The National Garden Association 
President: Leonard Barron, F.R.H.S. 
Honorary Vice-Presidents: J. Horace McFarland, Mrs. Francis King, Mrs. Russell Tyson, Mrs. 
Thomas G. Winter, Mrs. Samuel Sloan, Mr. Frederick Newbold, Mr. Robert Pyle, Mrs. John 
D. Sherman. 
Cooperating Societies: National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild; American Dahlia Society; 
American Iris Society; Ontario Horticultural Association; American Forestry Association ; 
Women’s National Farm and Garden Association; Wild Flower Preservation Society; National 
Horticultural Society; The Agassiz Association. 
S OON it will no longer 
be “sixteen miles 
from Wimbledon to 
Wombledon” but, 
instead, “six Spavin Cures 
and ten Clingstone Tires” 
while the famous distance 
“from Schenectady to Troy” 
will be estimated in Liver 
Pills! If the Billboard Nuis¬ 
ance is not checked at once, 
our national highways will 
speedily become mere roofless tunnels threading an ignominious 
way between Pitcher’s Castoria, Rustless Screens, and all their 
depressing ilk. 
As a nation we have spent millions upon our roads making 
them a matter of national pride—directly or indirectly all of us 
are tax-payers and every one of us bears a share of the cost. 
Why then permit a comparatively small group of people to ob¬ 
trude their specialized business interests into the whole Ameri¬ 
can landscape, marring and obscuring the beauty of the country¬ 
side which is by right the free heritage of the whole body of 
citizenry? Fundamentally unjust and nearsighted, this practice 
is bound ultimately to fly back like a boomerang into the face 
of its originators and to defeat its own purpose, as some of the 
bigger-visioned advertisers are already coming to see. 
It is now possible to go from Maine to California along 
paved, well-graded trails, but alas!—those trails no longer af¬ 
ford magnificent views and wondrous vistas. Instead they are 
rapidly becoming boxed-in passageways, through the cracks 
of which we are permitted to get an occasional peep at some 
famous mountain or river. 
“Canning the scenery” seems to be the slogan of the com¬ 
mercial interests that are robbing us of our enjoyment of the 
natural beauties of the land 
and making our highways 
objects of scorn to every 
foreigner of note who travels 
over them. And there is a 
menace in the huge billboards 
quite apart from being a blot 
on the landscape—when care¬ 
lessly placed, they cut off 
views of approaching trains 
and automobiles. 
The National Garden As¬ 
sociation has asked its affiliated societies and officers to throw 
their weight into a concentrated effort for the abolishment of 
the billboard and has met with immediate and most heartening 
response. 
Mrs. Samuel Sloan, President of The Garden Club of America, 
at once replied telling of the long struggle waged by this active 
organization against billboards, giving, in conclusion, the fol¬ 
lowing constructive suggestions: 
We feel that strong cooperation between all associations existing for 
the preservation of the national scenic beauty of our country is es¬ 
sential if we are to accomplish anything at all in this campaign. We 
believe that through the press and through individual contact with 
individual advertisers, success will be attained. 
Mr. J. Horace McFarland, President of The American Civic 
Association, states emphatically that this is not only a national 
issue but that it is a nuisance that can be abated, adding: 
The increasing marling of the landscape by advertising signs is 
particularly outrageous through New England. This is stupid and 
wrong. What to do about it? The real weapon is public opinion. 
The way to get at the thing is through public sentiment. 
Broadcast Beauty Instead of Billboards 
Protect Your Good Roads from Disfigurement 
Why Pay Taxes for Ugliness? 
Why Needlessly Endanger Motorists? 
Plant Trees, Plant Shrubs, Plant Flowers! 
A “SIGNED-UP” ROAD NEAR JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 
Where the natural beauty of Pine and Palmetto is wholly destroyed and a clear 
view around the curve is obscured, making it unnecessarily dangerous to motorists 
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