PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening:. 
Vol. XVI. Chicago, January, 1907 No. 11 
Preservation of Niagara Falls 
In this opening month of the New Year it certainly 
is a pleasing duty to urge our readers and all inter- 
ested in the preservation of Niagara Falls to do all 
in their power to assist the American Civic Associa- 
tion in its campaign to preserve that world-renowned 
cataract of ours. In the meetings recently held be- 
fore Secretary of War Taft, the matter in its present 
bearings was seriously threshed out, and by all indi- 
cations largely in favor of the people. But there is 
much work to be done, and another meeting before 
Secretary Taft is ordered for January 14. In fact, in 
such a battle nothing can be considered safe until the 
international treaty is both negotiated and ratified by 
the Senate of the United States. We may safely 
leave the fight in the hands of the American Civic 
Association, but it must have both personal and finan- 
cial help. This necessity is eloquently set forth in 
the recent literature issued from the general offices, 
Philadelphia, Pa., literature, by the way, which is ex- 
ceedingly interesting and instructive. Funds are ur- 
gently needed, and it really behooves all those inter- 
ested in Niagara Falls, and that should be all Ameri- 
cans at least, to aid the association to lift its moderate 
deficit and provide the “sinews of war” for a continu- 
ance of the campaign. 
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» Museums in Our Parks 
In consequence of an offer of a public spirited citi- 
zen of Chicago to place his large collection of war 
relics in Garfield Park, provided an appropriate site 
be set apart and a suitable building erected, the whole 
question of museums in parks has been investigated. 
It transpires that the state laws grant no powers or 
authority to the park com.missioners to furnish sites 
or appropriate money for a museum to house and dis- 
play the “Gunther Collection of War Relics,” but do 
permit museums for the display of objects pertaining 
to national history or the arts and sciences. The law 
appears to be exact in these definitions, and in some 
quarters efforts are to be made at the present session 
of the Illinois legislature to broaden out the law to 
meet such cases. In the report on the subject by 
Mr. Jens Jensen, general superintendent of the West 
Side park system, there is a decidedly discouraging 
note on the scheme. Mr. Jensen argues that in view 
of the improvements designed for Garfield Park, it 
would be impossible to provide the necessary ten acres 
for the proper surroudings of such a museum, and 
that whatever buildings are erected in a recreation 
park should be subservient to the landscape and not 
dominate it. He suggests that such a museum should 
be centrally located in large cities, or on land fronting 
the parks. Mr. Jensen’s views are well grounded, and 
while he believes that there is much in this collection 
of great value to the people, he also thoroughly be- 
lieves that such a museum should be located where it 
will be of the greatest value to the greatest number. 
Apart from the park interests, however, this collec- 
tion should find an appropriate home somewhere. 
^ 
Access to Public Parks 
Pittsburg’s beautiful parks. Highland and Schenley, 
are not patronized by the public as they should be on 
account of their comparative inaccessibility, notwith- 
standing which, the mayor opposes a measure, recently 
introduced into the council, making an appropriation 
for a trolley line to Schenley Park. It has been an 
oft-expressed criticism that Pittsburg’s finest parks 
were only intended for the rich who can afford to 
drive, and such a criticism is full of dynamite so far 
as the masses are concerned. One can hardly under- 
stand the policy of such an important city as Pittsburg 
maintaining such extensive parks as those mentioned 
above, without providing means of access to them by 
those for whom they are mainly intended. The policy 
is a shortsighted and dangerous one; for the parks in 
the larger industrial centers are the breathing places 
for the people, where healthy minds in healthy 
bodies are developed, and where new views of life 
and labor are encouraged. This feature of Pittsburg’s 
park system should be immediately remedied. 
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Billboard Advertising 
It is not intended to let this subject rest until ab- 
solute control of its obnoxious features is in the hands 
of the authorities representing the people. Manifest 
improvement is already observed from the campaign 
thus far conducted, but the work still ahead is so 
great that no respite must be permitted in the activity 
being waged to bring this method of commercial ad- 
vertising under subjection. An article appeared in 
the January “Century,” in which pictorial suggestions 
were made by American artists, illustrating the idea 
of treating advertising as an art, in which beauty is 
called into service. The writer says we are “in the 
childish period of advertising, the era of Chinese 
gong and firecracker methods.” We have allowed all 
too much freedom in ways and means of pushing com- 
mercial schemes, honest and otherwise ; and that free- 
dom has, as it always will when subject to a mini- 
mum of control, resolve itself into license. We are 
all now strenuously working to control this license, 
and the prospects of success are rapidly brightening 
though there is work enough ahead to be sure. 
