OFFICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 573 



loss of property, in some cases unnecessary expense of duplication of equip- 

 ment that is not known to exist, and other similar situations. The law 

 usually requires that an inventory be kept, but whether that requirement 

 is present or not it is of extreme importance that an up-to-date inventory 

 be always available. The possessions of a park department usually fall into 

 the headings of real estate, tools and equipment, merchandise and supplies, 

 money and other assets. The question of insurance is so intimately related 

 with that of inventories that it will be discussed here. Upon what costs an 

 inventory should be based is a problem too large for a discussion here. It 

 is a question of first importance requiring the detailed study of standard 

 works on that subject. It will be touched on but incidentally here. 



i. Real estate. It seems strange to say that a complete list of park 

 possessions should always be available, but in many park departments of 

 the country such a list is actually unobtainable without special research. 

 If your department has not such an inventory, make one immediately. 



An inventory presumes both a listing of the items and a value attached 

 to each item. The value of park lands has often been argued from various 

 points of view, but it is rather an elusive thing because the establishment 

 of a park has itself a material influence upon real estate values in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. And, too, the value of a piece of property depends some- 

 what on the use to which it can be put, and since parks can be used only 

 for public purposes, their value as a park is different from their value if 

 converted into ordinary uses; since parks are things which are not ordi- 

 narily bought and sold as such, no sale value has actually been placed 

 thereon. It seems wise, therefore, in placing an inventory value opposite 

 each park and parkway of the system, to record that value on a basis of 

 what it actually cost the department to acquire it. In the case of donations 

 it will be necessary to place a reasonable value on the tract of land on the 

 basis of what that land was worth in the open market at the time. Dona- 

 tions should be recorded separately from actual cash outlays. 



To establish a different basis of cash value on park properties would 

 involve an annual valuation or at least a periodical valuation by a com- 

 petent group of experts who, in turn, would encounter the difficulties here- 

 tofore mentioned, and the result would be of no material value after it 

 had been obtained. Consequently it seems best to place the value of park 

 possessions upon the actual cost price. 



The question of land and structural improvement values in our park 

 inventory is not so readily determined, for one set of improvements may 

 wear out and be replaced by another set of similar nature. To record con- 

 tinually a duplication of the cost of structural improvements would obvi- 

 ously create a very wrong impression. However, since the value of making 



