118 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to their artistic fitness, or at least as to their decency, before being put upon 

 the boards. 



One proposition is to secure a state law taxing bill-boards as income 

 producing property. This would certainly restrict the nuisance very materi- 

 ally. But in most places the remedy is in the hands of the people already 

 without new laws. In many cities and towns three-fourths of the bill-boards 

 are now erected in violence of existing laws. No bill-board can be erected 

 on private property without the consent of the owner. If the farmer who 

 sells the side of his barn for an advertisement, or the merchant who sells 

 space in his vacant lot for bill-boards, could be made to see this subject in 

 the right light, there would be fewer eyesores. Building ordinances are 

 sufficient to prevent the erection of any bill-boards near sidewalks, or which 

 endanger public safety in any way. Indecent posters can be abolished 

 without new legislation. An aroused public sentiment will very quickly 

 abate the advertising nuisance, both by restricting the number and the size 

 of the boards, and by censoring the character of the advertisements. There 

 is no work that a civic improvement society can take up more profitably 

 than this. 



OVERHEAD "WIRES. 



Here is another fruitful field for the civic improvement worker. Over- 

 head wires are very unsightly in themselves, but their worst feature is the 

 towering rows of ugly poles that carry them. Who has not seen a beautiful 

 city street or country road most grieviously marred by these signs of modern 

 progress. In the country it is usually impracticable to put wires below 

 ground; but that it is not only practicable, but also very profitable in the 

 city has been demonstrated in many places. The time was when a maze 

 of wires in a city street was taken as a sign of progress, of much business; 

 now the city that has the fewest wires above ground is the most progressive. 

 Overhead wires are not only ugly, they are also dangerous. They fall during 

 storms, especially ice storms, hinder firemen, and damage shade trees. But 

 it may not be practicable to lay wires underground when there are only a 

 few going a long distance, as in some residence sections. In the busiest 

 sections of the city, however, especially if the streets are narrow, it is entirely 

 practicable and profitable. 



Several cities have adopted municipal ownership of the conduits, which 

 are made of glazed tile embedded in cement. All wires are ordered into 

 the conduits, and the companies are charged rental. But usually each com- 

 pany builds its own ducts, under municipal supervision. The proposition 

 to bury wires usually meets intense opposition from the electric light, 

 telephone, telegraph and trolley companies, but it should be fought to a finish 

 whenever the occasion justifies. Especially should the underground trolley, 

 which has proved entirely practicable, be insisted upon, for residence streets 

 in particular. 



In this connection the injury to shade trees by linesmen should not be 

 forgotten. The employees of these public service corporations have a habit 

 of doing as they please when it comes to cutting down trees or lopping off 

 limbs to make room for poles or wires. Thousands of street trees are need- 

 lessly ruined by linesmen every year, which is an unanswerable argument 

 for municipal supervision of street trees. The linemen act as though they 

 have full right of eminent domain over these trees. As a matter of fact, 

 no telegraph or telephone company has the right to erect poles or string 

 wires in front of your property or to trim or mutilate your shade trees without 



