The creation of the modern cemetery and the renovation and reorganization of ancient cemeteries, accompanied as they have been by a decided increase in the cost of burial lots and services connected therewith, have given rise to the question: Do we receive value for the money paid, or do the cemetery authorities, taking advantage of the circumstances, tax us unduly in order to provide the necessary means for the furtherance of their pet schemes?

The elaborate care bestowed upon all modern cemeteries and the increased interest taken in the condition of older burial places, are matters of comparatively recent times; the outgrowth of advancing civilization, refinement and' education.

The present conditions introduce the question not only of men and means for present work but also the laying of the foundations upon which future generations may safely build.

The cemetery which in its inception failed to provide for the maintenance of the standard at the present time demanded, by working far too small it margin and laying a foundation too narrow for the structure it is called upon to bear, is today struggling with all the difficulties induced by poverty.

Relative values form a problem, perhaps the most serious one, with which the cemetery superintendent and his associates have to contend. Upon them devolves the responsibility not only of meeting the requirements of the present generation, but of laying the foundation of a system which will enable the cemetery authorities of the future to meet the ever increasing demands of their day.

The prospective purchaser of a cemetery lot is sometimes surprised at what he calls the fancy prices he is called upon to pay, not only for a burial lot, but for services performed thereon. He has vague ideas of the cost of land at so much per acre, of labor at current rates as also of excavating and replacing a few yards of earth. He is apt to overlook the fact, that location; the nature of the ground and some other matters, in the purchase of ground for cemetery purposes, are paramount. A fact which is most usually overlooked by the possessor of vendor of the same. In addition to this, high prices are sometimes charged on account of depreciation of surrounding property.

In laying out the grounds, the best and most expensive talent the country can furnish, is secured. In order to preserve and enhance the beauty of the natural features to be found in some of our park cemeteries, as also in the formation of avenues, plots reserved for ornamental planting and for parked entrances, certain areas of ground must be sacrificed.

When the land has been purchased and large amounts of money laid out and buried, since it is practically dead, in the erection of administration buildings, boundary walls and drains, notwithstanding that the plots most readily available are being disposed of and ground purchased by the acre is being sold by the foot, the expenses and difficulties encountered in making a cemetery have only just begun. Equipment must be purchased; the money expended for this purpose, however, is not dead but lively enough to call for constant reinforcements for renewal and repairs. Swamps must he drained and filled; ledge rock removed and barren land made to grow greensward. Also, judging from a few figures taken at random, enormous sums of money are lying unproductive in the way of unsold ground or stock in trade. One cemetery has lately purchased thirteen acres at a cost of $27,000; another has purchased one hundred and eight acres at a cost of $500,000; another two hundred and three acres at a cost of $200,000. While a cemetery we had the pleasure of visiting two years ago, has, according to its annual report, land valued at $300,000 upon which future generations will realize, but which for some time to come will be a source of expense rather than of income.

It is true that cemeteries are free from taxation, but we must not forget that expenses involved in the maintenance of avenues, of public safety and order are equivalent to the same expenses in towns and cities; and also, that these expenses must be met without the aid of public taxation. The value of real estate invariably moves in one direction. One cannot anticipate the time when under proper management, it will cease to be a source of income. On the other hand, a cemetery lot once sold becomes a source of expense and the trustees holding the money paid for it are on that account responsible for a proportionate share of the expense of administration, repairs and deterioration for all time.

For these reasons, in arranging the prices of cemetery lots a liberal policy must be pursued. The price to be obtained for the lot must cover the cost of purchase, construction and maintenance; and even then the ability to recuperate in case of losses which no amount of business sagacity could have prevented or foreseen must not be lost sight of.

Since nature has decreed that every man shall once in his life perform the office of dying and since the law demands that the dead shall be interred in certain specified grounds and that the control of these grounds shall be placed in the hands of competent and authorized persons, the use and patronage of the cemetery becomes compulsory.

In view of this fact it may be asked: What justification can there be in erecting such expensive structures and making such elaborate layouts as we find in our modern cemeteries, in an institution of public necessity?

The cemetery has simply moved with the times and must be placed in the same class with public buildings, parks, thoroughfares and places of worship. It is not generally considered a hardship that the poorest of us have to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the maintenance of these things.

The expenses connected with our final departure vary with locations and conditions, and like all other expenses are largely influenced by the prevailing custom of the times. The time when the dead were carried out and buried at the least possible expense consistent with decency has passed. Instead, the question invariably asked is: Is there anything more we can do?

Among those whom mortuary expenses affect the most seriously, the expense is lavished upon the funeral which tomorrow is but a memory; while the cemetery, the last resting place of dear friends, which is visited by the family for time without limit, receives but scant attention; and I think it safe to say, that in the majority of cases, the money paid for superfluities exceeds the amount paid to the cemetery including the cost of the ground.

As in life, so in death; the character or quality of our abode must be in keeping with the quantity of this world's goods which has fallen to our share. The rich will own an ample plot which is approached by broad and well-kept avenues and crowned by an expensive monument; while the poor will be laid away in a crowded neighborhood and his resting place will be known to the officials and remembered by a few friends.

The value of services must be measured by the same standard as the value of lots. It is quite likely that a contractor would be able to open and refill a grave at a less figure than that charged by the cemetery. An irresponsible gardener would grade your lot for ten to twenty percent less. Most of us have had some experience with foundations built by monument dealers.

The results of this kind of figuring are to be seen in nearly all cemeteries not established upon modern lines. In addition to the actual first cost there are the expenses of perpetual administration which, like Banquo's ghost, "Will not down." A general and uniform arrangement of graves and grading must be maintained and a record of all burials and many other classes of work kept. The Superintendent is often called upon to give account of work done by himself or by his predecessor a score or two of years previously. So that if graves were opened and all other work performed at contractor's prices, a substantial fee must be charged or a tax imposed upon all work done in the cemetery.

In comparing work done in the cemetery we must bear in mind that a great part of the work is done under conditions not found outside; for building foundations and burial vaults and for all work connected with burials we cannot arrange a date. A sufficient number of men must be kept on hand to execute any order promptly and for whom it is sometimes impossible to find profitable employment.

I find that the charge for opening a grave in a large cemetery is from five to seven dollars. In the smaller cemeteries it is nearer three dollars. In the larger cemeteries more money is demanded for a single grave than we get for a family lot. Our forms of burial are simple; we dispense with uniformed attendants, shelter tents, rubber mats and lowering devices.

It is needless to say, of course, that our margin is correspondingly small. We have a less imposing administrative staff and if we have not a simpler way of keeping records we have a cheaper place in which to keep them.

There is a credit side to this question we must not fail to look at. As the cemetery improves in appearance and increases in wealth and importance, so increase the responsibilities and expenses. Your superintendent must be a man of sterling worth; of qualifications too numerous to mention here; and he will not fail to realize that the laborer is worthy of his hire.

Cemetery work creates within the heart of the Superintendent a feeling of fealty so strong that nothing but a call to the better land or to a better position will sever the bond between him and his employer. Taking any other position with an equal number of patrons to serve, equally important interests to guard and requiring the same amount of general ability and technical skill as the positions filled by the cemetery Superintendent and his assistants, together with the remuneration received therefore and the Superintendent and his assistants would not gain much by the comparison.

A man who embraces any other branch of professional or mercantile life expects to be able to retire in time to enjoy a few years of life between the office and the cemetery. He not only expects to be able to glide down the hill of life easily, to make ample provision for his family but invariably leaves a lucrative business to give his sons a start in life.

The cemetery Superintendent invariably dies in harness and leaves behind for his family nothing but the leg of a stocking with a few odd dollars he may have been able to put into it.

Your clerical staff and your responsible men must be up to the standard and you will find that a good man will not work for a cemetery for less than he can obtain elsewhere where there are chances of promotion or of partnership. In the interests of the cemetery the remuneration must be liberal enough to insure not only their conscientious labor but their hearty interests.
 
It is not my intention in this paper to criticize the principles upon which the modern cemetery is conducted, neither to pile up figures upon figures and facts upon facts nor to weary you with innumerable comparisons when there are so many men waiting to give us the benefit of their wider experience. As this may be read by some outside the brotherhood I have perhaps gone a little wide of technicalities and spoken in a general way of a few important matters with which the general public does not always trouble itself.

I am aware that I have not offered you much information, but with my limited experience I will be honored if I may have opened the way' for the better informed to do so.

If I may make free with the words of a celebrated humorist: "I have not told you all of the truth" about the relative values of cemetery lots and services, but enough to show my seniors and superiors in the profession, the necessity of their giving us information upon this subject, which I hope they will lose no time in doing.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Convention
Held at New York City, NY
September 14, 15 and 16, 1909

Twenty years ago the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents came into existence. Twenty years is a long time to look forward to. But twenty years is still longer to look back upon. Betterment of cemeteries was the idea of Charles Nicholls, the father of the movement; Betterment by example; Betterment through interchange of ideas; Betterment through visiting and seeing well-managed cemeteries. For the latter reason, Spring Grove, Cincinnati, was selected for the first object lesson. There and then a spirit of emulation sprang up: a right worthy spirit. The assembling together of cemetery superintendents brought out many new ideas that have greatly improved the burial grounds all over this vast country. Year by year these ideas have broadened. Cemeteries with high reputations for their beauty have been benefited and old fashioned places improved and in many instances modernized. The people of the present time will not stand for a neglected state of affairs. They see good examples of cemetery management, and naturally demand a betterment in the management of their home burial grounds. Innumerable cases can be cited where neglect has given place to beauty. Nature is very bountiful and it only requires a little ingenuity on the part of man to transform a neglected place into one of beauty.

During the past twenty years many parts of the United States have been visited by the association. Seventeen years ago Detroit was selected as the most suitable city in which to hold the third convention. Marvelous have been the changes in cemetery development since that convention.

While the membership of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents is not numerically strong, yet a goodly number have passed through the ranks. Each and every one of them must have been benefited. This is evidenced by a visit to the cemeteries under their charge.

For all of this improvement little credit is given to the organization by the general public. The good work has gone on quietly and without ostentation and will go on. The association will soon be of age, twenty-one years. It has several offspring, all having in view the same object--betterment.

The future care of cemeteries is one of the brightest achievements of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents. Year after year perpetual care was discussed, until now all managers of cemeteries recognize the importance of the subject and are giving endowment special attention. It will be safe to predict that within a few years the perpetual care of all cemeteries will be insured. Twenty years ago chaos and neglect were too observant. This has in a great measure given way to cleanliness and order. The endowment of one burial lot generally leads to the endowment of others. There is, indeed, a great satisfaction in the knowledge that our graveyard will be kept green. Another fact is that lot holders usually take the lesson to heart and make their home surroundings pleasanter. A beautiful cemetery is a splendid sermon.

But while the Association of American Superintendents has greatly benefited cemeteries in populous localities, there is still one class that so far we have been unable to reach and benefit in a desirable manner: namely, the country church yards. As a rule, these places are without superintendents, or indeed any person in charge. How to improve these burial grounds is a difficult problem. Many have been the suggestions, but how to apply them is the difficulty. One worthy idea promulgated by John Thorp at the Chicago meeting was the press. Not the press of the large cities, but the weekly sheets that are to be found in nearly every country home. The paper that tells of Mrs. Jones visiting Mrs. Smith. Unfortunately these papers do not consider graveyard items of any interest to the readers. Probably if "Park and Cemetery" was to have a few short items beneficial to country burial grounds, the editor of the weekly press might clip and make use of them. Another idea would be for the country churches to appoint cemetery committees composed of women only. There would then be less cause for complaint of the neglected rural burial grounds. "Keep Clean" should be their motto. As an illustration of what can be accomplished, at the suggestion of the writer, the ladies connected with probably the oldest church in America undertook the improvement of their ancient burial ground. It was in a terribly neglected condition. The committee first had the briars and weeds cut down. Next year all the sunken spots were filled. Then a little grading was done, tombstones straightened and paths abolished or seeded. As the improvement became more marked those engaged in the work became encouraged, until now there is a clean and tidy burial ground. At a social function money was raised for a neat iron gateway to replace the old wooden gate. Lack of interest is the main cause of the generally neglected state of the rural cemetery; Get some person interested will be the remedy.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 20th Annual Convention
Held at Detroit, MI
August 21, 22 and 23, 1906

On examination of annual statements of cemeteries as published in Park and Cemetery and Landscape Gardening, there seem to be two kinds of perpetual care funds:

First, and the most general, are the funds given for the perpetual care of individual lots. Such funds, it seems to me, should be called "Funds for perpetual care of lots."
 
Second, sums set aside by the cemetery officials for the perpetual care of the whole cemetery. We will call such funds "General reserve or general care of cemetery funds." The existence of either or both of these funds assumes that the location of the cemetery is permanent and that no change in environment will necessitate abandoning the land as a burial place. Before any cemetery officials give a contract or receipt binding the corporation forever, has proper precaution been taken, through legislative action or otherwise, to assure the permanency of the location of the cemetery grounds and their perpetual use as a burial place? We all know of many instances where cemeteries have been condemned, the interments ordered removed to a different location and often the identification of those interred completely lost. Suppose perpetual care had been provided for on lots in such cemeteries, how are the officials to carry out the binding contracts of their predecessors? Is it not paramount to all other considerations that the greatest caution be exercised to insure the permanency of location?

Next to the permanency of location, the permanency of the organization must be considered. Are our cemetery companies or associations so organized that provision is made so that they can carry out the contracts for all time themselves, or turn such funds or obligation over to some organization of an unending nature, which will bind itself and its successors to carry out the original agreement? If permanency in these two vital points has been provided for, we are in a position to accept the trusts imposed upon us, but if not, it were far better for us to be honest and candid and tell our patrons that we are a short-lived body and can only agree to bind ourselves for a specified time. Assuming that perpetuity can be guaranteed, so far as human foresight can guarantee what such a stupendous word implies we are in a position to consider the "proper and legal methods of applying the principle."

The laws of the State of Wisconsin have made provision for cemeteries to accept funds for perpetual care of lots as follows:

"Every such association *** owning and using lands for cemetery purposes shall take, hold and use such gifts, bequests or devises of personal or real property or the income or proceeds thereof, as may be made in trust or otherwise, for the improvement, maintenance, repair, preservation or ornamentation of any lot, vault, tomb, chapel or other structure in such cemetery, according to the terms of the gift, bequest or devise and in accordance with such reasonable rules and regulations as may be made by the officers charged with the duty of caring for the cemetery.

"If money is given or bequeathed for any such purpose and without direction as to the manner of its investment the income of which is directed to be used for any such purposes, it shall be invested by the proper officers in bonds of the United States, of this State, or of some county, city or village, town or school district of this State, or in bond or note secured by mortgage on property in amount not exceeding one-half the value of such property. * * * It shall be the duty of * * * such treasurer or other financial officer of any cemetery association to which any gift, bequest or devise has been made for any purpose within this section, on the first secular day of January in each year to make a written report to the Judge of the County Court of the County in which the cemetery thereof is situated, showing in detail the amount of funds and the value of property which has been received for such purposes and the disposition thereof, * * *. The said Judge shall examine all accounts rendered and audit the same and also examine into the investments made and securities taken hereunder.

"Property given, bequeathed or devised and trusts created for any of the purposes herein authorized shall be exempt from taxation and from the operation of laws against perpetuities, accumulations and mortmain."

Such are the statutory provisions of the State of Wisconsin to safeguard the funds left by individuals for the perpetual care of their lots and are the "legal methods of applying the principle."

The Trustees of Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, gave the matter of perpetual care of lots a great deal of consideration before drawing their contracts, or receipts for funds to be deposited and it is with great pleasure that I give you the following form as a result of their deliberations:

"Received of ________ the sum of _________ dollars to be invested and the income of which is to be expended in the manner hereinafter stated, for the perpetual care of Lot number _____, in Block number _____, in Section number _____ in FOREST HOME CEMETERY, in the County of Milwaukee, WS, in doing work on said lot as follows: _______________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________.  Said sum of money has been received on the following condition, to which: That the amount received shall be invested, together with such other sums as have been or shall be received for like purposes, to the best advantage and kept in a separate fund, and the income arising from such invested fund shall, on the first day of May in each year, be apportioned as follows: One percent of the total amount of said fund shall be retained and carried into the General Reserve Fund of the Cemetery, and the balance of the income of such first named fund shall be apportioned pro rata to the several amounts in said funds and the amounts so apportioned shall be the amounts that may be expended during the current year on the lot, lots or graves, for the care of which said sums of money shall have been received. Any amount left over unexpended for any year or years on any given lot or lots or graves shall be added to the amount allowed to be expended in any subsequent year or years.

"No gift or bequest shall be entitled to any benefit from the income of the fund, unless such gift or bequest shall have been received at least one year prior to any first day of May. No gift shall be received for a less sum than one hundred dollars."

