E 
PARK AND 
AND LANDSCAP 
C E M E T 
GARDE 
VOL. XXIII MAY, 1913 
EDITORIAL 
E R Y 
N I N G 
No. 3 
Roads and Car ] 
The question of public highways and street car lines in the 
parks is many-sided and far-reaching. Only where there is the 
most urgent need should car lines or public roads be allowed 
in parks, and yet they should be so constructed as to give easy pub- 
lic access to the most interesting features of the scenic parks, 
so that the great mass of the people who do not use automobiles 
may enjoy them with the minimum expenditure of time and 
money. The newer ideals of useful park service are letting many 
things into the parks that were formerly forbidden, and our ideas 
on park transportation may perhaps come in for some revision in 
the future. In Cedar Rapids, Ellis Park was given to the city 
with the proviso that it be forever used for park purposes, and 
the court in that city has just enjoined the city from opening a 
highway through the park. The decree forbids the city from 
using any portion of Ellis Park, deeded for park purposes only, 
for a public highway or thoroughfare, or in any other way than 
exclusively for park purposes with only the driveways and walks 
generally incident to such use for pleasure and enjoyment as a 
park. On the other hand, the City Planning Commission of Pitts- 
National Progress 
The fifth National Conference on City Planning, held in Chi- 
cago May S, 6 and 7, demonstrated the growing importance of 
scientific planning and development, and the increasingly practical 
aspect of the city planning studies. The addresses and studies 
presented constitute the most valuable data on this subject yet 
developed, and the proceedings of this annual conference will 
make a most valuable addition to city planning literature. The 
future of city planning was well set forth in the opening address 
of Frederick Law Olmsted in these words : “Looking forward 
fifty years, let us imagine the status of city planning in a fairly 
well conducted American city. There will be some official body 
ines in the Parks 
burgh has recommended that a car line be built through Schenley 
Park, and the following quotation from the Pittsburgh Sun t dis- 
cussing the matter, has much of reason in it: 
“The Sun has no plan of its own for a street car line in 
Schenley park, but the one recommended by the City Planning com- 
mission to council is by far the most practical yet mentioned. It 
believes with the latest economic survey of the city that this, our 
largest park, should be made to yield greater social returns, that 
it should touch and recreate more of the people. This suggestion 
of a car line in Schenley park is not made without regard for the 
beauty of the park, but with regard for it, to make it possible for 
more persons to see it and to enjoy it. This attitude has been 
taken by practically all who have looked into our park system. 
Street car facilities to bring the parks and their pleasures to 
the tired mothers and little children have been recommended by 
all. Public parks should not be maintained merely as preserves 
for the rich, who in automobiles may wind their way among its 
beauties or reach its choicest recreation spots. The interests of 
the great majority who do not have automobiles must be con- 
sidered. The scheme of the City Planning commission, running 
through the park, would take thei people right to where they 
wished to alight. Its course, with beautiful scenery on all sides, 
would make riding over it a rare pleasure in itself. A line en- 
circling the park would serve the need but little better than the 
present system — the crowds would still have to walk from all 
sides to the center — and the cost of such a belt would be so far 
beyond that of the other proposition as to recommend the latter 
at once as the more feasible.” 
in City Planning 
charged with the prime responsibility for the custody, interpre- 
tation and amendment of the city plan. Whether the official 
head is one man or a group of men, there will be a staff of 
assistants and the whole body will be known as the city plan 
office.” One of the most interesting features of the conference 
was the report of the Committee on City Planning Study, which 
was accompanied by plans of a model section of 491 acres to be 
built within the limits of a city of 500,000 inhabitants, but to be 
four miles from the center of the municipality. Seven landscape 
architects participated. It is said to be the first outline of a model 
city which has been figured down to actual cost of buildings. 
Anti-Cemetery Legislation 
The promoters who have been responsible for some financial 
juggling with profit-making cemeteries in a number of cases may 
doubtless be held responsible for the attempts at anti-cemeterv 
legislation, of which some news is given on another page. The 
energetic financier who compares the price of a cemetery lot 
with the price of a piece of adjoining cow pasture or corn field, 
and then without further figuring proceeds to generalize on the 
“immense profits” in the cemetery business, has made quite a 
large section of the public, including some of our ever-innocent 
and gullible legislators, believe him. Consequently the New York 
Legislature is trying to tax all cemetery land that is not actually 
occupied by graves. As cemeteries have to buy land many years 
in advance of their needs, and hold large areas vacant for future 
use, such a law as this might easily bankrupt many cemeteries 
that can now hardly make both ends meet. In Massachusetts 
the ridiculous injustice of taxing cemetery perpetual care funds 
has been done away with by a bill exempting such funds from 
taxation, but the idea that the cemetery is a great profit-making 
octopus is still quite prevalent with the careless public. In Penn- 
sylvania an effort is being made to prevent cemeteries from for- 
biddding outsiders to work on the lots, and there is reported 
to be considerable sentiment in favor of the measure. The basic 
idea behind all of these attempts is the fundamental misappre- 
hension that cemeteries are earning vast sums of money. The 
well-managed cemetery conducted on business principles should be 
a self-supporting institution, but the greater share of its profits 
is used for the betterment of its grounds. The lot owner and the 
public both benefit in better cemeteries by whatever profit the 
cemetery makes. 
The Squirrels Again 
We have again before us the familiar subject of squirrels in 
the parks. On another page several correspondents try and con- 
demn the squirrels, and several acquit them. The case is strongly 
presented in communications from both sides, and the superin- 
tendent who is confronted with the squirrel problem will find here 
sufficient evidence to enable him to make a decision for himself. 
The squirrels, at least certain types of them, do certain damage in 
the parks. Is this damage sufficient to warrant their extermina- 
tion ? On the other hand, they are a great attraction to the park 
visitors and serve certain useful purposes. Here is a chance to 
weigh the evidence carefully for and against them. 
