PARK AND CEMETERY 
To make these facts known is a national duty. The work 
of education must continue until public opinion will not tol- 
erate heedless waste or injudicious laws. 
* ^ * 
Improvement Societies of Chicago 
The growing number of local improvement associations in 
Chicago and the activity manifest among them continue to 
demonstrate that the movement is no less than a remarkable 
awakening in the interest of a cleaner and more beautiful 
city. 
Plans have been completed by the Chicago branch of the 
Woman’s Outdoor Art league of the .American Civic Asso- 
ciation to convert lawns, back yards and windows into flowei 
and vegetable gardens, with the children as gardeners. The 
juveniles are to be organized into neighborhood centers, each 
center to establish a system of prizes for the best results. 
Any club, society, settlement, school, or private individual may 
form a center and take charge of receiving the orders for 
seeds from the children, which will be sold at a penny a 
packet. 
What an improvement organization can undertake and 
what it can do is well exemplified by the record of the 
North Central Improvement Association, of Chicago, which 
by special arrangement with the city has official control of 
the east half of the 21st ward. It spent some $16,000 last 
year in keeping its streets and alleys swept and garnished. 
It had 459 active members and is preparing to increase its 
membership to 1,000. It is experimenting with paving and 
has several streets under care tc note quality of materials, 
and is tackling the vacant lot problem, close watch being 
kept that unoccupied building sites are not turned into 
dumping grounds for refuse. Some attempts have been made 
in landscape gardening under the advice of Supt. Warder, 
of Lincoln Park. Within two years of its existence forty 
alleys have been paved, brick being the favored material, 
though asphalt has been fairly satisfactory. Ten miles of 
streets and five of alleys are under the control of the Asso- 
ciation, which also assumes the expense, a fact which benefits 
the other half of the ward from its being allowed all the city 
appropriation. The asphalt streets are swept four or five 
times a day and flushed at night, while the macadam is 
liberally sprinkled. The cost is $1,200 per month, met by 
an assessment of $15 for each 25 feet of residence frontage 
and twice as much for business streets. A narrower road- 
way is now being urged — 26 feet instead of 32 feet, the ob- 
ject being to add to the beauty of the tree-lined thorough- 
fares. 
The South Park Improvement Association last year spent 
about $10,000 in keeping that district clean. Individuals, 
churches, stores, apartment buildings, contribute the funds in 
monthly assessments of $i or more. The University of Chi- 
cago contributes $1,500 annually. The association’s various 
activities have been previously noted in this department. 
The Woodlawn Improvement Association is planning to 
plant a vacant lot this spring in addition to its regular work, 
and asphalt is to be laid on a number of streets in the district. 
The association employs four sprinkling carts, and three 
wagons are used for the removal of ashes and garbage from 
apartment-houses by special contract. The snow plows are 
of the improved pattern, and five are in use. Five laborers 
are employed all the year round,, the number being increased 
in summer to fifteen. The receipts for this year will amount 
to over $12,000. The funds are raised by assessment accord- 
ing to frontage. Vacant property is rated at 6 cents per 
front foot a year ; property with two-story''improvements at 
69 ; 
24 cents, and with three or more story improvements at 36 
cents and upward. A special rate is made for Sixty-third 
street, the business street of the section, which contributes- 
$2,300 a year. Edward G. Carter, Superintendent of Oak- 
woods Cemetery, is President of the association. 
The Douglas Improvement Association, another South Side 
organization, has offered $275 in twelve money prizes for 
the best kept lawns in its district. The association was or- 
ganized in 1904, and since then about $12,000 has been ex- 
pended on sprinkling, flushing, hauling rubbish, removing 
snow, planting grass and even sprinkling alleys. One item 
of the $6,000 expended last year is $50.80 for salt. Seven 
tons of salt were used to melt the snow on the twelve miles 
of sidewalk in the district. 
The Rogers Park Improvement Association on the West 
Side of the city has 500 members who subscribe $2 a year 
each. With this $1,000 the association performs a multiplicity 
of small tasks. In spring the clean ashes are used for filling 
up the alleys between different lengths of sidewalk. In sum- 
mer the weeds on the vacant lots are cut down and burned. 
The association even takes in hand the collection of stray 
dogs for the city authorities. The organization has been in 
existence nine years and during that time has worked for 
such objects as the reduction of taxes, organization of park 
districts, extensions of the sewer system and 5-cent car fare. 
The Wicker Park Improvement Association on the North- 
west Side will purchase about 50 rustic flower stands to be 
set up at street corners. The property owners subscribe about 
$150 a month at the rate of 2 cents per frontage foot. This- 
money is expended mainly for the hire of two men for street 
cleaning. 
The Ravenswood Improvement Association, another or- 
ganization in the same section of the city, has for its purpose 
the cleaning and improving of streets and alleys. There are 
seventeen miles of .streets within these limits, and last year 
$3,200 was collected from the residents. Two cents for each 
foot of street frontage is paid for sprinkling during seven 
months of the year. The charge for each lot for removing 
snow is $i — $2 for corner lots. All the churches and public 
buildings in the locality subscribe liberally, and many of the 
small shopkeepers pay more than required. The association 
owns two improved snow plows and two sprinkling wagons. 
The Milwaukee Avenue Improvement Association has re- 
cently been organized to clean and sprinkle that thoroughfare, 
which is the principal business street of a German district. 
It has been decided to purchase a sprinkling cart, wagons 
and horses to be hired from a fund to be secured by popular 
subscriptions. The plan is to have each merchant pay the 
sum of $i per month for each twenty-five feet of frontage. 
Morgan Park, one of the pretty suburbs of Chicago, has a 
live improvement association which is ably assisted by an 
interesting newsy weekly paper, “The Ridge Record,” de- 
voted to matters of interest to several towns on the “Ridge” 
between Chicago and Blue Island. The association keeps 
the paper well supplied with improvement news, and is mak- 
ing preparations to purchase a spraying outfit for the exter- 
mination of the cottony maple scale. Recent numbers con- 
tain interesting contributions on “The Coming of the Birds,” 
and “Tree Trimming,” by Mr. H. J. Bohn, one of the active 
workers in the association, who is also President of the Park 
Board of the Calumet District. The commissioners have re- 
cently employed Superintendent Jens Jensen of the West 
Side Park System of Chicago to plan improvements for the 
parks. The first work will be to improve the railroad sta- 
tion park. 