The form of contract is so simple that it does not seem to need explanation, but there may be some among us who have an inclination to use the word "why" and I will try to forestall such by giving the reasons before the questions are put. The one percent is carried to the general reserve fund for the purpose of paying the expense of looking after the investment of the moneys left in trust, and for reimbursing any loss that might possibly occur and also for the purpose of helping to maintain the cemetery, when the income from the sale of lots and other receipts have become so small as to be inadequate. While every lot owner, who is willing and wants to have his lot looked after in time to come, is particularly interested in such individual lot, he also wants to know that the drives, approaches and general appearance are kept up, and we have as yet failed to find anyone who does not see the wisdom of such provision and who is not perfectly willing to contribute his share for such purpose.

The wisdom of agreeing to spend only the income less one percent has been already shown; for, when Forest Home began taking funds for perpetual care, the prevailing rate of interest paid on first class mortgages, such as they could accept, was six and seven percent, while now it is only 4½ and five and in some instances they have accepted as low as four. Suppose the Trustees had agreed to spend five percent of the amount deposited; or a sum equal to five percent, which only a few years ago seemed like a reasonable calculation, they could not carry out the trust without loss. The management of every cemetery is now doing and always will do the best they can for their lot owners and they will get the best returns for their money obtainable with good business judgment and so depositors are and should be, satisfied to accept what the principal will bring. In case depositors are not satisfied with the form of contract issued, they have the alternative of depositing special securities and the entire income of such securities will be credited without deduction for the general reserve fund until such time as the securities so given shall mature or be paid, when the amount realized there from will be added to and invested with the special fund and the pro rata amount of the net income will be apportioned as provided for in above form of contract.

Another precaution to be observed is to avoid making contracts providing for too much detail, as they are sure to cause trouble. In a letter from one of the prominent members of our association is the following: "A contract made for setting tulips in a lot where the stone work destroys the greater part of them each year, is now making trouble for me." This contract was probably made during the time of the present incumbent and when it was made no doubt was entertained as to its practicability. If such snags are encountered in so short a time after the contract is issued, what right have we to burden our successors in years to come with provisions that to us seem reasonable, that to them maybe impossible of fulfillment? Were it not the wiser to agree to something like the following, changing the wording to cover the wishes of the depositors:

"The net income to be spent on said lot in keeping the lot, graves, monument and markers in the best possible condition" and then add, "if funds are sufficient, after the foregoing work has been done, plant and care for flower bed, or fill and water flower vase, or do any other special work as may be desired or specified”. The wisest among us cannot tell what conditions may surround our successors, and we must not do for others what we would not like to have done for us.

In one cemetery that I have heard of where contracts were made guaranteeing to "water the lot," the water supply gave out and the guarantee or agreement became, for the time being at least, null and void. Could not the depositor, if he were still living, or his heirs, if he were dead, claim that the contract had been voided by non-fulfillment and demand the refund of the amount deposited? How easily this danger could have been avoided by simply agreeing to give the best care possible to the lot.

No set rules can be made covering all cemeteries and each must work out its own problem. I would most urgently suggest the greatest caution be exercised in not making contracts or agreements that it may not be possible to carry out.

One writer to Park and Cemetery and Landscape Gardening says, "Three percent is a safe rate of interest to be allowed on perpetual care funds." Is any rate safe when United States bonds paying two percent are now selling at a premium? Suppose laws are passed making it obligatory for cemeteries to invest their trust funds in United States bonds, where is the safety of guaranteeing three percent? Not so many years ago, the trustees of a cemetery not five thousand miles away from Milwaukee, accepted funds for the perpetual care of lots and agreed to expend annually a sum equal to five percent of the principal.  Fortunately there were not many of those contracts issued, for if there had been, I fear that in a few years, judging from the decline in the rate of interest in the past fifty years, the trustees of that cemetery would think their predecessors were, to say the least, not good business men. Guarantee to do only what is possible and then do it for all time.

The neglected and unsightly appearance of many of our cemetery lots, when the immediate members of the family have passed away or have moved to distant locations, plainly shows the necessity of providing for perpetual care. I heard of a case not long since where the owner of a lot who was possessed of a large portion of this world's goods, stipulated in his will that twenty-five thousand dollars should be spent in the erection of a suitable monument on his lot. The executors faithfully carried out the provision of the will and the "suitable" monument was erected, and the remaining portion of the estate, after paying sundry bequests to charitable institutions, was distributed among the heirs. Nothing was left for the perpetual care of the lot and the monument, and in an incredibly short time the heirs failed to pay any attention to the matter and the twenty-five thousand dollar monument was surrounded by a hay field, which perhaps was fortunate, as it prevented passers-by from seeing that the grave of the one whose money paid for the "suitable" monument, was badly sunken and neglected. It seems to me that this one incident is better than a whole volume on the necessity of providing for perpetual care, and I would strongly urge on each and every cemetery official to advise his lot owners to be sure to provide funds for perpetual care.

Injustice to the purchasers of lots, the subject of "General Reserve Funds" for the perpetual care of the whole cemetery must be carefully and conscientiously considered and as large an amount as possible of the annual receipts should be set aside for this purpose. The Trustees of Forest Home Cemetery set aside 20 percent of the amount received from the sale of lots and single graves, after deducting the amount paid for lots and single graves repurchased and as the general income of Forest Home is still adequate to maintain the cemetery, the income on the principal is added to the principal each year.

We are all vitally interested in making our cemeteries as beautiful as possible and we must see that funds are provided for maintaining the standard in years to come.

TO RECAPITULATE

I. Make your location and organization permanent.
II. Secure funds for perpetual care. In doing so, first, avoid impossible contracts and, second, thus secure perpetual fine appearance of both individual lots and of the entire cemetery.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 19th Annual Convention
Held at Washington, DC
September 19, 20, 21 and 22, 1905

In presenting the subject of perpetual care I can but do so in such manner as has come under my observation and coming in contact with officers and managers of our associated cemeteries in various parts of the United States. To relate my first experience on the subject of perpetual care and general care: During the year 1880 a gentleman of our city, returning from a visit from his old home near Boston, MA, on looking over Forest Hill, Mount Auburn and Mount Hope cemeteries, near and in Boston, he learned that money could be placed in the hands of a cemetery board for the future care of his cemetery lot. In Oakwood Cemetery, which is now under my care as superintendent by request, his attorney asked me to suggest a plan of care. I proposed lawn mowing, also keeping the graves sodded and the lot in good order. This rule was adopted and a provision in his will followed and was carried to completion. Another rule was passed, subsequently, by our board of directors, that the lot shall be lawn mowed, the graves resodded; the foundations of monuments should be kept in reasonable condition and good general care given to the lot. My experiences in these contracts were: the first proposition did not mean much, and the second contract offered too much and would lead to endless confusion. I find the best contract we have finally is the safest and best both for lot holders and the cemetery associations. It is very plain and simple, strong in law and expressed in but few words and is certainly binding and yet liberal enough to the several parties to the contract. I will here give the main points in our agreement:

"Therefore, in consideration of said trust the trustees, in behalf of said corporation, and their successors in office, do hereby agree to cut the grass and to take proper care of the graves on said lot and to keep lot in all respects and at all times in good condition. This agreement shall be perpetual. And if at any time said corporation shall fail to keep and perform the agreement to be kept and performed upon their part herein mentioned, in all respects, that in that case they shall pay over to any person or corporation appointed in their stead by the Circuit Court of Henry County, Illinois, to carry out the provisions of said agreement."

As a means employed in soliciting a fund for perpetual care, first it requires a cautious approach to the lot owner.

In presenting the real object, first, the care: the benefits derived there from at once relieving the owner of the lot caring for the mowing and cleaning the lot; that adds so much to the beauty and pleasure of the lot and its surroundings.

Next in the general good order observed: settling at once who are the owners of the lot and those having the rights of burial on said lot, also explaining to the lot owner that the interest or income on the moneys paid in to the association can only be used in the care of said lot, that the principal cannot be used for any other purpose; that the amount paid in shall be loaned out at a rate of interest that is prevalent; that all such moneys paid in as perpetual care shall be loaned out to responsible parties or invested in reliable stocks or bonds by the board of directors. That for all such moneys, stocks or bonds the secretary-treasurer shall give good and sufficient security to the directors for said fund.

Without a full explanation of the nature of the plan of perpetual care very little can be done. While our perpetual care funds have gone into the thousands, we still have various plans of work. In presenting the objects, first asking the payment of moneys without the making of a will of the amount required, so that the lot owner can see the work done, while others contemplating the future or perpetual care can see how it is carried out.

Our next suggestion or plan is that by their will a certain sum shall be left and applied as a perpetual care of their lot in the cemetery. This manner of soliciting funds has been a successful one, as is shown in the great number of wills that have been made and now being contemplated and finished. In our first efforts in starting the perpetual care fund we placed the price per square foot at sixteen and two-third cents. Later the amount was fixed and now remains at twenty-five cents per square foot and now the problem is strong in its requirements of an advance to thirty-five or forty cents per square foot.

In my travels and experiences in the plans of perpetual care, as a means some cemeteries issue a card of rules, others have their plan in their rules and regulations. But I observe in some of their contracts they promise very little of what they propose to do.

Now I take the position that the idea and plan of perpetual care means what it says--that this money received is not only trust funds, but a very sacred trust and that all cemetery associations and the lot owners should surround this fund with all the safeguards that are found possible in the law; that the fund shall be carefully loaned; that the interest shall be carefully applied and that all excess of interest shall revert back to the perpetual care fund.

In looking at the different phases of human nature, we find they have changed.

A few years ago I called the attention of two of our lot owners to the idea of perpetual care for their lots in the cemetery. They regarded it as a good and desirable thing to do, and they promised to do so with cash or by their wills. But as their several wills have been settled, no such provision was made and nothing has been done to that end as yet. No care has been taken of these lots--only as the association has done by order of the cemetery board.

Now, the best plan or mode of treatment of these lots is to let the weeds and grass grow and I notice that the grass is tall and the weeds are blossoming nicely.

When a lot is placed under perpetual care we place a painted board marked "Perpetual Care" on it. After a short time we change the board. I find some lot owners object to the perpetual care signs being placed near their unkempt lots. Yet we take a certain degree of delight in keeping the perpetual care cards very near uncared-for lots.

A gentleman of our city, on returning from the interment of a dear friend in a cemetery neat Chicago, noticing the beauty of perpetual care and of a well-kept cemetery, called on me and suggested that our association should set aside certain blocks and lots to be sold only under perpetual care, looking forward to the time when all lots should be sold at a price to cover the perpetual care cost.

In reply to the question, "What will we do with those of moderate means?" I will say that this can be obviated, as we have varied locations and various priced lots and locations.

I have frequent inquiries as to what is perpetual care, and its application to the small cemeteries. I will say that in a country graveyard no provision or plan is possible to deposit moneys so received and a contract to do the work as proposed. In some instances money can be deposited, in savings banks whereby the interest is to be applied to the care of a certain lot. There is no law or authority whereby such funds can be cared for. I would suggest that such moneys designated for this purpose can be placed in a trust and savings bank with provision for paying the interest or income on such funds, also the compensation allowed for the work performed. While I have in mind two cases where the sum of one thousand dollars was left by will to two country graveyards to be applied in the care and keeping in good order of their lots, in a stated locality, now after many years no further provision is made for carrying out the terms, of the wills. One mode of relief would be to ask the courts to allow the remains to he removed to a chartered cemetery association and accept the benefits of a genuine perpetual care.

While my investigations show the most favorable line of cemeteries are stock companies and controlled entirely by an elective board of directors and that a lot holder association is not a desirable or successful plan, I further believe that a cemetery association should in no sense be a speculative enterprise.

Some inquiring friend asks, "Will these funds so deposited for perpetual care be applied honestly? Are men or associations as honest and trustworthy today as they were one hundred or even fifty years ago? I say, unhesitatingly, yes, there are today, gentlemen and lady superintendents of cemeteries who are endowed with superior knowledge in the care of cemeteries and cemetery funds to direct properly the use of all moneys required and well know the security that should be given each year; and today greater safeguards are thrown around our trust and savings banks; they with the strength of a well established association coupled with a responsible board of directors as a cemetery board such as we find are chosen each year. I refer to the character of all well-known cemetery associations, men and directors of the highest standing, superintendents and treasurers of the sterling variety are sought for and selected to fill these places. We can safely place perpetual care funds in the kindly care and keeping of all these, then when one of these lays down the armor we well know the refrain, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter into the joys of everlasting remembrance and the embrace of perpetual care."
 
From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 18th Annual Convention
Held at Chicago, IL
August 23, 24 and 25, 1904

Since my arrival here in the effete East, I have been subjected to a good many good natured serio-comic remarks about the subject I have chosen for my paper. In self-defense I have decided to inflict upon you a preliminary chapter.
 
One gentleman said to me: "I suppose when you wanted to organize a cemetery out West, you just killed somebody, or turned loose the James or Younger boys, or a tribe of Apaches, or a Kansas cyclone, or a band of cowboys and the cemetery started itself."

Now this is not true, if it ever was. Everybody who dies out our way now must have a regular certificate, and the causes of death appearing thereon read very much like yours, I presume. The tomahawk, bowie knife and six-shooter no longer appear. Ante-mortem conditions have changed. Instead of the bandit, the cowboy and the Apache, we have the doctor, the lawyer and the preacher and the over-sympathetic old neighbor, whose husband died the very same way. The bacillus finds more victims than the bad man from Bitter Creek; the merry microbe succeeds the mirthful cowboy; the greedy germ and numerous other microorganisms frequently get on the warpath and cause more trouble than Geronimo's braves; many people lose their vermiform appendix, but none their scalp lock. Christian Scientists treat more patients than the Indian medicine man. However, I am without data to enable me to give comparative results.
 
Another gentleman from way down East, gravely informed me that beyond the Mississippi, in that part of the country which, I presume, is still marked on their geographies as the Great American Desert, it is only good form for people to die with their boots on and rely upon the coyotes, jackals and turkey buzzards for final arrangements. This is another mis¬take. Post-mortem names and conditions have also changed. Instead of the aforesaid, we, like you, have the undertaker and the hack-man, the lawyer and the preacher, the florist and the monument man, the sexton and the cemetery superintendent, the administrator and the surrogate or probate judge. And they all get theirs.

About the only advantage there is in dying out West, is that after these are all done and there is anything left of the estate.  New York State does.

The West is surely behind on facilities for cremation. The nearest crematory to the Great American Desert is at St. Louis, making it neces¬sary for the few advocates of that method for the disposal of the dead, to travel long distances sometimes.

Not long since, a disconsolate widow from Topeka was returning from St. Louis with the ashes of her deceased fourth husband in an urn, as a part of her hand baggage. She had for a neighboring passenger a maiden lady from either Boston or Rochester; I do not just remember which. The Eastern lady, noticing the evident distress of the Topeka widow, sought to comfort her, and inquired the cause of her sorrow. Upon being told, she became quite agitated and exclaimed that here she had lived sixty-five years without any husband, while this woman had husbands to burn.

Nature provides wondrous and devious ways to regulate and control the population and depopulation of the earth and the Indian, the cowboy and the bandit were but cogs in the wonderful mechanism of nature's regu¬lator.

Death may be more important to the world than life. Wars may be blessings. Pestilence and famine may make for good. An epidemic of breakfast foods may not be an unmixed evil. The automobile may be doing its deadly work in the interest of humanity. Fire and flood, Fourth of July and football may all be elements in nature's great economy, to provide room for generations yet unborn. Let us prove it by a mathematical demonstration.

Rural New York claims the best high schools and academies and col¬leges in the world. It was in one of these, not far from Rochester, that I learned to figure and almost learned to believe figures will not lie. We shudder at the loss of life during Caesar's wars, which occurred about 2,000 years ago, or sixty generations of 33 ⅓ years each. Let us suppose that two more people had escaped death in these wars, and that the ratio of increase for these two was 1½ per generation of 33 ⅓ years each, which does not seem unreasonable, even in these days when we hear so much strenuous talk about race suicide. A simple mathematical formula, worked out on the basis of these figures, shows that the increase from this pair would have added to the population of the earth at the present time, 73,560,000,000 souls. This would make it somewhat crowded for us, and we may have abundant reason to thank Caesar that no more of them got away.

So the calamities of our generation become the blessings for those yet to come. It is safe to assume that nature's laws will continue to operate to keep the ratio of increase of population within proper limits, and the cemetery may be regarded as a permanent institution, and should be or¬ganized accordingly.

The question of cemetery organization seems to be important, yet we hardly ever hear it discussed in detail among cemetery people, so I have chosen this subject, knowing that I will be expected to say but little about it. In fact I do not dare to say much, for I might give some detail away and some superintendent might be led, in the heat of discussion, to tell something of which his governing board might not approve.

The organizing of a cemetery now is a different proposition from that of 100 or even 50 years ago. One hundred years ago only about 3 percent of our population lived in cities; 97 percent was rural. The burial of the dead had naught to do with business. Sympathizing hands prepared the body for burial; one kindly neighbor made the coffin, another dug the grave, the best vehicle in the community carried the remains to the church yard, where free interment was made. The grave was marked and cared for by kindred people, until finally lost in the blissful oblivion of weeds and forgetfulness. In all this there was no thought of pay or gain. Now 40 percent of our population is urban, most of the rest is suburban.

