PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening:. 
Vol. XV CHICAGO, AUGUST, 1905. No. 6 
Ne<w Life for the Chicago Parks, 
The appointment of Mr. Jens Jensen as superin- 
tendent of the West Park System of Chicago, may be 
regarded as the beginning of the final chapter in the 
removal of the Chicago Parks from the blight of poli- 
tics. Chicago, with its parks under the management of 
three different Boards of Commissioners has long been 
an anomaly in park management, and has furnished 
examples of park work ranging from the worst to the 
best. The South Park System, under the expert care 
of Superintendent Foster and a public spirited Board 
of Commissioners, has been a model of efficiency and 
its value will be still further enhanced when the new 
system of public service parks, now under development, 
has been fully completed. A few years ago Lincoln 
Park was taken from the hands of the spoils politicians 
and placed in charge of Superintendent Warder. It 
has since made rapid progress and will soon be able to 
take its place in the same class as the South Park 
System. Mr. Jensen is a landscape architect of high 
reputation, a member of the newer American school, 
whose aim is to keep the parks as near to nature as pos- 
sible. He has the energy and enthusiasm to under- 
take the regeneration of the West Park System and 
the technical and executive ability to accomplish it. 
With all three of its park divisions under such able 
management Chicago is now in a position to enter upon 
an era of park building which should place it where 
it belongs among American cities. 
^ 
The Cost of Politics in Park Work. 
Prompted it seems by political motives calculated 
to defeat the public demand for parks the Citv Coun- 
cil of Boston about the year 1875 restricted the maxi- 
mum price to be paid for land necessary in the Back 
Bay improvement to ten cents per square foot. With- 
out the restriction it is estimated that a saving of one 
million dollars in construction or an increase of two 
hundred and five acres in park area might have been 
effected. This fact was announced at a recent lec- 
ture before the American Society of Landscape Archi- 
tects in Boston by Mr. John C. Olmsted, who, with 
his father, the late Frederick Law Olmsted, de- 
signed the Boston Park System. 
A municipality embarking on a park development 
policy requires the services of persons who have proven 
their capacity to successfully conduct large operations, 
and whose knowledge and experience of art, business 
and technical problems involved is superior and whose 
devotion and public spirit is' unquestioned. A civic 
Board of Administrators having these qualifications 
should be clothed with abundant power to act accord- 
ing to their judgment without hampering restrictions 
imposed by a City Council. If Boston’s lesson serves 
to assist other municipalities in learning what to avoid 
as well as what to do in park devdopment, the cost may 
yet prove to have been worth while. 
^ ^ ^ 
Farther Uses for the Parks. 
The parks of this country would seem to have a 
broader mission to fill than similar institutions on the 
older continent, largely on account of the strenuous 
commercialism that has given us the reputation of be- 
ing a country of “all work and no play." We are rap- 
idly coming to the conclusion that “play” is an essen- 
tial of good citizenship, and the means to encourage it 
having been overlooked, it devolves upon the parks 
to retrieve the situation. Not only must the parks 
provide facilities for harmless sport and gymnastic 
exercises, but they should include buildings wherein 
less strenuous amusement may be found, and wherein 
neighborhood associations and kindred gatherings may 
meet and enjoy the opportunity, with all up-to-date ar- 
rangements as to public comfort and encouragement 
to higher living. ^ ^ ^ 
(Annual Con'vention of the A. A. C. S. 
The coming nineteenth convention of the Associa- 
tion of American Cemetery Superintendents, which is 
to be held in Washington, D. C., Sept. 19-22 next, 
reminds us of its importance in relation not only to 
the question of Cemetery maintenance and improve- 
ment, but of its effect on landscape art in this coun- 
try. There is no doubt whatever of its far-reaching 
influence in this direction, and it is therefore an organ- 
ization that should be encouraged by a largely in- 
creased membership, and by the participation in its 
proceedings of all officials and others interested in the 
development and control of cemetery properties. The 
unrestricted discussion of matters vitally affecting the 
welfare of the cemetery, and this by men of intelli- 
gence and knowledge of the subject, should prompt 
a full attendance of cemetery officials generally. Their 
ideas would be broadened, and their senses made more 
keenly alert to the demands of the times, , and the ne- 
cessities of their own grounds. They would also be- 
come acquainted with sources of expert information 
upon which they could draw on occasion, and they 
would quickly realize that the cost both as to conven- 
ience and expense would be returned a hundred fold. 
The Washington convention offers great inducements 
for a large attendance and corresponding benefits 
