The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-07
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. @.
B1LLBoARDs VERSUS BEAUTY.


is again being attacked as an evil of
the modern commercial system. To-
ledo has recently added its name to
the list of cities where outdoor adver-
Using is strictly regulated. Joseph
Pencil has just faced a convention
of fellow artists to deliver one of his
violent denunciations against the in
artistic billboard, as a result of which
the convention passed a resolution
urging laws to drive hoardings out of
| existence. The American Civic asso-
| citation has issued a pamphlet show
! ing that, according to recent decisions,
| the courts are at last conceding that
beauty as well as utility has rights be-
| fore the law.
All of this activity indicates that If
| the signboards are not in danger of
immediate Punishment. they are at
| least being checked in their apparent
aim to cover the earth.
! Mr. Pencil takes a rather gloomy
attitude toward our chances for sign
| less cities and highways. He is sure
that, unless reform is speeded up, gen.
erations of the future will get their
| ideas of art largely from billboard ads.
He fears that the public is losing its
! capacity for enjoyment of beauty be-
cause so little beauty is left in its en-
VIronment. Unless the billboard re-
| form of the cities is extended to the
country. he prophesies that soon we
shall ride thru lane of signs when
ever we board a train.
Ads as Farm By-Products,
| This last is scarcely an exaggerated
prospect. The average property own
er whose land is near a railroad is
easily bought over to allow a series
of huge boards to decorate his prem
ises. Sometimes even one side of the
! farm house is profaned by a big red
and yellow mural depicting the won
ders of some article no household
should be without, while the barn is
usually so decorated.
| Anti-billboard agitators usually try
to make graphic this boarding up of
the countryside by story. 1t is all
ways the same story, tho sometimes
the adjectiyes are different. The hero
| is man who has not been on a train
since billboards were introduced, and
who has never apparently been aWak-
ened to the awfulness of signs in his
city. He takes a train for anywhere
at all, joyfully expecting to rejuvenate
! his soul by a panorama of bosky
groves, verdant fields, and other
phases of nature in the rough. But
he is in for a shock.
| Instead of green and white farm
steads slipping past him. there come
variegated boards extolling the merits
of 'Won't-Run Hair Dye" Safety
| First Suspenders,'' and "Getsum Rat
Biscuit The gentIe-faced COWS which
he had looked forward to seeing do
indeed flash past at frequent intervals,
but they are painted cows on signs
urging him to remember that milk
from Happyland diaries is pure.
Injure Real Estate Values.
| The artistic offenses of the bill
! board are more apt to be noticed
when one has to look at a row of
them every day. That people do OBJ
| 70 eli m
aesthetic grounds is testified to by real
estate men. Property facing q sign
board is almost sure to depreciate in
value. The immediate neighborhood
| deteriorates and in the end the man
who allowed the sign to be put up
finds his property has gone down with
that of his neighbors.
/ Because of protests of residents and
| difficulty of renting houses near bill
| boards, as we'll as for esthetic rea-
sons, a number of cities have enacted
| coming ordinances. New York is one
of these. For some years Riverside
Drive, Central park, and other sec
| lions of New York were made beau
tiful by the city, only to have their
attra ctiveness marred by rows of
| double decker signs on their borders.
| Finally a commission was appointed
and the boards were removed by ordi-
nance from the city's residential Sec
| lions.
When outdoor advertising was first
attacked. by local regulations the
| billboard trust" raised the question
of the legality of such restrictions.
The New York courts then held that
''esthetic considerations are a matter
| of luxury and indulgence rather than
| of necessity" and similar rulings were
! handed down where their ugliness was
the main reason for legislation against
street signs.
| Civic associations objected that this
attitude of the courts was illogical A
buzzing sawmill or a smelly sulphur
works would not be permitted by law
| in the midst of a residential section.
Why, then, should a tax-paying citizen
have to look out at bum artists idea
| of a college boy radiating JOY because
he is attired in near-Panama hat
1 sold at Bill Bros, Main and Carter
claimed, is as exasperating to the av-
erage person as living next to an Of
fensive factory. and some of the courts
have come to agree.
Often Cause Fires.
Besides the generally admitted fact
i that they are blot on the landscape,
/ boardings are considered an evil in
more tangible ways. When they are
not strongly supported there is always
| danger of their falling over in storms.
! Unless they are of fireproof material
they are easily inflammable and often
serve to carry fire from one building
to another If the boards are not
raised several feet from the ground,
the space back of them almost invari-
ably becomes a dump for refuse and q
convenient place for criminals to hide.
Signboards nearly always shut out
some sunlight and air. To prevent
| this as much as possible, some cities
limit the height and width of the
boards. The Importance of breathing
space around a building is recognized
by a number of our millionaires, nota-
bly, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. who n
said to have bought three houses SO
as to insure homself against tall
| building being erected on either side
| of his home.
Our most progressive towns have
nearly all demanded safety and sani-
| tation in billboard construction. and a
number of places limit the signs to
Il srr nts n1c l,e