PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XX, Chicago, November, 1910 No. 9 
Annual Convention of the American Civic Association 
The Sixth Annual Convention of the American Civic Asso- 
ciation will be held at the New Willard Hotel, Washington, 
D. C., December 14-16, 1910; and while no program has yet 
come to hand, it may be taken for granted that the preceed- 
ings will be replete with interest and highly important to 
the welfare of the many questions of community progress 
that it has included in its field of work. A special effort 
of the coming convention is to have all civic leagues and 
associations represented, to the end that there may be brought 
about a harmonious and united effort in the beautification 
of American communities. This is a highly important 
matter for consideration ; much of our improvement work 
hangs fire from the fact of the long distances between centers 
of effort, and the consequent difficulty of securing co-oper- 
ation, which is .generall}' so effecti^'e in crystallizing public 
opinion to the end of encouraging practical results. The 
Washington meeting will unquestionably be a great con- 
\ention. 
Ng 
Legal Decisions and Praclical Methods Against the Billboards 
Once more an effort of the Illinois legislature to control 
the billboard nuisance has been declared invalid by a judge 
of the Chicago Municipal Court, and from previous experi- 
ence it will probably be sustained by the State Supreme Court. 
The statute was declared to be an infringement of the right 
of property owners to do what they will with their property 
If this be the correct interpretation of this court’s decision, 
it is a decision in direct opposition to the greater law, which 
is fundamental in our civilization, that we cannot do what 
we like wdth our property' if it injures our neighbor. Such 
decisions are certainly open to public criticism in spite of the 
clap-trap of w-arring politicians. Eastern courts have held 
that the people have a property right in scenery, a Colorado 
court has also given an opinion on the same lines, and we 
have heard from Pacific Coast courts in the same general 
tenor; then what can be the matter with Illinois? It is quite 
time the courts awoke to the trend of progress ; if the rep- 
resentatives of the people are sufficiently impressed with the 
needs and desires of their constituents as to prepare for ad- 
vancing steps in municipal conditions, instead of checking 
such efforts the courts should take a step too and use their 
prerogatives to guide such progress and not to check it. It 
is time the bench got together on the billboard question 
in order to make their rulings more consistent and to compel 
more respect from their educated fellow citizens. 
Public opinion is the one thing needed to combat the bill- 
board nuisance, says the Massachusetts Civic League, and in 
this connection reprints two letters from the “Springfield 
Republican" v'ery suggestive on a practical plan to check and 
finally do away with the nuisance. One communication from 
Congressman Gillett of Springfield, Mass., discussing the 
matter, suggests that as there is no statute against an indi- 
vidual buying from whom he pleases. Every indiiidual de- 
sirous of suppressing the billboard, should form himself into 
a committee of one and refrain from purchasing articles 
thus adi’ertised. When billboard advertising ceases to be 
remunerative the billboard ceases to exist. Another com- 
munication describes the effort of a Ladies Improvement 
Society in the West, who, determined to rid the fences and 
other convenient places of grocery and other such advertise- 
ments, and being laughed at when they approached the 
storekeepers on the subject, resolved to buy nothing so ad- 
vertised, with the result that in a short time the town was 
cleaned up. 
Statue of Goethe for Chicago 
The whole circumstances attending the international 
competition for a monument to Goethe, to be. erected in 
Lincoln Park, Chicago, by the German Societies of that 
city, are most gratifying, and a distinct uplift to the cause 
of Art in this country. Nine designs were submitted to the 
jury' in Berlin, modeled by American and German sculp- 
tors, among the members of the jury being Harry Rubens, 
Chicago; Karl Bitter, New' York; August Gaul, Berlin; 
Privy Chancellor Ohmann, Vienna, and Ferdinand Miller, 
the Munich sculptor. The jury was in session for nearly 
three days, and finalh', after mature and disinterested study 
of the designs, that of Prof, Herman Hahn, Munich, was 
decided upon. The main feature of the successful model 
is the figure of a lightlj' draped young man, who, w'ith 
one foot resting on a block of marble, is holding an eagle 
on his knee. A quotation from Goethe cut in the pedestal 
explains the motive. The figure will be in bronze and will 
be some fifteen feet high. A bas relief portrait of Goethe 
is also a feature. The final selection rests with the Lincoln 
Park Commissioners, who will undoubtedly' approve the 
jury’s award, especially as they had decided to permit no 
more conventional portrait statues to be erected. 
'j? ^ 
The Road Builders Convention 
The annual convention of the American Road Builders 
Association will be held at Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 6-9, In 
connection therewith a congress of road builders and a 
“Good Roads Show" will be held. A large number of 
technical papers on road and pavement construction and 
maintenance will be presented, and discussions and addresses 
will be given by prominent men identified with the various 
phases of road and street improvements and treatment, and 
an exhibition of road materials and machinery w'ill form an 
important feature of the convention. The construction and 
maintenance of roads and highways throughout the country 
is one of increasing interest, and it is not confined to the 
country district either; the advent of the automobile has 
shown so many defects in city' street paving that new mate- 
rials and methods, or modifications on construction, must be 
considered to meet the requirements of horseless vehicles. 
The Progress of Cremation 
Silently but surely' cremation is making headway over 
the world as a means of disposing of the dead. An article 
in a recent issue of “La Cremation," a French journal de- 
voted to the cause, gives a comprehensive review of its prog- 
ress. The first crematory in Europe was installed in Milan, 
Italy', in 1876, and in August of this year there were 8.5 in 
active operation on that continent. Italy has 33, Germany 23, 
Great Britain 13, Switzerland 7, France 4, Sweden 2, Norway 
2 and Denmark 1. The L’nited States has some 47. There are 
2 in Australia and 2 in India, while a number of countries 
have one in each. The annual number of incinerations in 
Europe, which before with 2 in 1876, had increased to 13,500 
in 1909 : and the total number since 1876 up to August 1910, 
was over 160,000. Thet United States is credited with about 
55,000. These figures speak for the gradual but certain growth 
of the idea. 
