The Park Governments of Chicago 179 



2. Business prudence demands that care be taken to 

 eliminate so far as possible all fire hazards. In view of 

 the fact that the Park Board assumes the entire fire risk 

 by carrying its own insurance, it ought to be doubly care- 

 ful in this respect, and yet the insurance inspectors who 

 examined the South Park properties for the Bureau re- 

 ported that "in no private properties in which values are 

 as great as those at the parks is the fire protection so 

 poor. It may be said to be about twenty-five per cent, 

 of what it should be." 



3. The West and Lincoln Park Boards maintain no 

 insurance reserve funds, but carry underwriters' policies 

 on the park structures. The economy of carrying under- 

 writers' policies only on the large values and maintaining 

 an insurance reserve fund for the small values is sug- 

 gested for the consideration of those Boards. 



Park and Boulevard Pavements. 



1. The South, West and Lincoln Park Boards have 

 each adopted a bituminous concrete pavement for park 

 drives and boulevards. This is a new kind of pavement 

 in Chicago, and while it appears to be satisfactory thus 

 far, it has been in use only a comparatively short time and 

 the ultimate result cannot yet be determined. 



2. It is suggested that each Board make careful tests 

 of the materials used, so that standards may be estab- 

 lished which may be adopted by all three Boards. Such 

 action should result in a general reduction of costs. Ob- 

 servations made by the Bureau's engineers during August, 

 1911, showed that the labor cost per square yard to the 

 West and Lincoln Park Boards, respectively, was 11.08 

 cents and 10.22 cents, compared with 8.63 cents, the cost 

 to the South Park Board. The South Park Board elimi- 

 nated part of the overhead cost by operating two asphalt 

 mixing machines, but even when computed on the same 

 basis as for the other two Boards, the labor cost per 

 square yard was only 9.76 cents. The excessive cost to 



