PARK AND CEMETERY. 
73 
THE BILLBOARD CRUSADE 
Boards Violate Law in New York 
As a result of energetic exposure 
by The New York Herald of viola- 
tions of city ordinances in the erec- 
tion of billboards, suits have been 
begun to recover penalties for 44 signs 
which violate the law and to comp'el 
their removal or alteration. Aider- 
man Doull has prepared an ordinance 
for introduction in the Board of Al- 
dermen, limiting the size of the 
signs and billboards and imposing a 
license fee for them. Members of the 
Building Code Revision Commission 
are considering an ordinance to be 
incorporated in the new building code 
to regulate outdoor advertising. 
Dozens of civic organizations have 
joined the crusade, and all are using 
their influence to bring about reforms. 
J. Horace McFarland, president of 
the American Civic Association, has of- 
fered to lend to the movement the 
aid of that association, which has 
done much throughout the country to 
promote municipal improvements. In 
a letter to Assistant Corporation 
Counsel John P. O’Brien he says: “I 
proffer any assistance this association 
can give, with its national connections, 
in the effort.” At present the asso- 
ciation is waging a vigorous cam- 
paign in Pennsylvania for legislation 
to tax all signs and is planning to ex- 
tend the movement to several other 
States. Mr. McFarland adds: 
“While it is probably hopeless to 
prohibit billboard advertising, and, in- 
deed, improper and unnecessary, it is 
absolutely certain that there must be 
some restrictions imposed, otherwise 
the expenditure of many millions by 
cities and individuals in cities to make 
dignified and sightly conditions will 
be ineffective. New York is not now 
nearly so viciously billboarded as is 
Boston and in Boston there is a rap- 
idly growing revulsion against the 
enormities of sign erections. There 
are bills in three State Legislatures 
at this time seeking to tax billboards 
by the square foot. The city of Los 
Angeles has just put in effect an ordi- 
nance taxing them at the trifling rate 
of one cent a square foot, under which 
$54,000 a year will be realized. Im- 
portant civic bodies in the cities of 
Pittsburg and Cincinnati are taking 
up the same question.” 
Following up the campaign of the 
Herald against the non-regulation of 
advertising signs and billboards on 
New York city’s streets, State Senator 
McCall has introduced a bill into the 
Legislature at Albany to give com- 
plete authority over the matter to the 
Art Commission. The bill is an 
amendment to the New York charter 
and clothes the Art Commission with 
all the present powers of the Build- 
ing Department with respect to sign 
boards and provides for additional 
power so as to make the work of the 
commission effective beyond any 
question. 
The sections bearing on billboards 
are as follows: 
sede th;? jurisdiction of any other depart- 
ment or officer of the city, except that be- 
fore any wood or metal sign shall be 
placed in position upon, above or attached 
to the outside of any building" permission 
shall also be first obtained from the Com- 
missioner of Buildings having jurisdiction. 
Any person Avho shall erect or display or 
cause to be erected or displayed any sign, 
bill board or device without procuring a 
permit therefor, as required by the act, is 
declared to be guilty of a misdemeanor 
punishable by imprisonment for not more 
than six months or l)y a fine of not more 
than $250. 
“On and after July 1, 1907, no sign, bill 
board or device in the nature of an ad- 
vertisement or announcement which is 
more than one foot in height or three feet 
in length shall be erected upon, above or 
attached to the outside of any building or 
to uprights or supports extending into the 
ground, or to auy other structure or ob- 
ject whereby such sign, bill board or de- 
vice is displayed to the public unless the 
permit therefor, particularly describing 
the same, shall have been procured from 
the Art Commission. The Art Commission 
shall have power to prescribe the man- 
ner in which applications for such permit 
shall be made and the form of such ap- 
plications and permit, and its determina- 
Furthur Regulation in Los Angeles 
To aid in the enforcement of the new 
billboard ordinance of Los Angeles. 
Cal., which imposes a tax of one cent a 
square foot on all billljoards, the Out- 
door Art Association of that city has 
proposed the appointment of a city hill- 
board inspector at a salary of $150 a 
month and an ordinance to that effect is 
soon to be presented to the city council. 
The Realty Board is co-operating with 
the association, and in a letter advocat- 
BILLBOARD HIDING HANDSOME RESIDENCES IN LOS ANGELES. 
tion as to the issuance of such permit shall 
be final and conclusive." 
Another section empowers the Art Com- 
mission to employ such assistants as are 
made necessary to carry out the provisions 
of the act. The Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment is directed to include in 
the budget a sum sufficient to pay such 
expenses. It is provided further that on 
and after July 1, 1907, no sign, bill board 
or device in the nature of an advertise- 
ment which is over two feet high shall be 
erected on any building, and that no such 
sign or bill board shall be attached to 
any other structure or object or erected 
upon uprights or other supports extend- 
ing into the ground which shall be at any 
point more than six feet high, notwith- 
standing the provisions of any law or 
building code authorizing signs or bill 
boards of a greater height. 
Another new section provides that every 
sign or bill board not attached pursuant 
to permit, and every sign upon uprights or 
supports which at any point is more than 
ten feet above the ground, is declared to 
be a public nuisance and must be removed 
within thirty days after the act shall 
take effect. 
Senator McCall’s bill also provides that 
jurisdiction of signs and bill boards in the 
Art Commission shall be deemed to supei • 
ing the abolition of billboard advertis- 
ing, the secretary of that body says : 
“Members of the Ihllboard committee 
are protesting against the discrimination 
which permits the bill-posting com- 
panies to erect sign boards as close to 
the sidewalks as they can be placed, 
while persons building liouses on their 
property are required to observe care- 
fully the property limits.'’ 
The huge sign shown in the accom- 
panying picture erected at Eleventh and 
Figueroa streets is an illustration of 
the liberty taken by the posting com- 
panies. ITere in one of the choicest 
locations of the city a handsome resi- 
dence practically is hidden from view 
by the large billboard erected on the 
edge of the sidewalk. 
The committee asks that the com- 
panies be required to place no sign 
nearer than twenty feet from the pave- 
ment. 
