82 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
“Awakening America.” 
Annual^Address’of Clinton Royers Woodruff, President of the American Park and Outdoor Art Association, Buffalo, N. Y. 
“And let it be when thou hearest the sound of a going in 
the tops of the mulberry trees, and then thou shalt bestir thy- 
self .... and David did . as com- 
manded, and smote the Philistines." 
There is the sound “of a going” throughout our land in all 
that pertains to the making of a more beautiful America. In 
the cities, towns and villages, we hear the subject discussed; 
we see organizations formed to promote it. In the smaller 
communities, improvement leagues ; in the larger cities, art 
societies; in the states, federations, outdoor art leagues and 
forestry associations; in the nation, bodies like the Park and 
Outdoor Art Association, the Civic Improvement and Archi- 
tectural leagues, the Scenic and Historic Preservation So- 
ciety are at work creating public sentiment, conserving the 
noble and eliminating the evil tendencies in our American out- 
door life, and effecting permanent improvements of a far- 
reaching character. 
We have but to look around us to see the need for such 
organizations. Cleanliness is by no means universal in our 
communities; palls of smoke depress the senses and spread 
layers of dirt ; ill-kept streets ; frequent vacant lots only 
utilized as dumping grounds; spasmodic and poorly attended 
shrubbery ; barren factory walls and business structures, 
squatty buildings devoid of artistic or ornamental features 
are all too frequent. Improvements hastily planned and exe- 
cuted without thought of the future ; artistic possibilities over- 
looked ; utilitarianism exalted, these are the characteristics of 
too many municipal policies. The need for a renascence is 
everywhere apparent ; it confronts us on every side ; but, for- 
tunately, the people are everywhere awakening to it. I he 
very existence of upward of 700 local improvement societies ; of 
several scores of state federations and societies and of a 
sturdy group of national bodies, bear abundant testimony to 
this important fact. At once critics and creators they are 
striving to awaken the whole population to their responsibili- 
ties in the premises. 
And how well they are succeeding ! A survey of the im- 
portant achievements of the last few years is sufficient to fill 
the most doubtful heart with hope and high courage. 
The success of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce in 
bringing the federal, county, municipal and railroad authori- 
ties into harmonious co-operation and in securing the adop- 
tion of the “group idea,” constitutes a truly great step for- 
ward. It has inaugurated the beginning of a new Cleveland. 
It teaches a telling lesson of regard for the beautiful and the 
effective and the future, as well as of the great gains to be 
derived from helpful co-operation. If each of the several au- 
thorities had proceeded, as of old, to erect its building with 
no thought of the others, Cleveland would have had four or 
five fine buildings and no more Now, thanks to the per- 
sistent and wisely guided efforts of the Chamber of Com- 
merce, she will have these and something more and vastly 
better; a carefully planned group of buildings which will for 
all time be a joy to the eye of every beholder and a tribute 
to the farsightedness and high ambitions of the city and its 
denizens. 
Our capital city affords another inspiring illustration to 
the same effect. The splendid plans of the Senate commission 
for a new Washington are a notable contribution to wise city 
making. They concern the present but partly. They consti- 
tute the chart, however, by which improvements for a cen- 
tury to come are to be guided. And herein lies the lesson 
for every city in the land. To insure a harmonious develop- 
ment worthy of ourselves and our descendants, public under- 
takings should be arranged according to carefully devised 
plans which have present and future needs alike in con- 
templation. Then step by step, we can proceed toward our 
goal, feeling that each one is in the right direction, making 
for progress. 
In my own city of Philadelphia, which in many respects 
deserves its reputation for conservatism, there is slowly, 
but surely, developing a public sentiment in favor of a broad- 
minded and farseeing planning for the future. Already a 
magnificent parkway leading from our notable City Hall to 
our famous Fairmount Park has been placed upon our city 
plan, and it is proposed to create a plaza at one end, an art 
museum at the other, and important public buildings, like the 
Free Library, along its borders. This imposing avenue cut- 
ting, as it does, diagonally across the city will force a read- 
justment as important as the readjustment brought about by 
the reorganization of Paris and Washington. Another im- 
portant boulevard has likewise been authorized and work 
upon it begun, leading from Broad street (at a point four 
miles north of the City Hall) to the city's northeasternmost 
suburb, Torresdale, bringing our chief thoroughfare into touch 
with important points, and correlating a number of our smaller 
parks. 
