Committee on Roadsides. 
Tlie aim and hope of the Committee on Roadsides of the 
Garden Club of America is to educate one hundred million 
people in the knowledge and love of cleanliness as it affects road- 
side conditions in rural communities and villages, to instil a 
respect for property rights, and to improve and conserve the 
natural beauties of the countryside. 
To the town dweller, tired of bricks and mortar, the lure of 
the country is strong. It is right and proper that the roadsides 
and woods should be used as their play grounds, but is it right 
and proper that refuse from their picnics should be left strewed 
about, or that wild flowers and branches of blossoming trees and 
shrubs should be ruthlessly pulled up and broken and that 
private property owners should be laughed to scorn when parties 
of motorists rob orchards and gardens, ignoring trespass signs 
and jeering at the verbal remonstrances of outraged owners "£ 
This is a condition that prevails in far too many sections of 
the country. In a recent conversation with Dr. "W. T. Hornaday, 
who has had great experience in policing the public parks adja- 
cent to New York, he stated that 90 per cent of the public were 
careless and ignorant, while 10 per cent were malicious. The 
10 per cent should be dealt with firmly through the law, and the 
90 per cent should be educated to realize that the first principle 
of citizenship is respect for public and private property. 
The Syllabus for Elementary Schools on "Civics and Patriot- 
ism" issued by the University of the State of New York, aims 
to teach, throughout all the grades, the importance of cleanliness 
in out-door surroundings and beauty in community life. It 
stresses the value of preserving the natural beauty of the local- 
ity, the use of planting, respect for growing flowers and shrubs, 
''the removal of objectionable bill-boards and other eye-sores," 
and the importance of making the schools a "benediction of 
beauty. ' ' 
Emphasis is placed on the inability of the community to 
solve its problems without the co-operation of the individual. 
"Why don't they keep the streets a little cleaner? 
You ask with some annoyance not undue. 
Why don't they keep the parks a little greener? 
Did you ever stop to think that 
They mean YOU?" (From Life) 
The Garden Club of America, through its Member Clubs, 
aspires to stimulate civic pride through constant reiteration of 
its principles, aided by enforcement of local ordinances, so that 
with infinite patience, but with strong hope, it may lead the way 
in this branch of the "Art of Citizenship." 
Hope Goddard Iselin. 
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