of the city's life. The improved area has been rapidly extending in new plats with pressing problems of connecting streets, park areas, etc., unsolved. Sites demanding special treatment in the way of boulevards, parks, playgrounds, etc., were being cut up with little regard for coordination, or relation to a city-wide plan. Expensive structures were being erected on streets that demand widening. Factories and stores were invading residence districts. A restricted residence district law was enacted at the instance of the commission, but, of course, proved only a palliative. No property owner had any real guaranty for the future, or assurance of a continuity of plan. Notwithstanding real progress, the city was pursuing just an opportunist policy whose æsthetic and economic shortcomings and inadequacy were increasingly evident. Zoning and a comprehensive plan were the crying needs.

The statutes of the state made no provision for zoning. The commission set about procuring the necessary legislation. This was secured in April, 1923.

The same month the Chamber of Commerce took action that was of great help. It divided the membership of the chamber, numbering 2,250, into 25 groups, each embracing about 100 persons. Each group was called into conference, a director of the chamber presiding, and each person asked to express himself in answer to two questions:

First. What in your opinion as a citizen is the thing of first importance to be done by the Chamber of Commerce for the community as a whole,

Second. What in your opinion should be undertaken by the Chamber of Commerce to improve the local conditions of direct importance to you?

Notes of the discussion at all the conferences were taken; from these a ballot was prepared covering 103 proposals or suggestions. This ballot was mailed to the entire membership of the chamber. Based on the votes as returned, a Major Program was formulated covering ten points. Zoning and a comprehensive city plan were two of the first three projects in this Major Program. This conference and questionnaire have been well

termed "a thought survey" of the people of Des Moines on plans for city betterment.

About the same time a conference was called by the Town Planning Commission of delegates from numerous civic organizations, including Greater Des Moines Committee, Playground Commission, Federated Women's Clubs, Garden Club, Argonne Post, and Chamber of Commerce. Resolutions were adopted urging a zoning ordinance. In June, 1923, favorable action. was taken by the council and on August 4, 1923, a zoning ordinance was enacted, naming a commission of five members. Three of the members chosen are also members of the Town Planning Commission and the chairman of the latter is also chairman of the Zoning Commission. This brings the council and the two commissions into close association. The Zoning Commission began its sessions in the Municipal Building. It soon became evident, however, that zoning, though important, was but one element in something greater. It was decided to call into consultation from a sister city a man of wide experience well known to this conference, Mr. Harland Bartholomew of St. Louis.

Sundry public meetings together with conferences with the Town Planning Commission, the Zoning Commission, Greater Des Moines Committee, Chamber of Commerce and the City Council resulted in committing the city by contract not only to zoning but to the preparation of a Comprehensive City Plan under Mr. Bartholomew's direction. The work has been progressing now for about a year. It will require a year more to finish the draft of the plan. The Major Streets Plan, in tentative form, is nearing completion. The work on zoning is progressing steadily, as is the study of parks and boulevards. There is the feeling on the part of the Town Planning Commission, and allied civic bodies, that their feet are at last on solid ground. It will take years to carry out all the details of the comprehensive plan. But once adopted by the council, and we do not question that it will be, the city's development will no longer be a matter of chance. Each year will see the city grow in symmetry, in the convenience and comfort of living, in the creation of beauty, and in the gradual flowering of a splendid plan in whose scope every section of the city will have had full consideration.

Enlargement of Iowa's Capitol Grounds

This is a state achievement for which local credit cannot be claimed. As city planning on a large scale, however, this project has had a profound influence on the life of the city. Iowa's capitol building, completed in 1881 at a cost of $2,500,000, is one of the handsomest in the nation. Its location was governed by the gift of the ground, ten and one-fifth acres, by a pioneer, Alexander Scott, in 1856. At the latter date the site was superb, on a fine elevation commanding a magnificent view of the valleys of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. Scott hoped that the best growth of the pioneer settlement would be about the capitol grounds. On the contrary, there grew up about the grounds cheap residences and business buildings. The situation grew worse with the years and was unworthy a great state. Governor after governor urged the enlargement and beautification of the grounds. Nothing was done. Opposition centered around the cry that the state was being asked to create a park for Des Moines. It was not until Governor Clarke, in 1913, taking his political life in his hands, made the cause an outstanding demand of his administration, that the necessary legislation was enacted. The determining factor which precipitated action at this time was an incident connected with another enterprise involving the National Sculpture Society.

