The Washington times., 1914-05-23
BY MRS. L. v. H. BIEN.

v. II. BEN
ment. of individual properties IN
Washington, a similar organization
and unit of action would be required.
Is Owned By United States.
In the city limits. the land betw zen
the building line and the stree.
south of Florida avenue, belongs 10
the Federal Government. This. IN
tdrn. Is placed under the control of
the District government, whicA
grants to each householder the per-
mission to treat the lawn in frors
OF his house as he prefers. The re-
suit is. that with this varied control.
harmony of treatment Is entirely
out of the question.
Since, in the majority of cases, the
Government owns the land, II is but
fair that the District officials
should have the care Of II, just an
t-ey 60 of the city parks II the
expense for this is met by the house.
hclder. who Is to profit by the beau
tifying OF his own dooryard. the plan
becomes perfectly feasible
The expense bugbear disposed Of
thus for the Government, II might
be feared that the householder
would object on this account. IL il
were for something else, such a fear
might be well grounded: but for this.
1t Is not, nor Is such an objection, II
advanced. legitimate.
A lover of green grass and flow
ers VIII have them about hin whe-
ther or no. and will willingly pay
for thom, no matter how poor he
Tay be.
Raise An Objection.
To those who do not care for them
they are quite likely to raise an OBJ
jecticn on account of expense, but
thty deceive themselves. TO- II can
easily &c proved to be inconsistent
They may perhaps be classed under
one of five types: The city dweller
who Is so well OF that he can af-
ford a country home for himself dur
Ing the hot months. "Our of sight,
out % mind" Is the trouble here,
when a lawn. poor to start with.
perhaps. remains all summer long
dr. and spiked all over with plan
tain
y second class is the stay-at-home
autonobilist, who drives and drives
and orIves in his spare tune. while
his avn natures into crop Of hay.
The third class Is the Indifferent
enc, the fourth the lame, and the
lazy and the fifth the ignorant.
No one of these classes realizes
the importaVt of such responsible
ity, either Tor his own welfare OF
that of his neighbor, and needs to
come under the training experts Of
the Bureau of Education.
Gail Hamilton said that the way to
get the barn painted was to BEGIN
10 talk about It. This Is she way
with our lawns. IL Is the first step.
easily led by the ladies' The second
is to prove by Individual iscoIa-
plishment, what is desirable to be
done in order to keep IN mind a
clear practical plan for continued
operation.
The third. and for which the as
sociation is now ready, is, so Dis
trict authorities say. to present the
scheme to the various citizens as
sociations for their Endorsement and
cooperation. With this army at
cne's back, a hearing before the
ComnissiCn ners may be had. Once
their recommendation Is secured.
suitable representatives may then
proceed to march upon Congress.
for only by a bill through Congress
can the District be given authority
TO collect tax from the individual
propertyowner for his share toward
making his own block beautiful
Would Realize Dream.
II each householder were taxed a
smaE sum per year. for the work of
planting and caring for his front
lawn. by the citys park commis-
sion, the fond dream of "Our City
Beautiful would soon be realized.
AS to the care of the back yards,
no less important than the front, the
law might provide that all line and
alley fences be made of strong wire,
with coarse mesh. through which
the air could circulate. and over
which vines could be trained Vege-
tables could then be grown with an
assurance that they would afford
as large a yield proportionaIly as
those grown in the open field Also
saving could thus be made which
would more than pay for the tax
on the front yard.
Our alleys. with each rear fence
vine-clad. would be green from end
to end, and with the city's vacant
lots cultivated by the children, a
plan well under way through school
and club enterprise, ''Our City Beau
tnuf' would be assured i'm every
quarter. and the character. taste.
spirit and thrift of the population
improved as we'll
Let us talk il Up everywhere. This
Is the way to begin, then by pic
lures of what has been done in in
dividual ,ases, show that what can
be done in small way, through
the concerted action of a few, can
be done on a large scale, and much
better by the trained forces of the
District.