Under present conditions, when death occurs, friends and acquaint¬ances ride in the carriages, offer advice, sympathy and flowers, but seldom anything else. The disposal of the dead has become a business proposition. Most undertakers make a modest charge for their services. In fact, I believe they are made safe in most states by being made preferred cred¬itors. The minister who officiates wears, at the proper time, an expectant look above his clerical necktie. The liveryman usually renders a good sized bill and his drivers belong to the union. The florist expects more profits from funerals than weddings. There are more of them. It takes two to make a wedding, one only to make a funeral and besides some do escape matrimony. While I am decidedly averse to saying anything about our good friend, the doctor, candor compels me to admit that he looks you up in Bradstreet and makes his charge for what he thinks you or your estate can stand then adds a percentage as a factor of safety. The lawyer who breaks the will is usually satisfied with one-half of the estate, if it is quite large. A lawyer out our way, after lying a long time at the point of death, finally died. His trusting wife placed upon his memorial the inscription: "A lawyer and an honest man." One of our old plantation darkies, noticing this, remarked with evident surprise, "I wonder how they came to bury two people in one grave." The price the monument man names indicates that he never expects to get another opportunity, and wishes to make the most of this one; and so all along the line, until we come to the cemetery, we find everything connected with mortuary affairs organized on a basis of financial profit. But we find cemeteries organized in divers and wonderful ways. We have them on the basis of poverty, politics, patriotism and pri¬vate greed, charity, church, city and corporation, lot owners mutual; some mutually strong, others mutually weak. Nothing seems to be settled; no particular plan seems to be accepted as best. All are subject to more or less criticism.

The ownership and operation of large cemeteries by churches has been practically abandoned, except by the Catholic Church. No other one de¬nomination having the compact membership, the perfect discipline and splendid organization to successfully handle larger cemetery propositions.

Cities can and do own and operate cemetery properties. Municipal ownership offers some advantage. The city's credit can be used to secure the money to purchase the necessary ground and provide for initial im¬provements. The general fund is handy to make up any deficit that may occur. Too often, however, the city cemetery receives either too much or too little attention from the city authorities. Mayors and aldermen are looking for patronage, and some of them do not hesitate to prostitute the highly honorable positions of superintendent or sexton, and others, to po¬litical purposes.

I heard of a case down east somewhere, where a large number of men were needed in the city cemetery just before a close election, but were not needed long after and the dominant party was accused of voting them all, besides a good many names from the memorials.

At best, public sentiment is apt to be fluctuating and spasmodic, and the cemetery suffers in consequence. In any case, while many of the older city burial grounds are very well conducted and cared for, very few, if any, cities are establishing new ones.

Probably one half of the cemeteries in the United States are conducted by an organization or reorganization of lot owners. The governing boards consist of a number of good natured old gentlemen who have no financial interest in the proposition, but who are benevolently inclined enough to be willing to help by having their names printed on the list of trustees, but can seldom be gotten together to attend to the cemetery's business. Not getting anything out of it themselves, they sometimes fail to grasp the mag¬nitude of the financial proposition they are called upon to administer. I have heard some superintendents complain that they expected to have a $1,000,000 proposition handled by a $1,000 superintendent.

The elasticity of the organization of lot owners' cemeteries has in most instances enabled them to reorganize on broader business and financial lines to meet modern requirements.

A large majority of the larger cemeteries started in the last fifteen years have been organized as some form of private corporation. Some of these have been organized, as commercial propositions pure and simple; others, as a matter of public necessity, by public-spirited citizens, who in¬corporate, in order to more properly finance and more perfectly secure and maintain the interests of a large public enterprise. This method of organi¬zation seems to be more a matter of necessity than choice. Large cities are not establishing new burial places.

The modern cemetery requires too large an initial expenditure for a lot owners' organization. The cemetery is, as we have seen, more and more of a business proposition, Hence, modern methods of business and finance must be applied to it. Some people object, for sentimental or superstitious reasons, to cemetery investments. I knew one man who said he was willing to take money won at poker, bet on a horse, race, or gained by speculating in wheat, but he'd be hanged if he wanted any made by a cemetery investment. His trouble was more superstition than an over-heated conscience.

The first cemetery of which we have any account in holy writ was strictly a commercial proposition. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, had died in Hebron. Abraham demanded of the sons of Heth possession of a burying place with them. They offered him a choice of all their sepulchers without charge. But Abraham, with laudable pride, wanted a burial place of his own, and proposed to pay for it. He wanted the cave of Machpelah, which was in a field owned by Ephron, the Hittite, and he said to Ephron, "I will give thee money for the field, take it of me and I will bury my dead there." And after some further parley .about price, "Abraham weighed upon Ephron 400 pieces of silver, current money with the merchant, and the field of Ephron and the cave which was thereon, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a burying place by the sons of Heth."

The modern cemetery for the use of a large or rapidly growing city is a larger business and financial problem than the field of Ephron.

It should have ample grounds, say from 200 to 500 acres, not too near the city, but easily accessible by modern means of transportation. It should be large for several reasons, First, to meet requirements for 100 years; second, to provide plenty of room for park spaces, ornamental planting and like Abraham’s burying place, "to have trees in the borders round about"; third, to protect itself from new competition; fourth, to provide a large and permanent endowment fund for perpetual care, after sales of ground have ceased; fifth, to protect itself from condemnation, in consequence of the rapid increase of urban population.

Small cemeteries are constantly in danger, in or near large cities. And above all, perhaps, it should be large so that a policy to prevent overcrowd¬ing may be adopted and no danger from a sanitary standpoint may ever present itself. The evils and scandals arising from small and overcrowded burial places became so intolerable in the large cities of Great Britain, that in 1855, an act was passed by Parliament closing them all, with but few exceptions.

Burial within the limits of cities and towns is now almost everywhere abolished and at a very, large expenditure of money London and most of the chief provincial towns have outside cemeteries, which are under the supervision of local burial boards and of inspectors appointed by the government.

France has gone through the same experience. In consequence of the cemeteries of Paris being more or less crowded, a great cemetery with an area of over two square miles was laid out in 1874, sixteen miles north of Paris. Every city and town in France is required by law to provide a burial ground outside of its limits, properly laid out and planted, and in which each interment must be made in a separate grave. This last re¬quirement is not always followed in this country, where land is plentiful.

The large grounds being secured, they must have extensive initial im¬provements. While all of the property is not to be improved at once, yet a careful expert study should be made of the property as a whole, and a general plan for systematic and complete development must be outlined. A system of roads must be constructed; a system of drainage must be es¬tablished; a water system must be provided; perfect grading, shaping, sur¬facing, sodding and seeding of grounds enough for twenty-five years must be completed; an intelligent and extensive scheme of planting must be started, and a nursery should be planted for raising hardy ornamental shrubs and trees. Greenhouses-- but better wait awhile until you have to have them. Elaborate entrance or entrances must be provided; chapel and receiving vault must be built; a number of other buildings must be erected, such as suburban railroad station, administration buildings such as office, stables and tool houses, superintendent's residence, sexton's house, gate keepers' lodges, etc. Oftentimes local conditions require the construction of bridges, culverts and artificial lakes and waterways. Modern conditions seem to tend more and more toward forcing the cemetery to enter into competition with itself and establish a cemetery.

These grounds and improvements have to be perpetually maintained and cared for, an expense still greater than and just as important as the cost of initial improvements.

This must be provided for in the original financial organization. Bearing in the mind the idea of perpetual care and the fact that a cem¬etery proposition is a permanent investment, all the work referred to must be of the very best permanent character. The buildings, entrances, bridges and culverts must be of stone; the roadways of the very best macadam; the drainage system, including gutters, intakes and discharge pipes, must be of ample size and of the best material and workmanship and so on with all the improvements.

The purchase of this ground and the making of these improvements require a large initial expenditure, which, in order to secure the per¬manency of the burial place should not rest as a debt upon the ground.

To do all this you must have the help of the almighty dollar. Talk is cheap, but if you do things of this sort, they would tell you out West "You've got to have the stuff."

Three hundred acres of ground located, as I have indicated, would cost in the neighborhood of $250,000 ;$250,000 more would not make very elab¬orate improvements for a complete cemetery proposition when compared with older cemeteries, making a total of half a million dollars. Allowing 20 percent of the ground for roadways, parking, etc., the remaining 240 acres at an average of $1 a square foot would come to over $10,000,000. We have then, at the outset, a financial proposition of considerable magnitude, even in these days. It should be approached as such, and be properly financed along business lines. How shall it be done?

As I said in the beginning, I knew I would not be expected to say very much about cemetery organization, but I may venture to call atten¬tion to several facts in connection with it, which you already know. To summarize:

The nation, with the exception of a few patriotic cemeteries which it owns and splendidly maintains, pays no attention to cemeteries, or their regulation. Under our form of government, the cemetery would be con¬sidered a local matter and be left for the jurisdiction of the several states, but the states as a rule have no cemeteries and in many cases exercise very little control over them. Cities are quitting the business, and by condemnation for sanitary or other reasons, are causing others to quit. One church only, or possibly two still control cemetery affairs.

The lot owners' organization does not seem to be compact and power¬ful enough to project large, new, modern burial places. Private, individ¬ual ownership does not insure perpetuity and seems gruesome and out of place.

With the rapid growth of city population, a great many large burial places will be needed in the future. The present time seems to mark an epoch in cemetery history. Present conditions are forcing a public utility of the first importance into the hands of private corporations or stock companies. And this is being done without any adequate provision for the protection of public interests.

The citizen has as good a right to demand of the state, protection for his cemetery interests, as for his banking interests. We all have business with the cemetery. Just a few of us have much with the banks. If cemeteries must be conducted by private corporations, it seems just that the state should, by proper legislation, see to it that in the organization and operation of cemeteries, the interests of the public are protected. The public has a rightful interest, for instance, in the perpetuity of the ceme¬tery, and general legislation to secure that protection is desirable. Laws might be enacted, fixing the minimum size of burial grounds for cities of different classes, regulating location well without city limits, and pro¬viding that the grounds shall be entirely dedicated free from debt to ceme¬tery uses forever and that no encumbrance can ever be placed upon any portion of the ground. A larger degree of protection from condemnation should be provided. The proceeds from the sale of ground must provide for current maintenance, perpetual care and interest on and payment of original investment. The public then has an interest in this entire fund, and an equitable distribution of it to secure each of those results should be provided for by law. The matter of records is a proper subject for state inspection and control. It is a lamentable fact that in many of our larger and well kept cemeteries, the earliest records are foggy or uncer¬tain, and in some instances, lost entirely. A complete system of surveys, platting, duplicate or triplicate interment records and plat books kept at different places, should be made compulsory.

That the force of public opinion may be allowed to act for the pro¬tection and benefit of the cemetery at all times, the utmost publicity as to financial matters should be provided for. Some of the states have abso¬lutely no legislation upon any of these and other important points which should be outlined in the original organization of cemetery corporations.

It seems to me that this association might be able to accomplish great good by the appointment of a committee on legislation, to investigate present laws, study legislative requirements and make a report showing legislation needed, if any. The association could then throw the weight of its growing influence in the direction of public good. If this can be done, I will gladly refer the whole subject matter to such committee for consideration and shift the burden of any more of this paper from your shoulders to theirs.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 17th Annual Convention
Held at Rochester, NY
September 8, 9 and 10, 1903

When I was asked by one of your committee to contribute a paper to be read at this, the seventeenth annual convention, I thought perhaps I would find it an easy task to say a few words in regard to "Our Cemeteries and Our Dead," but I feel somewhat embarrassed to even make an effort, in fact the short five years experience I have had in cemetery work makes me feel like I am too young in the cause to fully express myself before you gentlemen, that have had more experience, and a better opportunity to study the advantages and disadvantages of cemetery work. I desire, however, to say in the outset if my ideas are averse to yours, you must remember while they are my honest convictions, they are only the views and expressions of one of your number.

"Our Cemeteries" are the last resting place of "Our Dead"; in other words they are places sacredly devoted to the interment and repose of "Our Dead." They should under any and all circumstances be free from entangling public alliance or political embarrassment.

In fact, politics should not figure in "Our Cemeteries" under any conditions; wherever it does it works to a disadvantage. I know of one that changed superintendents three times in one year, traceable to politics alone. The officers should be men especially fitted for the place, and especially the superintendent should be a man well qualified to fill the place and in love with the work. Too often we find men officially connected with Our Cemeteries that do not or seldom visit them more than once or twice a year.

The past history of the growth of all of our large cities demonstrates the absolute necessity for a permanent site for "Our Dead," which grows up side by side with the city of the living. They should be ample in size beautiful in surroundings and at the proper distance to serve the ends of convenience and requirements of all interested. We too often see all over our land evidences of misspent labor in building and maintaining the last resting place of "Our Dead"; too often we see hastily and ill chosen sites dot our country sides, where mold and decay hold their melancholy reign. We find many old cemeteries fallen into disuse; neglect, decay and desecration present their sad and somber scenes and too frequently the tale of obliteration can he heard from the lips of the living. A visit to most of our cemeteries today will present the same sad spectacle.

Now the question naturally comes up, why are so many of our cemeteries neglected. There are many reasons, one is "Our Dead" are too soon forgotten, we see almost daily loved ones laid to rest in "Our Cemeteries" and for a short time that sacred spot is visited almost daily by the bereaved relatives and we see them sometimes go to extremes in trying to maintain and beautify the last resting place of their dear ones, but as time rolls on we notice their visits become less frequent, until finally they lose all interest in that once well kept, sacred spot; then comes the sad part of this scene. Left neglected and to grow up in weeds and briars, a sad spectacle indeed.

The most plausible reason for our neglected cemeteries of today is that they have no fund set aside for their perpetual care. Looking to the prevention of the evils of the past, some of "Our Cemeteries" (but very few, comparatively speaking) have been provided with the only remedy, a fund for their perpetual care. We all know without this fund no cemetery can be uniformly kept, or even decently kept. I believe this association in all probability has and can do more toward educating the people to show more respect for "Our Dead" than any other source. If that be true, it behooves us to push forward in cemetery improvement, and not sanction anything that will throw a stumbling block in our way.

From time immemorial, burial grounds have existed. We learn by reading from Genesis that Abraham purchased a field containing the cave of Machpelah for a family burial plot and afterwards buried his wife Sarah and later on his own remains were laid to rest by the side of his wife and still later on other members of his family were buried there also. We find from Genesis to Revelation earth burial is the proper method of disposing of "Our Dead" and as I see it, when we advocate any other we are going backward in civilization and cemetery improvement.

I contend there is no necessity for and no doctrine in the Bible justifying cremation of "Our Dead." Some say we must advocate cremation from a health standpoint, others contend that earth burial is a waste of land and that there is danger of our going too far with our pet schemes. I doubt very much after a body is placed five or six feet under the sad that the health of the living is affected in the least. Take the health of the superintendents that have spent thirty and even forty years in cemetery work, do you suppose if it was so dangerous to the living, as some try to make it appear, that the founder of this association, that spent thirty years of his life in cemetery work would have reached the ripe old age of eighty-five before his death and there are other cemetery superintendents living today that have spent over forty years in this same vocation. It is needless to say that I believe as long as time lasts there will be land enough to bury all "Our Dead." This cremation idea is the work of man and not in accordance with the method laid down in the Bible.

We should be opposed to the cremation of "Our Dead" from a humane and Scriptural standpoint.

We are told after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the graves of the sleeping saints were opened and many of them arose and made their appearance before the living in the streets of the Holy City; and again Christ said, Marvel not at this, for the day and the hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall come forth. Mark you, not a word was said about cremation and coming forth from an urn placed in a crematory building. We are also told our bodies are to be sown natural bodies of flesh and blood, but on the morning of the resurrection that they will come forth from their tombs spiritual and immortal bodies, then shall be brought to pass the saying, Death is swallowed up in victory, O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory? I would like to know how are we going to get around this grave theory that is so often spoken of in the Bible, and again what will become of "Our Cemeteries" that we are trying so hard to beautify and devise plans by which they can be perpetually kept, if cremation should become universal and our ashes placed in an urn and deposited in a building?

Again, we should be opposed to cremation because it is going to have a tendency to lead to less respect being shown "Our Dead." I believe the danger that confronts us today in cemetery improvement is the growth of the cremation idea. Taking the Bible as the foundation stone, as our guide, if we expect our work to survive us any length of time, we should put ourselves on record as being opposed to the cremation of "Our Dead."

Now, in conclusion, will say, I am confident that some of you differ with me in what I have said in regard to cremation, but I trust, however, that a majority of you are in sympathy with the views and expressions I have tried to present from a Scriptural standpoint and that you will not under any circumstances advocate or sanction anything in connection with "Our Cemeteries" and "Our Dead" that are directly contrary to the teachings of the Bible. If we will do that, it will not be many years before we will have representation from every nook and corner of these United States.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 17th Annual Convention
Held at Rochester, NY
September 8, 9 and 10, 1903

There are in the United States two monthly Magazines SYSTEM and MOTOR devoted to business and each month they both have articles by business men on the methods of accounting and methods they have found successful in obtaining custom. There is also in each Magazine a red hot story of a successful strategy whereby some large contract was obtained or a good customer recovered by the head of the firm who showed the boys how to do or a story by the cub salesman who thought it all out by himself: Oh! The story is beautiful and the method of obtaining customers succeeds so well, but THEY DON'T WORK FOR ME! And so I may present to you sources of income which succeeds so well at my Cemetery but may be of no use to you.

