Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Municipal Art

To descend to particulars and localities, we may first record that women are becoming concerned about the transit approaches to cities and about the hideous stations which are all too frequently to be found in our towns, villages, and cities. The first approach to a city or village is of supreme importance in the feeling that residents, if they ever leave their home town and return, or visitors have about the place. The railway station therefore assumes a rôle that is by no means insignificant. A most capable railroad station improver is Mrs. Annette McCrae, of the American Civic Association, who has worked for the Chicago and Northwestern. A story illustrating her point of view is told by Mr. McFarland in The American City:

“I remember that ... Mrs. McCrea ... discussed with the president of one of the eastern railroads the crude, glaring and unreasonably ugly manner in which his stations were painted. He listened with reasonable impatience, because Mrs. McCrea is a lady, and finally burst out with, ‘After all, Mrs. McCrea, it is a question of taste, isn’t it?’ To this, quick as a flash, Mrs. McCrea replied: ‘Yes, Mr. President; it is a question of taste—of good taste or of bad taste!’ After this the discussion languished, for there was no defense left to the apologist for mixing orange and brown before the eyes of the defenseless millions who had to use his steel highway.” Mrs. McCrae’s work is the result of a recognized demand on the part of the people, and of women as an aggressive element among the people, for attractive and inviting front and back doors to their urban dwellings.

Every section of the country has felt the urge of the request for attractive stations. In some sections, railroad companies have been induced to assume the responsibility for the improvement and in new sections railroads are glad to build attractive stations and beautify the grounds to draw residents. In other sections, railroads have been the greatest foe to station improvement and have absolutely prevented beautification of buildings and the grounds through their ownership of the surrounding area. Sometimes benevolently minded individuals and organizations have themselves financed or have aided in the building and beautification of the railway approach. Again where the villagers were rich colonists or the size of the center required rebuilding frequently, as in New York, a suitable station has resulted through the adaptation of the company to the environment.

Billboards were among the first items on the programs of the women’s clubs of the country as an evil to be attacked. A campaign for cleaner billboards in St. Paul, Minnesota, is thus described by Mrs. Backus:

It is impossible to be a teacher without realizing the tremendous influence upon the young of the books they read, the pictures they see and the plays they hear.

Miss Caroline Fairchild, a public school teacher of St. Paul, knowing this psychological truth, was very much impressed with the influence of poverty of thought and flabby morals exerted by the penny parlors, cheap “shows,” and by the billboards with their fierce men throttling shrinking girls or stabbing to the heart a hated rival.

She decided to attack first the evil which could be seen by every citizen riding in our street cars or walking along our streets—the billboard—and that her protest might carry more weight she secured the coöperation of the Thursday Club and the public press.

The first step was a call upon one of the leading theaters, whose manager suggested a visit to the local billboard manager; this courteous gentleman referred the committee to the eastern theatrical managers. New York being almost too far away for a personal visit, it was decided that the campaign must be made general, so the following letter was drawn up to be sent to all managers of theatrical productions:

“Gentlemen: The club women of St. Paul have objected for a long time to many of the bill posters, advertising plays in this city. We feel that they have a demoralizing influence on the youth, and we would urge that posters presenting undesirable scenes, women clad in tights, or any pictures that will leave a bad impression on the minds of the young, be eliminated. St. Paul is not the only city which objects to this class of advertising, and we hope that the movement will become nation-wide.”

This step of the Civic Department of the Thursday Club had been indorsed by the Fourth District of the Federation, and members of other clubs had pledged their coöperation.

To the joy of the committee, it was met more than halfway by the Poster Printers’ Association of America and by one or two journals devoted to the interests of poster printers and theatrical managers.

In March, 1911, the chairman of the Poster Printers’ Association issued a statement to poster printers, lithographers and theatrical managers, in which they were urged to use their influence against posters that might be deemed objectionable because of the titles used or the scenes illustrated.

The next step was the sending of lists of the leading producing managers—the men who control nearly all of the first class and popular priced theaters in the country—to every state president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in the United States, with a request that each state body take up the campaign for better plays and higher class advertising and make it a national movement.

Inquiries began to come in from other states in regard to a plan of work, showing the awakening of public interest. Local theatrical managers offered assistance, one manager asking that a committee be sent each week on the opening night to censor the play to run that week, promising to act upon suggestions made by the women—and he kept his word.

On November 10, 1911, we find the following notice in one of our daily papers:

“The civic committee of the Thursday Club is much pleased at the very evident results of its recent campaign for cleaner billboards. ‘I have noticed nothing objectionable in any of the posters advertising theatrical productions in St. Paul this season,’ says Miss Fairchild, ‘and the radical change in even the posters put up by the burlesque companies shows that the work of the club women of the country in appealing to producing managers and poster printers has had good results and been well worth while.’ Women have been on the lookout in many parts of the city and no protest has been disregarded; in one case the objectionable bill was found to be an old one which had ‘slipped in,’ but it quickly slipped off.”[^[51]]

The Commercial Club and the Woman’s Civic League of Pensacola, Florida, have worked together to restrict the billboard industry.

The Civic Club of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, “spent much effort and thought upon the regulation and taxation of billboards in Pittsburgh. Two bills and a tentative ordinance were drawn up and submitted to the proper authorities; the committee on statistics handed in a complete report covering the city and a number of telling photographs were taken.” The Civic Club is an organization in which men and women work in the closest and most responsible coöperation.

The American Civic Association has for years been carrying on a campaign of education against billboards through lectures, bulletins, and press work. Its influence has undoubtedly stimulated local activities both of men and women but anti-billboard work knows no sex. The national association stands ready to help in local anti-billboard contests and it is showing now how definite results may be obtained in cities and states.