PARK AND CEMETERY. 
167 
CEMETERY SUPERINTENDENTS MEET IN MILWAUKEE 
The Association of American Ceme- 
tery Superintendents rounded out the 
twenty-fifth year of its useful existence 
at Milwaukee, Wis, last month, with a 
convention program befitting the occa- 
sion and an attendance that came near 
equaling the record made at Philadel- 
phia, 1911. 
The happy idea of confining the ad- 
dresses for the occasion to charter mem- 
bers of the association, proposed by 
President John J. Stephens, could not be 
carried out in its entirety, and two es- 
teemed and eminently practical members 
consented to fill out the excellent pro- 
gram. 
The convention had been advertised 
as one that would be devoted largely to 
business without any junketing or 
elaborate entertainment on the part of 
the local cemeteries, such as has pre- 
vailed for some years past, and the very 
successful outcome of this thoroughly 
enjoyable occasion must result in en- 
couraging the association to select its 
places of meeting, where it can carry 
its message for the betterment of cem- 
eteries without being burdensome to the 
local officials. 
* * * 
The twenty-sixth convention of the 
Association of American Cemetery Su- 
perintendents was held at the Plankin- 
ton House, Milwaukee, August 20, 21, 
22d, President John J. Stephens presid- 
ing. 
After prayer by Rev. Robert M. 
Hagarth, Mayor G. A. Bading extended 
hearty greetings. He said he did not 
know whether it was by pre-arrange- 
NEW OFFICERS ELECTED 
President, H. M. Turner, St. Paul 
Vice-President, M. P. Brazill, St. Louis 
Secretary-T reasurer, 
Bellett Lawson, Jr., Chicago 
Next Convention at Buffalo 
ment or merely a coincidence that the 
organizations which have recently con- 
vened in Milwaukee were somewhat al- 
lied in their work. First came the in- 
surance men, then the National Drug- 
gists; after them the National Coroners, 
who were followed by the Undertakers 
and lastly the Cemetery Superintend- 
ents. Beer, he said, was net the only 
thing for which Milwaukee is famous, 
machinery and leather goods outranking 
it in volume of shipments. The mayor 
referred to Mr. James Currie, who he 
said "ranked very high as a park com- 
missioner and as a cemetery superin- 
tendent.’’ 
Mr. Stephens thanked the mayor for 
his cordial welcome and then read the 
president's annual address, in which he 
gave a resume of the early days of the 
organization. He said in part : 
It may not be amiss to enumerate a few 
of the accomplishments this Association has 
attained in these twenty-five short years. 
The Lawn Plan System, that originated at 
Spring Grove, and was in full operation at 
the time of our organization, has now spread 
everywhere. 
If we recall the condition of Cemeteries 
a few years ago, and compare them with 
those of the present time, no argument will 
be needed to convince the most skeptical 
of the great achievements made along this 
line. 
Besides the Lawn Plan System, our 
greatest improvements have been made in 
the way of Efficient Drainage; the Per- 
petual Care of Lots; the Endowment of both 
Lots and Mausoleums; the Abolition of Sun- 
day Funerals; Modern Burial Records and 
the Card System. 
It is true, many of us have met adversity 
and discouragement in presenting to our 
people new ideas which we have carried 
home from our meetings, and we have had 
to fight long and hard to establish them. 
God’s Acres are constantly expanding, 
yielding space for the last habitations of the 
increasing multitude of our race. This in- 
crease imposes upon us largely increased re- 
sponsibilities, and frequent modifications of 
our business methods. We find it necessary 
to furnish records for unborn generations. 
We are custodians of interests that involve 
family bereavements and financial embarrass- 
ments. Our records may be required to law- 
fully determine the rights of property, the 
legality of marriages, or the cause of death. 
Advancing civilization admonishes us that 
the increasing refinement of popular taste, 
demands practical expression in the adorn- 
ment of our Cities of the Dead. But the 
old-time idea, that straight lines and right 
angles, weeping willows and lilies of the 
valley could alone harmonize with the great 
mystery of sorrowing hearts, has now hap- 
pily been supplanted by curved lines and 
canopied avenues, through which sunbeams 
and starlight steal, revealing beauty of fo- 
liage and variety of landscape. 
We have earned recognition and estab- 
lished our claim on the public gratitude in 
the arrangements we> have established for 
the disposal of the dead. But the influ- 
ence of the Superintendent is felt also out- 
side the limits of the Cemetery. Whatever 
he has learned in his study of trees and 
plants, and the arrangement of the same, 
and has applied to beautify the home of the 
dead, is readily copied by those on the out- 
side to make more beautiful the homes of 
the living. 
To meet our increasing responsibilities we 
are entitled to the unbounded support and 
hearty encouragement of the American peo- 
ple, and I believe we have it. 
It has been my privilege and pride to 
attend most of the conventions of this grand 
society, and I deem it a very great honor 
to preside at such a great gathering of men 
all imbued with the same noble purpose of 
GROUP OF CEMETERY SUPERINTENDENTS AT MILWAUKEE. 