In displaying to you the sources of income that appear to me open to a Cemetery I expect only to speak of those which relate to the operation of a Cemetery and do not include ordinary farming or market garden operations for at West Laurel Hill Cemetery there are no sources of income which are not directly applicable to any Cemetery. West Laurel Hill Cemetery Greenhouse sells nothing outside the Cemetery. Anyone can run a Greenhouse; anyone can be a merchant for anything and a Cemetery can grow and market potatoes or spinach or any farm product—it can hire its gardeners out to care for private places as West Laurel Hill Cemetery has often been solicited by its lot holders to do (but never has allowed) but all of these sources of income are outside the scope of this article, as they are open to anyone—but legitimate sources of income for a Cemetery are those open only to a Cemetery.

The sources of income open to a Cemetery as I see it may be put under twelve heads and several sub-heads:
First-Courtesy
Second-Persistent Advertising
Third-Psychological Salesmanship
Fourth-General Good condition of Cemetery
Fifth-Sales of Burial Rights
(Lot sales)
(Single Graves)
(Community Mausoleums
(Crematory & Columbarium)
Sixth-Inculcation of the idea that the Cemetery in which is his lot is HIS Cemetery rather than the Cemetery of the selling Company.
Seventh-Institution (and addition to it from each sale) of a fund the income from which shall maintain the Cemetery.
Eighth-The institution and inculcation of individual ENDOWMENT of the individual lot holders own lot:
Ninth-Burial Charges
Receiving Tomb Charges
Rental of Special Mausoleums instead of use of Receiving Tomb
Charges for digging graves and usual attention at a funeral
Charges for special grave structures
Charges for grave and dirt pile decoration and use of tents, etc.
Removal charges from grave to grave or as ordered.
Tenth-Income from construction of foundations and work connected therewith, as corner post holes and derrick guy line posts.
E1eventh-Greenhouse work
Bouquets, cut flowers and floral designs
Christmas designs and decorations
Faster and Memorial Day floral requirements
Flowerbeds
Planting Graves
Sodding and grading
Special trees    
Special yearly care of lots and
Talking up endowments:
Twelfth-Endowments

In presenting to you after twenty-seven years of Cemetery work the sources of income that appear to me open to a Cemetery, I expect only to speak of those which relate to a Cemetery and do not touch the farming operations which may be proper for the outlying or undeveloped parts.

First. Courtesy-I put courtesy and a spirit of interest in everyone coming to the Cemetery as one of the best sources of income a Cemetery can have—in the early days of West Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Yes! In the very early days when West Laurel Hill Cemetery was so far from the haunts of men that anyone could be excused for saying “Where is it at? I mean in the years 1869 to 1876. The Secretary at the City Office was a man who was courtesy itself; Listen to you, hear all about your life and remember it!! and yet he was always putting the Cemetery where the talker remembered it—Did his hours spent with aunt Jane and cousin Mary pay? Yes. They paid. By courtesy I do not mean an outward overflow of hand shaking and what I may call palaver, but that indescribable something which bespeaks interest in you. No matter if it is a child—no matter if it, is the poorest owner of a single grave—the child or the poorest owner of a single grave may have the word to say to some wealthy person "Go to West Laurel Hill Cemetery." Yes!! I see you say that is a low reason for courtesy-true!! But you want to see behind the scenes and I am showing you. I know whereof I speak—indeed, I have known of people once poor to become rich and the warmth of the courtesy shown them when poor made them a client, ah! That's a word!! Made them a client when rich.

Second. Persistent Advertising. Where—When—How. At West Laurel Hill persistent advertising through the last forty years has been by a two or three line ad in one or two daily newspapers and by a small pamphlet scattered broadcast over the city from the City Directory by mail—it pays—in one particular case the lady who bought a $500.00 lot told us she had thrown our pamphlet in the ash barrel and then, the next day, fished it out again. Again, and most important of all, West Laurel Hill Cemetery advertises by the persistent bombardment three times a year of lot holders and all whose names and addresses it is possible to obtain connected with lot holders; you come to our office and ask to see the lot or grave of John Smith—at once or as opportunity offers we get your name and address and relationship to John Smith and send you advertising matter three times a year.

Third. Physiological Salesmanship: What is it-Well! It is just the reverse of the psychological purchase of a horse. When you are psychologically purchasing a horse, you can see more defects in that horse than you can find after you purchase him—when you sell physiologically, you are weighing every point of the customer for that inkling of how high he will go—It is not his clothes; it is not the paint on his auto—it may be a sigh—it may be a hesitation as you walk by a lot—it is feeling the pulse of the prospect and at last perhaps shooting far ahead of his supposed mark so as to back gracefully down—it is saying—this lot is $15,000.00 dollars and noting an indescribable delay—perhaps be says to his wife—"How will that suit you Mother"!! The tone is enough—after that if you look at another lot you say, "It is not as good as your lot" clearly meaning the $15,000.00 lot. What is Psychological Salesmanship—it is so hard to tell—I give it up. You can cultivate it and never know you have it.

Fourth. General Good Condition of Roads and Lawns: Of course the appearance of the Cemetery will influence the prosperity of the Cemetery but there is often a neatness and evidence of care although all the grass may not be cut to hand mower shortness and the condition of roads and edging may vary in accordance with the locality; but neatness and evident care of the Cemetery are a source of income.

Fifth. Sales of Burial Rights.
Lot Sales
Single Graves
Community Mausoleum
Crematory and Columbarium

In most cemeteries the greater part of revenue from Lot Sales and in some communities the income from Single Graves is a source worthy of consideration but in Philadelphia I know of no Cemetery where it is worth considering and in my own Cemetery, West Laurel Hill, only 387 single graves have been disposed of in forty-eight years.

In regard to income from Community Mausoleums, Crematory and Columbarium, I am not in a position to speak as my own Cemetery has none and there is only one small community Mausoleum in or near Philadelphia and only one small Crematory and Columbarium which are under a society rather than in connection with a cemetery although the Society does own a few acres and sells lots. It may not be generally known that the Community Mausoleum was widely exploited as early as 1875, the idea then being, however, that the building would be in the built up portion of the city or on a lot in the city, entirely unconnected with the Cemetery.

Sixth. Inculcation of the idea that the cemetery in which is his lot is his cemetery rather than the cemetery of the company from whom he bought his lot.

A wise and successful owner of a department store in Philadelphia told people to come in, make yourself at home, the store is yours—but until his time such was not the fashion; the idea has spread until at lunch counters and such places, little watch seems to be kept of what people take. If we can get our lot owners to think of the cemetery as My Cemetery and not as belonging to he West Laurel Hill Cemetery Company—he will be a good missionary for the Cemetery. Some may say that the idea of ownership leads to the claim for privileges which would ride over all reasonable rules and' to read some Cemetery pamphlets it would seem as if the pages should each be headed with the good old German Sign "Es ist verboten".

Of course, the guiding hand must be there and the restraining and guiding must be done through our first heading COURTESY which is ever working from prospect of a sale to the grandchildren who may, and often do, endow a lot. And now I must touch on a point which will seem great heresy to many of you and that is that nothing awakens the feeling of affection and a desire to spend money for flowers and care of the lot as does the grave mound. Ah! My fellow members of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents do not allow yourselves to believe you are true economists from a Cemetery standpoint when you smooth out your lots and destroy the evidence of burial. You are cutting the ground from beneath your feet—you are destroying a perpetual source of income. Trouble!! WHAT IS TROUBLE? You say a grave mound is in the way of your lawn mower—you say a grave mound burns out in summer: But if you will cultivate your lot owners and their sons and their daughters you can get orders to plant and replant the grave mounds and those you can't get orders to plant and replant stand you in good stead to show the awfulness of neglect. My friends, a thousand grave mounds mean several hundred dollars profit a year when you work it in the right manner—WORK!! Oh yes work—perhaps our positions would fade away if we did not and do not work. Mrs. Smith says "Look how nice Mrs. Jones' graves look—"I cannot be behind her!!!" This PROFIT on grave mounds will go on for years and will grow and grow.

Seventh. Institution and Maintenance of a fund the income from which will provide for the future care of the Cemetery—this fund to be IN TRUST with a reliable Trust Company and out of the hand's of the changing Cemetery authorities. West Laurel Hill Cemetery has from the first sale of the lot laid away ten per cent of the purchase money to form with like sums from all, other lot sales a Permanent Fund, we call it, income from which is and shall hereafter be applied to the care of the Cemetery, its roads, walks, buildings and appurtenances and, as a matter of fact, as far as it will go to the care of lots. The money so laid away is placed IN TRUST with Trust Companies (Fifty Thousand dollars to one and then Fifty Thousand to another). This fund now amounts, July 1st, 1925, to $350,731.53. The founders of West Laurel Hill did not know who would follow them as managers and were quite aware that a man might be a first class Cemetery manager and a bad financier. So the managers were relieved of all care of the principal of the PERMANENT FUND—the interest and income being paid the Cemetery Company for the care of the Cemetery.
 

The Permanent Fund for any lot is not added to the selling price but is paid by the Cemetery Company itself as agreed in its deed to the first lot purchaser and with all purchasers after him. As you can see the Permanent Fund is a great source of income to a Cemetery and a little arithmetic will tell you that West Laurel Hill Cemetery with a permanent fund of $350,731.53 will receive within a year at only five percent, an income of $17,536.56 from this source alone.

Eighth. The Institution of Individual Lot Endowments and inculcation of the fact that the lot holders lot should have a fund or endowment placed IN TRUST, the income to be for the upkeep of his property—HIS lot separate from the Cemetery General Fund. In all the States of the United States there are laws against trust in perpetuity except trusts which apply to Cemeteries and the care of cemetery lots. Seeing from the early years of our Republic that the European law of primogeniture held land and money in one family, to the detriment of the general public, our laws forbade such a course and no one can will their estate beyond their grandchildren; grandchildren cannot be denied the right to do as they choose with an estate received from a grandfather—however, our wise lawmakers, seeing every man must be allowed his burial place, and having in their hearts the feeling of us all, yes! Even us Cemetery Superintendents, that the place where our family is buried should be cared for FOREVER, have so shaped our laws that a fund may be left in perpetuity for the care of a Cemetery lot. At West Laurel Hill Cemetery we assiduously cultivate the placing of an endowment (as we call it in distinction from the Cemetery Company's Fund for the Perpetual Care of the Cemetery) for the care of the lot owners' own lot; and so successful is the system that in six months of 1925 we have received as follows:

January, 13 endowments totaling    $20,477.13
February, 7 endowments totaling        3,300.00
March, 12 endowments totaling        7,750.00
April, 10 endowments totaling        2,750.00
May, 10 endowments totaling          11,200.00
June, 18 endowments totaling            7,910.00

And in 1924 there were 107 endowments totaling $59,527.75. We have now 874 endowments totaling $528,891.25 besides hundreds of endowments placed separately with Trust Companies under the Wills of lot owners. If the lot is not endowed before his decease as soon as the lot owner is buried we send the heirs or the heir whom we know best a suggestion for an endowment and follow this suggestion in a proper manner until an endowment is made or the matter fails for the time being-perhaps another burial of a son or daughter of the lot owner will awaken a grandson or granddaughter to create the fund. The endowment when received is placed IN TRUST with the other endowments, all the endowments being lumped into one fund. When interest is paid, the proportional interest due each endowment is placed to its credit in the endowment ledger and each year a bill is rendered against each endowment just as our bills are rendered to our living customers. The West Laurel Hill Cemetery Company and the West Laurel Hill Cemetery Company TRUSTEE FOR ENDOWMENTS are two separate and distinct persons. The Bank account of the endowment income is, of course, a separate and distinct bank account from the Cemetery Company Bank Account. I cannot say too much in regard to ENDOWMENTS as a source of perpetual income to a Cemetery as lifting off the Cemetery Funds the care of lots and steadily producing income from the profit in doing the work required by the ENDOWMENT.

 
Ninth. Burial Charges:
(a) Receiving Tomb Charges
(b) Rental of Special Mausoleums
(c) Charges for digging graves and usual attention at funeral
(d) Charges for special grave structures
(e) Charges for grave and dirt pile decorations
(f) Charges for use of tent
(g) Removal charges

(a) Receiving Tomb charges after deducting cost of entrance of body and interest on the investment, upkeep and cleaning are not much of a source of income but the Receiving Tomb at West Laurel Hill Cemetery is, nevertheless, a great source of income. Family reasons often make it proper that the final interment should be delayed; for such eases the Receiving Tomb offers a temporary resting place and the Receiving Tomb is a feeder for sales.

(b) In 1911 the West Hill Cemetery Company built three Mausoleums for rent at a cost of $3,000.00 and from the time they were ready for occupancy they have never been vacant, except one at a time for a month; the rental charge is at the rate of $25.00 a month for each Mausoleum, being an income of $900.00 a year on an investment of $3,000.00. In 1921 we built three more of much better quality at $35.00 per month each and they are never vacant—indeed we have had a waiting list—an exchange from the Receiving Tomb being made to a Mausoleum as soon as possible. The construction at these Mausoleums was brought about because a prospective customer wanted to rent nine crypts in the Receiving Tomb so that there might not be anyone near his wife—but the Cemetery Company could not grant this request fearing the crypts might be needed.

(c) The charges for digging graves and usual attendance at funerals are a source of small revenue at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, far smaller on analysts than lot holders suppose—the margin of profit is often a loss as the ground at West Laurel Hill is often stony and men frequently work all night. However, it would seem absurd' not to mention these charges, but in my Cemetery we often write the profit on the ice.

(d) Grave structures as brick graves, whether enameled brick or plain red brick, concrete and brick and all the various structures, including concrete tombs or over boxes, all have a profit for the Cemetery.

(e) Charges for graves and dirt pile decorations in the many and various forms used throughout the country are all sources of profit.

(f) Some cemeteries charge for the use of tent and chairs. West Laurel Hill Cemetery does not charge for a tent; however, a tent is erected without charge in very inclement weather but never for clear winter weather or high wind.

(g) Removal charges might be included under the digging of a grave except that the profit on removal charges is greater per removal than the profit from a grave at the time of a funeral.

Tenth. Income from Construction of Foundations and Work Connected Therewith. In West Laurel Hill Cemetery all excavation and all foundations and exterior walls of vaults below the ground level are done by the Cemetery Company—all foundations are eight feet deep—the depth of a grave—and may of course, be deeper. There is a profit from this work, the percentage varying with the size of the work.

Eleventh. Greenhouse Work:
(a) Bouquets, cut flowers, floral designs
(b) Christmas designs and decorations, Easter and Memorial Day floral requirements
(c) Special yearly care of lots
(d) Sodding and grading
(e) Grave planting
(f) Flower beds
(g) Special trees
(h) Talking up endowments

All the above items at West Laurel Hill Cemetery come under the greenhouse. The greenhouse salesroom and the office are under one roof and it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends—they lead up to each other. Special yearly care of lots is a heavy item at West Laurel Hill Cemetery; grave planting is a heavy item and flower beds also are an item of profit and the greenhouse work leads up to that important item of which I have spoken before.

Twelfth. Endowments: If I am placing emphasis on endowment of lots—special trust funds whose income is only to be used for the designated lot—it is because, like interest, it is working all the time. The income will continue long after we are dead and not only lift the expense of caring for that lot from the Cemetery, but will give a profit year after year. The solicitation for endowments is going on all the time at West Laurel Hill Cemetery even to the great grandchildren of the original lot holder. The money from a sale soon disappears but the income from an endowment will go on and on.

Gone are the living, but the dead remain
And not neglected, for a hand unseen
Scattering bounty like a summer rain
Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green.
Longfellow.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Convention
Chicago, Illinois
August 24, 25, 26 and 27, 1925

In the few years in which I have been in charge of the business of our cemetery and a member of this Association I have watched with considerable interest the papers presented to the conventions and the various topics that appear in our magazine "Park and Cemetery". Organizing, planning, landscape, management, rules and regulations, care, accounting, advertising and laws affecting cemetery operation have all been freely discussed and with much benefit to us all. But there seems to be one subject above all others in which practically all modern cemetery men are most interested, and that is Perpetual Care and how it can be provided for.  I believe those two words "Perpetual Care" are about the most commonly used words in our modern cemetery business.

I know they are words that have different meanings to some of us, depending upon the age of our own cemeteries, and how the term applies to them. But I am not here to talk to you on this point for I realize that each of us have a problem more or less different and distinct from the others. Whether or not we have perpetual care provisions in any of the various methods to which the term applies, we probably are convinced to the last man of us, that in this day and age it is absolutely essential that our cemeteries be properly cared for so that we shall not be guilty of the disgraceful neglect that has characterized the past.

