EXPERIENCES—RECOMMENDATIONS = 293 
and the number of complex elements in the Commission 
have apparently made it difficult to carry out a progressive 
park policy for the city as a whole. 
In Chicago the five Commissioners in Seem of the 
South Park system are chosen by the several Circuit. Court 
judges of that district. Since the acquirement of the first 
South Side parks, in 1869, these court officials have agreed 
upon appointments which have been free from political in- 
terference, and the appointees being men of standing, and 
devoted to the parks, they have retained the confidence and 
support of the public to a marked degree. 
The North Side, or Lincoln Park Board, and the Com- 
mission in charge of the West Side park system of that 
city, are both appointed by the Governor. ‘There have been 
good men from time to time appointed on each board, but 
each in turn has for years, under different administrations, 
been subject to partisan uses, or under the influence of 
practical politics. 
The Park Commissions of Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincin- 
nati, New Orleans, Omaha, Providence, San Francisco, St. 
Louis and St. Paul, are parts of the city governments, re- 
spectively, either appointed by the Mayor or elected by the 
City Council. 
In Washington the comprehensive plan for the capital 
as prepared in 1791 by the great landscape architect and 
city builder, Peter C. L’Enfant, has been only partially 
carried out. The city parks and squares are now under the 
control of a local officer of the War Department; the effec- 
tively planted avenues and streets, of the Parking Commis- 
sion; and Rock Creek Park of still another commission, 
composed of District officials or officers of the general gov- 
ernment. 
Cleveland and Detroit are both experimenting with sin- 
gle-headed commissions, the former park boards having 
been abolished by the general city charter legislation of 
Ohio a few yeat's ago, and the so-called “ripper” bills of 
Michigan in 19@1. In both instances the Park Department 
is a bratch of Pie city government. 
