62 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
tions which was read by Mr. Woodruff. The name 
selected for the new organization is the American Civic 
Association. 
The work is divided into certain departments, each 
of whom is presided over by a vice-president. The 
Women’s Auxiliary is succeeded by the Woman’s Out- 
door Art League, and retains all the privileges and 
functions of the former body. The officers, the secre- 
taries of the departments, and the president and secre- 
tary of the Woman’s League shall compose the execu- 
tive board, which shall determine the administration 
and policy of the Assocation. The rest of the organ- 
ization was practically as outlined in Park and Cem- 
etery in the preliminary program last month. 
The officers elected were as follows : President, J. 
Horace McFarland ; first vice-president, Clinton Rog- 
ers Woodruff ; vice-presidents, George Foster Peabody, 
of New York; Franklin MacVeagh, Chicago; secre- 
tary, Charles Mulford Robinson ; treasurer, William B. 
Howland, of New York. Woman’s Outdoor Art 
League : President, Mrs. Charles F. Millspaugh ; first 
vice-president, Mrs. Sylvester Baxter, Boston ; second 
vice-president, Mrs. Basil Duke, Louisville, Ky. ; re- 
cording secretary, Mrs. George T. Banzet, Chicago ; 
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Frances Copley Seavey, 
Chicago; treasurer, Mrs. William H. Crosby, Racine, 
Wis. ; directors, Mrs. W. J. Washburn, Los Angeles, 
Cal.; Mrs. H. D. Stearns, New Orleans; Mrs. A. W. 
Sanborn, Ashland, Wis. ; and Mrs. Elizabeth Bullard, 
Bridgeport, Conn. 
The departments of work of the American Civic As- 
sociation and their respective vice-presidents are 
as follows: Public Recreation, Joseph Lee, of 
Boston; Arts and Crafts, Mrs. M. F. Johnston, 
Richmond, Ind. ; City Making, F. S. Lamb, of New 
York; Outdoor Art, Warren H. Manning; Factory 
Betterment, Edwin L. Shuey, Dayton, O. ; Children’s 
Gardens, Dick J. Crosby, Washington, D. C. ; Li- 
braries, H. Putnam, Library of Congress, Washington, 
D. C. ; Parks and Public Reservations, G. A. Parker, 
of Hartford, Conn. ; Rural Improvements, O. C. Si- 
monds, Chicago ; School Extension, Charles Zueblin, 
Chicago; Social Settlements, Frank Chapin Bray, of 
Chicago ; Press, Mrs. Conde Hamlin, of St. Paul. 
The first committee report to be presented was that 
of Mr. Dick J. Crosby, on School Gardens. It was a 
brief report of the progress during the year and sug- 
gestions for future lines of work. The committee 
sent out 500 blanks asking for reports on work ac- 
complished, and the replies showed very satisfactory 
results. In New York the farm school has been given 
a place by the park board, which body is to erect a 
permanent building for it. In Philadelphia four cen- 
ters were established, and $3,500 appropriated by the 
city for the work. Miss Helen Bennett is in charge of 
the gardens. In Baltimore several of the public schools 
and the Teachers’ Training School have gardens. The 
rural school garden work of Cornell University and of 
Superintendent of Schools O. J. Kern, of Winnebago 
county, 111 ., was praised. Canada, by the munificence 
of Sir William MacDonald, has five schools in the dif- 
ferent divisions of the country and has sent eleven 
teachers to* the United States to study methods of work. 
The greatest difficulty encountered was the lack of 
competent teachers. The Association, the speaker 
thought, should conduct an employment bureau for 
teachers of this work, and should publish such litera- 
ture as penny pamphlets and other matter on nature 
study, planting, etc. A lecture exchange has been or- 
ganized and a lantern and slides should be added. 
The report of the Committee on Local Improvement 
was given by Mrs. Louis Marion McCall, of St. Louis, 
who gave an account of the work in improving the 
slum districts of that city. The league maintains a 
woman’s sanitary inspector, and the city has been in- 
duced to appoint three sanitary inspectors. 
Frederick Law Olmsted presented an interesting re- 
port on Public Advertising, which dealt chiefly with 
the efforts to legislate against the billboards. The 
case against the offending billboards at Wellesley, 
Mass., was compromised by the removal of the bill- 
boards. In Atlantic City, N. J., an ordinance has been 
passed and a case is soon to- be heard to test the new 
law of that state. The speaker favored regulation by 
the taxing power rather than by the police power. Ed- 
ucating public opinion and making the billboards more 
artistic he considered promising lines of work to check 
the abuses of poster advertising. It should be remem- 
bered, he said in closing, that: “The fit is the beauti- 
ful,” and that even an architectural monument may be 
a violation of nature’s beauty. 
Mrs. E. A. McCrea, of Chicago, reported the work 
of the committee on railroad improvement. Circular 
letters were sent to 125 railroads asking what had been 
done to improve their stations, and marked interest was 
shown by nearly all. Some of the letters were read. 
The work of the Boston & Albany railroad, the leader 
in this work, has been illustrated in Park and Cem- 
etery. The Michigan Central is substituting hardy 
shrubbery for annuals in its planting. The Northwest- 
ern, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul are unit- 
ing beauty and utility in all of their new stations, and 
the latter road has parked and planted 275 stations. 
These parks are often the only ones in the town, and 
have had a remarkable stimulating and educative ef- 
fect on the people. The C. R. I. & P. and the C. B. & 
0 ., and, more recently, the Chicago & Alton, have 
taken up the work with good results. The latter road 
is now parking all of its grounds between Chicago and 
St. Louis. 
Mr. E. J. Parker, of Quincy, 111 ., devoted his report 
on Forest Reservations to the work which had been 