I think, too, that we are all pretty well convinced that the purchase price of ground should be sufficient to provide its proportionate share toward the up building of a trust fund for the maintenance and perpetuation of the entire cemetery. That, of course, would be the ideal condition under which. to operate, and is a condition that prevails in the affairs of some of our largest and best cemeteries, especially in the larger cities where the percentage of sale price as applied to the care fund is immediately sufficient for this purpose.

But, perhaps there are others here like myself who are realizing that in selling ground with the promise or contract, of perpetual care we have taken on an obligation that might some day become difficult of fulfillment. In other words, we have sold our ground for too small a price, and thereby sold more of it than necessary, and as a result we have increased our burden for all time to come.

A small price must, of necessity, yield but a small fund, for we all know that from our annual sales there must first come the bulk of our annual expenditures. To most of' us in the smaller cities high prices for cemetery ground are out of the question. We are just as ambitious to have our cemeteries beautiful and provide the best care possible but we cannot obtain the prices that will do these things and also add sufficient to the care fund.

This is exactly the situation that we face in our business at Freeport, Illinois. We have been operating for 23 years one of the most beautiful cemeteries in America and have from the beginning sold all lots with perpetual care provided. Our fund at present is far less than it should be, amounting to but about 5 1/10 cents per foot of sold ground. When there is added to this sold ground its proportionate share of the upkeep expense of the whole cemetery it shows how ridiculously small it is. During the earlier years of our business there was a ten percent deposit to the trust fund and later this was increased to twenty percent.  This latter figure most of you would say is a fair proportion of sales to devote to the fund and I believe is used by many cemeteries. However, when you consider that with our prices advanced each year we are now obtaining only sixty to ninety cents per foot for ground you will readily understand why it is still too small to accomplish what a trust fund is created for.

Shortly after assuming charge of our cemetery I began to wonder just how large our fund would become under the plan; what the perpetual care of the cemetery would require in interest earnings and whether, after all our ground was sold, it would be in any way adequate.

We were drawing all interest from the fund annually to assist in caring for the cemetery so that the fund could be increased only by the sales installments we placed to it. Therefore, for example, when our property, which consists of a little over one hundred acres, had possibly totaled sales of three million dollars we would have but six hundred thousand dollars in the fund.

In endeavoring to estimate our needs I find that some of our cemetery men have reached the conclusion that there should be at least fifty cents per foot in the trust fund. This seems more than necessary until we consider that it is not merely the individual lot that will sometime be dependent upon the interest earnings but rather the entire property, of which the general or public parts may be the more expensive in maintenance. Looking into the long, dim future none of us can tell just what the costs of operating or rather perpetuating our cemeteries will be, so that all we can do is try to provide abundantly and trust in the future conditions.

Studying over the problem, I decided that even if at sometime we were to obtain sufficiently large prices for our ground there would yet remain all the ground already sold that had not contributed its full share to the fund. There can be but one solution to this problem of inadequate apportionment to the fund and it is through the assistance of compound interest.

I have prepared printed copies of a sheet of figures that I worked out and these will tell you more than I have time to tell you here. I have here also a chart of some of the results obtained by my method of building up a trust fund' which is now to be adopted by our Association. The surprising figures will show you that we will cut our deposits in two, create a vastly larger fund and draw out more interest than under the simple 20% plan.

There are four uncertain factors in figuring as I have done. We do not know just what acreage or footage will be developed from the property we own; how long it will take to sell it all; how much may be sold each year and what the prices will be. And so for a basis of figuring I begin with estimated sales of twelve thousand dollars a year as an average for the next ten years and increase it one thousand dollars every ten year period, estimating that it may take 150 years to sell out. I have assumed that five percent is a fair expectation of interest earnings. Both our old and new methods are therefore figured alike as to sales and interest. No consideration has been given to the cost of administering the fund either way tor it is rather negligible as compared with the total earnings.

To begin at the beginning of our whole program regarding our Perpetual Care Fund. We are incorporated as Oakland Cemetery Association, though in fact we are but a stock company and are not in any way operating under any laws of the state governing cemeteries. If we interpret the laws correctly, we, as a profit sharing corporation cannot set aside a perpetual trust. We therefore propose to incorporate a voluntary lot owners association which will nave for its object the care of the trust fund and finally the perpetuating of the cemetery. This association will be empowered to create and elect a Board of Trustees, this Board to have the actual control of the Perpetual Care Fund. The further purpose of this second Corporation is to prevent the stockholders of the Cemetery Association having any chance to recall any or this entire fund.

Agreements will be made and recorded, between the operating company and the lot owners association which will set forth the methods and purpose of creating the fund and defining the conduct of both parties for all time. Each and every deed given for lots will carry with it enough of a contract for the ten percent of the purchaser's money to make it binding on both associations. Our attorney believes he can in this way make a three cornered contract that, as he expressed it, "no man on earth can ever break."

The application of the ten percent of sales will be made as long as ground is sold, so that, for as long as there shall be lot owners alive, there may be expected to be interest manifested in the project from these lot owners. Beyond that time a competent court will have to appoint the Trustees.

Each year the Trustees will retain two percent interest on the total fund as of the first of the year. To offset the loss due to inability to re-invest the odd amounts of earned interest to the last odd dollars and cents, the installments from sales shall be paid over to the Trustees semi-annually. The actual investing of the fund shall be through one of the largest Trust Companies in Chicago and all investments will be ratified by our local Board of Trustees. The Secretary of the Cemetery Association shall be the Secretary of the Lot Owners Association, thus providing the latter Association with a working officer who will always be in a position to look after its affairs.

I have figured various other compound interest schemes for long periods of time only to discard them when they failed to produce the desired result. We cannot afford to appropriate to the fund much more than we have in the past, and so I finally found that by using two percent as the compounding figure we would actually be saving something to ourselves for some years to come. Then, gradually, it will turn to a loss to us until the interest earnings mount up to a considerable figure when it will again begin to show a balance in favor of the cemetery.

The printed copies show only figures for each five years but to arrive at these it was of course necessary to carry out the entire scheme for each year. Some of the interesting items from the detail of the yearly figures are as follows:

In the 48th year of our new plan shows its first gain in the total amount in the Trust Fund and in the 115th year it is double the amount in the old plan. In the end it is more than three times as much.

Each year, in the beginning, shows a result in favor of the cemetery, decreasing yearly. The Total gain up to the 14th year is $6,033.27. The following year the result is in favor of the trust fund and it continues so until the 85th year during which time the operating income has suffered a loss of over $58,000.00. In this 85th year it again begins to add to the operating revenue and as the two percent interest earnings are now beginning to build up heavily, the gain of operating revenue increases very rapidly until at the end of the 150 years it shows a net gain over the losses of $544,937.11.

In speaking of loss or gain I mean that in the old plan we take all the interest earned. Under the new plan, we take all interest over the two percent which is returned to the fund, also the ten percent of sales which we do not place to the fund. The difference between these two incomes produces loss or gain to the operating revenue.

I know that the statements on this chart look like a paradox, but strange as they may seem they are nevertheless true. We will put in half as much, build possibly three times or more as big a fund and draw out more in earnings.

Now, there will be a provision made that whenever the fund has reached a total equivalent to fifty cents for each foot of ground that has been sold and that fifty cents per foot appears at that time to be sufficient, the compounding rate may be decreased below two percent by agreement of the operating association and the Trustees.

We have formally adopted the entire plan as I have outlined it to you and our attorney is now engaged in the work necessary to the perfecting of the Lot Owners Association. We have gone at it with much thought and we are satisfied that it will guarantee to our lot owners the full meaning of Perpetual Care. If there are others like us, whose fund is too small to represent the amount of ground already sold, I believe they can find in our plan a way to improve their fund slowly and surely, without lessening their income. If you cannot apply from your sales price enough to be immediately sufficient, there is no other way than through compounding a portion of your interest, to keep faith with your lot owners.

A comparatively small initial fund, invested and compound in g at its full interest earnings would in a like time produce an ample fund, but it would yield no annual returns for the care of the sold ground. It may seem queer too, that we should add to our fund an amount from lot purchasers money which would be much less than what we would withdraw from the fund but in this we are following the belief that people are really not much interested in anything that has not east them, something and we earnestly solicit the interest and aid of our lot owners.

We desire that our people shall think of the cemetery as a community affair and cooperate with us in making and keeping it forever beautiful, well cared-for and absolutely permanent.
 

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Convention
Chicago, Illinois
August 24, 25, 26 and 27, 1925

The title of this article would suggest that some reclamation may be pursued which is not altogether substantial and that other processes of reclamation may be considered basic and altogether real and profitable. With sufficient funds at hand it would be an easy matter to regrade, reseed, drain and sprinkle and arid tract removing there from all obsolete forms of ornamentation such as curbs, corner stones, vases or fences. But if lots so renovated should not by this process be financially reinstated and put on a paying basis the reclamation will be short lived and a delusion both to the superintendent and the public. We therefore claim that real reclamation is first of all the financial reinstating of the lot. This can be brought about by several well known processes such as by soliciting of perpetual or annual funds for the liberal care of the lots. But the object of this article looks toward the permanent reinstating of lots which have been abandoned or not adequately endowed and which either are neglected by the association, thus becoming an unsightly memorial to those departed or else on the other hand cared, for by the association as a matter of public pride and at the expense of the upkeep account of such association. Instead of entering into a series of arguments which might not be understood or might be controverted, we devote the remainder of this article to a synopsis of correspondence only and would continue as follows:

Lot owner in Illinois was first written April 10, 1919 concerning delinquent care and was approached on the subject of relinquishment of unoccupied portion in lieu of perpetual care for one grave on this lot. No answer having been received the directory company of was written concerning address. On Dec. 26, same year, answer was received giving proper street address. On Dec. 29, same year, another letter was written to this party to which we received no reply. On Feb. 21, of the following year we laid the matter before the Bank of who called the attention of the lot owner that the item was in their hands for adjustment. There being no reply to this notice from the bank we wrote to the manufacturing company in which this lot owner was employed who handed the letter over to the lot owner for reply and the same reached us April 20th. Twenty-six other letters were written before the party finally agreed to accept our terms, we giving him $50.00 and perpetual care on one grave and placing at the head of such grave a suitable head stone, having a total cost of $20.00. The cemetery received a deed for the unoccupied portion, the value of which is $600.00. This is a typical case at a lot abandoned by the owner. We should add that in the course of correspondence the owner stated that he would probably never use the balance of the lot.

Now we take up the case of the lot owner whose lot was in perpetual care, the endowment therefore being $50.00 for which the cemetery agreed to give care forever. The approximate income from this investment was $2.00 per year. The actual expense for the upkeep was $4.50, thus resulting in a liability for all time to come instead of an asset. This lot owner relinquished for $80.00. The north 8 ft. was sold for $120.00, the south 12 ft. of the north 20 ft. was sold for $180.00 and the south 4 ft. for $100.00 thus reinstating the lot in the perpetual care list on a remunerative basis and giving $287.00 into the current expense account.

We have reclaimed 250,000 sq. ft. in the last twelve years which necessitated on one occasion a trip of thirty-five days through the states of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and New Mexico and on another occasion an automobile trip of 2700 miles in twenty-two days covering the mountain districts of Colorado. These trips were a series of roundups for those items which we could not bring about by correspondence, the net results of the coast trip being approximately $8000 and that of the State trip approximately $2500. The transfers made to the cemetery for twelve years numbered upwards of 350, and the transfers from the cemetery to the smaller lot owners on these identical lots will probably number at least 500. All of these reclamations are of the highest market value because they are in the older part of the cemetery where trees and lawn are at their best and where associations and surroundings are vital selling factors. This cemetery is strongly in favor of caring equally for every lot but we are also firm in the conviction that each lot must be so financially adjusted that it will stand on a firm basis.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Convention
Chicago, Illinois
August 24, 25, 26 and 27, 1925

I am somewhat handicapped, perhaps owe you an apology for being down to read a paper, but coming across the border from Canada I stopped in the village of Detroit for a little while and went up town, opened my grip to get out something and sitting down on a street corner a Billy goat came along and ate my paper. I believe that Frank Eurich is somewhat responsible for it, and I have no paper to read. I had to hastily jot down a few memos and I unfortunately have no paper.

When I decided to read this paper at this convention, or rather this subject and the committee asked me what it would be I gave them a subject and they switched it on me a little bit and changed it. I gave them a subject "Dead Horse Finances." It, perhaps, to a cemetery superintendent, seemed a little gruesome to talk about anything dead and they switched it on me and made it "Cemetery Finances."

Cemetery finances might mean a great many things. It might mean lot selling campaigns, investment of perpetual care funds or the allotment of various classes of labor or the purchase of new grounds and the setting aside of so much money annually for the purchase of extensions, etc., etc. That has been covered in a great many ways.

My talk this morning is not going to be particularly on cemetery finances generally, but what my subject really intended to be—dead horse finances.

John Bright, great British parliamentarian, whenever a question was raised in the House of Commons that had been dealt with and had been voted into oblivion many a time was brought up by some new member, John Bright usually said "Oh, that is dead horse, gone, forgotten, voted on many a time and passed up."

I am going to say a few words on delinquent finances, finances that we have given up hope of ever collecting. This question does not apply to new cemeteries that have been started right under the perpetual care plan. The cemetery that I represent was started in 1848. Of course those of you that were at Hamilton will realize that Woodland Cemetery, the new one on the bay front, will not have the problem of the collection of dead horse finances that we have in this old cemetery.

I know that these questions have been discussed from every angle. I am only a young cub at the game, although I was a member of our Cemetery Commission for many years previous to becoming the Superintendent and you all know that cemetery board members or cemetery commissioners have but a very meager knowledge of the actual cemetery problems. They attend board meetings, the secretary or superintendent introduces his report and they have a very superficial knowledge of what really is the cemetery superintendent's problem and I know that these questions have been discussed from every angle.

I was only in the office six months before I found a state of affairs that rather astounded me. I will admit we all have our strong points in every sphere of life on certain things. One man will be able to accomplish great things in a certain sphere, along a certain line. Another man will supersede him and he will have strong points on entirely different lines and make a success of something else that the other chap had perhaps forgotten or, rather, was not strong on. So we all have our strong features.

I realize my predecessor, who was one of the best cemetery men, Mr. F. H. Rutherford, took hold of an old practically medieval cemetery, with the various grades and copings and fences and iron and tripods and wood and glass bottles by the million and everything else and devoted the most of his time to the outside grounds and made a magnificent cemetery out of an old practically rural burial ground, even though we have 120,000 population in our city. But when you concentrate on one particular thing naturally other things suffer.

When I succeeded Mr. Rutherford I did not have very much to do, as it were, on the outside grounds, but could devote the majority of my attention to the office. No individual is at fault, neither a superintendent, office staff, commission or a board, but rather a system that had grown up in practice for many years.

The question I found was that thousands—we have 11,000 lots in our cemetery, apart from our single graves—we had about 3,000 cards that we were sending out for annual care. Those that were square and honest came and paid; those that did not want to pay never came near the office. Naturally, while we checked it up against the lot, many lots had no card as far as the financial end of it was concerned, no card at all.

I said to my board "Is it fair to permit or allow or compel some people to pay and let many other people get away with it without paying at all? Something must be done to try and collect some of this old money."

I used to see a woman come in, one, two, yes a dozen of them, when carnations were $1.00 a dozen and roses $1.00 a dozen, drive up in their motor cars and want to know "where is the gardener? Where is the sub-gardener? How is it that this is not done on my lot and this on my lot?" I'd go over the card and say "Madam, do you know you have not paid any care since 1914, and you want the service of a gardener and you complain about it and you complain about the ant hills. I can't tell the ants what lot to go on. You complain about the condition of the graves. If you don't pay your care you will get no service in this cemetery. You can come up here when carnations and roses are $1.00 a dozen and place them on your lot, but we don't get a cent of care and we pay our men 50¢ an hour and we care for your lot and have got it charged up against you."

True, we have the same rule that the majority of you have that no interment can take place in a lot until the care dues are paid, but you have got to wait until somebody kicks in and you may go before they do, and your successor may not be as strenuous as you to collect it.

I had a younger man appointed on our board by the City Council.  He was in the wholesale grocery business, a shrewd young financier, and he used to say to me "What are our assets?"

I said "You get them. You get our buildings. You get our supplies, tools and everything, an inventory in the annual statement. You know what our assets are."

"Oh, but I mean our assets, our bills receivable."

I said "Forget it. They are receivable after you have got them. You will see them in the report on the right side or the statement after we get them. There is no such thing as bills receivable because very few people are paying."

He said "What kind or a business do we run? We ought to have assets showing our bills receivable."

