Excerpt from City Planning Housing, Vol. 2: Political Economy and Civic Art Our fathers and forefathers believed implicitly in liberty as the unfailing boon and saviour in every emergency: in economic liberty which means free competition; in political liberty which means democracy, both of which, however, are helpless without some form of national planning - a basic conception of the American Constitution. It was this faith that gave our fathers inspiration and strength for mighty achievements. They marched forwards and upwards in almost every field of science, of economics, of culture. Today this faith is considered to be mere delusion. Yet with its disappearance there vanished both strength and prosperity and we stand today aghast, confronted with the possible downfall of our civilization, faced with the prospect of falling back into poverty, servitude and barbarism. Yet there is one shining ray Of hope which, if we grasp it, can prevent the imminent cataclysm. This hope lies in a rationally planned society rather than in a growth of purely natural forces. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.