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 OCTOBER, 1913 No. 8 
EDITORIAL 
Local Benefit Taxation 
Not only the validity of the benefit district feature of the park 
laws of Missouri, under which it is proposed to construct parks 
and boulevards' in St. Joseph, but the similar law in Kansas City, 
under which a $25,000,000 park and boulevard system has been 
built, will be tested in the Supreme Court in the Prospect Park 
suit filed at St. Joseph. Thomas B. Allen, attorney for Taxpay- 
ers’ League No. 1, brings the suit in the name of Mrs. Mary Pash, 
who lives within the benefit district, and whose benefits are placed 
at more than seven hundred dollars on an assessed valuation of 
$1,000. In the decision in the Kansas City-Liberty boulevard case, 
written by Judge Brown, the point is made that it is unconstitu- 
tional to tax land for benefits, without regarding the value of 
improvements on the land. In other words, if there is a house 
on a lot, this must be taken into consideration in assessing bene- 
fits. It is this point, it is said, which has a direct bearing on the 
Prospect Park case, for the reason that the law provides that 
the benefits shall be taxed without taking the improvements into 
consideration. The jury in the Prospect Park case had no seo- 
arate valuation for the land within the benefit district, so de- 
cided upon a square foot rule, basing the benefits on the number 
for Park Improvements 
of square feet in a lot, and further dividing the benefit district 
into “zones” and taxing the land in different “zones” at different 
rates. In view of the decision of the Supreme Court, just ren- 
dered in the Kansas City case, it is believed by Allen that an im- 
portant point may be gained by his clients. This entirely new 
point in the Brown decision, as affecting the park case in St. 
Joseph, may affect the entire plan of benefit districts for parks. 
It would not, however, it is said, affect the voting of bonds for 
parks. The park law as incorporated into the St. Joseph charter 
from that of Kansas City, provides for benefit districts within 
the city limits only. The Kansas City-Liberty boulevard case pro- 
vided for a benefit district in the country. It is said by those 
who believe the Brown decision will affect local conditions that 
the same principle declared invalid in the country will be de- 
clared invalid in the city in a similar case. The decision under 
which the Kansas City park and boulevard was upheld was ren- 
dered in what is known as the Corrigan case, and in that there 
were three judges who dissented. While Judge Brown states that 
he is not trying to overrule that case, he expresses doubt as to the 
correctness of the Corrigan case. 
Better Design In Cemetery Monuments 
In an address on the Designing of Monuments before the con- 
vention of the National Retail Monument Dealers’ Association 
held at Boston, August 19 to 21, J. Randolph Coolidge, of the 
Boston Chamber of Commerce, made some excellent suggestions 
for better designed cemetery memorials. In a series of twelve 
“don’ts” he called forcible attention to some common errors in 
monument design. We quote as follows: 
1. Don’t indulge in broken columns or any other made-to- 
order ruins. 
2. Don’t overdo the rock face; it looks too artificial. 
3. Don't have the Gates Ajar or any other form of restless- 
ness. 
4. Don’t use great, heavy pedestals to carry small columns. 
5. Don’t use miniature columns and pilasters to carry real 
solid loads. 
6. Don’t mix the conventional with natural ornament. 
7. Don’t carve inscriptions on fussy backgrounds. (I know 
of an inscription of a great man to a great man on a background 
of Mexican onyx; each spoils the other.) 
8. Don’t put a family name and also the initial thereof on 
the same stone. Most people know that Bean begins with a B. 
9. Don’t use Gothic lettering with classic details. 
10. Don’t use classic lettering with Gothic details. 
11. Don’t use the Boston sign letter or anything like it under 
any circumstances. Study the lettering as much as all the rest of 
the designs put together. 
12. Don’t mistake size for value, or cost for beauty. 
The exhibit of cemetery monuments at this convention covered 
25,000 square feet of floor space in the Boston Arena and strik- 
ingly exemplified the advancement of monumental design. The 
average of workmanship and design in the monuments here was 
far in advance of that shown at any previous convention, and this 
exhibit is one of the most encouraging evidences of the tendency 
toward higher standards of art in our cemetery memorials. 
Editorial Notes 
Injunction proceedings against the Northern Ohio Traction 
and Light Company were filed in the Court of Common Pleas 
recently at Cleveland by Bernhard J. Schatzinger, 11226 Superior 
avenue. The action was brought in behalf of the Parkside Cem- 
etery Association and the Country Home Company, both of Bed- 
ford Township, and charge that the traction company has appro- 
priated thirty acres of land used as a cemetery and. also land used 
for a home for the aged, built fences around it and threatened to 
run cars through it. An injunction restraining this proposed 
action and charging that the land was appropriated through the 
Cleveland, Bedford and Geauga Lake Traction Company, a dummy 
corporation, is asked for. The petition also claims that more than 
100 bodies are interred in the Parkside Cemetery and that the 
cemetery association is prevented from caring for its dead by the 
traction company. 
Political and citizens' organizations of the Second Ward of the 
Borough of Queens, Brooklyn, N. Y.. are reported to have again 
started a movement to have the next Legislature enact laws to 
compel cemetery corporations located in Newtown, Long Island, 
and Flushing sections to pay taxes for local improvements. As 
the law now exists, cemeteries cannot be taxed or assessed for 
improvements such as street opening, grading and paving of streets, 
construction of sewers and the laying and grading of sidewalks. 
In the last Legislature bills providing for this emergency were intro- 
duced, but were killed. The cemetery corporations are organized 
under the rural cemetery act. 
