238 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
tablishment of an endowment fund, the in- 
come of which will maintain the land for- 
ever — is peculiar to what we call the mod- 
ern cemetery, and is one of the most dis- 
cussed problems. 
There are three ways in which this can 
be provided. The most common perhaps is 
to set aside in trust a cetrain percentage 
(usually 10 to 20 per cent) of all the lot 
sales. This money is allowed to compound 
at 3 per cent interest or greater until the 
cemetery or certain portions of it are sold 
out. In the meantime, the maintenance has 
come from the general reserve fund of the 
cemetery. A second way is to set aside so 
many lots in each block, the sale of which 
will form a fund for maintenance. The 
other alternative is to make a fixed charge 
of so much per square foot of the land 
sold and include this in the price of the lot 
with the understanding that it is to be put 
in trust. This should, of course, be enough 
not only to cover the maintenance of this 
particular lot, but to include its proportion 
of roads, planting and parking space. 
The principal objection to the first, 
and, in fact, to the second, arrangement 
is that the price of lots is apt to fluctuate 
during a period of years, whereas the cost 
of maintenance is a fairly fixed charge, 
changing only with the cost of labor. To 
offset to some extent the advancing ten- 
dency in the cost of labor are mechanical 
improvements which make a day’s work 
more effective. 
While the change of the price of lots is 
usually an increase as the cemetery be- 
comes older, there are many cases where 
the reverse is true and where the percent- 
age for perpetual care originally fixed is 
not now adequate. 
While it is not the intention to advocate 
the last named method, here, above all 
others, we feel it will be well to present a 
few figures and think it worth while to 
consider for a moment 'he problem from 
this standpoint. Park lands, that is, the 
developed city parks of medium acreage, 
under reasonable care and normal climatic 
conditions, require about $100 per acre per 
annum for maintenance. Cemeteries, with 
considerably more road area, more plant- 
ing and obstructions, will cost almost 
double this amount. Again, as has been 
pointed out before, about four-sevenths 
only of the total area of a cemetery is 
sold, the remainder being in roads, paths, 
parking and planting. Therefore, this four- 
sevenths must furnish the endowment for 
the entire area. At $200 an acre, the an- 
nual upkeep would be four mills per square 
foot on the total area, or seven mills per 
square foot for the salable areas. Capital- 
izing seven mills at four per cent, the high- 
est rate which can be expected, would en- 
tail an endowment charge of nearly 18 
cents per square foot. This would no 
doubt be fully adequate. The compound- 
ing of this fund during a course of years 
would merely add a factor of safety, to 
cover any increased expense of maintenance 
in the future, or perhaps admit of a higher 
degree of maintenance than was otherwise 
contemplated. It is hardly necessary to 
say that with the responsibility resting upon 
the people handling this fund only the 
wisest and most conservative investments 
should be made. (Concluded.) 
RELATIONS OF UNDERTAKER AND CEMETERY 
An address before the Minneapolis C onvention of the Association of Ameri- 
can Cemetery Superintendents by J. Warren Roberts, Funeral Director. 
The superintendent of cemeteries and 
the funeral director are today in the 
same class from the standpoint of public 
servants, and it is for our interests, as 
well as for the interest of the public for 
us to co-operate and work in harmony 
with each other in order to give the 
public the best service possible. The 
foundation and ground work of all busi- 
ness success today depends greatly upon 
organization. 
In the first place we must have a 
definite plan to 'establish any business 
that is successful. I have taken the 
liberty of bringing such a plan or chart 
with me today. This chart as you see, 
deals with only two lines of business or 
professions, namely: the superintendent 
of cemeteries and the funeral director. 
This will enable me to point out to you 
more clearly the common ground upon 
which we meet, and should co-operate 
together. The big men in business to- 
day, those who get salaries rivaling that 
of the president of our country are those 
men who discover the laws or principles 
of business. The successful man lives 
in the main according to those laws, 
while the unsuccessful man will have 
none of them. He says success in busi- 
ness depends upon the qualities born in 
a man. Nobody can tell him how to run 
his business. Business is not yet a 
science, but it is rapidly approaching 
that condition, ’ and we must admit that 
scientific training is a great power in the 
business world today. 
In our particular lines of business and 
profession I believe organization can be 
taken as the foundation of success — or- 
ganization of your own individual ceme- 
tery and business methods, organization 
of your state superintendents, of ceme- 
teries and also your national organiza- 
tion which brings you together as you 
are here today, which means education 
and higher ideals, and it is safe to say 
that each one of you will return to 
your home with a larger and broader 
view of the opportunities that are at 
your door. Thirty-three years ago in 
Rochester, N. Y., the National Funeral 
Directors’ Association was organized. At 
that time there were no state regulations 
regarding embalmers. Today there are 
over 32,000 licensed embalmers in the 
United States and all under control of 
state boards in every state in the Union. 
Our National Committee on Transporta- 
tion has been working with the National 
Baggagemen’s Association for the past 
15 years, and have succeeded in procur- 
ing a checking system for the transporta- 
tion of dead bodies throughout the 
United States and Canada, and a body 
today is checked and routed over the 
same lines that the passenger ticket is 
sold, therefore avoiding any possibility 
of being transferred to the wrong line. 
Our National Committee on Burials at 
Sea have also been working for the 
past 15 years and today all large pas- 
senger steamship lines have embalmers 
and metallic caskets on board so that 
persons dying on board may be brought 
to their homes for burial. 
The University of Minnesota has re- 
cently inaugurated a course of embalm- 
ing, which places the matter on a better 
and more scientific basis, and which 
might well be copied by other State Uni- 
versities for this reason, since July 1, 
1914, the State Board of Health has 
. permitted the University to assume en- 
tire charge of the examination for state 
licenses. The University of Minnesota 
-being the first in the United States to es- 
tablish such a course. 
The Minnesota Funeral Directors’ As- 
sociation was organized 25 years ago, 
and we have had schools of instruction 
connected with our conventions until 
three years ago, when we succeeded in 
getting the University to establish a 
course with the understanding that our 
Association would stand back of it, 
financially, for the first two years, which 
we did, and if successful, the course 
would be established. So last year the 
permanent course was established and 
it is with a great deal of pride that I 
am able to tell you, gentlemen, that 
Minnesota has today the highest stand- 
ard in my profession of any state in 
the Union, and this has been accom- 
plished by organization. 
The next quality I would mention is 
honesty. There is no greater asset in 
the business and professional world to- 
day than that of being honest, and noth- 
ing will gain the confidence of the pub- 
lic so quickly as honesty in all dealings. 
The next three qualities I would men- 
tion as mental requirements for suc- 
cess. For superintendents of cemeteries: 
skill in landscape gardening and good 
roads; business tact and management, 
