PARK AND CEMETERY. 
.')!)() 
purchased through the supply com- 
missioner. 
The present zoo and Inrd cage at- 
tract large crowds to the park, par- 
ticularly in summer time and on Sun- 
davs and holidays. As high as 10,000 
people have viewed the birds on nice 
days when there was no other special 
attraction to bring people to the park. 
Hardly a Sunday passes that two or 
three thousand do not include the 
cage in their sight-seeing in the park. 
The public schools make special use 
of the cage in the teaching of classes 
in zoological subjects. Five and six 
classes are often at the cage at a 
time, each in charge of a teacher. 
Children are often brought from the 
surrounding towns by the school au- 
thorities, and the number of visitors 
during the school year is greatly in- 
creased in that way. 
.\dvocates of a bigger and better 
public zoo point to the interest mani- 
fested in the New York zoo and that 
in some other cities as an indication 
that it would liring many people to 
the city. Some of the railroads now 
run regular excursion trains to St. 
Louis during the summer months, and 
it is claimed that if there was a point 
of interest like a great zoo more roads 
would run excursions and those who 
do run them would do so oftener and 
be patronized more. 
Park Commissioner Philip C. Scan- 
lan favors the bigger zoo and new 
cpiarters for the present zoo, but says 
his appropriation is not sufficient. 
With other officials, however, he says 
that money may be available for it 
later. The enthusiasm among some 
of the business men and the Million 
Club’s special committee seems sr; 
great that a fund may be provided 
for erecting and equipping the zoo 
and turning it over to the city. In 
that .event the city would have only 
the expense of maintaining the zoo, 
rather a heavy one. 
EFFECTIVE PARK ORGANIZATION and MANAGEMENT 
From a Report to the Chattanooga Park Board by 
John Nolen, Landscape Architect, Cambridge, Mass. 
With regard to the composition of 
the park board or commission, the 
best results have been secured usually 
front a body composed of not less 
than three nor more than five mem- 
bers, serving without pay, and with 
overlapping and rather long terms of 
service. The president of the board 
should be a distinctly able adminis- 
trator, accustomed to large affairs and 
resourceful. He should have some 
measure of constructive imagination, 
high ideals, and sympathy with the 
people. Moreover, it is of great ad- 
vantage if he has had some of the 
fruits of travel, acquainting him at 
first hand with the parks and public 
improvements of other cities. 
The other members of the board 
should be men of good taste, men 
capable of judging accurately what 
is appropriate in the form of develop- 
ment for this or that park. They 
should possess a nice discrimination 
as to the best means to employ to 
produce consistent effects. It is not 
yet customary to appoint women on 
park boards, but many of them pos- 
sess the qualifications that are most 
desirable. They have often a love 
of nature, a knowledge of art and 
familiarity with the purpose of parks, 
especially the relation of parks and 
playgrounds to children, which men 
do not possess to the same degree. 
The board of park commissioners 
should confine itself to questions of 
general policy. It should not at- 
tempt to make plans or designs for 
park grounds, to administer park laws 
and regulations, nor to supervise 
park maintenance. Advice as to the 
selection of land for parks, plans for 
their laying out and construction, and 
occasional, suggestions as to their up- 
keep should be secured from well- 
qualified landscape architects, experts, 
who have gathered up the best results 
of study and experience in this diffi- 
cult field of art. There is danger of 
serious mistakes, if dependence is 
placed upon men who as engineers or 
gardeners know only a part of the 
work, for the final and highest justi- 
fication of parks is their beauty: and, 
if they lack appropriate, permanent, 
and ever-increasing beauty, they fail. 
The execution of the plans of the 
professional landscape architect, the 
selection of park employes, and the 
detailed administration of the park 
work should be intrusted to a trained 
superintendent. While his qualifica- 
tions are different from those of the 
landscape architect, they are of a 
high order, and the success or fail- 
ure of the parks as works of land- 
scape art and their right use by the 
people will depend largely upon the 
superintendent. Landscape art is dif- 
ferent from any other, except the 
art of city making which includes it, 
in that it is an art which deals with 
growing things. It is not fixed like 
a painting, a statue, or a building. 
From year to year it changes, takes 
on new forms and proportions. 
Therefore, if suitable and artistic re- 
sults are to be secured, this process 
must be steadily and intelligently con- 
trolled and guided. Such work re- 
quires a man of taste as well as know- 
ledge, and there is to-day in this field 
an increasing demand for superin- 
tendents of high qualifications. 
If a park board is to proceed eco- 
nomically and confidently in the ex- 
ecution of large plans for park de- 
velopment, it must be independent of 
financial or other control by the city 
government. Otherwise, a vacillat- 
ing policy must be expected, inferior 
results, and considerable waste of 
public funds. Independence in the 
matter of the annual appropriation 
is especially important. There should 
be a law giving the park board a fixed 
percentage, based upon the assessed 
valuation of the city. I’his automatic 
method is sound, because the regular 
park work increases in proportion to 
the population and wealth. Unusual 
needs should be provided for by ad- 
ditional appropriations by the city 
government, in e.xcess of the regular 
appropriation. As clear a line as pos- 
sible should be drawn between m;iin- 
tenance, on the one hand, and ac- 
quisition of land and permanent con- 
struction on the other. Maintenance 
expense should be met from current 
funds, but the cost of acquisition and 
permanent construction should usu- 
ally he provided by long-time loans. 
The most indestructible and perma- 
nently valuable asset of the city is 
the land it owns, and its acquisition 
should almost invariably be provided 
for by loans. One exception to this 
rule is vrhen the method of payment 
follov.'ed is that of special assessment 
on , abutting or near-by property. 
Kansas City adopted this method fif- 
teen years ago, and under it success- 
fully developed its entire park system, 
providing for an expenditure of over 
ten million dollars without bonds. 
In park administration, then, the 
points of greatest importance to keep 
in mind are the composition of the 
park commission, the adoption of a 
sound general policy, the liberal use 
of expert designers, the employment- 
of a highly qualified superintendent, 
and entire freedom from politics. 
