1932 



VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT 



VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT 



thoroughfares for the reception of rubbish, such a* 

 paper, and fruit rinds. Shopkeepers are asked to keep 

 their premises in good order. If they do not comply 

 with the request, the Town Improvement Association 

 sends a man with a wheelbarrow (the latter labeled T. 

 I. A.), and with broom and hoe a general housecleaning 

 takes place. After two or three visits of the T. I. A. 

 man, the proprietor generally takes the hint and at- 

 tends to his premises himself. Tin- sanitary committee 

 reports to the health board any nuisance. The milk sup- 

 ply has been carefully looked after, the dairies inspected, 

 and a map showing the locations of all the dairies placed 

 on file iu the office of the town clerk, where it may be 

 seen by any householder who cares to examine it. The 

 finance committee looks after the funds. Annual dues 

 are fifty cents a member. The work of the humane 

 committee is to inspect the police station, see that it is 

 kept in sanitary condition, and the prisoners properly 

 treated. The railroad committee keeps a watchful eye 



3670. A vista of improved backyards in Dayt 



upon the stations and sees that they are as neat as pos- 

 sible and the surroundings made attractive. The chil- 

 dren's auxiliary is formed of eleven hundred school 

 children, who have pledged themselves to "work to- 

 gether to make Montclair a happier place in which to 

 live, by doing everything we can to make the town 

 more healthful and beautiful." The different classes 

 from the school take charge of the flower-beds around 

 the buildings, attend to the planting and keep them in 

 order. All this fosters early the love of attractive sur- 

 roundings, engenders habits of neatness, and devel- 

 ops local pride and patriotism. 



The committee for the preservation of natural beau- 

 ties has rmich to keep it busy. Its members watch the 

 fine trees of the town, and if any are splitting, the 

 owners are notified to mend them. Dead trees are cut 

 down, and the owners of unsightly fences are requested 

 to remove them. The burning of hedge-rows is forbid- 

 den, as it destroys the wild flowers and leads to forest 

 fires. The duties of the committees for prevention of 

 cruelty to children and animals are self-explanatory. 

 They are auxiliary to the state association, and have 

 full power to act. The park committee takes charge of 

 any waste pieces of ground, generally at the intersec- 

 tion of roads, keeps them in order, and plants shrub- 

 bery or makes flower-beds, as the case may be. 



Montclair boasts of the most lramanely equipped jail 

 in the state, with a separate apartment for women, and 

 a sanitary and padded cell for the insane. The com- 

 mittee for the prevention of cruelty to animals has 

 placed the sign posts, "Please uncheck your horses 

 going up this hill," at the top and bottom of the moun- 

 tain road. The paving of the plaza in front of the rail- 

 way station is due to the efforts of the railway committee, 

 which visited the officials at least once a month for 

 three years before the work was undertaken. 



Newton Center and Stockbridge, Mass., contend for 



the honor of forming the first improvement association. 

 Newton Center's association claims to be older by a 

 year than the Laurel Hill Association of Stockbridge. 

 The latter organization was founded in 1853 through 

 the efforts of Miss Mary Gross Hopkins, afterwards 

 Mrs. J. Z. Goodrich, and was caused by overhearing the 

 caustic comments of a summer visitor upon the untidy, 

 unhygienic condition of the village and its undesira- 

 bility from these causes as a summer residence. Miss 

 Hopkins reported the visitor's remarks to her towns- 

 people, and after a year's agitation the Laurel Hill Asso- 

 ciation of Stockbridge was formed. The first year $1,000 

 was raised, 400 shade trees planted, the village green 

 put in order and prizes offered for the longest and best 

 strip of sidewalk. The offer of these prizes, together 

 with a reward for the detection and punishment of any 

 one caught destroying any of these improvements, had 

 such a marvelous effect in arousing civic pride in the 

 appearance of the village that interest in the associa- 

 tion has never failed. The beauty of the 

 village had much to do with the selec- 

 tion of the famous Lenox neighborhood, 

 part of which pays taxes in Stockbridge. 

 So pleased were the townspeople and 

 summer visitors with the work of the as- 

 sociation that it became necessary to ob- 

 tain a state charter before the association 

 could legally inherit the funds, parks and 

 other gifts to the value of more than one 

 hundred thousand dollars left in its 

 charge. 



Bar Harbor, Maine, regards its im- 

 provement association in the light of a 

 commercial investment. The summer 

 visitors demand that the village be kept 

 clean and pretty, and they give liberally 

 to the association. This association makes 

 paths over the island and keeps them in 

 repair. It also keeps patrols on these 

 paths in summer to put out camp-fires, 

 well knowing that if the forests are de- 

 stroyed the charm of the island would be 

 greatly lessened. 



The value of an improvement society's 

 work as a commercial investment is 

 clearly perceived by Europeans. The 

 Schwarzwald Improvement Society of Germany num- 

 bers 3,500 members, who are assessed an annual due 

 of $1.25. This association was formed for the purpose 

 of "making the Black Forest known and accessible to 

 the public, of preserving and protecting ruins, of im- 

 proving pleasure-grounds, erecting pavilions, towers, 

 etc., and generally promoting intercourse." There are 

 thirty-nine sections in this immense association, each sec- 

 tion working for its own interest after the manner of the 

 American ward associations. Both the German and Eng- 

 lish associations work to attract capital to their towns. 

 River-sides are made into a continuous parkway through 

 the town, paths are opened to points where beautiful 

 views may be had, and cards in the hotels and public 

 buildings draw visitors' attention to these matters, and 

 to the fact that comfortable seats will be found in these 

 places. German children are urged to be polite to 

 strangers, and in London the public schools have or- 

 ganized a League of Courtesy. English laws do not 

 permit the pollution of streams by sewage or factory 

 waste, and in Europe good roads and clean streets have 

 for so long been a national and municipal concern that 

 they are looked upon as a matter of course. In general, 

 European associations are not obliged to consider these 

 problems, but are free to turn their attention to the 

 promotion of civic beauty in all its various forms. 



It is the leading men and women of each country who 

 are promoting these associations. The society called 

 Scapa, the mission of which is the checking of the abuse 

 of public advertising, has more than one thousand 

 members enrolled, some of them memhers of Parlia- 

 ment. The work of this notable society has attracted 

 the favorable attention of almost every government in 

 Europe. 



In America, the "National League of Improvement 

 Associations " was organized at Springfield, Ohio, Oct. 

 10, 1900. It is now known as the "American League for 



