PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XXII. Chicago, July, 1912 No. 5 
American Association of Park Superintendents 
Before our next issue the American Association of Park 
Superintendents will have held its summer meeting at 
Boston, a city whose park system in combination with 
the Metropolitan District parks, should invite a large 
gathering. There is no city in the United States which 
can offer such an inducement to the park superintendent. 
Besides this the city officials are noted for their hospital- 
ity and good will to men who contribute to the uplift of 
city life. Comment on the program and other details will 
be found in another column, and we take immediate ad- 
vantage of the suggestion to urge all city governments 
interested in park development and progress to provide a 
representative at this Boston meeting. The cost will 
amount to nil in comparison with the knowledge and ex- 
perience to be gained. 
Ng Ng 
Public Recreation Leagues 
In recent years the habit of walking excursions to de- 
sirable local points has been a growing one, and many 
associations have been organized to promote it and to give 
more value from instructive and pleasurable viewpoints 
than would be ordinarily experienced. The development 
of our public park systems has greatly encouraged the 
beautiful idea, and it is an interesting fact to note that 
certain of our great park systems have even gone beyond 
the common knowledge as to their proportions and at- 
tractiveness so that the public have not yet grown to the 
point of making a paying use of them. This is notably the 
case in regard to the magnificent Metropolitan park sys- 
tem of Boston, and may have led, last year, to the organi- 
zation of the Public Recreation League of that city, with 
offices at 6 Beacon street. Although this league does not 
purpose to conduct recreation activities unless for dem- 
onstration purposes, it designs to help existing agencies 
to bring about adequate service from existing means, and 
by co-operation to secure desirable additional facilities for 
recreation. It considers recreation a fundamental sub- 
ject worthy of the best thought of both officials and citi- 
zens, and proposes to promote normal recreation for .the 
whole community, young and old, by the legitimate use of 
all feasible means. It arranges Saturday afternoon walks 
and outings in parks of Boston and vicinity with guides 
and teachers, and has a number of standing committees 
specially appointed for special recreation questions. The 
chairman of the Committee on the Use of Parks, whose 
duty it is to “determine definite measures for more ex- 
tended use of the parks,” is Mr. Warren H. Manning. 
'■C ^ 
The Proposed Australian Capital City 
The winning of the international competition for plans 
for the erection of a capitol building for the Federal Gov- 
ernment of Australia by Mr. Walter Burleigh Griffin, of 
the Class of 1899, Architectural Course, University of Illi- 
nois, is not only an honor to the State of Illinois, but to 
the whole country. The competition, moreover, was of 
much greater importance than the above simple announce- 
ment would indicate. The Australian Government had de- 
termined to follow the example of our own government 
in the founding of Washington, and to create a new city 
as a federal capital, locating it at some distance away from 
other cities; and to get as broad views as possible it de- 
termined upon a competition among the architects of the 
world for the planning of this federal city. It wanted 
suggestions, in a general way, covering all that was nec- 
essary in blocking out in broad outlines the plan of a 
great city worthy to be its capital. Mr. Griffin’s problem 
was a more comprehensive one than that of de l’Enfant, 
the designer of Washington, for he was expected, not 
merely to draw up a street plan and indicate the location 
of one or two buildings, with suggestions for the plans 
of these, but to draw up in considerable detail the ground 
plan, provide for the scheme of drainage, for the location 
of numerous buildings, for the handling of the traffic, and 
the development of the legislative and business sides of 
this great metropolis. The success of Mr. Griffin would 
naturally serve to call attention to the School of Archi- 
tecture of the University of Illinois, Urbana, 111., and its 
remarkable growth and development. Thirty years ago 
no more unfavorable location could possibly have been 
selected for a course in architecture, far removed from 
any good examples, and with no collections worth visiting 
within a thousand miles; but there was a man behind it, 
Professor Clifford N. Ricker, who is still “on the job,” 
and a member of the faculty, and it is to his persistent 
work and determination to lay “broad and deep” the 
foundations of this school and to rear its superstructure 
on progressive lines, that it has become one of the four 
greatest schools of architecture in the new world. 
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The Good Roads Movement 
One of the burning questions of the day, even among 
so many hot subjects now under discussion, is that of 
“Good Roads.” A good road anywhere may be said to be 
an economic necessity, but in the main it has been treated 
nearly everywhere in the country, outside the city districts, 
as one of the last matters to receive financial attention 
or the consideration from the technical standpoint that its 
importance has always demanded but has very seldom 
secured in these, our modern times. This has established 
the fact of the tremenduous amount of money that has been 
sunk and wasted more or less throughout the states in the 
unintelligent determination to cling to the old, wasteful 
and ill-advised methods of making local appropriations for 
improving roads under local management. However, the 
movement for improving seems to be at last under way 
and previously lax Pennsylvania has just started an up- 
to-date and comprehensive program of highway improve- 
ment. Its task involves the building or improving of 8,000 
miles of road, virtually its whole system of highways, 
which will henceforth be under the care and supervision 
of the state authorities. The last legislature voted $3,000,- 
000 to meet expenses until the next session makes furthr 
appropriations, and a resolution was also passed authorizing 
the amending of the state constitution to permit a bond 
issue of $50,000,000 for road construction purposes. Illi- 
nois, the great state that gave to the country Lincoln, 
Grant and other names to conjure with, is still very far 
behind on this road subject. It annually wastes some 
$7,000,000 in a patchwork method of road work from which 
little lasting benefit is returned, and its estimated mile- 
age of improved roads is only ten per cent of its total 
mileage. This makes a poor comparison with 38 per cent 
for the neighboring state of Indiana; and 50 per cent for 
Massachusetts. New York State has voted a bond issue 
of $50,000,000, for building country roads, and for simi- 
lar public benefit California is now spending $20,000,000, 
and Colorado $10,000,000. 
