A Park Superintendenfs Function 
By E. T. Mische, Oregon* 
GATHERED from all sections of the continent 
north of Mexico, members who are municipal 
executive officers meeting in annual convention 
represent a nucleus of power to be shaped and guided 
for weal or woe in accord with how they occupy their 
time. It is well that every part of the cBntinent be knit 
and woven into a fabric of brotherly love. Touching 
elbows, friendly discussion on the railroad journeys, in 
the hotel lobbies and on inspection trips, is a profitable 
occupation mellowing and enriching the experiences, 
sofetening the dogmatic prejudices, begetting a greater 
appreciation of the others' labors, and ofttimes opening a 
wonderland of new worlds. It augurs well for a nation, 
it marks an epoch in our civilization to note the spirit 
shown by, for and among public officials who exert a 
large influence in the practical workings and develop- 
ment of democracy in this great republic. 
In the brief time available let us assemble in a group, 
detach ourselves from personalities and together mount 
a hilltop and figuratively enjoy a panoramic view of the 
fields in which we separately labor. We will have but 
a brief opportunity to merely take a passing glimpse, but 
it may give us a better perspective and increase our ca- 
pacity to view matters in a more just and accurate pro- 
portion. 
On our way ascending to the vantage point on the 
hill, the preparatory discussion is upon American life. 
We acknowledge the truth of the census statistics indi- 
cating it as a sign of the times that the trend of our 
population is cityward. People are leaving the country 
and going to town at a rate in excess of the ratio of 
population increase throughout the country until over 
a quarter of our population are urban dvv'ellers, and each 
of 50 cities have over a hundred thousand inhabitants. 
Industrial life is growing at the expense of that found 
mid agricultural pursuits. Desired or deplored, wanted 
or not, life is drifting cityward as never before. From 
the green pastures and immortal wildness of the farms 
and woods, and from their invigorating and wholesome 
simplicity the youth of the land is swarming into the 
busy marts of trade, the monotonous, noisy streets, con- 
gested alleys, yardless houses and repelling flats and tene- 
ments. Congestion grows, vitality is sapped and a host 
of false, stilted, tmnatural artificialities confront the in- 
dividual and periodically become a blight, a running 
sore or a deadly agent to the body politic. 
In one of these centers where people have congregated, 
every member of this association is officially concerned 
with the conduct of its government. 
We may find it profitable to pause long enough to 
collectively give some thought to the duties and responsi- 
bilities attaching to the office held, to contemplate 
whether we are conducting our office in a way that 
squares with modern want and requirement, and to con- 
sider whether we discharge our duties satisfactorily and 
secure the proper results. 
*AnmiaI address by President of American Association of Park Superin- 
tendents, delivered at annual convention at New Orleans. 
American municipalities are governed mainly by State 
authority delegated in charters — a few have substantially 
parallel powers with the State. The machinery of gov- 
ernment is commonly composed of a mayor and council, 
a so-called commission — form or a so-called city man- 
ager scheme of operating. Public park property is con- 
trolled and operated under one or another of these 
systems in behalf of the people. Being public and for 
the people, the properties are administered for the wel- 
ware of the citizenship. The direct instrument of oper- 
ation is commonly by the council in small communities, 
by a park commission for the larger, and latterly some 
are conducted by newly created officers, such as borough 
presidents, individuals of a commission form of govern- 
ment, or by appointive officers where city managers exist. 
A park superintendent's office is subordinate to one 
of the above officers of groups, his duties are purely 
executive, and his responsibility is directly to his su- 
perior. It is never, insofar as we are aware, elective by 
popular franchise. And yet his duties bring him into 
constant and direct relationship with every shade of 
public life, every little tremor of activity ; every aspira- 
tion of society has its direct or reflex action upon some 
aspect of the field controlled by that branch of govern- 
ment to which parks are allotted. If his position is 
that of a headworks whence all the streams of minor 
local influences gather and ascend in a wide current to 
his superior, and conversely from his superior through 
him out into the furthermost ramifications of an organ- 
ization until it comes again into contact with the people, 
if his office is such, does his function embrace merely the 
managerial, to be judged by cost tests, or does it include 
the interpretive, the creative and advisory beyond the 
realm of exclusive executive requirement that would ap- 
ply in a store or factory where machinery is the charge 
administered ? Is a superintendent to use his organiza- 
tion machinery and turn out by rote a standard human 
product — can he do so — or is he to recognize the human 
limitations in social service and endeavor to influence and 
shape the activities of his plant to responding to the 
yearning of the public want? 
Ex-President Taft voiced the sentiment that law is 
a compromise between what is wanted and what one 
can get ; President Wilson appears to believe that adroit 
co-operation with the legislative branch will bring about 
conditions that reflect the idealism of a people without 
threatening the close co-operation or usurpation of power 
between legislative and executive branches of an or- 
ganization. 
With these conspicuous examples of differing view- 
points before us, we may profitably pause to consider 
some of the ways a municipal executive can be expected 
to creditably discharge the responsibilities of his office. 
In park affairs it would appear that distinct grades 
of executive officers are represented by the needs of 
cities of different size — one for the 25 to 100,000 popu- 
lation group, another with a population above lOO.OOO, 
and, excepting only three or four of the largest cities 
and a third comprising the largest centers of population 
in the nation. 
Today some of the great problems of a people living 
in society and striving to govern themselves with en- 
lightenment are being wrought out in the small city. 
Note, for instance, what Staunton, Va. ; Des Moines, 
la. : Lockport, N. Y., and others have done relative to 
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