PARK AND CEMETERY 
176 
The sessions of the American Civic 
Association were of unusual interest. 
John W. Peck, of Cincinnati, recent 
Democratic candidate for mayor, offered 
some suggestions on the billboard nuis- 
ance that were received with favor, and 
Harlan P. Kelsey, of Salem, Mass., of- 
fered a paper on the “Survey of Edi- 
torial Sentiment Against the Billboard.” 
The second conference on nuisances was 
in the afternoon, when noises and 
smoke were taken up. A splendid ar- 
ticle on “Our Barbarous Fourth” was 
contributed by Mrs. Isaac L. Rice, of 
New York Society of the Suppression 
of Unnecessary Noises. 
Most notable among the addresses of- 
fered at the convention on the subject 
of “Smoke Nuisance from an Economic 
Aspect,” was that of Herbert M. Wil- 
son, chief engineer of the United States 
Geological Survey. Other papers on the 
subject that covered the ground as- 
signed admirably were those of R. C. 
Harris, of Toronto, Canada, on “Smoke 
Abatement in America,” and “Smoke 
Abatement in Cincinnati,” by Matthew 
Nelson. 
Mr. Wilson summed up the annual toll 
levied by smoke damage and waste in 
the United States, saying that a conserv- 
ative estimate would be $500,000,000 in 
the large cities alone. 
As a climax of the busy sessions was 
a notable banquet at the Sinton in the 
evening. It was attended by 300 guests, 
nearly one-half of whom were ladies. A 
majority of those present were Cincin- 
natians, leaders in various reform move- 
ments, who wished to show their regard 
for the eminent men and women who 
attended the sessions. 
Following were the toasts responded 
to : 
“The National Municipal League” — 
Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte. 
“The Vulgarity of Waste" — J. Horace 
McFarland. 
“Future Demands and Supplies of the 
.\merican People” — Dr. Charles W. 
Eliot. 
“Woman and Municipal Betterment” 
— Mrs. Philip N. Moore. 
“Progress in City Government” — 
Horace E. Deming. 
Most of the time of the next day was 
given over to the discussion of beauty 
and taste in daily life. Mrs. M. F. 
Johnston, of Richmond, Ind., presided, 
and presented an interesting paper in 
the form of a story on “Art Exhibits 
for the People.” Miss Annette E. Mc- 
Crea told what had been done to beau- 
tify railroad stations on various sys- 
tems running out of Chicago. One of 
the most interesting papers for women 
read during the convention was that of 
John Quincy Adams, Assistant Secre- 
tary of the New York Art Commission, 
who spoke on household decoration. 
Mrs. Everett W. Patterson, chairman 
of the art committee of the General 
P'ederation of Women’s Clubs, entertain- 
ingly related what had been done in 
“Practical Art Work in Women’s 
Clubs.” Miss Delia Mechlin, of Wash- 
ington, D. C., had a delightful paper on 
the American Federation of Art, and 
W. W’. Taylor, president of the Rook- 
wood Pottery, of Cincinnati, gave an ac- 
count of the work that had been done 
in the way of municipal art in Cincinnati. 
An entirely new field was covered in the 
splendid essay of John Nolen, of Cam- 
bridge, Mass., who took as his topic : 
“The Beauty of Nature as a State Re- 
source.” He showed that such beauty 
should be conserved by the state, as 
well as that of the city, by the municipal 
government. Just before concluding the 
Civic Convention the following resolu- 
tions were unanimously adopted : 
“Recognizing the wisdom of the Congress 
in setting aside for public use the great 
national parks, and believing that any avoid- 
able interference with the scenic integrity 
of these parks is in the highest degree un- 
desirable, the American Civic Association, 
in convention assembled, urges the Secre- 
tary of the Interior to revoke the permit, 
and the Congress to refuse to confirm such 
permit, under which the city of San Fran- 
cisco is assumi-ng to control eventually, for 
a domestic water supply, more than 500 
square miles of the best of the Yosemite 
National Park, unless, after a full and im- 
partial inquiry, it shall be shown to the 
satisfaction of the Congress that no other 
sufficient source of water supply is avail- 
able to San Francisco. 
“We further respectfully represent that 
the granting and confirmation of such a 
permit to invade the public domain would 
create a most dangerous precedent, under 
which other scenic possessions of the United 
States would be unsafe from individual or 
corporate assault. 
“We reiterate our demand upon Congress 
for the establishment of national forest re- 
serves in the Northern and Southern Ap- 
palachian regions, believing that this is a 
national issue, beyond the effective juris- 
diction on any state or group of states, and 
vital to the welfare or almost the entire 
eastern half of the United States, and that 
every year’s delay in their establishment 
adds mightily to the penalty of indifference 
that the nation must pay. 
The usual resolutions of thanks were 
also passed, and the meeting closed with 
an interesting round-table discussion of 
various subjects. 
ILLINOIS OUT-DO.OR IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION 
The Illinois Outdoor Improvement 
Association held its first meeting at 
Bloomington, November 18 and 19. 
Some excellent addresses and practical 
suggestions for furthering the work of 
outdoor improvement were presented by 
leading citizens, landscape gardeners and 
horticulturists. 
President Edmund J. James, of the 
University of Illinois, presided, and in 
his opening address spoke in part as 
follows : 
"The fine building for the supreme court 
at Springfield marks the progress of the 
people of the state of Illinois as a whole 
in the architecture of its public buildings, 
and expresses their desire and approval in 
a very marked way. 
“We find in the development of civic life 
of late the tendency and determination to 
put into every city a system of parks. M^e 
no longer talk about a single park, but a 
park system, and nearly every city of 7,000 
population in the state is talking about put- 
ting in a park system. 
“It is coming to be recognized that the 
city with the finest possibilities for out- 
door improvement of any city in America 
is Washington, D. C., not because of any 
unusual opportunities, but because they 
were wise enough to get a Frenchman to 
lay out the city before a spade was stuck 
in the ground. It is a course' modified arid 
improved as the years go on, but on the 
plan laid out in the first instance. 
“American cities are beginning to give 
attention to plans, as they never did be- 
fore. It will be a long time before we 
come up to the European cities in point 
of beauty. Our real problem today is 
how to arouse public interest in the sub- 
ject and get Intelligent men and women 
deeply interested so that they would never 
think of erecting houses without consider- 
ing the element of beauty. It is this 
European development of the instinct for 
beauty that exacts $150,000,000 from Ameri- 
cans each year to go and see what they 
have done. 
In a round table discussion that fol- 
lowed, brief talks were given by J. C. 
Blair and H. F. Major of the State 
Universitt', Mrs. J. C. Bly, of Chicago, 
and President David Felmley of the 
Normal University. Mrs. Bly thought 
that it was significant that a bill had 
passed the legislature creating an art 
commission to. pass upon the architec- 
ture of every public building. She sug- 
gested a tree commission and deprecat- 
ed the very common planting oL soft 
maples, Carolina poplars and other poor 
or shoi't-lived trees. She favored hav- 
ing a city forester or board of two or 
three men of good judgment in every 
village or town, to have supervision of 
the planting of the streets. 
Jens Jensen, landscape architect and 
former superintendent of the West Chi- 
cago parks, presented a thoughtful pa- 
per on beautifying the banks of the pro- 
posed lakes-ito-gulf waterway. 
W. N. Rudd, of Mount Greenwood 
Cemetery, Chicago, made some of the 
