PARK AND CEMETERY. 
17 
THE BILLBOARD CRUSADE 
[ 
The bill board problem seems to 
have been solved in the German capi- 
tal in a manner that is satisfactory to 
everybody, yet does not deface the 
scenery. According to a report by 
Consul General Thacker bill boards, 
such as American cities are familiar 
V. ith, are absolutely prohibited in 
Berlin. Public advertising is confined 
to a system of neat pillars or columns 
on the edge of the sidewalk at the 
principal street corners or intersec- 
tions. They are cylinders of iron and 
wood about twelve feet high and 
three feet in diameter and are used 
principally for the advertisements of 
theaters and other places of amuse- 
ments, for the announcements of 
newspapers and periodicals and offi- 
cial notices. The privilege of erect- 
ing and using these advertising col- 
umns is awarded by competitive bid- 
ding under ten year contracts and 
the city receives an annual income of 
about $95,200 from this source. The 
character of the advertising is subject 
to regulations and official announce- 
ments have precedence and free serv- 
ice. While the city rents the outer 
surface of the columns for advertis- 
ing purposes it reserves the interior 
for its own uses for the storage of 
street cleaning utensils, electric light 
supplies and similar articles. Pro- 
miscuous posting of bills on fences, 
dead v/alls and other places is forbid- 
den and signs on buildings must first 
be approved by the authorities. 
The demand in this country for 
some relief from the bill board and 
other landscape disfiguring nuisance 
is steadily growing. The movement 
has certainly made some progress, 
but has not yet reached a period of 
development where public advertising 
is looked upon as a utility service to 
be under municipal control. Berlin 
is distinctly ahead of American cities 
in this respect. There is hope, how- 
ever, that we may yet attain to the 
Berlin standard. 
* * * 
Honolulu newspapers contain an 
account of a billboard victory by the 
local improvement club which is sig- 
nificant of the wide reach of the ad- 
vertisement problem and of its iden- 
tity in character, says the Architec- 
tural Record. It is also suggestive 
of a simple way of handling it. On 
the Waikiki Road, which leads past 
the two large shore hotels and to the 
park and is as yet Honolulu’s only 
boulevard, there was a big Heinz 
pickle sign. The improvement club 
notified the local advertising com- 
pany’s agent that it was particularly 
opposed to signs on this main tourist 
and scenic road and courteously 
asked that it be removed. The agent 
replied that with him the matter was 
a business proposition only; that the 
tourist use of the boulevard gave to 
it a special value for advertising pur- 
poses, but that, on the other hand, 
he recognized — still from a business 
standopint — the value of pleasing 
people, and would take up the matter 
with the Heinz Company. Several 
letters, reaching no further than the 
advertising department, failed to 
elicit a satisfactory response. The 
agent then wrote personally to Mr. 
Heinz, explaining the circumstances. 
Mr. Heinz at once ordered the sign’s 
removal, and asked the agent pub- 
licly to express his regret that it had 
been offensively placed. Further, he 
said his company would bear the ex- 
pense of removal, which was a con- 
siderable item, as the sign had to be 
sawed into sections and then entirely 
repainted. Another large sign, on a 
residential street, was removed by 
the agent, the woman who com- 
plained of it paying the expenses of 
removal; and the agent, seeing the 
drift of things, removed a third objec- 
tionable sign, the last on Waikiki 
Road, at his own expense. All this 
being reported, the improvement so- 
ciety gave him a vote of thanks. Now, 
nobody can believe that the advertis- 
ing company, or the companies they 
advertised, lost anything locally by 
this action; and certainly the Heinz 
sign is gaining through its removal a 
publicity it never would have had 
without a change. This very note is 
one evidence of that. Happily, the 
occasion is not the first on which Mr. 
Heinz — notable offenders as his ad- 
vertisers are — has shown a deference 
to justifiable public opinion when 
■ personally and courteousy appealed 
to. 
* * * 
A new city ordinance, designed to 
prevent the posting of improper and 
immoral bills and posters on public 
billboards of Indianapolis is proposed 
by the city authorities in answer to 
demands of the Local Council of 
Women, the Ministers’ Association 
and the public school authorities. A 
committee representing the Council 
of Women and the Ministers’ Associ- 
ation called on Mayor Bookwalter, 
and the mayor promised to see that 
steps were taken to bring about a 
better condition of affairs, if the city 
authorities could do so. 
* * * 
Mayor Harper, of Los Angeles, 
Cal., has sent a special message to the 
city council asking for legislation 
governing billboards. The mayor rec- 
ommends that all billboards be heav- 
ily taxed, to return at least $50,000 a 
year revenue and reduce the total 
number, and that obnoxious pictures 
and words be prohibited. Clubwom- 
en are preparing a petition to the 
council supporting the mayor’s pro- 
posed ordinances. The Municipal Art 
Commission will be asked to take 
jurisdiction for the city of all bill- 
boards, censorizing the pictures and 
language. 
❖ * 
Kansas City has planned a new line 
of attack on the billboards. Mayor 
Beardsley announced that he would 
send a communication to the council 
recommending the passage of an or- 
dinance prohibiting billboard com- 
panies from pasting paper on the 
boards as a measure to keep the 
streets of the city clean. “After the 
last rain,” the mayor said, “there was 
billboard paper scattered all over the 
streets. Large sheets containing sev- 
eral layers of paper hang flapping like 
wings from some boards and strike 
persons in the face as they walk 
along. Then the wind and the bill 
posters tear off the loose sheets and 
scatter them over the streets. The 
courts will not allow us to regulate 
the boards. We’ll try to regulate the 
paper.” 
* * * 
Unsightly theatrical billboards that 
have graced the principal streets of 
Mobile, Ala., for years have been or- 
dered removed by the Board of Pub- 
lic Works and under these orders As- 
sistant Street Commissioner Leibert 
has had a number of them removed. 
It is the first step towards a move- 
ment for a city beautiful begun by the 
president of the Board of Public 
Works a few weeks ago, and in 
which he is being assisted by Mayor 
P. J. Lyons. Mayor Lyons made an 
inspection of the work so far accom- 
plished and has expressed himself 
as delighted with results. All bill- 
boards that extend over property 
lines are to come down. While the 
removal of these boards will result 
in a loss to theatrical managers as 
mediums of advertising they are com- 
plying with the orders and assisting 
the authorities in every way. 
