PARK AND CEMETERY. 
466 
The Business Men’s Club of Cincinnati ap- 
pointed a committee to investigate the pos- 
sibilities of bringing into reasonable control 
the billboards of Cincinnati. 
Extensive correspondence throughout this 
country and Europe showed what had been 
accomplished and the recommendations of 
the committee took the form of a report 
on May 9, 1907, recommending: A cam- 
paign of education, local and throughout the 
state of Ohio; a call for the assistance of 
organizations interested in similar work; lec- 
tures on the subject: the listing of all ad- 
vertisers in Cincinnati and a request of our 
members that they desist; an investigation 
as to what boards exist without right; that 
real estate owners be requested to co-op- 
erate; that a poster show be held; that 
theatrical managers and others co-operate 
by securing the best possible posters; that 
taxing the boards be considered. Most of 
these recommendations have been acted 
upon. 
Fifty photographs were made of ugly 
boards and these photos were displayed in 
several places. Some 60 advertisers pledged 
themselves to quit advertising at the expi- 
ration of their contracts. This affected 
about 300 boards. A number of citizens 
removed boards out of civic pride. The 
Ohio board of public works removed 108 
feet of boarding from state land on the edge 
of the canal in Cincinnati. Park Superin- 
tendent Rodgers tore down 1,000 feet of 
board 12 feet high on newly acquired 
park property. The Cincinnati press has 
given this work more than 125 articles. 
The Symphony Orchestra abandoned bill- 
boards in sympathy with our work. 
A bill has been drawn dealing with this 
question for presentation at our next legis- 
lature. It provides for both local and state 
control. The only novel feature of this biU 
is a clause reading as follows; “That it 
be unlawful to display on any such sign or 
billboard any picture or illustration depict- 
ing or describing in words or character or 
both, the commission of any crime or mis- 
demeanor,” and providing a fine of from 
?25 to $200. This is to reach all horrible 
pictures of crime of any sort. 
Owing to the absence of H. Leonard 
Beadle his paper, “Hartford’s Co-opera- 
tive Plan,” was read by Frederick L. 
Ford, city engineer of Hartford, Conn. 
The paper dealt almost entirely with the 
method which that city has adopted in 
the fight against billboards and how the 
consent of the advertisers has been won, 
one after the other, to the tearing down 
of these structures. He dwelt upon the 
fact that billboards are, in some cases, 
positive dangers and cited quotations 
from fire chiefs of New York City who 
assert that their men have been com- 
pelled to cut their way through these ob- 
structions time after time. 
A. S. Cushman, assistant director of- 
fice of public roads. United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, talked on the 
“Dust Nuisance.” He said in part; 
With the advent of the pneumatic rub- 
ber-tired vehicles, such as automobiles, « it 
becomes apparent to engineers that some 
new form of road construction will have to 
be developed for the future. 
There are various makeshift methods that 
can be used, such as tarring and oiling the 
surfaces of old macadam roads, but although 
these methods have been successful in many 
instances, they have also led to complete 
failures in others. 
Although the automobile undoubtedly de- 
stroys macadam roads, it is at the same time 
doing a great deal to develop new methods 
of treatment and construction, and is thus 
bringing about the correction of the very 
trouble which it has developed for the road 
builder. • ^ 
The consensus of opinion among students 
of this special problem is that the future 
will have to evolve special forms of con- 
struction in road building designed to meet 
modern traffic requirements. 
Among other municipal nuisances 
taken up by the session were flies and 
mosquitoes. 
Dr. Daniel D. Jackson, bacteriologist, 
of New York, read an exhaustive report 
showing the progress of the fight against 
mosquitoes. 
The afternoon session was given up 
largely to the women delegates. Mrs. 
Caroline Bartlett Crane of Kalamazoo, 
Mich., occupied the chair. Miss Myra 
Lloyd Dock, of Philadelphia, read a 
paper in place of Miss Mary Marshall 
Butler, of Yonkers, N. Y., who was un- 
able to be present. 
Howard Evarts Weed, landscape ar- 
chitect, presented a valuable paper on 
“More Beautiful Cemeteries,” which is 
given on another page. William Solota- 
roff, Secretary and Superintendent for 
the Shade Tree Commission of East 
Orange, N. J., read an excellent address 
on “Practical Results of Municipal Con- 
trol of Shade Trees,” which will appear 
in a future issue of Park and Ceme- 
tery. 