He pressed and pressed and kept on every meeting for about a year for these bills receivable. I said "Frank, forget it. If I show you an account of our bills receivable in this cemetery it will make your nose bleed." But he insisted upon the bills receivable, and I got busy and gave him some bills receivable. No, what I did was this:  I arranged it for an annual report in one of my annual reports, and after it was printed and was not bound, still in the printer's hands, I asked him to strike me off a certain number or copies, and I went to the Chairman of our Finance Committee and the Chairman of our Board, Mr. Peebles, who, by the way, visited my office a day or two previous to the convention and asked me to convey his best wishes to the members of the Association—our former Chairman who, by the way, is not now our Chairman—he was elected to the City Council, and had to resign, because our by-laws don't permit an elective member in the City Council to act on our board and I took it down to the Chairman and read it to him. This was the statement:

"ANNUAL CARE AND DELINQUENT LOT OWNERS"

I have frequently been asked to compile a list of our assets, i. e., monies due for annual care, of from three to twenty years or more.

I have not as yet been able to complete this list, owing to the many lots tor which no card exists. This work, which is long and tedious, owing to the imperfect records kept during the early years of the Cemetery, necessitates a great deal of research, but is steadily going forward.

As far as we have proceeded we find there is due the Cemetery Board $22,643.13 for annual care, which consists of 188,365 square feet of ground, which, if placed in Perpetual Care would mean an additional $65,927.85. And it is safe to say that the unlisted lots when completed will add an additional 50 percent of the above figures (a report of which will be made later when the report is completed), with means that there is due the Cemetery Board for delinquent annual care about $30,000.00, and if placed in Perpetual Care an additional $90,000.00 or a total of $120,000.00.

Taking into consideration that many of these lots are filled, and the owners passed away, others left the city, descendants refusing to acknowledge obligations, etc., etc. only a small percentage of this is collectable.

When I showed that to the Chairman and the Chairman of the Finance Committee, they said "Don't put that in your report. We don't want the public to know who are paying that there are a lot of other fellows not paying or they will stop paying." They said "Cut it out." 

I mailed it to the board members, but this young smart business man insisted upon having a complete report of the assets. I kept telling him to forget it, but he insisted upon the assets and I gave him a final report when it was completed.

February, 1925

To the Board of Management of the Hamilton Cemeteries:

Gentlemen:

I have frequently been asked to prepare a resume of indebtedness to the Hamilton Cemetery, or "Asset", i. e. if all lots were paid up, as far as Annual Care was concerned and the same placed in Perpetual Care.

At the end of 1923 a part report was presented and the "Assets" were so large it was thought unwise to reproduce the same in the Annual Report. At that time only part was shown as there were many old lots for which no card existed.

In this Report all Lots in the Cemetery are listed and tabulated which shows an enormous amount of money so called "outstanding".

Eventually about ten to fifteen percent or this will be collectable; hence while a copy is prepared, I feel it would be very unwise to make it public, as it would be misunderstood and many who are now paying and those who have a further tendency to pay up later may defer payment on the plea, with so large an "Asset" in addition to the Perpetual Care sinking fund, there is already ample funds to carry on the Cemetery for the rest of time.

There are all told 10,660 plots in the Hamilton Cemetery of which 6,446 are in Perpetual Care and 4,214 not. Of the 4,214 not in Perpetual Care; 3,261 are not paying at all while 955 are paying some regularly and some occasionally.

Of the 3,261 who are not paying at all, 1,561 are two grave lots of 60 square feet each or a total of 93,600 sq. ft. They owe $25.00 each back care or a total of $39,025.00 and if placed in Perpetual Care would mean an additional $32,781.00.

The rest of those not paying 1700, own four grave lots 120 sq ft. each, owe $50.00 each for back care or a total of $85,000 and if placed in Perpetual Care 204,000 sq. ft. would mean an additional $71,400.

Of the 955 that are paying if these were to pay up the Annual Care to date at an average of $2.00 each per year would mean $19,100.00 and if placed in Perpetual Care would mean a further sum of $29,610.00 or a general grand total of
39,025.00
32,781.00
85,000.00
71,400.00
19,100.00
29,610.00
-------------
 $276,916.00

All of which is respectfully submitted,
S. L. Landers, Secretary

I said to my board "It is going to be an absolute impossibility to collect but a very, very small proportion of that fund. If you members of this board will give me a free hand and I will use it very reasonably, and cooperate with me, and give me your endorsement, I will get a pretty good proportion of that dead horse finance, if you will back me up."

You see, we care for all lots in our cemetery, whether they are paid for or not, that is, whether care is paid for or not; even if they don't pay annual care we care for every lot in the cemetery from the East gate to the West gate and from the North gate to the South gate, and the man that pays does not get a bit better attention than the fellow that does not pay. We feel for humanity's sake, general appearances sake—of course we rob Peter to pay Paul, we take it from the other fellow that does pay and spend it on this fellow, and we don't guarantee, as was spoken of last night, to devote the particular money on that particular lot. We are not bothered with the question of taxation, as municipal cemeteries. We agree to take care of that man's lot in perpetual care, but we don't pledge that that money will be spent particularly on that lot, but devoted to trees, shrubs, roads, administration and the general care of the cemetery.

The first thing I said to my board was "Our rules are somewhat antiquated. Revise your rules according to certain suggestions and I will get the money." The first thing we did—people used to walk in there and order a monument. The first few months I was in there I watched the girl. The monument men came in and ordered a foundation and the girl would get the card out, give the foreman the order and the foundation was ordered. People would come in and want various work done, transfer a lot from father to son or friend to friend, if there were no burials in it and everything was done without any consideration as to the actual status of the lot.

We had the rules changed. No transfer could be made, no flowers could be planted; we would not do any work for them; nothing for nothing. We said "You are not paying us anything and we will give you no consideration and no favors until you do pay." We made certain restrictions that no transfer could be granted on a lot upon which the perpetual care was not paid.

I said to my board, "Under the new system we compel people to pay the perpetual care at the time of the purchase of the lot. Now is it unfair to make that rule retroactive and make the old lot owners, when they come up for burial, pay the perpetual care on the old lot? If Bill Smith comes up and says I am a blacksmith or shoemaker—unfortunately my wife died; I want to buy a lot, we don't ask him any questions. We sell him a lot under the new system with the perpetual care added to it. He asks no questions and pays it. Is it any more unfair to make it retroactive and if Bill Smith or John Smith or Pete Jones or somebody—by the way, Mr. Jones, we have them there, too—if Mr. Jones comes up and wants to bury we say “Yes, you have an old lot, but you have to pay the perpetual care on your lot and the back care before you can bury in that lot."

My board said to me "Sh, sh, you can't do anything like that. The deeds don't call for that. That is illegal. You can't do it. How can you make a non pay perpetual care on a lot when he bought it under the old system of annual care? You can't do it."

When it was referred to our corporation counsel he said "Tut, tut, tut, no, no, don't start anything like that. You are going to get into lawsuits. You are going to have trouble. It is illegal."

It reminded me—we had a political campaign on in a town that was called Berlin, but was changed to Kitchener during the war, up in Ontario. We had an independent political campaign on the same as your late recent friend LaFolette. We had a political campaign against the two old parties, and I happened to be with the independent party and we were discussing the question of method and various questions came up. One fellow suggested this and' another chap suggested that. One fellow said something and then another man got up and said "Oh yes, hold on a minute, but that is illegal."

Sitting in that same room was, not an elderly man, of German descent, and old Henry Stultz had been in a great many political campaigns with the old parties. As soon as that fellow said "This is illegal," Henry got up and said "Vas is illegal. Nothing is illegal," meaning anything you can get away with in reason is not illegal.

I told my board and corporation counsel, "illegal nothing. Leave it to me. If you will give me the cooperation I will get away with it. Put that in your rules that at the time of an interment in an old lot the perpetual care on that old lot must be paid."

The furthest I could get them to go was that it should be paid, and they revised the rules and said that at the time of an interment in the old lot the perpetual care should be paid. I said "If that is as far as you go I am an opportunist, all right. Let it go at that." They passed it and we revised the rules. But I soon forgot the should and I made it must immediately.  I sent out my card with my annual care, and this card went out with it, with the annual care cards or bills the following year to cemetery lot owners:

"This is your notice for the care of your lot for 1925. This account is really due in advance; when you received your first notice in May.
As a result of many non-payments we were compelled to borrow the money to pay the workmen during the season.
An immediate response will be appreciated.
This account can be paid at the City Treasurer's office, City Hall, if accompanied by the enclosed bill.

Very truly yours,
Board of Managers of Hamilton Cemetery,
S. L. Landers, Secy-Supt

"To Cemetery Lot Owners under "ANNUAL CARE"
You have often been reminded that commuting and paying a lump sum places your lot in PERPETUAL CARE and gives you a perpetual care deed.

"I will some day" has no doubt oft been your thought—
WHY NOT NOW?
Especially since the new ruling, that all old lots under Annual Care must be planed in Perpetual Care at either the time of an interment, disinterment, or the placing of a monument.
Phone the Cemetery Office: Regent 1320 for information.
S. L. LANDERS, Secretary"

On the bills that I sent out in red type, I had a panel inserted in red type which said "all lots under annual care must be placed in perpetual care at the time of an interment." The result was—you know, there are two ways of killing a chicken. One way is to simply lay him down on a block and knock his block off. Another way is, you can taka that chicken and smooth the feathers up and down one way and humor him to death and—jerk it and break his neck.

I said to my board, "Leave it to me. I will get the money and I will do it very, very carefully." You might be astounded' to know that in three years we have had absolutely no difficulty in collecting our perpetual care at the time of interment. We have had a little argument. I remember the worst two cases I had—one was the police lieutenant and one a lieutenant in the fire department, who kicked and were not going to pay.

I will tell you one thing—the only instance in which it works an injustice is the man who paid religiously and regularly his annual care in advance; as soon as he got his bill his check came, or they paid it at the city hall, at the city treasurer's department, or at the cemetery. It worked somewhat of a little injustice to those people who paid regularly, but they were few and far between.

I had people say to me "Do you mean to tell me that I can't bury in my lot and you refuse to let me bury if I don't pay this perpetual care?"

I said "No, I would not say that." At the same time I meant it all the time. "No, I would not think of saying that you can't bury in your lot and that we are going to prohibit you from burying." I knew that they would not get out to get a compulsory order or a restraining order from the judge, restraining us from interfering with them, because they usually want to bury the next day or two days after and before they could get a restraining or a compulsory order it would take some time. "No, I would not think of saying anything of that description. Of course, if you insist on burying and will not pay, that is different. But now look here, you don't want any special privileges over all the other citizens, do you? We have had so many thousand burials since the rule has gone into force and everybody met it without any discussion. Do you want any special favors? You will thank me in six months or a year because I compelled you to pay for perpetual care. Haven't you been thinking every time you got the bill that you ought to put it in perpetual care?" "Well, yes, ____” "Well come on, don't make two bites of a cherry. Let’s clean it up. Why stick at this little perpetual care? I'll admit at the time of a funeral there are funeral expenses and everything."

The main object was, we didn't care so much about the past annual care—our cemetery was practically sold out—we wanted to clean up that dead horse finance, so the old annual care was difficult to collect. You know yourselves, everyone or you, that when it gets down to second and third generations and grand nephews and grand nieces and brothers-in-law it is hard to collect, even from the first generation. Sons as a rule refuse to pay. We made all sorts of rebates on the old annual care in order to get the perpetual care. If a man came in and owed $70 or $40 or $50 annual care in arrears—like the women for bargains; they are out this morning—a lot of people like to get something for nothing. If you tell a man "You owe $70 back or $40 back care; I will tell you what we will do. We will rebate that to 50%."

It all depends upon the circumstances. If it is a son we make him pay the biggest portion. We make him pay half. If it is a second or third cousin or friend or a society or something we almost cut the entire back care off. But get the lots into perpetual care, because we knew if we could get that into our sinking fund it would mean for all time looking after that lot.

Then we had this abandoned lot act passed. I think the state of New York, the state of Iowa and the state of Wisconsin have this abandoned lot act. We had this abandoned lot act passed.  I think the state of New York, the state of Iowa and the state of Wisconsin have this abandoned lot act.  We had this abandoned lot act passed.

An Act to Amend the Cemetery Act

His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

1.    This Act may be cited as The Cemetery Amendment Act, 192.3.

2.    Section 23 of The Cemetery Act is amended by adding thereto the following subsection:
(2) The owner of a cemetery may after having advertised once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper approved by the local board, for relatives of the person in whose name an abandoned cemetery lot stands (where such abandonment has existed for at least five years) and where such lot is not claimed and any dues or charges with respect thereto are not paid within six months after the last publication of such notice, the owner, upon the expiration of the said period may apply to the Judge of the County or District Court and the Judge upon such application and upon proof of the facts and of the publication of such notice and of the non-payment of such dues and charges and upon such other evidence as he may deem necessary may make an order authorizing the owner to repossess and sell the unoccupied part of such abandoned lot and apply the proceeds of such sale for the perpetual care of the occupied part of such lot .
(a) This section shall apply to every cemetery owned, controlled or managed under the authority of any general or special Act.

3.    Section 24 of The Cemetery Act as amended by section 4 of The Cemetery Amendment Act, 1921, is further amended by adding thereto the following subsection:
(3) The council of every county shall appoint one or more local inspectors who shall have the duties and powers within the municipality of inspectors appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council under the 'provisions of section l0a.

4.    This Act shall come into force on the day upon which it receives the Royal Assent.

That is a state or a provincial law.

Legal decisions perhaps were against some of those things, but with the act to back us up and the use of common law on the other questions—I was speaking a moment ago of them—or the "gift of gab", and if you are able to handle people—a man may be a civil engineer, a landscape artist, a horticulturalist and understand the finer arts of cemetery work, but if he does not know how to handle the people and how to induce the people along certain lines, he is lacking as a cemetery superintendent, and if you have the persuasive, persevering argument you can collect the majority of these finances.

Now I would like to tell you about how much money we have collected in those two or three years that we have had this in effect. It won't take me a minute to read these right over for comparison. Before these questions were introduced from 1915 to 1919, there were 507 old lots placed in perpetual care, 47,215 square feet, with an income of $16,521.25. The following five years, after the introduction of this system, and killing the chicken in the usual way, we put 1574 lots in perpetual care, or an increase of 1067, an increase of 102,285 square feet with an increase in revenue of $37,024.41. The first six months of the current year we put 273 additional lots in perpetual care, 22,362 square feet, with $7,831.10 increase in income. During the month of July we put 54 lots in perpetual care with a revenue of $1,535.10. During the month of August, just before leaving I found that the rate was carrying on just the same, and if this continues with the addition that after the six months have expired of the several thousand lots we advertised under that act, which we have the power to resell, and I already have power of attorney from a great marry families, not to publish their names and allowing me to sell—it simply means a great proportion of this old finance will be collectible and will go into our general fund.

Now I don't know it all. I am not like the old Quaker that said to his wife "The whole world is queer but me and thee and sometimes even thee is a little bit queer." I don't know it all, but this I do know, that our facts and our figures and our results show that the methods adopted will collect and get us some of that old dead horse finance.

I have a picture that I brought back from France, and I saw it in actual happening in France, when an ammunition column was going up and shells were coming over and fell in among the batteries and the ammunition columns, that a horse had one leg shot off and ran down the road on three legs. I actually saw that, when an old battery man came back and put his arm around the horse's neck stopped for a while and said "Good bye, old pal." The horse was about gone, and the boys up the road said "Come on, Bill, come on, Bill." He put his arm around the horse's neck and said "Good bye, old pal," and then left him.

With these circumstances and conditions we can go into our vault and put our hands on our dusty old books that have been lying there a good many years and say to the old dead horse finances, "Good bye, old pal."

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Convention
Chicago, Illinois
August 24, 25, 26 and 27, 1925

The subject "Creation of a Modern Park Cemetery" would necessitate a theoretical discourse—the "Creation of Forest Lawn" is an actual experience from which you may acquire some practical benefit.

My first glimpse of Forest Lawn Cemetery showed it to be a little country cemetery, of ten acres developed, forty-five undeveloped; with no buildings, no improvements, with the exception of a grove of olive trees and a few scattering headstones. Such a picture most of you have seen many times. Forest Lawn's other assets were a total of 1400 interments, and yearly gross sales of $28,000.

Today, twelve years after we took charge, Forest Lawn Cemetery is Forest Lawn Memorial Park—Park it is, because the visitor rarely recognizes that he is entering into a so-called "cemetery". Forest Lawn now comprises over 200 acres, with a total of 28,464 interments, sales amounting to more than one million dollars per year, and total assets aggregating ten million dollars. It averages 300 interments per month, and 81 weddings per month. Our payroll of yesterday showed an organization of 406 employees, including an Architectural Department of 12 Architects and an Engineering force of like number.

Today it possesses many buildings of historical and architectural charm that house some of the world's greatest art treasures, and last year more than 525,000 visitors passed through her gates. Forest Lawn is not only a safe depository for our beloved dead, but also a place for the living to visit and sacredly enjoy. The manner in which these results have been arrived at are briefly as follows:

My first move twelve years ago when I awoke to find myself in charge of Forest Lawn Cemetery, was to personally visit the great interment places of the world. I talked to Superintendents, Grave Diggers, Presidents, and Undertakers. I wanted to find out why a African-American whistled when he went through a cemetery; I wanted to find out why most of the interment spots in the United States were places to be shunned—looked upon as civic liabilities where they should have been civic assets. I wanted to find out why even the most beautiful cemeteries were visited by people mainly from a sense of duty; why most of them were so ugly, and why they didn't have architects and landscape engineers connected with them. I wanted to find out if the cemeteries were wrong or if it was the people. And then when I had finished with the cemeteries, I visited public parks, glimpsed their lovely vistas, watched their fountains at play, admired their beautiful statuary and studied their architectural buildings. I strolled through museums and galleries of art; I questioned people who had traveled in the art centers of the Old World—and then I came home. I had found my answer.