Other improvements of importance are in contemplation 
and the near future bids fair to witness a development in 
Philadelphia which will place her in the forefront of Ameri- 
can cities in all that pertains to artistic development, as she 
is already in commercial and manufacturing pursuits. No 
small part of the credit for bringing about these changes be- 
longs to bodies like the City Parks Association and the Park- 
way Association which have set a commendable example of in- 
domitable perseverance in the pursuit of high aims. 
Achievements equally inspiring and instructive are to be 
found in all sections of our land. Chicago, under the initiative 
of its Municipal Art Society, has won a notable triumph over 
the smoke nuisance and is now striving to overcome the bill- 
board evil. It has embarked upon a campaign for civic clean- 
liness which is worthy of imitation in every part of the land. 
The St. Louis Civic Improvement League has taken up a 
similar line of work and its three-day crusade in “cleaning up” 
the city prior to the formal opening of the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition, constitutes a notable accomplishment in civic 
co-operation. Its vigorous and well-directed activities in other 
directions furnish an inspiring example and clearly indicate the 
great possibilities for usefulness which lie all about us, if we 
will only stretch forth our hand and utilize them. 
The Merchants’ Association of San Francisco is agitating 
for the elimination of that plague spot, known far and wide 
as Chinatown. It has submitted a plan to condemn this sec- 
tion of the city and convert it into a public park. It wisely 
argues, "Let us clean the worst spot first ; let us show the 
visitor a beauty spot in its place — a health-giving park instead 
of Chinatown’s health-destroying filth, declared by state 
boards of health from Texas to Maine a menace to their 
citizens thousands of miles away.” Success to such public 
spirited and far-reaching efforts at betterment! 
It is a pregnant and significant fact that two of the most 
important improvement suggestions of the last few years had 
their origin in business bodies. The success of the Cleveland 
group plan is due entirely to the Chamber of Commerce of 
that city and to the Merchants’ Association of San Francisco 
honor is due for the formulation of a complete and compre- 
hensive plan for the conversion of a plague spot into a 
wholesome place of recreation and inspiration. May the ex- 
ample of these two bodies be speedily followed by similar 
organizations throughout the land. If we can but enlist the 
business men in the crusade for a more beautiful America, 
there is no limit to the possibilities of achievement. 
Thus far I have dealt only with a few of the more notable 
events in the larger cities. If we had the time to refer to the 
results of a year’s effort in the smaller places, we could mar- 
shal an array that would be little short of overwhelming 
when we consider the time, preparation and resources at the 
command of those responsible for them. We must not over- 
look the fact that the “civic renaissance,” as a movement, has 
been aptly called, is a matter of but a few years only. Our 
own* association, the first to give to the subject serious and 
detailed consideration, was organized in 1897. Since then 
there has been a great multiplication of .agencies, making 
mightily for the upbuilding of a sound public sentiment in 
favor of a more beautiful public life, but their resources are 
as yet limited. The influences working in this direction are 
growing with great and unexpected rapidity. The success 
of the good-roads movement is one. It serves the same pur- 
pose as a well-kept street, the beneficial influence of which on 
the home, the neighborhood and city is now well recognized. 
As a recent writer puts it : 
“When a town is founded, a cowpath not infrequently forms 
the first thoroughfare. As the village grows, the cowpath is 
straightened and widened, and it becomes a street. Perhaps 
it is given a name. Further progress of the hamlet is noted 
when sidewalks are laid, and the official grade is established. 
Then, as the village blossoms into a city, the street is graded, 
and maybe it is paved. Each step is a milestone of progress. 
Had the cowpath never been straightened, had the sidewalks 
never been laid, had the street never been graded, the village 
would be a village still, for there would have been no neces- 
sity for a street. A city must have well-made and decently 
