12 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
BEFORE: CANTERBURY ST. GATE TO FOREST HILLS, AFTER: CANTERBURY ST. GATE. FOREST HILLS, FALL OF 
SPRING OF 1912. 
cemetery followed the natural contour of 
the ground, regardless of the abruptness of 
the slopes, and as the lots were used, each 
in its turn was hoisted up, so to speak, on 
its lower side to form a level or table land 
the size of individual plots. Result: Ir- 
regular flights of stairs in which an occa- 
sional step attained the dignity of a ter- 
race in height, though never in length, all 
climbing at random over the hills and 
chopping up and ruining the charm of 
graceful contour, which is so great, though 
often unrecognized, a factor in the satis- 
factory effect of landscape. 
A hillside comfortably accessible to 
nothing less agile than a chamois seems 
especially inappropriate in :t cemetery. This 
1912. 
impression evidently "got on the nerves" of 
Mr. Adams during his novitiate, leading to 
speedy action on his accession to power. 
Me is certainly leaving an indelible mark 
on the grounds and to its everlasting bet- 
terment. 
The gigantic labor he conceived and is 
carrying out is nothing less than changing 
the contour of a large part of the 250 
acres, whether in use or not, the more dif- 
ficult part, of course, being in the old, occu- 
pied sections. Several large ones, formerly 
a series of small or medium sized lots, each 
at a different level, and reaching from the 
bottom to the top of genuine hills, have 
been raised here and lowered there to at- 
tain sweeping, graceful lines, delightful to 
the eye and possible to be cared for. 
This great work has involved the removal 
of some hedges, innumerable copings and 
other objectionable stonework, resulting, as 
a whole, in stretches in the heart of the 
older part of the grounds that would do 
credit to a modern burial place conducted 
from the outset on the lawn or park plan. 
Handsome new gates at the several en- 
trances and the new iron fencing, of which 
7,000 lineal feet have been built since 1910, 
are further evidences of advance at Forest 
Hills, and the writer hopes to later have 
the pleasure of seeing and describing other 
progressive features already planned and 
even begun bv the efficient superintendent. 
Frances Copley Seavey. 
PROBLEMS OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS 
Address of Murk //. Daniels , Superintendent of National Parks 
and Landscape Engineer, before American Civic Association. 
It has been said that the prime purpose 
of the language was to disguise thought. 
If this were true, I should suffer an en- 
forced silence, for there is nothing that I 
more devoutly wish at this moment than 
that I might tell you all my. thoughts ex- 
actly as they are on the subject of the. 
national parks. I can only hope, however,- 
to tell you a few of the things that I 
have in my mind and in my heart. I 
shall manfully refrain from any descrip- 
tions of the beauties and the glories of our 
national parks, partly because I would, 
save you from listening to repetitions of 
things you have heard or read before, and 
partly because 1 have no inclination to 
Steal thunder from Mr. Harkin, the com- 
missioner from Canada, who follows me. 
If the problems of the national parks 
were considered along broad, general lin^s 
it would be found that most of the difficul- 
ties incident to the securing of funds for 
their proper development and administra- 
tion are due principally to the popular mis- 
conception of the value of idealism as a 
factor in our economic development. The 
capitalist has been prone to call the ideal- 
ist an impracticable crank, and the ideal- 
ists, or those engaged along the lines of 
more idealistic endeavor, have called the 
capitalists, or accused them, rather, of be- 
ing utterly devoid -of any sense of the 
ideal. 'This condition is most lamentable 
because it is generally the capitalist upon 
whom application, must be made for the 
necessary funds to execute- plans of the- 
idealist. If one is possessed of a deep- 
rooted conviction of the theorem of Euclid, 
16 the effect that two things equal to a 
third are equal to each other, it is diffi- 
cult to see how that which is fundament- 
ally idealistic can - fail to be. eventually- 
economic, for if it is fundamentally ideal-- 
istic it must be good and right: if it is 
economic, it must be good and right; 
therefore, what is idealistic must even- 
tually prove to be economic. (Applause.) 
For if it were not, it would then be wrong; 
but the original definition of idealism is 
that it is good and right. The apparent 
contradictions to this principle are gener- 
ally due to erroneous assumptions as to 
what is idealistic and what is economic. 
1 he day of the proof of this contention 
is at hand, I believe, for it was not so 
many years ago when anyone advancing 
the contention that the expenditure of 
money for furthering the conditions of 
factory workers in the way of artistic 
treatment of their homes and surroundings 
would have been termed a crank, and yet* 
today many of our leading manufacturers 
and merchants will testify to the sound- *- 
ness of such a principle. . ■ 
Municipalities are beginning their plan- 
ning; they are adorning and decorating 
their cities, with the result that in many 
of them their per capita wealth is increas- 
ing. Subdivisions or residential parks are 
being laid out with an eye to beauty, with, 
the result that the land values in them are . 
steadily increasing. I. might give you*, in- 
numerable instances which would serve as 
proofs of the fact that idealism has a tre- 
mendous commercial value. 
I am convinced, for my own part, that 
idealism and economics are inalienably re- 
lated, and if anyone in the consideration 
of the drafting of physical plans for such 
areas as our national parks is influenced 
by the consideration of the economic -phase 
of their development, he is not lowering 
the flaw of art to commercialism; he is 
rather adding a new dignity to it. Not 
the least in the list of benefits, econom- 
ically derived from idealistic attempts or 
idealistic work, is the effect of civic art 
and landscape scenery upon the moral and 
the mental character of those who are so 
fortunate or so sensible as to view it. 
