CIVIC IMPRO VEMENT. 



lOJ 



builders of this" new nation, that twenty- 

 eight per cent, of the population of Eng- 

 land's cities to-day lived in squalor and 

 misery because of unwholesome surround- 

 ings. From the year of the World's Fair 

 at Chicago dated this great popular impulse 

 toward civic beauty in America. He pro- 

 posed that, having effected a permanent 

 Canadian organization, they should all work 

 together for the benefit of all. He would 

 like to see an expert landscape artist em- 

 ployed to go through the Province, visiting 

 all the towns and showing how the finest 

 results could be obtained by the expenditure 

 of mutual labor and money. " But," he said, 

 "in carrying on this work, don't abuse the 

 town authorities and don't attempt to re- 

 make the town. Just help it to grow more 

 lovely and liveable each year." He recom- 

 mended them to encourage the proper plant- 

 ing of shade trees and perennial plants as 

 much as possible. He condemned the com- 

 mon use of water fronts as dumping grounds 

 for tin cans, dead cats and other vile refuse. 

 He would like to see galvanized baskets or 

 boxes provided for the collection of street 

 litter ; and unsightly telegraph, telephone 

 and electric light poles wreathed with vines 

 or painted white. Railway station grounds 

 — the town's main gateway — should be 

 beautified. He believed that school gardens 

 would have a most refining influence on our 

 children, educating out of the boys the 

 innate tendency to pilfer fruits and flowers, 

 and instilling in their plastic minds a fond- 

 ness for the study of nature. He mentioned 

 that in France, Belgium, Austria and Russia 

 the study of horticulture was compulsory in 

 the public schools. He advocated the dis- 

 tribution of flower seeds to school children 

 at say a charge of one cent per package, 

 with a floral exhibition in the fall. Referring 

 to eyesores and how to get rid of them. 

 Major Snelgrove said, " Look at your back 

 yard ! Is it tidy and fragrant with flowers ? 

 or is it a death-trap, malodorous with the 



swill-barrel, with heaps of decaying garbage, 

 and its bare ground slimy with greasy dish- 

 water?" In conclusion he said that the 

 Civic League was designed to serve as a 

 federation of organizations aiming to pro- 

 mote municipal improvement, emphasizing 

 the best means for attaining desired ends, 

 and seeking to bring about unity and har- 

 mony between all the forces making for 

 the highest public good. He submitted to 

 the conference a draft constitution and by- 

 laws for the new League. 



Mr. E. G. Routzahn, Field Secretary of 

 the American League, quieted the objections 

 of some who feared that the new organiza- 

 tion would interfere with work along the 

 same line which has recently been inaugu- 

 rated by the Ontario Department of Agri- 

 culture, through Mr. G. C. Creelman, by di- 

 vorcing the horticultural societies from the 

 Department and thus weakening their effec- 

 tiveness. He explained that this Canadian 

 League would be simply a Bureau of Infor- 

 mation, a help to all existing bodies who had 

 civic improvement as their whole or partial 

 object, without in the least disturbing or in- 

 terfering with their present relationships. 

 Its object would be to bring together people 

 who had ideas on the objects in view, to 

 gather up these ideas and all accessible ma- 

 terial, and to make it public. 



Mr. A. W. Campbell said that the organi- 

 zation could be a great help to other asso- 

 ciations that had been mentioned, and that 

 later on he expected that the league would 

 extend a hand to the Good Roads Associa- 

 tion. He would like to see the association 

 not only work in the the city, but in the 

 smaller towns as well. He believed that on 

 account of the results the Good Roads Asso- 

 ciation had attained he would before long be 

 able to invite the city people to the country 

 to show them good roads and handsome 

 boulevards. There was no reason for jeal- 

 ousy in the formation of the association. 

 There was plenty of work to be done. 



