12 MAY 1928, Page 12

THE NEW ENGLAND.

Now life to-day is peculiarly exciting because society is changing with visible rapidity in response to the rapid growth of mechanical and physical invention. In this development of the village it may be we catch a glimpse of the new England that is emerging from the muddle of the Industrial Revolution. Some reformers believe in the Garden City. Ebenezer Howard, the pioneer of the garden city, died last week in a green old age. A more simple, sincere, and engaging prophet could not be. It was a pleasure to see him and to talk with him. He nursed a controlled enthusiasm. He buttressed his reforming zeal, not with sentiment, much less with sentiment- ality, but with action. Like Wordsworth's " Happy Warrior," he saw what he foresaw and died in the garden city which, with the utter rashness of a lively faith, he had himself founded. The core of his faith was the decentralization of factories into rural townships so zoned that each workman and resident should taste the real savour of the country. Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, as equipped with modern and model factories, came during his life near enough to his ideal to confirm his faith. * * * *