In 1909 a commission had been named to erect a memorial to the late Senator William B. Allison. Of this commission General Granville M. Dodge of Iowa was chairman, and Edgar A. Harlan, Curator of the State Historical Department, was secretary. General Dodge, a major-general of volunteers in the Civil War, had a career of marked distinction. He commanded the 16th Army Corps on the March to the Sea, and was the close friend of Lincoln and the great military figures of the period. Later he saw service as an Indian fighter, one of his scouts being Jim Bridger, now immortalized in the film story of "The Covered Wagon." He was chief engineer in the building of the first transcontinental line, the Union Pacific, in 1869. Later he had charge of extensive railroad projects in the southwest. That he was also especially qualified by the experience for the position of chairman of the commission named to erect a memorial to Senator Allison we need only

note that General Dodge was vice-president of the trustees in charge of the erection of the Grant monument, New York, and marshal of the day at its dedication; chairman of the committee from the Society of the Army of the Tennessee which obtained the appropriation and erected the Grant monument, Washington; member of the committee in charge of the Logan monument; chairman of the committee in charge of the erection of the Lincoln and W. H. Kinsman monuments at Council Bluffs.

Late in 1912 the Allison Memorial Commission was busy with selection of the model and the site for the monument. An appropriation by the state to provide the pedestal required the memorial be erected "on the capitol grounds or some extension thereof." The commission invited competition among members of the National Sculpture Society on a design for the monument. The society, however, called the attention of the commission to the rules of the society governing competition by its members in such matters-namely, that the members will not compete unless the site or placement of the memorial is first determined.

The Sculpture Society had already delegated to the expert committee, which was to select the model, Edward L. Masqueray, chief of design of the St. Louis Exposition, as architect expert, and Karl Bitter as sculptor expert, who was succeeded by Charles Grafly, head of the sculpture department of the Pennsylvania Society of Fine Arts.

A site was then tentatively chosen on the capitol grounds by Masqueray and his associates, but it required legislative action to make it final. The competition was launched, however, the commission taking its chances on confirmation of the site.

Great interest was aroused in Des Moines and over the state by the models submitted, which were placed on public exhibition. The award went to Evelyn B. Longman, sculptress, with whom Henry Bacon was acting as architect associate. Mr. Bacon visited Des Moines three times in this connection. These famous names and the view of the models had a stimulating effect on public sentiment. Harlan was especially anxious to capitalize this interest and the necessity for legislation approving the site, in an effort to bring to fruition the long

cherished hope for the enlargement and beautification of the capitol grounds. Without waiting for legislative sanction for the preparation of such a plan, Harlan wrote Dodge urging the preparation of the larger plan. He also wrote Miss Longman as follows:

"I have asked Masqueray to prepare such a plan and intend to ask the General Assembly to give us the site indicated. thereon and intend further to promote a measure for acquisition of all the grounds the plan incorporates. It would mean the policy of enlarging and ornamenting our present little ten acres to a scope of some forty acres and the benefits to the general public will be immeasurable and to the interests of art and architecture undoubtedly an advantage.'

Dodge, the governor and the commission approved of the scheme to utilize the memorial situation in furthering the larger plans. Masqueray entered with enthusiasm on the extension project. His labors and those of the commission cannot be detailed here, but they had the astonishing result of presenting to Governor Clarke for his consideration not only a memorial site but a comprehensive plan for the enlargement and beautification of the capitol grounds.

A drawing of this magnificent plan was hung in the gov ernor's office, where the members of the General Assembly could examine it. On March 26, 1913, the governor sent the following ringing message to the legislature:

George W. Clarke, Special Message, March 26, 1913

"I desire to submit a word with reference to the extension of the capitol grounds. It is the need of the present-it is the imperative demand of the future. It is a matter of the very best business policy. If looked at only as an investment, it would be a remarkably good one. By extending the payment for the grounds over a period of ten years it would bring no burden at all upon the people. Never again can the purchase of ground be so advantageously made as now. as now. Iowa should do business as competent, successful business men do. Advantage should be taken of the time and the opportunity. Iowa should announce that she is of age and full grown. She should step out of the old conditions that hamper and restrain her into the new. The legislature should be unafraid. The people will sustain you. When the work is done they will