THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
25 
the commission form of government ! Lessons will al- 
ways be taught by the large cities to the smaller, but it 
is a serious mistake to blindly or per se use the experi- 
ences of one as an example or ideal for the other, as 
witness the misfortune of cities adopting the building 
laws of New York City. 
The small city, like the growing boy in the home, is 
developing and in the formation period of transition 
from infancy to mature stature; the change is under 
close and intimate observation, its promptings are better 
understood even if its control is less efficient and system- 
atic. Park superintendents in the small cities are 
virtually supernumerary commissioners and supple- 
mentary advisors. With their close contact with oper- 
ating and their familiarily with finances, they are pos- 
sessed with valuable data that should rightly afifect the 
deliberate determination of policies. Their help is gen- 
erally welcomed and invited, their motive rarely misin- 
terpreted, and by a sort of consensus of opinion they are 
given a large share of influence in deciding upon mat- 
ters clearly outside their sphere of obligation as execu- 
tive officers. The wonderful strides of doing much with 
small appropriations and operating with a high degree 
of efficiency will likely continue to be a special province 
of distinction for the small city. 
Check over the membership of this association and 
observe the host from small cities. As a rule they are 
the first to profit by an open mind and eye, they go 
abroad and view the work of others alongside of their 
own ; they examine, compare, study, consult sources and 
learn principles and laws differently used or variably ac- 
cepted. It is a healthy sign ; indeed, were they unready 
to mingle with their associates and enroll in the class of 
students they would be profoundly unfortunate, and the 
city of their labors equally so. He is sedulously inquir- 
ing into his equipment fitting him to discharge the duties 
of his office. He recognizes that he is a servant of the 
public — not directly responsible to it, yet specifically and 
peculiarly subject to its will. Illy expressed, vague and 
indistinct gro]5ings for progress and of idealism is, and 
ahva3's will be, a propelling force of civic consciousness, 
and the man in the small city is the first to note it. Happy 
is he who can read and intepret the signs and strivings 
for betterment in the body politic. 
Who as a body has been more instrumental in giving 
life-growth and expression to the playground movement 
of the country during the last decade than the park 
superintendents of the small cities, who has ever been 
at the helm to give it direction? It is true there have 
been errors committed in failing to properly understand 
its social relationship to the community or the warrant 
in devoting public funds to its consummation ; there 
may have been a distortion in the angle of vision, but, 
according to their light, there has been unanimity of 
effort all along the way from South Side, Chicago, to 
Podunk, with the man from the small city in the van. 
Every wideawake community will perhaps always have 
its theorists and its practical constituency. The differ- 
ence between them is said to be that one knows what he 
wants, but lacks the means of getting it, and the other 
reaches his goal, but wants to leave after he arrives. 
Into this environment the park superintendent of the 
small city enters as the unifying force reconciling the 
contentions of the citizens, and establishing real and sub- 
stantial progress. 
He it is who exerts on the community a large influence 
for cleanliness, beauty and pleasure ; who expands the 
view of the populace while directing public functions of 
social activity where race, color and religion are thor- 
oughly fused. 
Whether in tobogganing or parading, swimming or 
riding ; be it in the quietude of the meadow or in the 
interesting wildness of the woods, or in encouraging the 
squirrels and birds ; ministering and fostering the native 
bloom, and emplacing the treasures of the hothouse for 
the delectation of visitors — he gives point and repre- 
sentation to that spirit of democracy that makes and is 
America ; he gives the citizen a new sense of the cosmic 
relation of himself to his environment, he glimpses the 
trend of the times, and ever and anon reflects it in his 
offerings to the people. 
The park superintendent of the small city is therefore 
a counsellor, guide, leader and critic, in addition to being 
an executive administrator. No undue restraint should 
be put upon the qualified person to exercise his talent in 
these fields outside the distinct province of the position 
his title requires him to fill. 
The middle group of cities curtails the all-embracing 
function of a park superintendent, and insists upon 
greater organization capacity. Here he has less and 
probably nothing to do with assisting to formulate policy 
and more as purely an executive. Seriously handicapped 
is he who had not had the advantages of a small city 
training and experience. 
Here a park superintendent has relation to the physi- 
cal aspect of the city and the pulsating life of its people. 
In that contact he has dealings with and his work repre- 
sents the commission's policies to the idealists, sometimes 
called reformers, good government allies, theorists, 
cranks and radicals, and on the other hand, with the 
practical business element which measures everything 
with the dollar yard-stick, whose range of view is from 
cost to resvilt, who use the test of tax rate and financial 
cost to estimate the propriety of undertaking a given 
work, who judge returns by popular approval of the peo- 
ple, and by scientifically established units of cost as 
demonstrated by past work and similar efforts elsewhere. 
For policies a superintendent has little responsibility — 
theoretically none — yet the need of constant change in 
organization, change in personnel of staff', ending and 
beginning of various works of construction and main- 
tenance calls for his co-operation in a way that in reality 
makes him an important unofificial ally to the commission 
in its deliberations. 
Whatever the task assumed by a commission may be, 
it becomes a superintendent's function to devise the ma- 
chinery necessary to execute it. Some works may be devel- 
oped through the regular channels of the main machine ; 
others require the devising of new means, modifications 
of old ones or a rearrangement of the process of its 
operation ; some products will be standard, others spe- 
cial, seasonal or temporary ; some made from start to 
finish in the ];)ark plant, and others given a finishing 
touch, a rough preliminary hewing out or a turn in a 
vast, intricate procedure wherein parks play a mere 
incidental role. The multifarious types of the output 
of a park system inherently mean that a park organiza- 
tion will of necessity embody operations clearly and 
justly subject to appraisal by financial cost and public 
estimates of value; some are only to be judged by special 
and peculiar standards involving particular technic and 
differentiated standards, and again others will be purely 
experimental in purpose. It is easily possible to carry 
one of these courses to excess, and render the plant an- 
tiquated, produce unattractive and almost valueless 
goods, and altogether be so far out of touch with the 
demand as to produce goods not wanted after they are 
finished, or so mediocre or extravagant as to be a parody 
on good government. 
