44 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



as revised was sent to J. Horace McFarland at 

 Washington to be used in publicity work. 



Report of the Minnesota Chapter. 



Report of the New York Chapter. 



Report of the Mid-West Chapter. 



John C. Olmsted, as chairman of Sub-Com- 

 mittee on Professional Practice and Ethics re- 

 ported by letter that the full report of his 

 committee was not completed and asked that 

 his committee either be continued or that a 

 new committee be appointed to continue the 

 work. It was voted to recommend the ap- 

 pointment of a new committee. 



Messrs. Hare and Blossom were appointed 

 as tellers to count the ballots: their report was 

 accepted. 



The report of the Committee on Town Plan- 

 ning and Industrial Housing when modified 

 included the following principal points, which 

 were discussed and voted upon separately: 



Voted: (1) That we believe that the govern- 

 ment housing projects, both of the United 

 States Housing Corporation and of the United 

 States Shipping Board should not be arbi- 

 trarily discontinued, neither the houses nor 

 any of the community features necessary to 

 make them really livable. 



The senate joint resolution to stop many of 

 the Housing Corporation's projects received 

 an adverse report by the Committe in the 

 House, and the Housing Corporation is pro- 

 ceeding as planned. However, apparently the 

 Shipping Board is seriously contemplating 

 closing out its housing projects. 



(2) That there should be established a per- 

 manent government housing and town planning 

 bureau for research and propaganda only. 



Apparently this can be most readily started 

 by the Secretary of Labor creating a division 

 in his office — to take over records and data of 

 the United States Housing Corporation and 

 presumably those of the United States Ship- 

 ping Board. 



(3) As one means of improvement in hous- 

 ing, readily obtainable, secure facilitation of 

 housing finance. Owing to the complexity of 

 the problem it would seem best to establish a 

 congressional commission to report a complete 

 scheme at a later date. Mr. Olmsted has been 

 asked by the Senate Committee on Labor and 

 Education to submit a bill for this. The 

 scheme would probably include a Federal 

 Mortgage Bank which as the Federal Land 

 Bank does for farm loans, would pool all first 

 mortgage loans, these to be long terms and 

 amortizing in form, and sell bonds, thus pro- 

 viding a liquid form of investment. To in- 



vestors these will be so superior to the pres- 

 ent individual non-amortizing mortgages that 

 they can be floated at a much lower rate of in- 

 terest. Vast amounts of capital will thereby 

 be released at low rates — the exact converse 

 of the present intolerable situation. 



A letter was read from Mr. F. L. Olmsted 

 proposing the compilation of a "landscape in- 

 dex" listing the objects of special professional 

 interest to landscape architects in various 

 parts of the United States and Canada, with a 

 brief indication of what makes each of them 

 interesting, and explicit directions as to how 

 to get there from the nearest important city. 

 This matter is to be taken up with the mem- 

 bers of the society through the office of the 

 secretary. 



The report of the auditors was submitted 

 approving the treasurer's financial report for 

 1918. 



Dinner and Evening Session. Present: Miss 

 Marian C. Coffin, Messrs. Blossom, Brincker- 

 hoflf, Caparn, Child, Cox, Cook, Dawson, Des- 

 mond, Fowler, Gallagher, Gay, Geiffert. S. 

 Herbert Hare. Hubbard, Leavitt, Lowrie, Man- 

 ning, F. L. Olmsted, Pond, Parsons, Pente- 

 cost, Vitale, Wheelwright, Whiting. Guests: 

 Col. Henry W. Sackett, Vice-President, Ameri- 

 can Scenic and Historic Preservation Society; 

 Mr. Richard Child, Government Housing Rep- 

 resentative with the United States Housing 

 Corporation and Emergency Fleet Corpora- 

 tion; Miss Rose Standish Nichols; Mr. Arthur 

 Hill. 



In the absence of President Pray, Vice- 

 President Caparn presided. 



The chairman read from the January issue 

 of the American Magazine of Art a letter en- 

 titled "Tribute to Frederick Law Olmsted" 

 written by President Woodrow Wilson to Mr. 

 Olmsted upon Mr. Olmsted's retirement from 

 the National Commission of Fine Arts. The 

 letter testified to the splendid service Mr. Olm- 

 sted has rendered, not only as a member of 

 the commission, but as a leading worker with 

 the United States Housing Corporation in its 

 war emergency housing. 



Col. Henry W. Sackett was then introduced, 

 and spoke on Soldiers' Memorial Cemeteries 

 and the Activities of the American Scenic and 

 Historic Preservation Society, of which he is 

 vice-president. He described the accomplish- 

 ment of France in connection with the es- 

 tablishment of cemeteries. He said France 

 oflfered both England and America land and 

 facilities in France for the establishment of 

 cemeteries. England declined, and has ar- 



