PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XXII. Chicago, December, 1912 No. 10 
Education in Landscape Gardening 
We have before mentioned the activity of the Illinois State 
University at Champaign, 111., in its efforts to attain and 
maintain a very high standard in several departments of its 
educational curriculum, such as in architecture, engineering, 
railway management, etc. It affords a clearly successful 
example for other states to follow in their state centers of 
learning. It is a particular pleasure at this time to record 
its present arrangements for the comprehensive study of 
landscape architecture and gardening, under the able and 
far-sighted efforts of Professor J. C. Blair, chief of horticul- 
ture, in a strong division in landscape gardening. In this 
development Mr. Wilhelm Miller, of “Country Life in Amer- 
ica,’’ has just been appointed assistant professor in landscape 
horticulture and head of the division, and Mr. R. R. Root, 
a Master of Landscape Architecture of Harvard University, 
is a strong addition to the staff. Both these additional mem- 
bers of the corps of instructors are men of large ability and 
broad experience and with Mr. Charles Mulford Robinson 
and others as lecturers, the Illinois State University promises 
to be successful in this department as it has been in Archi- 
tecture, Engineering and Railroading. Courses have been 
planned with a view of training young men and women for 
professional work, and to instruct students along other lines 
so as to be better prepared to arrange their home grounds. 
An elementary course has also been arranged which is open 
to all students of the University. This is an excellent propo- 
sition and to be commended ; it should help the future in 
enhancing the value of the Improvement Societies with which 
such students come in contact. The education of the 
landscape gardener has been making rapid progress in a 
number of the eastern colleges and it is gratifying to 
note that this western institution is making progress. 
M.’ Ng xg 
The Taxation of Cemetery Funds 
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts 
to the effect that perpetual care and other cemetery funds 
are not exempt from taxation has created a mild consterna- 
tion in the minds of the cemetery officials of that state, and 
will by inference set cemetery owners throughout the coun- 
try to pondering over the influence the decision may have 
in other states where similar laws are in force. In the case 
in point, that of Pine Grove Cemetery, Milford, Mass., the 
County Commissioners had ruled against the tax assessors 
on the ground that the cemetery is a charitable institution. 
The Supreme Court overruled the commissioners on the 
point that the cemetery is not connected with church or 
charity, thus exempting cemeteries so associated. The court’s 
ruling is far reaching so far as Massachusetts is concerned, 
for there are many private cemetery associations in the State, 
and by this decision such reserve funds as may be in trust 
are now subject to tax assessment. Cemeteries owned by 
church organizations are not affected by the ruling, nor is 
the statutory exemption of all burial lots. No wonder may 
be expressed at the alarm of the cemetery officials of the 
Commonwealth, for since the act of 1897 made the filing of 
records compulsory, some 250 cemeteries have been organ- 
ized, besides a far greater number previous to that date, the 
property of which has never been assessed on account of 
the assumption of exemption. If it is not right to tax the 
actual property of a cemetery it is certainly not right to tax 
the fund reserved for its perpetual maintenance. 
The Billboard Agitation 
The billboard question has again forged to the front in 
Chicago, and quite recently an important gathering of authori- 
ties on both sides of the subject was held at a luncheon at 
the City Club. Prominent representatives of the Billboard 
Advertising interests presented their views, which were com- 
bated by an officer of the Municipal Art League, Municipal 
officials, well known artists and others. The principal reasons 
for the existence of the billboard as an advertising medium, 
as expressed by its supporters, appeared to be the magnitude 
of the interests involved in its exploitation, construction and 
maintenance, in which the capital invested, labor employed, 
and plants accumulated were strongly emphasized ; but the 
rights of the people in the matter were carefully avoided 
except so far as that the artistic element had not been over- 
looked, for it was claimed that a large body of artists 
are employed by the billboard companies to meet public taste. 
This at least gave an amusing moment to the several promi- 
nent artists present. As in many other great recent gather- 
ings, the dawn of a new order of things was clearly seen. 
It is the writing on the wall that has heralded so many 
strides in human progress. It lay in the arraignment of laws 
that permitted men to mar the appearance of a city and courts 
that hold individual property rights of greater importance 
than the public good. The temper of the advocates of bill- 
board suppression, and the standing of the speakers, suggest 
that from this meeting may come the first organized effort of 
fordes “which long have fought for strict regulation, at 
least, of the billboard nuisance.” However, for effective work 
in the direction a well sustained campaign to educate the pub- 
lic on their rights in the matter will the more rapidly assume 
definite success. In San Francisco there has also recently 
been organized a strong opposition to some of the more 
flagrant billboard abuses as part of the campaign to make 
that city more presentable in every way in preparation for 
the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. This is a very 
opportune time for that city to make a successful cam- 
paign, and it is to be hoped the matter will be vigorously 
promoted. 
N? Ng Ng 
The Care of of Our Children 
Our country as a whole persists in lagging woefully be- 
hind in many of the accepted requirements of a high civiliza- 
tion. Miss Julia Lathrop, head of the new Children's Bureau 
of the Federal government, in an address recently delivered 
before the Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs at Aurora, 
pointed out that there are only eight states that adequately 
report births. In the nation at large, she declared practically 
no birth records of value are kept and only about 58 per cent 
of the deaths are recorded. In view of these facts the wis- 
dom of congress in creating this bureau is demonstrated, and 
it may well be hoped, considering the many other economic 
matters in which we fall short, that congress might continue 
to be wise. Illinois, like many another of the states, provides 
no proper record of either births or deaths in spite of the 
efforts which have been made to promote legislative action. 
An excellent bill was presented to the last legislature provid- 
ing for an admirable system for keeping such a record. It 
was strongly supported by public health officers, the Federal 
Census Bureau, the Illinois Bar Association and Medical 
organizations, but it failed to pass. In the interest of the 
children, whose lives are of immense value to the country, 
as well as in the great cause of humanity, efforts all over 
the states should be vigorously pushed to correct so deplor- 
able a condition. 
