88 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE NEWER FUNCTIONS OF PARK COMMISSIONS 
I feel that the true function of 
public parks is understood very often, 
only to a very limited degree. We 
are all aware that the public park is 
a time honored institution where 
lawns are nicely kept (sometimes) and 
flowers are to seen. Many people 
use them as pleasure grounds and 
on holidays they are quite crowded. 
It is in this particular that our parks 
are best understood and appreciated. 
We have learned to use them as 
such. 
There are a number of other duties 
concerning which our park commis- 
sions should exert a positive influence, 
not merely giving their approval to 
the creation of garden cities, but they 
should wield a power in the mould- 
ing of what we may call garden 
ethics. Now there are two forces at 
work today which tend to obliterate 
old land marks and the native charm 
of our communities. These forces are 
commercialism and geometric engin- 
eering. I really had to coin a name 
in order that we might group those 
engineers who cannot conceive of a 
city other than the checker board 
type, regardless of the topography. 
The cold hand of commercialism 
will remove the prettiest spot in the 
community without the slightest pang 
of regret. I can think of no greater 
concrete example of this fact than 
the sale of the beautiful Dells by the 
State of Wisconsin, to private indi- 
viduals. 
This sale in my opinion was crim- 
inal as it removed a spot of rarest 
beauty from the control of the state. 
Thus removed what assurance have 
we that this old landmark shall not 
be destroyed in one way or another. 
To think that the great common- 
wealth of Wisconsin would permit 
KANSAS CITY 
The remarkably complete and well- 
rounded park system of Kansas City, 
Mo., has been described in these 
pages, and is generally regarded as in 
nany respects a model of intelligent 
park development. The only respect 
in which this park system is any way 
lacking has been in water features 
and the park commission now pro- 
poses to add to the system the Blue 
River Parkway, which in natural beau- 
ty and facilities for public recreation 
it is believed will give to Kansas City 
an aquatic pleasure ground as interest- 
ing, useful and beautiful as the Alster 
the greedy hand of commercialism 
to pollute the handiwork of nature 
is a thought more nauseating than the 
vilest stench. Yet in our own com- 
munities we permit these same things 
to happen year after year. Perhaps 
on a smaller scale, yet the community 
suffers correspondingly as much. As 
far as is consistent we should con- 
serve to posterity those places which 
have entered into the making of our 
local history. We would not argue 
this beyond reason, but I cannot un- 
derstand the wisdom of cutting down 
a beautiful grove on the outskirts of 
the city, just because John Jones 
wants to build a soap factory there. 
We want our factories and need them 
and right there comes the rub. It 
should be obligatory upon every in- 
dividual or corporation to get a fac- 
tory permit before any building can 
be started. After this manner we 
might hope to preserve some of the 
characteristic features of our com- 
munity. I feel that we must all real- 
ize that this is worth while. Just 
as the old Liberty bell and the charter 
oak have a meaning, so do a great 
many of the places in our own com- 
munity. It was only a short time 
ago that the cities all over the coun- 
try were asking for a piece of old 
iron from the Battle Ship Maine. 
I even saw one newspaper notice 
where a councilman recommended 
that such a piece of old iron be in- 
stalled in one of the public parks. 
Then, too, by what stretch of the 
imagination can you make a public 
park an appropriate resting place for 
a lot of dilapidated cannons. Sym- 
bols of war and as such remind us 
of carnage and man’s awful blunder. 
Absolutely the wrong sentiment for 
a public park. 
River in Hamburg, the Charles River 
in Boston, or the Schuylkill River in 
Philadelphia, the most notable arti- 
ficial water parks in the world. 
The commission has lately issued 
an elaboarte and interesting report on 
the Blue River park plans, prepared, 
under the general direction of Land- 
scape Architect George E. Kessler, by 
W. H. Dunn, superintendent of parks 
and Engineer Fred Gabelman, togeth- 
er with a special study of the stream 
and its relation to the waterway prob- 
lems by Consulting Engineer R. C. 
Barnett. It is the final crowning ef- 
As you have walked through some 
public park what has been the trend 
of your thoughts as you observed 
the various monuments erected here 
and there. As a rule the soldier is 
riding a spirited horse and our great 
man whom we would not forget car- 
ries a sword in his hand. What an 
appropriate thing for a great man to 
carry. If he has been a great 
scholar or statesman his life size 
image has been mounted high on 
a pedestal of stone. What does 
all this flattery mean? Are we 
not paying tribute to the ego? How 
fearful we are lest we be forgotten! 
The ego says how important it is 
to progress that I be remembered to 
all posterity. Now we would not be- 
little the spirit of true greatness. Has 
not the soldier fought for freedom 
and the scholar and statesman for 
liberty? Supposing then, the sculp- 
otor would take these great princi- 
ples and fashion the monuments in- 
dicative of those great principles for 
which we live? 
Not alone should park commissions 
concern themselves in these matters, 
but it is doubly important that they 
should for they are always made the 
goat in the joke. Monument com- 
mittees always ask the park com- 
missions for permission to place their 
monument on the prettiest and most 
frequented spot in the whole system. 
The twentieth century is high time 
that public institutions cease to put 
the mark of approval upon the ego. 
I have called attention to these 
matters, for it has seemed that park 
commissions have been so busy plan- 
ning new parks and drives that to a 
degree we have forgotten all but the 
structural features in our park build- 
ing. A. A. Fisk. 
fort of the Board of Park Commis- 
sioners to round out and complete 
the park system and is prepared in 
considerable detail. 
The first step was the making of a 
complete topographic survey and map 
of the Blue Valley from bluff to bluff 
and from the Missouri river to Swope 
Park, with elevations over the entire 
surface, the location of the Blue River 
and all other water courses, the loca- 
tion of the bluffs on either side and 
of all railroad tracks. 
A comprehensive study of the entire 
situation, after careful analysis, re- 
PLANS GREAT RIVER PARK 
