THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 117 



confine Arbor Day to the last Friday in April. Quote the Scotch laird's 

 advice to his son: "Be aye sticking in a bit tree. They'll be growin' when 

 ye are sleepin'." 



THE ADVERTISING NUISANCE. 



Next to the shade tree problem, this is usually the most profitable object 

 of civic improvement effort. No one will deny that this method of advertising 

 has become a hideous nuisance. Vacant lots, which might be made attrac- 

 tive breathing spots, are walled around with glaring posters. Old buildings 

 and gable ends extol the merits of so and so's whiskies, corsets, or patent 

 medicines. Trees are not only temporarily defaced, but permanently 

 maimed by having posters nailed to them. The country roadside fence 

 proclaims the virtue of Hood's Sarsaparilla, and the end of a country barn 

 screams, in letters three feet high, for Paine's Celery Compound. All along 

 the roadside and railroad track great sign boards obstruct the view and 

 disgust nature loving passersby. Even the beauty spots, the falls, gorges, 

 cliffs and the like, are besmirched by the advertising devil. Often the 

 posters are grossly indecent. This is the Great American Nuisance. It 

 is our prevailing sin of commercialism running riot over our sense of decency, 

 appropriateness and appreciation of the beautiful. 



Largely as the result of aggressive campaigns by city and village 

 improvement societies and kindred organizations, much has been done in 

 some places to check the advertising nuisance. The time has not yet come, 

 apparently, when it may be altogether abolished; but it has been regulated 

 quite successfully in some places. This regulation is usually in the direction 

 of reducing the size of boards. The New York supreme court has decided 

 that the city of Buffalo has the right to regulate bill boards as it sees fit. 

 The city has passed an ordinance restricting the height of all bill boards to 

 seven feet. Kansas City has an ordinance requiring that all bill-boards 

 shall be at least 12 feet away from the side walk, and that no board shall 

 be over ten feet high, and that no board shall be nearer than 100 feet to a 

 park or boulevard. These are distinct advances, and do away with the 

 great boards 20 to 30 feet high. Chicago goes a step further by passing an 

 ordinance requiring that no bill-board shall be erected on a residence street 

 or drive without the consent of three-fourths of the frontage of the block. 

 A number of cities have legislated especially against the hideous sky signs, 

 with monstrous lettering; and against all kinds of advertisements on bridges, 

 which are simply aerial and very conspicuous streets, and so should be especi- 

 ally well guarded against defamation. In these ways many of the most 

 objectionable signs are eliminated altogether and the remainder made less 

 conspicuous. 



The advertising nuisance is being attacked in another way. If it is im- 

 practicable to abolish it utterly, for commercial reasons, at least the character 

 of the posters may be improved. In the Dutch city of Leiden, the munici- 

 pality itself manages the public advertising. It erects small bill-boards of 

 attractive design in locations where the bills will not jar harshly with the 

 surroundings, as is often the case with us. A Belgian society offers prizes 

 for the most artistic posters, and there are exhibitions of "artistic signs" in 

 New York City. Advertisers must realize that careful design, grace of line 

 and care in color are worth while, even in a poster; people will stop to look 

 at them because they are artistic, not, as now, because they are glaring. 

 It is very appropriately suggested that all posters be edited or censored as 



