Editorial JVote 
A Successful Improvement Association. 
The annual report of the Madison (Wis.) Park and 
Pleasure Drive Association is a beautiful pamphlet 
from the bookmaker’s standpoint ; but it is a valuable 
record of the successful work of an improvement as- 
sociation, which in the course of twelve years, and in 
a city of less than 25,000, has raised $116,000, wholly 
by voluntary contributions, for the development of 
parks and driveways and such other improvement ac- 
tivity as came within a broad interpretation of its title. 
It is almost safe to say that in no other city of the 
country has so much been done by the community for 
the maintaining of an organization of this kind, and it 
points to the fact that where public confidence can be 
secured and retained, there is scarcely a limit within 
reason to voluntary subscriptions for outdoor improve- 
ment work which looks to the pleasure and recreation 
of the people. Madison is to be congratulated on pos- 
sessing such a public-spirited community, and the pres- 
ident of the Association, Mr. John W. Olin, for so fine 
a record of good work accomplished. 
* * ^ 
Publicity. 
The advantages of disseminating information con- 
cerning improvement matters through the medium of 
the local press has often been strongly urged in these 
columns, and it is a growing practice with many of 
our readers to send marked copies of Park and Cem- 
etery, or clippings from the paper, to their local edi- 
tors with a request that they be reprinted for tbe 
good of the community. This is an effective way of 
giving the “improvement idea” a broader field, be- 
cause the local press reaches the masses, while the 
class journal is limited in its circulation to those par- 
ticularly interested in its special line of work. What 
has been accomplished with more or less success in 
one place can be done elsewhere, and this informa- 
tion, the means bv which it was carried out, and the 
practical details of the work itself contained in these 
columns, by the courtesy of our readers is being fur- 
nished to numbers of local publications. The reports 
of the work of the improvement associations, and the 
many suggestive articles on the subject appearing in 
these columns, should have a much wider circulation 
than is possible in a class journal, and therefore we 
again urge that this information be reprinted, of course 
with proper credit, in the local papers. 
Park and Cemetery Commissioners. 
In his annual report to the Board of Park Com- 
missioners of Minneapolis, Minn., President Adams, 
after relating the arrangements that had been made 
for the board as a body to visit the principal parks 
and parkwavs, told of the partial failure of the effort, 
and regretted that it had not been possible for all of 
and Comment. 
the board to “visit the parks more often to study their 
needs and be able to more wisely manage the affairs 
entrusted to us.” In these few words there is a sug- 
gestion as to the duty of such officials, as well as one 
reflecting upon the board addressed, and which ap- 
ply generally, with equal force, to boards of commis- 
sioners of both parks and cemeteries. Men who ac- 
cept office of this nature should be able to recognize 
the obligations incurred, and so arrange their busi- 
ness or private affairs, as to permit of the necessary 
attention to their official work. Sacrifice of time, and 
often pleasure, is required in order to keep informed 
so as to act intelligently in public affairs. 
> * * 
The Grouping of Public Buildings. 
The importance of grouping our public buildings 
and tbe creation of civic centers in .our cities is fast 
becoming a fixed proposition in the minds of all edu- 
cated citizens. But the changes and expenditures in- 
volved have a tendency to alarm the ordinary citizen, 
who, until educated and informed in the great ad- 
vantages to be derived from sucb improvements, sees 
only increased taxes and further opportunities for 
“boodle” for political officialdom. Experience teaches 
that beauty in civic arrangement and development is a 
paying investment, and that the ideal and practical ap- 
proach each other very closely in the rearrangement 
or reproduction of our public buildings about a civic 
center; but the people must be educated to realize this, 
and until this great question is better understood gen- 
erally, progress will be necessarily slow. Among 
many cities now grappling with this important improve- 
ment, Hartford, Conn., through its city engineer, Mr. 
Frederick L. Ford, arranged for a series of authorita- 
tive articles on the grouping of public buildings in rep- 
resentative cities of America and Europe, which have 
been published at short intervals in the press of that 
city. Mr. Milo R. Maltbie, Assistant Secretary Art 
Commission of New York, has written on Berlin, 
Paris and other European cities; Mr. G. A. Parker, 
Superintendent Keney Park, Hartford, on Cleveland 
and Providence; The Value of Harmony is treated by 
J. G. Phelps Stokes, Municipal Art Society, New 
York ; Importance and Value of Civic Centers, by Guy 
Kirkham, architect; The Value of Nestling, by Arthur 
R. Shurtleff, and others are to follow. As an edu- 
cational effort this course of papers is very highly to 
be commended, for as a whole the subject is treated 
broadly and intelligently, and a fund of information is 
provided readily appreciated by the casual reader. A 
study of these papers cannot fail to create a sentiment 
in favor of civic betterment as suggested, while the 
experience of the older cities as chronicled will impress 
the reader with the necessity of transforming sentiment 
into material activity to promote such beneficial pnblic 
improvements. 