BUILDER’S CREED

I have always found if I put my thoughts into writing the very act seems to clarify my mind and enables me to approach a problem in a logical manner. And so, on New Year's Day, 1917 I sat down and wrote what I termed "The Builder's Creed", and if I were called upon today to give you my recipe for the "Creation of a Modern Park Cemetery", the best I could do would be to hand you this Creed:

"I believe in a happy Eternal Life. I believe that those of us left behind should be glad in the certain belief that those gone before have entered into that happier life. I believe, most of all, in a Christ that smiles and loves you and me. I therefore know the cemeteries of today are wrong because they depict an end, not a beginning. They have consequently become unsightly stone yards, full of inartistic symbols and depressing customs, places that do nothing for humanity save a practical act and that not well.

"I therefore prayerfully resolve on this New Year's Day, 1917, that, I shall endeavor to build Forest Lawn as different as unlike other cemeteries as sunshine is unlike darkness, as Eternal Life is unlike Death. I shall try to build at Forest Lawn a great Park, devoid of misshapen monuments and other customary signs of earthly death, but filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns, splashing fountains, singing birds, beautiful statuary, cheerful flowers, noble memorial architecture, with interiors full of light and color, and redolent of the world's best history and romances. I believe these things educate and uplift a community.

"Forest Lawn shall become a place where lovers new and old shall love to stroll and watch the sunset's glow, planning for the future or reminiscing of the past; a place where artists study and sketch; where school teachers bring happy children to see the things they read of in books; where little churches invite, triumphant in the knowledge that from their pulpits only words of love can be spoken, where memorialization of loved ones in sculptured marble and pictorial glass shall be encouraged but controlled by acknowledged artists; a place where the sorrowing will be soothed and strengthened because it will be God's Garden. A place that shall be protected by an immense Perpetual Care Fund, the principal of which can never be expended—only the income there from used to care for and perpetuate this Garden of Memory. This is the Builder's Dream; this is the Builder's Creed."

That Creed has never been changed from that day to this and at Forest Lawn it has been not only our aesthetic guide but it has been the practical, every day rule upon which all our development and operation has been based.

Let me tell you of a few of the milestones that we passed in our endeavor to carry out this Creed.

Our financial set-up included two corporations—one, a corporation which owned the land and was the usual form of Business Corporation with stockholders who invested their money with the hopes of making profit. The other corporation, called Forest Lawn Cemetery Association, was a mutual association with no stockholders, comprised of lot owners and so constituted that any profits it might make must be expended back upon the cemetery and could not be distributed for the benefit of any individual. The Land Company made a contract with the Association to sell the Association its land and the purchase price was determined by a fifty-fifty division of whatever amount the Association should receive from the public for its lots. The Association thus purchased from the Land Company real estate as it would have purchased it from any other corporation or landowner. The Association then took these lands and manufactured them into a cemetery product.

Financing, efficiency and organization have always been the subjects that we at Forest Lawn give the most Attention. We know if the finances and sales are not forthcoming, the plans that we hold so dear to our hearts cannot be carried out. Forest Lawn had no money; therefore we next turned our attention to a Sales Force.

The Sales Force was divided into two groups: A salaried force for selling our products for immediate use to the purchaser who had a death in his family; the other group sold our product before need and their remuneration was based entirely on commission.

This "Before Need” was the first organization west of the Mississippi to sell cemetery lands in this manner—a method that had been tried in but two other places in the world before. Sales forces are needed, but they can be either a great blessing or a great abomination. I could talk to you for hours on our experience with sales forces, but time does not permit. In passing, let me urge this one word of caution out of our experience. That Sales Force is wrong whose whole theory of salesmanship is based upon price, money, buy cheap today and make a profit tomorrow. The best and highest type of salesmen in this business never mention these subjects—he deals only with the moral factors involved, such as insurance, duty, protection to the family, approaching the matter in the same light as one draws his will.
 
We next laid plans for development. We immediately saw the wisdom of merging together all forms of burial—namely, cremation, mausoleum, and cemetery under one management and one ownership. This, I believe, was the first time this had been done in the United States. The amalgamation of three overheads meant not only financial efficiency but again gave to the purchaser a great service. A family could disagree upon the various forms of burial each one desired and yet in Forest Lawn we offered to them the prospect of finally being gathered together in one spot.

"Beauty" was the yardstick by which we measured equally the physical development of our grounds and buildings the requests of the purchaser that something special be done on his lot or his crypt, or the Engineer's and Architect's plans and specifications. We realized that Forest Lawn must be developed as a whole. No longer must the individual be allowed to do anything in regard to his interment space.

I adopted three slogans:
1.    We shall depict LIFE, not Death.
2.    A safe depository for our beloved dead and also a place for the living to sacredly enjoy.
3.    Spend one dollar in construction today to save one cent in future care tomorrow.

We also changed the method of computing Perpetual Care in terms of a percentage of the purchase price, to that method of setting so much aside per square foot of land area to be taken care of regardless of purchase price received.

Our next step was to revise the rules, regulations and restrictions. Here we encountered the greatest obstacle of all. Precedent is one of the hardest things there is to combat in the human mind. The older we grow the less do we like changes; the more we like to do as was done before. The public looks with suspicion upon radical changes in interment places.

We had early determined that it was monuments that had turned cemeteries into stone yards. I could find nothing beautiful in ninety nine percent of the so-called "monuments" placed in the cemeteries of America. They rendered a Park plan impossible. We first offered the purchaser a ten percent discount if he would accept a deed without a monumental privilege extending above the surface of the lawn. I then called together the prominent monument dealers and reasoned with them. I suggested that in the main they were creating objects of ugliness. I requested that they cooperate with me in endeavoring to create only memorials of beauty. I left that meeting discouraged because it seemed to me there was not one of them on speaking terms with "beauty." A year later, Forest Lawn took the bull by the horns and forever eradicated the so-called "monument." Then they took me to the Grand Jury. "Restraint of trade" was the charge. Have you ever walked into the Grand Jury room as a possible defendant? I explained and the Jury laughed away my fears.

Then we underwent that experience, awful to any cemetery man, viz., of seeing would be purchaser turn and leave Forest Lawn without purchasing, because they could not have a monument. It took nerve to "Stand by the guns" in those days—particularly when we were sailing an unchartered sea. I held firm, however, in the belief that the Five Dollar gold piece was obscured by the Silver Dollar close to our eye and too, one must be true to one's Creed. Soon the tide turned. The public began to see the picture we were striving to create and today, the only requests we have for monuments are when the purchaser desires to spend sufficient money to create a real work of art.

Through the years we gradually affected other reforms. I list a few of them:

We banned artificial flowers.

Nothing in front of or on mausoleum crypts except those bronze vases and crypt memorials designed by and furnished by the Association.

(I wonder why it is that people always go to their attic when they desire to take something to a cemetery or a mausoleum I have seen mausoleum shelves that look like a bottle factory on a spree.)

No memorial decoration whatsoever placed without the approval of the Association.

The Association does all planting.

Markers at graves restricted to bronze only—more lasting and more artistic; lawnmowers do not chip.

No coping or any form of enclosure allowed to mark the lines of any lot or grave.

Memorials in mausoleum either bronze or Carrara marble—other metals and Alabaster prohibited.

No cut-in letters permitted on crypts except in first unit of mausoleum.

All burials in Forest Lawn must be made in concrete boxes, the reason being that wood boxes cave in, leaving an unsightly greensward and add appreciably to care.

We pictured LIFE, not Death. We carefully eradicated the old familiar signs of death. We substituted the winged-doves, swimming ducks, singing birds, splashing fountains—everything symbolical of LIFE. We eradicated even the trees that lose their leaves in the winter time suggesting death. And thus restriction upon restriction we piled up but always that restriction was based upon the good of all, even though it hurt the individual, and always based upon the best professional artistic judgment we could get.

Our first building was inspired by the Architect's visit to that little church at Stoke Poges where the poet Gray wrote his immortal "Elegy, written in a Country Churchyard." In keeping with our resolution to depict LIFE and not Death, we added, adjacent to the pews, conservatories filled with flowers and singing birds. Over the chancel we wrote this inscription: "A New Commandment I give unto you, that ye' love one another." This church was properly dedicated with all due solemnity and ceremony and then, like any other church it was thrown open for sermons, funerals, weddings, christenings, etc. We called this church "The Little Church of the Flowers" and it has become so popular that today we are just finishing another, to be dedicated as the "Wee Kirk o' the Heather." It is an exact reconstruction of Annie Laurie's church at Glencairn, Scotland, which lies in ruins.

Our Mausoleum has been built in units, conforming to a general plan. We estimate the general building will take about fifteen years more to complete, at a total cost of approximately Twenty-five Millions of Dollars. Four units have been completed and sold. The fifth is now under construction and will contain the great Memorial Court of Honor wherein "The Last Supper" window will be placed. These units have been built as sales progressed. Gross sales in the Mausoleum, to date, have amounted to approximately three millions of dollars. Here again we planned to eradicate gloom and depression substituting cheer, bright colors, depicting galleries of art rather than halls of death, always bearing in mind our slogan of "A safe depository for our beloved dead, but also a place for the living to sacredly enjoy." I touch the physical description only briefly because I understand you are later to visit Forest Lawn.

I shall never forget my first purchase of statuary. It was Edith Parson's "Duck Baby," made famous by Robinson's poem at the San Francisco Fair. I suggested to the Board that they authorize me to make this purchase. I immediately saw that the appropriation would not pass the Boards, so I adjourned the meeting without putting the matter to a vote. A week later I purchased the statue on my own authority as General Manager. A short time ago we placed in Forest Lawn the great "Mystery of Life" statue, comprising some twenty two life size figures, the site of which occupies 3,576 square feet, at a cost of approximately sixty-seven thousand dollars. That appropriation passed the Board without a dissenting vote and many expressions of enthusiastic approval. Such was the difference between the old attitude and the new. The same men, the same Board but with a different view point.

In 1923 I started by biennial trips to Europe, with the intention of studying at close range the art and architecture of those places acknowledged by the world, without debate, to be "beautiful." Every other year I have gone abroad, bringing back to Forest Lawn bigger and better things as my experience became qualified and Forest Lawn's progress became more assured. I could talk to you for hours telling you of antique furniture, old tapestries, the sword of Charles the First, Michelangelo's "Moses", "The Last Supper", in art glass, Fanfani's "Mother Love," Canova's "Three Graces" adinfinitum.

If you desire, go see these things for yourself. Be sure to tell my boys to give you a Guide Book, (we finally had to issue one, explaining approximately 165 works of art—educational, inspiring, and replete with the world's best historical romances. Who ever heard of a cemetery having a Guide Book? Who ever heard of a cemetery that, during the month of June, had to close its book of wedding reservations at 165 because there were no more hours left? I hear someone say—"Weddings are good advertising". If you stop there you miss the very point I am trying to illustrate. It means that the attitude of people is changing towards our interment places. Instinctive in every human heart is a desire and a reaching out for the beautiful things of life. Give the public "beauty" and it will respond a hundred fold.

We already have museum rooms at Forest Lawn. I hope the day will come when we shall have a Forest Lawn Academy of Fine Arts, free to the worthy youth of the Pacific Coast. I hope to persuade sufficient people in this Southland to provide in their wills endowments, whereby the Honor man in the graduating class in this institution or arts may be given three years abroad, with expenses paid. An ambitious program, yes, but I believe basically correct and no more difficult of accomplishment than the ones we laid in 1917, a great many of which have come to pass.

Ladies and gentlemen—this brings me to my last topic—the Memorial Idea. All the figures and facts that I have heretofore quoted have been made with the hope of convincing you that the statements I shall now make are not merely theoretical assumptions but facts born of hard experiences in the interment field. I fancy I see u smile come over the faces of the Californians in this audience, because they have heard me speak on the Memorial Idea before. I am sorry, because I fear they will be bored, for I shall say nothing new—I shall not even attempt a newness because the more familiar I can make this subject to them and to you the more surely can I drive home the intense conviction that I have.

The memorial instinct is one of the oldest and greatest in man. It is this instinct that, moving in practical ways, has created the great art and architectural triumphs of the ages. Few people realize that it was the memorial idea that gave to the world the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, which is acknowledged to be the most beautiful building in the world. Westminster Abbey, the Partheon, the Castel Saint Angelo and practically all of the enduring works of architecture and art that succeeding generations have journeyed around the world to see and admire.

Mr. Will Durant, author of that book "The Mansions of Philosophy" which is being so generally read just now, pays a remarkable tribute to the influence which the memorialization idea has played in art and architecture. He says:

"Architecture began with tombs that housed the dead; the most ancient architectural monuments in the world—the Pyramids—are tombs. Churches began as shrines to the dead and places for worshipping them. Gradually the burial place was taken out into the neighboring ground, but still, in Westminster Abbey, the graves of great ancestors are within the church. From these beginnings came the proud temples raised by the Greeks to Pallas, Athene, and the other gods; and from similar beginnings came those fairest works ever reared by man, the Gothic cathedrals, whose altars, like those early tombs, harbor the relics of the holy dead."

All of our history books, our literature and much of our daily living, is derived from the efforts of the past ages to leave a record of themselves in memorials. Everything passes except that generated by this Memorial Idea. Its spiritual significance defends it against encroachments of a material age, and the cemetery, mausoleum, or crematory that plans such development upon this foundation can rest assured that coming generations will approve. If you hold strongly to the spiritual thought which inspires it, if you but carry the message by the dignity of form and proportion, the refinement of color and detail, by the beauty of the whole, present generations will reward you and future generations admire and preserve.

Do not fall into the error of believing that the average cemetery official can create beauty. I seriously doubt if there is a man in this room capable of truly evidencing the Memorial Idea in form and color. If any of you have that capacity then you have combined in you the qualities of a great architect, a great artist, a great landscape engineer and a great sculptor, because these attainments are needed. You will find that in the long run it will be cheaper to hire those men acknowledged to be "Great" in these lines and to whom God, at birth, gave the power to create beautiful things.

If you plan artistically correct in the beginning you will find that in the end you save money. Look at Paris with its Champs Elysees and intersecting streets, planned by a great architect long before the automobile came into existence. Correct planning meant broad avenues which automatically took care of automobile congestion, whereas today we, in our cities, are spending millions to change these narrow streets.

The financial welfare of every man in this room is dependent upon the elevation of the Memorial Idea, to encourage it is obvious—to degrade it is suicide, and yet that very thing we do every day.

THE CEMETERY MAN, who allows an ugly thing placed or developed within the confines of his grounds, or by word of mouth divests if of its spiritual significance, is helping to destroy the Memorial Idea.

THE MAUSOLEUM BUILDER, who allows any material or form of design to go into his building except that acknowledged by the technical world to be the most lasting and the most beautiful, writes his own epitaph.

THE CREMATION MAN who stops with the ashes (incinerated remains) in his hands, and fails to insist that his client create a memorial for those remains, evidenced by an urn and a niche, or solemn committal to a grave or mausoleum, will, in time, like Samson, pull the house down upon us and himself. God hasten the day when the crematories will take their stand and say "No more incineration without the creation of a memorial—we define the word 'cremation' as including incineration, inurnment and permanent deposition—the three actions are inseparable and indivisible."

THE UNDERTAKER who impresses his clients with the feeling that his portion of attending to the death is the most important, that he is, to all practical purposes the end of the transaction (where the Memorial Idea demands that he be but the entrance door to the Memorial Temple), that Undertaker is the greatest fool of all. His is the greatest opportunity because his clients are in a plastic state, ready to be tuned to the highest call of the Memorial Idea, or molded with a commercial, materialistic, get-it-over form of thought, which results in nothing of lasting benefit to society of his family.

How long—how long will the Interment Association endure the degradation of the Memorial Idea by certain low caliber Funeral Directors? I know of many Funeral Directors who are high class, intelligent, sympathetic and in tune with the Memorial Idea, but I am informed that there are many others whose efforts tend to lower the ethical standards so strived at by the Association of Funeral Directors.

God forbid that I shall be compelled to enter the undertaking business, but I solemnly prophecy this: That the Memorial Park of tomorrow will demand sweeping reforms on the part of the undertaking craft or Memorial Parks will build and develop undertaking establishments of their own. I prophecy, because the end is obvious—it is economically correct. In any other business these consolidations would .have been effected long ago. Service to the public of the future will demand an undertaking establishment in every cemetery—in every mausoleum—in every crematory, where the sorrowing purchaser may go and transact all of his interment preparations at one time with one concern and one individual, in a place where he, his family and friends at the time of the funeral may park their automobiles in grounds where roads provide ample parking area and amidst surroundings of beauty and quiet which soothe and comfort their sorrow. The public of the future will demand that this consolidation be effected to save them the high cost of burying. Then, and not till then, will the Memorial Idea be in position to be brought to its highest fruition.

