The Park Governments of Chicago 21 



The West Park stables have more men to care for 71 horses 

 than the South Park Board finds necessary for 115, or the Lincoln 

 Park Board for 85. The cost of forage per horse in the West 

 Park system for 1910 was $40 (over 25 per cent) per horse higher 

 than in either of the other two systems. The average prices paid 

 for horses during 1910 was $310 by the West Park Board, $273 

 by the Lincoln Park Board, and $269 by the South Park Board. 

 Considering that horses of the same kind are used, the West 

 Park system shows an excessive cost of approximately $40 per 

 horse. Comparisons of labor cost per square yard of pavement 

 laid by the different Park Boards show the highest cost or lowest 

 efficiency in the West Park system. Following are the figures: 

 West Park, 11.08 cents a square yard; Lincoln Park, 10.22 cents; 

 South Park, 8.63 cents. 



3. The Lincoln Park System. 



The administration of the Lincoln Park system has been 

 conservative, careful, and in the main creditable. The Lincoln 

 Park extension work has been well conducted. The new bathing 

 beach at the north end of Lincoln Park has been much appre- 

 ciated by the public. While this Board has not been so aggressively 

 brilliant as the South Park Board has been in certain respects, 

 neither has it pursued a course to justify the criticisms that may 

 be directed against either the South Park system or the West Park 

 system. 



4. The Smaller Park Districts. 



Concerning the seven smaller park districts within the City 

 of Chicago, there is little to be said, except that their Boards are 

 sequestered bodies of which the taxpayers know little. It was 

 with difficulty that the Bureau was able to gather the main facts 

 about these bodies and their business affairs. These districts 

 were called into existence to satisfy in a crude way the needs 

 of communities not within any other park district. Obviously 

 the best way to satisfy these needs is to make the city one park 

 district, and to wipe out these smaller bodies that are destined 

 if they continue to exist to escape public scrutiny and to prove 

 wasteful and inefficient agencies for their purposes. 



