Upon his return to America, Carl located in New York, opening an office as consulting engineer and advisory city planner. He applied his knowledge to getting “hard cash,” but he very often worked for little or no compensation. It did not matter to him—all he wanted to see was the ultimate result.
His reputation as a successful engineer and writer became widespread, with the result that he was besieged from all sides with requests to engage in industrial campaigns and the like. Quite a number of concerns owe to him and his writings the fact that they got out of the rut and were able to re-establish themselves on a sound financial basis.
To him, also, came concerns with shady reputations in the hope that he would lend the weight of his name to their prospectuses. But they were politely requested to seek such assistance elsewhere.
But city planning was his forte. It appealed to him as did no other work. He recognized the great opportunity for the replanning of American cities, so long neglected with such costly results as are seen in the unnecessary congestion and crowded conditions of some portions and the backward development of others—in the slums on one hand and the inaccessible suburbs on the others—so characteristic of the majority of our cities.
The citizens of a small town never imagine that it will become a large city. They may, at times, dream of it as spreading out around the nucleus in which they live and they may frequently boast of the progress their town has made in the previous decade, but the day that will see their town a great city seems so far distant that, as a rule, they do not imagine it will ever occur.
Time slips quickly by and the sites for great improvements, which might have been laid out and reserved for convenient plans, that only need to be committed to paper, become impossible save at enormous and prohibitive expense. It thus happens that many cities, expanded over ground that once was made up of farms, have street plans originally determined by the fancy of the home-wandering cow and her calf. But great volumes of traffic must inevitably follow the path marked out by these dumb animals, unless costly changes be made.
Carl was aware of the great importance, to cities large and small, of having plans prepared by experts to serve as a guide for the gradual development of the city on a scientific basis.
Since engaging in such work, Carl had received many contracts for planning new towns and remodeling old cities. Besides he did considerable work along electrical lines. His spare time was occupied in writing books and contributing articles on city planning, industrial efficiency and national economy, to various newspapers and magazines. Carl was recognized as a man of great versatility. His prestige as an authority in his profession rose rapidly and his absorbing interest in his work caused many complaints from old acquaintances who still felt the lure of Broadway.
With a sudden jar he was shaken out of his mental dream as to his own importance. The aeroplane, in landing at the outskirts of Timbuktoo, struck a sand dune and was damaged considerably, and its occupants badly shaken up, although not seriously injured.
They climbed from their seats and while the pilot looked after his aeroplane, Carl stood on the fringe of the Great Desert, wondering how he would solve that vast problem of so world-wide a character. He felt the importance of his mission. The realization came to him that his work would have a unique influence on the world. Its welfare he held in his hand.