PARK AND CEMETERY. 
216 
very best possible advantage. The var- 
ious propositions hitherto tentatively 
considered from imperfect maps and in- 
exact knowledge have been developed 
with more and more perfect data, and ' 
studied with due regard to their indi- 
vidual importance and their relationship 
one with another. 
Of the absolute desirability of cer- 
tain projects, there has never been any 
difference of opinion among any of the 
members who have served upon the 
Park Commission. These most obvious- 
ly desirable ones, stripped of all fea- 
tures that were not vital to their suc- 
cessful acquirement, have been placed 
in a list by themselves and labelled “Es- 
sential.” Another list has been pre- 
pared, either of separate projects or ex- 
tensions of the first mentioned, which 
are reported as “Urgently Recommend- 
ed.” Still another list, without which 
no park system for this district may be 
considered complete, comes under the 
classification of the “Eminently Desir- 
able.” 
The first list requires an expenditure 
of about twice the amount of money 
that has thus far been granted to the 
Commission ; although the expendi- 
tures proposed are upon a basis of ex- 
treme, prudence and even parsimony. Ac- 
quirement of land is the very first con- 
sideration, and its improvement must be 
confined to the simplest means by which 
it may be made thoroughly available 
and useful to the public. These will 
consist principally of paths and simple 
roads, and the building of seats and 
shelters. Expensive embellishment must 
wait; and, indeed, such is the natural 
beaut}^ and established usefulness of 
most of the reservations already, that 
the best results may generally be at- 
tained by comparatively simple means. 
It does not appear that any seriously 
appreciable burden would be placed 
upon this community by giving full sup- 
port to the “Essential” list of recom- 
mendations. 
For the entire acquirement of the 
metropolitan parks, as suggested, togeth- 
er with such necessary development as 
must at present be undertaken, an in- 
vestment equal to but one-half of one 
per cent, of the valuation of the district 
would be called for. This, in its effect 
upon taxation, is so small as to be very 
difficult to perceive at all. 
The experience of all communities 
shows that it is an investment that 
brings direct dividends to the tax of- 
fice, as well as the greater dividends of 
prosperity, of efficiency, of health and 
happiness, to every citizen. 
By co-operation with the owners of 
undeveloped lands within the district, 
and with the owners of large manufac- 
turing properties along the rivers, re- 
sults are expected that could not other- 
wise be obtained so economically. In 
the former case the land which is more 
useful for recreation than for other pur- 
poses may be reserved, and a layout of 
streets and parkways in accordance with 
Metropolitan Park System of Providence, 
the plans of the Commission may be 
adopted with results alike favorable to 
the owners of the property and to the 
people of the State in general. 
Along the rivers and the lines of ponds 
which form such a conspicuous feature 
upon the map of the metropolitan dis- 
trict, the parking of the shores provides 
at the same time for public recreation, 
for beauty, and for properly conceived 
development, and saves the waterways 
from contamination and from occu- 
pancy injurious to the manufacturers 
who use the water-power, or who re- 
quire unpolluted waters for their pro- 
cesses. Such lands as have been ac- 
quired for these latter purposes may well 
be contributed by their present owners 
with actual advantage to themselves and 
an assured advantage to the public. The 
full use of flowage rights for manufac- 
turing purposes is not in any way an- 
tagonistic to the use of the shores as 
parks. 
The Commission is seriously handi- 
capped by the lack of that power which 
is held by many corporations and by the 
highway departments of towns; by 
school boards and water boards-; and 
by^ park commissions generally through- 
out the country, by which eminent do- 
main may be exercised in certain cases. 
The Commission believes that its for- 
mer request for the right of eminent 
domain was ' misunderstood by a great 
many people who believed the power 
asked for was in some way unusual or 
oppressive. The argument was ad- 
vanced that the Commission should wait 
until it met with real difficulties of the 
kind which it foresaw and then ask for 
specific acts of legislation to condemn 
such particular areas as it was unable to 
secure in any other way. Acting upon 
this suggestion, the Commission requests 
such legislation in a number of speci- 
fied cases. 
The estimated cost of all the proj- 
ects of the commission is $ 1 , 983 , 000 , of 
which the “Essential” list of thirteen 
projects calls for $ 445 , 000 . First addi- 
tional list of projects, designated as 
“Urgently Recommended,” calls for 
$ 838,500 : and the remaining list, called 
“Very Desirable,” is roughly estimated 
at $ 694,000 : the three classes practically 
completing the recommendations sug- 
gested by previous reports, as approved 
by the landscape advisers, and making 
a connected circuit. 
The entire cost is therefore estimat- 
ed at about one-half of one per cent, of 
the present assessed valuation of the 
Metropolitan District. 
The population of the metropolitan 
district is probably a little in excess of 
400 , 000 , and it is increasing about 15,000 
per year. It has doubled about every 
22 or 23 years during a century. The 
assessed valuation is nearly $ 400 , 000 , 000 . 
The cost of maintaining a public loan 
for each $1,000,000 borrowed on behalf 
of the Metropolitan District amounts to 
about $ 38,500 per year, which covers 
the interest and sinking fund. This 
amounts to about nine cents per inhabi- 
tant, or one-hundredth of one per cent. 
If “consumer pays the tax,” i. e., if 
this added burden were distributed pro- 
portionately among all the rent payers, 
it would add one-tenth of one per cent. 
EDGEWOOD BEACH— “THE WILLOWS.” 
R. I. 
