PARK AND CEMET ERY. 
185 
so simple as to be hardly worth the 
telling. 
I will first state the problem as I 
see it and then the solution I have 
worked out. 
Problem Stated. 
Park records and accounts should 
show the park usefulness, expendi- 
tures, outside purchases, inside trans- 
fers, standard of work, detail of 
work done, inventory, employees’ 
record, merchants’ accounts, report 
of visitors, statistics, and furnish the 
daily, monthy and annual report. 
The record of their usefulness 
should show what park areas are 
used, and why. What attract people 
and what they do. What is the full 
capacity of the different areas and 
service. What proportion is used. 
What days or parts of days and 
months or parts of months are used. 
What class of people use them, and 
the results, and what results justify 
expenditures. The number of visitors 
and the accidents. 
The record of park expenditures 
should show what appropriations or 
moneys each separate expenditure is 
paid from. What division of service 
is debited, whether it is administra- 
tion, designing, construction, mainte- 
nance, housekeeping, service, activity 
or business operation, and what sub- 
division of each of these. 
On what park area the expenditure 
is made and for what purpose. 
What is the detail of the work 
done, and the service or activity pro- 
vided for. 
The record and accounting for out- 
side purchases should show the ar- 
ticle purchased, where used, what for, 
details of the purchase, from whom 
bought, who received the article, the 
appropriation debited, and the dat£ 
of the purchase. 
The record of inside transferring 
of tools and supplies should show 
the article transferred, from what 
place and person, and to what place 
and person, the superintendent’s sig- 
nature of approval, and the signature 
of the person delivering and receiv- 
ing with the date of the transfer. 
The records and accounts should 
show the actual cost by work units, 
and service units from which can be 
determined the standard of the work, 
and what variation from that stand- 
ard is justified. 
The daily work reports should 
show for each employee when and 
where the work was done, how much 
was done, the time it took to do it, 
who did if, and how much was paid 
him. 
The inventory should show alpha- 
betically the movable property with 
detail description of each article, how 
it is marked, cost, present value, 
where located, in whose care, date of 
record. 
The employee’s record should 
show the name and address of each 
employee, when and where he worked 
each day, what he did, how much, 
and the amount paid him by the day, 
week, month and year. 
The merchants’ accounts should 
show the name and address of mer- 
chants, articles purchased with de- 
tails as to quantity, quality, cost and 
condition of purchase. 
Report of visitors should be made 
daily and should show by count or 
estimate the number which pass 
through each park, or used it for 
service and games. Daily reports are 
essential. A foreman or patrolman 
can give a better guess of their num- 
ber the day the report is made then 
ever afterward. Counts should be 
made frequently to confirm the 
guesses and increase the accuracy of 
the judgment. 
Tables for statistical work should 
show the area of all parks, their sub- 
division, length, width, area of roads 
and paths. Square feet of all flower 
beds and plantation, number and kind 
of trees and plants, and other similar 
information. 
The divisions and sub-divisions, and 
detail of accounts ‘is the same as the 
divisions and sub-divisions and the 
detail of the work. It is based upon 
the principle that if anything is worth 
doing it is worth making a record 
of, especially if it is done for the pub- 
lic. Furthermore, from records must 
come the interpretation of the spirit 
of the park, for the immaterial, in- 
visible something is most important, 
that something which serves our high- 
er and better nature — the spirit of 
mankind. If the system of accounting 
fails in this, it fails in its most im- 
portant function. 
The daily report to the superinten- 
dent should be a statement giving him 
the detail of the work done and pur- 
chases made with their cost and the 
distribution of the cost to the several 
accounts. 
The monthly report is made by the 
superintendent to the Park Commis- 
sioners giving the summary of his 
daily report, with such explanation 
and comments as is called for. 
The annual report is by the Com- 
sission to the public containing the 
summary of the monthly reports, of 
the superintendent with remarks and 
recommendations for the coming 
year. 
The hundred and more headings 
needed in all park accounting must 
be arranged in order and in sequence. 
Each item as soon as it occurs 
should at once be entered in its 
proper place and carried forward in 
an orderly manner until it reaches 
the summary, and conversely each 
summary must be easily reduced back 
to all its iterhs. The principles by 
which this is done are very simple, 
the details, however, are numerous, 
but if rightly done, it is easily done 
and the result gives satisfaction and 
worth the trouble of doing. 
The Problem Solved. 
I have solved this problem in sev- 
eral ways, but all except the last be- 
came so cumbersome that they died 
by their own weight. It is not a diffi- 
cult problem to solve if one has time 
and patience and does not weary of 
the continual transferring of figures, 
or the mistakes he makes in doing so. 
In telling of the system I now use, 
I shall not go into detail, it would 
take too long and be exceedingly 
tedious, but will state briefly the 
course each item of information takes 
in order to get into the summary and 
the tables needed for comparison. 
As to items of work. Men who 
work alone to fill out a slip (exhibit No. 
1) which gives name, date, hours be- 
ginning and ending work, time spent 
in doing each particular piece of 
work. The time unit is one-tenth 
of an hour, or six minutes. The pay 
for each time unit is in cents and 
decimals of a cent, thus eliminating 
all common fractions. 
Foreman with men gives the same 
information on a slip ruled for seven- 
teen men and eleven different kinds 
of work (exhibit No. 2). These two 
slips make up the field account of 
the work. 
The items are transferred in the 
office to the daily time sheet (ex- 
hibit No. 3), ruled on the left for em- 
ployees’ names, on the top for detail 
of work done, at the intersection, 
a square for the time used in hours 
and decimals of an hour. On the 
right is the sum of time worked and 
the amount paid. At the bottom the 
sum of time, work with cost, cost 
for each detail of work. The time 
and cost column at the bottom bal- 
ance with the same columns on the 
right. These sheets are then placed 
on my desk and I fill out the addi- 
tional spaces at the bottom, where 
is shown the appropriation, division 
by service, the park, and the division 
by work debited. This ends my part. 
In doing this there passes before me, 
in review, the work of each em- 
