Arizona republican., 1920-08-14
BillbOards vs Beauty
By Frederic J. Haskir


 WASHINGTON, D. C., June 6.-The staring, glaring billboard, which forces It's messages upon us wherever we go, is again being attacked as an evil of the modern commercial system To- ledo has recently added it's name to tBse list of cities where outdoor advertis- ing is strictly regulated. Joseph Pen nell has just faced a convention of fellow artists to deliver one of his vio- lent denunciations against the mar tistic billboard, as a result of which the convention passed resolution urging laws to drive boardings out of existence. The American Civic Asso- ciation 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.
 MT. Pennell takes a rather gloomy attitude toward our chances for sign less cities and highways. He is sure that, unless reform is speeded up, gen. ideas of art largely from billboard ads. He fears that the public is los- ing it's capacity for enjoyment of beauty. because so little beauty is left in it's environment. Unless the bill- board reform of the cities is extended to the country, he prophecies that soon we shall ride through a lane of signs whenever We board a train.
 Ads as Farm 5y-Products This last is scarcely an exaggerated | prospect. The average property owner whose land is near a railroad is easily | bought over to allow series of huge i boards to decorate his premises Some times even one side of the farm house | is profaned by a big red and yellow | mural depicting the wonders of some article no househould should be with out while the barn is usually so deco rated.
 Anti i-billboard agitators usually try to make graphic this boarding up of the countryside by a story. It is al- ways the same story, though some times the adjectives are different The hero is a man who has not been on a train since billboards were introduced and who has never apparently been awakened to the awfulness of signs in his city. He takes a train for any where at all, joyfully expecting to re- juvenate his soul by panorama oi bosl<y 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 Ivariegated boards extolling the merit. of "Wont-Run Hair Dye" s'Safet,
 First Suspenders." and "Getsum Ra
 Biscuit" The gentle-faced cow
 which he had looked forward to see
 ing do indeed flash past at frequen ! intervals. but they are painted cow on signs urging him to remember tha malk from Happyland dairies is pure injure Real Estate Values M The artistic offenses of the biIlboar are more apt to be noticed when on has to look at a row of them ever day. That people do object to sign
 near their homes on aesthetic ground is testified to by real estate men. PFop Il to depreciate in value The immediat \ end the man who allows the sign be put up finds that his property ha \ gone down with that of his neighbor Because of protests of residents an difficulty of renting houses near bil \ boards, as well as for aesthetic req sons, "a number of cities have enacte \ zoning ordinances. New York is or \ of these. For some years Riversio ' drive, Central park and other section of New York were made beautiful |
 the city, only to have their attractive
 ness marred by rows of double deck,
 signs on their borders. Finally a con
 mission was appointed and the board
 were removed by ordinance from u
 city's residential sections.
 When outdoor advertising was fir
 attacked by local regulations the "bil
 board trust" raised the question of tl
 legality of such restrictions The Ne