PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
PUBLISHED BY ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
R. J. HAIGHT, President H. C. WHITAKER, Viee-President and General Manager O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
VOL. XXIII JULY, 1913 No. 5 
EDITORIAL 
Getting Started In Playground Work 
There is scarcely a day that does not bring to the observant 
student of park affairs evidence that the playground move- 
ment is growing faster than almost any development in mod- 
ern park affairs. Playgrounds and service parks are now 
being installed in every well-conducted park system, and it is 
only a question of time when they will be important features 
of every park system, large or small. Even the smaller cities 
are now making beginnings at playground work, and we are 
giving special attention to playground study this month in the 
hope that it may be of assistance to others who have not 
yet made the beginnings of playground or park service work 
in their communities. This work can be started, as is pointed 
out in some contributions in this issue, on a very small scale, 
and the expense for the first few years need not be heavy. 
When the value and the popularity of playgrounds and serv- 
ice parks are demonstrated in a small way, citizens and public 
officials will no longer be willing to be without them and the 
people will demand them. When they demand this service a 
way will be found to get increased appropiations for the work. 
Playgrounds and park service are essential parts of our public 
education, and where it has not already been done the school 
yards during vacation time can well serve as playgrounds. 
No better use can be made of them and of the school build- 
ings during vacation periods. It takes very little effort or 
very little money to transform a vacant lot into a useful play- 
ground and a school yard needs only the addition of a very 
little apparatus and a very little supervision to make an excel- 
lent playground of it. In Moline, 111., the Playgrounds Com- 
mittee of the Civic Department of the Woman’s Club is 
endeavoring to establish and conduct playgrounds for the 
children of Moline. It desires first of all to have a playground 
in Riverside Park. As a starter, two tennis courts have 
already been donated, and the city has volunteered to keep a 
sandpile for the children on the grounds. In addition, city 
commissioners have indicated that when it comes to making 
up the city’s annual budget an appropriation of some money 
will be made for the enterprise. It is recognized, too, that 
such a playground will need supervision. Three local men 
have already pledged $180 for such supervision for the first 
three months. It is believed that the grounds should be super- 
vised from 9:30 in the morning to 8 in the evening. This 
time could be divided into two periods, one supervisor to be 
in attendance the first half of the day, another the last half. 
Competent women can be secured in rotation for these tasks, 
each to get $30 a month for the half day’s service. The Play- 
grounds Committee estimates that it will take $700 to $1,000 
for additional equipment for the Riverside Park grounds. 
This would be equipment on the cheapest scale. But it would 
be enough for a start this season if the money can be raised 
quickly, now that school is out. There ought to be no diffi- 
culty in raising this money, and the methods by which Mo- 
line is making a beginning in playground work can be fol- 
lowed in any community. The arguments for playgrounds 
are unanswerable and make instant appeal to every patriotic 
citizen, when proper publicity is given them. For example, 
an editorial that recently appeared in the St. Louis Republic 
puts the case so forcibly under the heading, “Prisons or 
Parks,’’ that it would be of great assistance in arousing senti- 
ment for playground work if it were circulated in any com- 
munity. We quote it as follows: 
“If a boy has no place where he can play ball he Is very likely 
to exercise his pitching- arm by throwing stones through windows 
of vacant houses. If he has no place -where he can pretend that 
he is a bandit he may turn out a sneak thief in good earnest. The 
instinct of play is as nautral as that for food. Young animals, 
the human included, take their pleasure by doing in sport what 
their parents do from necessity Playing “keep house," playing 
“war,” playing “horse” and playing “fire” are natural expressions 
of deeprooted instincts of childhood. If they can find no proper 
environment for their expression they become warped and evil. 
All of these observations are commonplace, but there is a vast 
bulk of adult humanity which vaguely recognizes their truth but 
fails to see the duty that is involved in their assertion. Such per- 
sons view play not as a necessary function of childhood, but as 
an infirmity of the child to be outgrown as soon as may be. There 
are the men who tie a hard knot in their pure strings when anyone 
says parks. But Park Commissioner Davis takes a different and 
an enlightened view of the matter. He is asking St. Louis for a 
large sum of money to provide parks and playgrounds for children. 
He proposes to study the records of the .iuvenile court to see 
w'here youthful offenders are most numerous. In those localities 
he means to provide playgrounds where children may go about 
the very necessary business of playing under conditions such that 
their abounding energy and inventiveness shall not be turned into 
harmful channels. For proof that this policy is sound, he cites 
the fact that juvenile offenses have been reduced by half in neigh- 
borhoods where parks have been established. That brings the 
whole matter to a head. Shall St. Louis pay for courts and prisons 
and take its returns in protection from criminality or shall it pay 
for parks and reap a profit of good men and women?” 
Cemetery Legislation 
In view of the trouble concerning the taxation of perpetual 
care funds in Massachusetts, which was in force for a while, 
but abolished by a recent act, it would be well for cemeteries in 
other states to inform themselves on the legal status of their 
funds, as they may encounter the same trouble as was encoun- 
tered by the Milford Cemetery, whose taxation brought about 
the passage of the bill printed in our last issue. While the Mil- 
ford Cemetery is now relieved of this burden, the taxes already 
unjustly paid cannot be recovered and it is well to look out for 
these matters before they become pressing. It is very probable 
that similar bills will need to be passed in other states in order 
to avoid the possibility of taxing large funds for perpetual care 
and repair work. Legislators are looking for many things to tax 
and reform, and the misapprehension prevailing among them that 
cemeteries are big profit-making institutions may lead to similar 
efforts toward taxation of perpetual care funds. Cemetery legis- 
lation is a very important subject and it is well to keep accurately 
informed on its status in every state and at all times. 
