PAR.K AND CEMETERY 
33 
in the business district, and the bill board disgrace in all 
parts of the city. * * =ic 
At the recent meeting of the International Waterways 
Commission in Toronto, an agreement was reached regard- 
ing Niagara Falls by which both countries will take all pre- 
cautions to save its scenic beauty. The American commis- 
sioners desired a report of the commission which might form 
the basis of a treaty between Great Britain and the United 
States regarding the waters of Niagara Falls. This the 
Canadians declined unless specially instructed by their gov- 
ernment. The next meeting will be held in Washington, 
April 24. ' 
* * * 
A comprehensive and artistic plan for the improvement of 
Denver has been submitted to the mayor and the art com- 
mission of that city by Charles Mulford Robinson. The re- 
port takes the state capitol’building as the axis, and seeks to 
keep unobstructed the glorious vista of mountains and to 
maintain free and untrammeled this building and the es- 
planade beneath, providing for the decoration of this lower 
ground with fountain, basin and shrubbery and extending 
Fifteenth and Sixteenth street up to connect with the capitol 
grounds. The cost of this work, including the condemnation 
of property, is placed at $2,000,000. 
^ 
An increasing number of improvement societies are offer- 
ing prizes for home gardening and lawn improvements. 
The City Improvement Club of Sheboygan, Wis., has 
offered prizes for the prettiest dooryards and flower beds for 
home gardeners whose property is not assessed at over $s.ooo.. 
The Saginaw Civic Improvement Association, Saginaw, 
Mich., is making a special effort to beautify lawns and streets 
for its semi-centennial, which is to be celebrated this year. 
Thousands of orders for trees and shrubs have been received 
in answer to postal cards sent out by the association. 
The Civic Improvement League of San Antonio has dis- 
tributed flower seeds to the school children and will offer 
prizes for beautifying home grounds in different sections of 
the city. General prizes for the best results with flowers, 
shrubs and plants throughout the city will also be offered. 
The Winter-Hill Improvement Association, Somerville, 
Mass., is offering prizes for the improvement of home 
grounds and has undertaken the work of removing objection- 
able features from the banks of the Mystic river and the 
beautifying of the banks along the town line. 
* * 
Billboards, 
Boston is having an exciting discussion on the billboard 
nuisance, occasioned this time by an objectionable sign on 
the roof of a building No. 2 Park Street, and one on Boylston 
Street above the Hotel Pelham ; these are at opposite ends of 
her beloved “Common.” A postal card campaign was in- 
augurated, on the forwarding card a brief statement of the 
facts was printed and an earnest request made to sign the 
petition printed on the attached card and to return it to the 
committee addressed. The press has warmly co-operated. 
* * * 
Mr. Walter B. Snow, advertising manager of the B. F. 
Sturtevant Company, Boston, in a reply to the protesting 
committee, and which was published in the Boston Journal, 
says : “I am very much pleased to note by the papers the 
protest which is to be made against the appearance of signs 
facing the Common and to find a channel through which I 
can add my protest to the others. Although manager of 
the advertising department of this company, the offence to 
good taste entirely outweighs in my mind the value of any 
publicity which might result. There is a legitimate field for 
advertising, but I believe that Boston’s standard is too high 
to permit of such an outrage as appears imminent.” 
* * * 
Mr. Sylvester Baxter, in the course of a long article in the 
Boston Transcript, touching upon the failure of the courts 
to uphold the legislation passed to prevent billboard advertis- 
ing close to the parks, etc., says: “Even the courts have not 
risen to embody in their decisions the ethical principle that 
‘no man has. a right to do harm with his own,’ in place of the 
antiquated notion that ‘every man may do as he pleases with 
his own.’ * * * A man may not throw stones at his 
neighbors from his own lot ; he may not even assail their 
ears with intolerable noises or their nostrils with vile smells 
originating therein. But their eyes remain defenseless, the 
visual sense may be assailed with impunity by any one who 
chooses to violate it. The license to offend the public eye 
with little or no restraint conferred by recent court decisions 
in various states has made it extremely difficult to curb the 
evil by legal restrictions. * * * The decision of the Su- 
preme Court while not holding the law unconstitutional, 
practically nullifies it by declaring such rules and regula- 
tions ‘unreasonable,’ inasmuch as they deprived property 
holders of right in their lands without compensation. The 
fact that these rights were being used adversely to the in- 
terests that had created such values was apparently not 
considered. In Germany similar claims were recently the 
subject of a decision to the effect that uses of property for ad- 
vertising purposes were of such recent origin that, when ex- 
ercised adversely to the public interest they did not constitute 
rights for which compensation could rightfully be claimed 
when exercised contrary to lawful regulations.” 
* * * 
The protest of the Boston people against these advertising 
signs on the sky line about the “Common” has already re- 
sulted in the early removal of the Hotel Pelham board, and it 
has brought forth a very agreeable letter from the adver- 
tiser, The Gillette Safety Razor Co. The letter goes to 
show the force of public opinion, as well as the responsive 
chord to be found probably in all such offenders. The let- 
ter says: “We desire to assure your society of our co-opera- 
tion to assist them in preserving the architectural grace and 
pleasant views in and about Boston Common. We are im- 
pressed by 'the agitation and civic attention which are mani- 
fested in connection with beautifying Boston, and desire to 
add our interest in every in,stance where the censensus of 
opinion predominates on the side of a more careful and ju- 
dicious display of advertisements. We shall take into im- 
mediate consideration the cancellation of our Hotel Pelham 
sign and have it put into effect at the earliest possible mo- 
ment consistent with a due recognition of the rights of all 
parties concerned.” 
♦ * * ■ 
The billboard ordinance of Kansas City, Mo., went into 
effect March 21, and it is said to be the intention of the 
authorities to rigidly enforce it. The new ordinance requires 
that all billboards should be twelve feet back from the side- 
walk line ; that no board shall be more than ten feet from 
its lower to its upper edge ; that the lower edge shall not 
be higher than two feet from the ground and there must 
be a space of at least eighteen inches under each billboard. 
No billboard shall be nearer than 100 feet to a park or 
boulevard and all boards must be in a straight line with at 
least three feet space between the ends thereof and any wall 
or building. Indecent pictpres are prohibited. The super- 
intendent of building is to condemn all boards that he deems 
unsafe, and all boards erected prior to the passage of the 
ordinance that do not comply therewith must be torn down 
in six months from the approval of the ordinance. 