The other speakers of the afternoon 
session, which was called a “Local Im- 
provement Session,” were Mrs. Crane, 
Mrs. M. F. Johnston, Richmond, Ind. ; 
Mrs. Edward W. Biddle, Carlisle, Pa. ; 
and Richard T. Fox, Chicago. 
At the evening joint session which 
was largely attended by the general pub- 
lic. The opening address was by Presi- 
dent McFarland, who spoke on “A Bet- 
ter and More Beautiful America.” He 
was followed by S. P. Elliott, of the 
Pennsylvania Forestry Commission, who 
discussed the “Conservation of Natural 
Resources from the Standpoint of the 
Lumberman and the Miner.” 
Mr. McFarland’s address will be given 
in full in our next issue. 
Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, 
whose work for Juvenile Courts and 
reform has given him national fame, 
told an interesting, impressive story of 
the work in that city. 
The election of officers and the read- 
ing of reports was a feature of the next 
morning. The election- resulted as fol- 
lows : 
President, J. Horace McFarland, Har- 
risburg; first vice-president and secre- 
tary, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Phila- 
delphia; vice-president, Robert Wat- 
chorn. New York; vice-president, Mrs. 
Edward W. Biddle, Carlisle, Pa. ; vice- 
president, George Leighton, Monadnock, 
N. H. ; vice-president, Fielding J. Still- 
son, Los Angeles; vice-president, David 
P. Jones, Minneapolis; treasurer, \Vil- 
liam B. Howland, New York. 
Amendments were made to the con- 
stitution and by-laws, the changes includ- 
ing the raising of membership dues from 
$3 to $5 annually, and the election of 
an executive board to take the place of 
15 department vice-presidents. The new 
executive board is as follows : 
Mrs. Mary F. Johnston, Richmond, 
Ind.; Miss Mary Marshall Butler, Yon- 
kers, N. Y. ; Frederick L. Ford, Hart- 
ford, Conn.; Warren H. Manning, Bos- 
ton, Mass. ; Henry A. Barker, Provi- 
dence, R. 1. ; Richard B. Watrous, Mil- 
waukee, Wis. ; Harlan P. Kelsey, Salem, 
Mass.; George Otis Draper, Hopedale, 
Mass.; Graham Romeyn Taylor, Chi- 
cago, 111. ; Mrs. Edwin F. Moulton, 
Warren, O. ; John Quincy Adams, New 
York; John Nolen, Cambridge, Mass.; 
Kenyon L. Butterfield, Amherest, Mass. ; 
Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Kala- 
mazoo, Mich. ; Mrs. A. E. McCrea, Chi- 
cago, 111. 
Reports from the departments by the 
various vice-presidents were read, in- 
cluding those of Mrs. Agnes McGiffert 
Pound, for the Woman’s Outdoor Art 
League, Henry A. Barker, on Parks ; 
Graham Romeyn Taylor and Frederick 
L. Ford, city making. 
At the afternoon meeting Graham R. 
Taylor, of Chicago, discussed “School 
Extension”; Lee F. Hanmer, traveling 
secretary of the Playground Association 
of America, spoke on the “Playground 
Movement” ; Miss Louise Klein Miller 
in discussing “School Gardens” told of 
what has been accomplished in Qeve- 
land, and Dr. John W. Spencer, of 
Washington, spoke on “Changes at 
Niagara.” 
The Wednesday evening joint session 
in Carnegie Institute brought out the 
largest audience of the meeting to hear 
Attorney-General Chas. J. Bonaparte on 
“Criminal Law as an Instrument to 
Give Effect to the People’s Will.” 
He was followed by Mayor Guthrie, 
whose address was generally commented 
on as perhaps the ablest he has deliv- 
ered since he has held office. It was a 
plea for the city. 
The conventions closed with a bril- 
liant and much enjoyed banquet Thurs- 
day evening at the Hotel Schenley, with 
about 250 seated at the tables. 
Among the speakers and guests at the 
speaker’s table, in addition to the 
officers, were; Mayor Guthrie, A. L. 
Weil, William Dudley Foulke, Gifford 
Pinchot, Howard Strong, Walter L. 
Fisher, John Quincy Adams, John C. 
Winston, Camillus G. Kidder, Dr. W. J. 
Holland, Robert Treat Paine, Jr., Elliott 
Hunt Pendleton, Lc Grand Powers, Wil- 
liam P. Bancroft and others. 
