The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-07-14
WEST SIDE PARK
REQUEST TO co
BEFORE COUNCIL
Board of Works Assures
Committee of Willingness
to Convert Dump Into
Park Site.
Residents Present Memorial
Asking Works Board to
Cooperate in Furthering
Scheme for Park.

A committee composed of John Fos-
Ter, T. &C. Hubbard. John w. Reth-
meyer, Mrs. Emory Evans and Mrs.
Reuben d. Rich met with the board of
works yesterday afternoon to take up
the dump Id park question. The OBJ
ject is to clean up the unsightly con-
ditions atyS.s end of Doran bridge and
convert N property along the river
and cleaf UP to West First street into
q park. The movement is very pop
ular one all over the city, for vast
amount of pleasure driving goes over
the bridge ard out Richmond avenue.
Assurance was given the committee
that a resolution would be introduced
in council looking toward the accom-
plishment of the West Richmond advo-
Gates.
The following report was filed be-
fore the board by the chairman, Ed
gar Tiff:
"To Mr.. Alfred Bavis, President Of
Board of Public Works:
"Mr. President-This committee, the
outgrowth Of a recent mass meeting OF
the residents of West Richmond, and
appointed at the suggestion of your
self. comes before the board of works
seeking relief from the intolerable nui-
sance, called the dump
Dump an Eye-sore.
1T Is not necessary to tell your
honorable board of the miseries of the
westsiders arising from this running
sore,' as President Bavis happily
named it at our mass meeting. 1t is
not at all necessary to dwell upon
President Bavis' remark that the sins
Of the father are visited upon the
children, even to the third and fourth
generation. We know that. We know
that this nuisance has been maintain
ed through many city administrations,
Democratic and Republican, and that
it is still with US.
But, Mr.. President, we are not liv-
ing under the old order of things. We
have changed our social and civic en-
vironment Our public point of view
Is not at all the same as 1t was twen-
ty-five years ago. Cows and hogs
roamed up and down Main street
in Richmond. Hogs wa1lowed in
front Of the postoffice and public
buildings. Cows came up to the
store doors and threatened to
come in. Pig pens sent up such a
stencil on warm nights that the city
council had to resign, have a summer
recess, or take poison. Citizens had
to hold their noses when they ate
breakfast.
Now when politics became infest
ed with these nuisances, and the re-
former appeared to worry the candi
dates, people began to howl about
NJ rio f0
hogs and the freedom of the COW,
of Independence and the inherent right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness.' But the roaming COW, the wal
lowing hog and the smelling pigpen
had to go before the march of the pro
gressive citizen.
Beauty an Asset.
"The best asset of city Is its
beauty. Nothing is beautiful that is
unclean, unsanitary, unwholesome and
offensive to the ear, the nose or the
eye. 1t has taken ages to evolve that
fine sense we call aesthetic, that love
of the harmonious and the beautiful in
the human mind and soul,
I'VE want to lay it down here, as q
general proposition, that if we have
developed to place where we con
demn things offensive to the smell as
unlawful, we shall yet arrive at the
place where things offensive to the
eye, offensive to the sense of the or
derly and the beautiful in the human
mind, will also be condemned and re
moved as a public nuisance.
$50 we are here demanding that al
of the unsightly things near ant
around the dump shall be removed
and that the city take over the ground
near and around the dump and con
vert it into a park or playground. To
do this will be the first step toward 6
long line of riverside parks and the
finest boulevard any city in the wes
can boast of.
EDGAR ILIFF, Chairman"