The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-21
DEFENDS LAW
AS TO SHADE
TREES
Secretary Bannwart Tells
Why Properties Are
Assessed for Them.

Carl Bannwart, secretary of the
Shade Tree Commission, today gave
out a statement defending that body
against allegations that it is acting
arbitrarily and that the law should be
changed so that the cost for trees
should be borne by the general tax
fund of the city instead of being as
sessed against property in front or
which the trees are planted.
LAS to the first point. ii must be said
that our friend Is hardly clear as to the
sense in which he holds the shade tree
law to be arbitrary. 1t would seem that
he must mean one of three things. (a)
Does he mean that the law is arbitrary In
that 1t gives TO each municipality through
out the State the authority to beautify
its streets with shade trees, and thereby
Increase its desirableness as a place OF
residence? He is surely too intelligent
and u~p-to-date to mean that. fb) Does
he mean that the law is arbitrary In that
it confers authority on municipal commits
sions, duly appointed. to make choice of
such and such streets for planting?
but If there is to be street planting at
all, and if all streets cannot be planted at
once, and II some streets can never Gas
they surely never CAM be planted, than
a choice Of streets must be made. But
such choice cannot fairly be said to be
arbitrary; it is manifestly involved in
the very nature of the case.
However, (c) our friend perhaps means
that the law is arbitrary, in that 1t inn
poses the cost of street tree planting on
the AUDITING tracts of real e~state-the
tracts, by the way, which are mostly
profted by such planting. This leads
directly to a consideration of the second
point of our friends communication, viz,
AI.k Al, oA-{ ~Lo,IIH to IArr4A kHv tfho cav
eral tax
''This is by no means a novel argument.
The matter has been brought up before
and discussed by persons In high repute
as experts. On the recommendation In
March, 1906, of Mayor DorefSus that the
shade tree tax be placed in the general
tax levy, the financial officer of the city,
Comptroller Bachelor; the Receiver of
Taxes, Robert L. Ross; the City Attorney.
Malcolm MacLear, and Shade Tree Com
missioner Ellsworth held a most earnest
conference on this very subject.
1.-THE matter was thoroughly discussed in
all its phases. At length the conclusion
was reached by these experienced men of
affairs Whose ability, integrity and civic
loyalty will surely not be i%mpugned) that
to saddle the cost Of a tree planting
on the general tax levy would work grave
injustice and would open the way to vari-
Gus abuses and possible graft.
"Some of the grounds on which this con-
clusion was based are here given:
"1-Buslness property, though deriving
no benefit from shade tree planting, would
be compelled, nevertheless, to bear the
greatest share of the expense through the
general tax.
'2-That men who, through civic pride
and public spirit, planted trees on their
own initiative, would be called upon TO pay
also for their neighbors' trees through the
general tax.
"3-That a commission might conceivably
be prevailed upon to expend the tree plant
ing appropriations largely, or even exclu-
sively, in this or that section for the BEN
eft OF friends-or even for purposes of
graft.
"4-That the present method, besides
shutting the door to the above Indicated
injustices and abuses. is moreover the only
equitable method, inasmuch as It assesses
the cost againt the tracts of rea estate
directly benefited by the trees.
ITO this last confederation it may be