Conurbanisms

"The airplane is an instrument as vital and epoch-making as the telescope, the microscope and the camera. An hour in the air is worth a year on the surface in . . . understanding the works and ways of man."

This smacking observation was made last week by Northwestern University's Sociology Professor William Louis Bailey as he stepped from a plane in Chicago after taking his classes up for a 40-minute bird's-eye view of the city. Professor Bailey has been using the airplane as an instrument to educate his students for 18 years. Subject of their study: the growth of the city. Last week, Professor Bailey was prepared to discuss some striking theories he has developed about how a city grows.

The city, said he, is an organism, evolves like other living things. It begins as a village, roughly square in shape, then, constantly reaching out and expanding like an amoeba, it grows into an irregularly rectangular town, develops into a triangular metropolis, finally shoots out long tentacles or arms (the suburbs). All these processes Professor Bailey calls "conurbanisms." Within the city, also, changes in the organs take place. Thus in Chicago decentralization has been going on, and today there are 50 outlying business centres more conspicuous from the air than the Loop. Most startling observation by Professor Bailey is that all cities follow the same pattern of growth, and two cities of the same nature and age have the same form, modified only slightly by differences in the natural terrain. To prove his theory, Professor Bailey plans to take his students next year on educational flights over other U. S. cities.

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