Let you and me resolve to go back to our various institutions and "play the game", resolved to stand staunch and true to the Memorial Idea; resolved that when we are distracted by the barrage of requests from unthinking owners to allow this or that improvement to their interment space, to stand fast and "play the game."

I have known a few business men who consistently have fought a victorious fight, but I think most of us, with all our good intentions fall back boot by boot until at last, for some reason, we stiffen and hold our own. Hold fast to this Memorial Idea—it will make you free spiritually and financially.

Cemeteries can never be separated from religion. Yesterday, religion was puritanical—it spoke in the terms of the Ten Commandments—in terms of sacrifice—in terms of Calvary.  Today, religion is gladsome, radiant—it speaks in the terms of the Beatitudes—of joyousness and the Smiling Christ. And so, as the cemeteries of yesterday evidenced the religion of yesterday, so must the successful Memorial Park of tomorrow, evidence the religion of today. Cemeteries are the physical expression of the religious spirit of their time.

My belief is that the Interment organization that demonstrates its right to exist, must prepare to serve the living by not only giving them a safe depository for their beloved dead, but a place that will be spiritually uplifting, physically beautiful, its personnel filled with a sincere desire to serve its fellowman. Such a place will truly express the Memorial Idea. Such is the true conception for the "Creation of a Modern Park Cemetery".

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Convention
Los Angeles, CA
September 3, 4, 5 and 6, 1929

The necessity and importance of making some provision for the perpetual care of cemeteries is now so fully recognized and appreciated throughout the country that it is gratifying to know that the increasing interest and admirable results already obtained owe very much to the influence and intelligent efforts of this association. Such progress is surely sufficient excuse for our existence and some compensation for the labor and expense in attending these annual conventions.

A burial ground (says a writer) unprotected and neglected, presents a cheerless and sad spectacle. It would seem that the dead who lie in such a place had been strangely forgotten by the living, and that philosophy is cold and repulsive which teaches us that the body being an insensible mass of matter may be buried from our sight and never thought of any more, and so inseparably do we connect the feelings and character of the living with the appearance and condition of the place of their dead that Franklin's saying is applicable, "I only need to visit the burial ground of a community to know the character of the people."  Hence no cemetery or burial ground today is complete or satisfactory which does not show not only evidences of care and respect paid by individuals and families to the memory of their own dead, but evidences also of that respect which the community of the living should ever bear toward the community of the dead.

Now, while I cannot hope to enhance the importance of this subject, it may be well to call attention to the diversity of opinions and of practice that prevails as to the best method of securing perpetual care, and as the charges and application of this vary in different cemeteries, I have no desire to recommend a fixed scale of prices for all cemeteries, or any "best plan." In my opinion each cemetery must be governed by the local conditions and advantages of its section of the country, such as the rate of interest, the cost of labor and materials, condition of the soil, severity of the climate, etc., or the exacting taste of your respective communities. All these and many other considerations will govern somewhat the cost of perpetual care. I might say here that the words "perpetual care" (although as smooth and consoling as a life insurance policy) are too broad and often misleading, and seemingly promise more care than the interest of the fund or money left will admit.

The original intention and meaning of perpetual care in my vicinity included the care of the grass only, and I hear of many disappointments because myrtle graves, watering vases, cleaning headstones, etc., are not included. Of course all these can be provided for by increasing the fund and it would be well to have all such things definitely stated in the bond or contract made between the proprietor and the corporation and thus avoids many misunderstandings in the future.

In my opinion, there are only two or three things connected with a burial lot, the care of which should be included and provided for, viz. the good appearance of the grass and all hardy shrubs and trees, and the cleaning and permanent position of head-stones and monuments. Many other items, some of a perishable existence and doubtful taste, could be readily dispensed with, and we continually discourage perpetuating flower beds (excepting hardy subjects) myrtle graves, vases and the care of hedges, fences, etc.

New cemeteries have no great difficulty in adopting perpetual care, at least for the grass and good appearance of the grounds, but these remarks are intended more for the older cemeteries which it is desirable to rescue from dilapidation and neglect, many lots and ground sold years ago, or before perpetual care was thought of.

To accomplish this, and before appealing to proprietors to leave money for the care of their respective grounds, the cemetery or corporation should do its part and give some assurance of greater neatness and higher keeping of the grounds, and thus secure the confidence and respect of the public.

When perpetual care was adopted in the cemetery under my charge, and when it was understood that dilapidation and neglect would no longer be tolerated, our sales perceptibly increased, and that too to citizens already owning lots in the numerous cemeteries in our vicinity, so that it is very evident that the greater the assurance a cemetery offers against such neglect, not only for our day, but for the future as far as human foresight can suggest, the more surely will it provide what the public demand, the greater will be its success and the higher will what it has to offer for sale be valued.

In all the catalogues and reports kindly sent me by brother superintendents, only one has a printed scale of prices for Perpetual Care. Spring Grove, Cincinnati, although all make an urgent appeal to their lot owners to leave money, the interest of which will be faithfully applied to the care of their respective lots. So for lack of knowledge of its workings and application in other cemeteries, and without any egotism, or comparison with older or wealthier institutions, a brief allusion to its adoption and progress at least, financially, in the cemetery under my charge, may be acceptable.

Swan Point was consecrated in 1847, and perpetual care was not adopted till 1877. During those 30 years many proprietors left money, by will or otherwise, and many more who were able and could have done so, but by their delay and the reverses of fortune they have been prevented from making this provision for themselves and their families. Suffice it to say that since the adoption of perpetual care the amount received in anyone year exceeded the voluntary contributions of the first 30 years.

The increase for each year is as follows:

AMOUNT OF ALL MONIES RECEIVED FROM
        1847 to 1875 inclusive was …………………     $10,219.05
            1876 …………………………………        1,788.00
            1877 …………………………………        3,524.95
            1878 …………………………………      11,037.00
            1879 …………………………………      12,181.94
            1880 …………………………………      13,625.96
            1881 …………………………………      17,522.75
            1882 …………………………………      11,037.00
            1883 …………………………………      15,999.50
            1884 …………………………………      11,790.00
            1885 …………………………………      11,296.00
            1886 …………………………………        9,946.00
            1887 …………………………………      15,461.00
            1888 …………………………………      10,127.00
            1889 …………………………………      12,961.00
            1890 …………………………………      18.004.00
            1891 …………………………………      12,841.00
            1892 …………………………………      10,575.00
                                    --------------
                                                      $209,937.15

The above may encourage many cemeteries contemplating Perpetual Care, although I know from experience how difficult and remote the accumulation of funds of one or two hundred thousand dollars seems on such small beginnings, and without even "a silver lining to every cloud," but don't be discouraged. In the language of statesmen, "the only way to resume is to resume."

About this time a scale of prices was adopted having reference to the care of the grass only. This was headed "Perpetual Care of Lots," and was mailed to the older proprietors as a guide and reminder to place their lots under care, and thus look like the newer sections.

The printing and distribution of this scale of prices was, I think, a mistake, as it deceived many who intended to provide for everything, when by will or otherwise they left only sufficient to care for the grass. The better way would be for the lot owner or his representative making this provision to visit the cemetery, see the condition of his lot; state what he desires to provide for and obtain the proper information from the superintendent, and with all due respect for cemetery officials, he is the proper one to consult.

Scale of prices for perpetual care of grass only:
    100 square feet ……………………..    $ 50
    200 square feet ……………………..    90
    300 square feet ……………………..  120
    400 square feet ……………………..  144
    500 square feet ……………………..  165
    600 square feet ……………………..  186
    700 square feet ……………………..  206
    800 square feet ……………………..  226
    900 square feet ……………………..  245
    1,000 square feet …………………… 264
    1,100 square feet …………………… 282
    1,200 square feet …………………… 300

For lots containing over 1,200 feet, 25¢ per square foot

When the above scale was adopted, some 16 years ago, the basis of our reckoning was 6%. Last year these funds earned only 5% and they are likely to realize still less in the future. So with the rates of interest decreasing and wages, etc., increasing, it may be a question if our scale of prices is not too low, but I will leave this to the convention, and as I said before, each cemetery will be governed by the conditions and advantages of its own section and people.

While the moneys or funds of cemeteries may be under various headings and not always intelligible, I would suggest at least two funds: A perpetual care fund, which has reference to private lots only, and a permanent fund, the interest of which would be sufficient to care for all the property of the cemetery and meet expenses when there is no further income from the sale of land.   This fund should be absolutely fixed and as carefully guarded as the perpetual care fund. The method of its accumulation may vary, but the principal with the yearly additions and interest should be allowed to accumulate for a long number of years or till the land which created them is all sold. I think this fund is of vital importance, but I am anxious to make improvements in my day and so would like to leave its creation to my successor.

In conclusion, gentlemen, our Association must be true to this Gospel of Perpetual Care. We know how pleasant and easy it is to receive people's money, and how uncertain and difficult it is to carry out the obligations assumed, especially in our severe and eccentric climate, but we must keep faith with the people, and secure to our citizens at least a burial place, indicating not only respect for the dead, but which will also be a source of pride and consolation to the living.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 7th Annual Convention
Minneapolis, MN
August 22, 23 and 24, 1893

This is a paper on Cemetery management prepared and read by me at a meeting of the New England Cemetery Association in Boston, Mass., in 1912 which I have been asked to revise and present to this convention and which in an unguarded moment I consented to do, gratified and pleased, of course, that my thoughts then expressed were considered worthy of repetition. But when I looked it over with a view to making any desirable changes applicable to a National gathering of men engaged in the same work which occupied most of my time and thought for many years, and in the light of eleven years of further experience and observation I find little that I care to revise; rather would I speak more emphatically concerning the somewhat radical methods then advocated and executed by me in the matter of restoration and after care of neglected lot areas. I would ask you however to bear in mind that the conditions and methods indicated are based upon New England conditions and may not prove adaptable in our more southern latitudes, realizing as I do that each and every part of our great country has its own problems which can only be solved by a knowledge and study of local conditions.

The Century Dictionary says that a Cemetery is "A place set apart for interments; a graveyard; specifically, a burial ground not attached to any church; a necropolis." Without doubt a satisfactory definition to the average mind, but who of us, engaged in the active and practical care and administration of Cemeteries will say that the real effort required of us in the discharge of our duties consists in any considerable degree in directing the actual excavation of the ground and the placing therein of the remains of a deceased person; or even the physical preparation, care and adornment of areas in question, necessary and important though this be. Not one of us, I venture to say.

But rather will you, I think, agree with me that our deepest thought and greatest anxieties are given to the financial and managerial questions. While the family affairs, characteristics and conditions of mind of our lot owners require a degree of skill, thought, energy and diplomacy, which exhausts our bodies and minds, whitens our hair and furrows our brow.

Some one has irreverently said that we have much to do with skeletons; Yes indeed we have, the skeleton of the family, many first brought to the light of day while endeavoring to determine who owns or who shall "boss" the Cemetery Lot; who shall, or who shall not, be buried therein, or removed there from, after the death of the original owner.

We must also sometimes explain why it is that each and every lot cannot have the grass cut and all other necessary care work done on the day before the family happens to visit the cemetery, accompanied by relatives from a distance who have been led to suppose that their particular lot was always in perfect condition, even though they had neglected to give the order for its care, and of course, you must not say this in the presence of "Auntie" (who, by the way, is advancing in years and has most of the available cash in the family.) Why, in midsummer, the grass is not green, although we have not been favored with a particle of atmospheric moisture for many weeks. Why the grass does not show a luxurious growth under the trees. Why you permitted the erection on an adjoining lot of such a monumental monstrosity and you listen to an outpouring of words in ecstatic praise of their own "Rock Face" creation.

You are finally enlightened by the information that "out West where I live they do things better," and through it all you are supposed to give your whole attention to the cultivation of a smile upon your face which can be classed as "Cherubic" and "Apologetic," otherwise you are informed that "I shall certainly write to the Mayor" or to the Chairman of your Board of Trustees, as the case may be, or it may be that they will decide that it is best to call attention to the alleged condition of affairs through the medium of the newspapers.

At this point your foreman gives you the delightful information that one of the pair of new horses you purchased, and in which you feel such pride, "will not pull the hat off your head," and that the driver is “no good anyhow”.  Never mind; you must lie calm, so over to the new work mount the seat, take the reins, talk to the horses and enjoy the sensation which comes of seeing them pull out the load in good shape, only to be met a few minutes later by your Supervisor of Interments who informs you that some undertaker has forgotten to bring the burial permit (which he has probably not yet asked the Board of Health to issue) but promises to send it out in the morning, "Shall I let him by?" he asks. After an investigation of the facts you wearily answer, "Yes, but don't do it again."

The bell in the tower signals that you are wanted at the office. On reaching it you find a bereaved widower who wishes to purchase a two-grave lot, no more, "just a place to lay her, and another for me when I am called." You complete the sale, and if he is a young man you withdraw from sale the adjoining lot, well knowing that within a year or so he will, while on a visit to the cemetery, express his regret that he did not get a larger lot. You suddenly discover that the adjoining one is still unsold. He is greatly pleased and buys it, soon after he will be accompanied on his periodical visits, which become less and less frequent, by another lady. Again the cherubic smile appears upon your face and you are so glad that the adjoining lot remained unsold for nearly two years.

You are pleased with yourself and fall to studying out some new improvement and estimating its cost, your door opens and you are confronted by a large, red-necked "Manufacturer of Artistic Memorials," who bluntly asks why it is that he can't do more business at your cemetery, and tells you that "so and so" are getting most of the orders for new work. He accuses you of giving the, other fellow the tips, and intimates that he can pay as large a commission for business sent his way as the other fellow is paying you. You indignantly deny the allegation and inform him that his presence and language are obtrusive and objectionable. Out he goes in a "huff" and you hear him mutter through his teeth that he will "see about this." “I will have your scalp yet.”

A few days later your Chairman of Trustees very quietly asks you about it. You explain the matter fully, and he says, "All right but be careful, you must keep these fellows quiet, for some day some one will believe what these fellows say about you."

I am sure, however, that you will agree with me that a good Cemetery Superintendent needs to know more things than does a man engaged in any other line of activity with which we are familiar, and that while it has its troubles and annoyances, it also has many compensations and rewards, furnishing as the position does so many opportunities to render a service and to do a kindness to our fellow beings, and at a time when such service is highly appreciated, and bring to us many life long friends, which after all is the greatest reward to get in this life.

And then you think of the satisfaction derived from the effort expended as we take hold of a block of land in its crude state, hostile and rebellious and watch it yielding day by day to our well directed labors until it finally lies before us a beautiful area of undulating lawn, subdivided into lots; and we complete the picture by adding at suitable places the choice bits of trees and plants, and enjoy that greatest of life's pleasures, the delight of seeing things grow, and then the more sordid, material side as we figure the amount of money our corporation receives from its sale, many times the cost of purchase and development.

Suppose you are called upon to take charge of a cemetery, or several of them, in which there exists, as is frequently the case, a considerable area of "old part" and you start in to clean it up and put it in shape. My experience is that there is but one right way to go about it, and that is to make a clean, through job of it. If you cannot do it all the first season, do what you can in a complete manner. Pull out all surplus granite posts; that is, all but the four corner bounds; and store them away for some future use, pull up the corner ones and with a heavy breaking hammer break off about one foot of the bottom end and reset them flush with the surface of the ground so that the lawn mowers may be run over them without striking; straighten and clean monuments, tablets and grave markets. Remove surplus trees and over-grown shrubs, prune those left, dig or trench over the entire surface to the full loam depth, re-grade, working out all possible terraces, sod edges and around monuments and trees, fertilize with any good commercial fertilizer. If the loam is poor and hungry, work in a good liberal quantity of well rotted manure. Clean up, re-grade and resurface your avenues and paths and provide for surface drainage when necessary, then seed the whole with such grasses as you have found by experience to be best adapted to the specific situation. The cost of such work is not great when compared to the results obtained.

I am sure that some of you will ask, "What will you do with lots in such an area for which no care provision has been made?" My answer is, "Do them just the same, because if you don't, you will find that, left as they are now, they will seriously interfere not only with the proper grading of the whole tract, but if left uncared for they invariably produce weed seed which will inoculate those adjoining and eventually cause you as much or more work as will be found necessary to put and keep them in order, in addition to the nullification of your efforts to keep the others in good order.

Then again, are we not under a moral obligation to give a reasonable amount of care to any lot sold?  Assuming that lots are now sold only with a Perpetual Care provision, the entire process of which is under our control, and we adjust it by investing a certain part of the purchase money in interest bearing securities, the income of which bears the expense of the care of the particular lot in question, are those people who purchased their lots before we made such provision and conditions in any way to be blamed because the care of theirs has not been provided for? Would they not have been willing, yes glad to have had us lay aside a part of their purchase money for this purpose? Would they not have peen willing to have paid more, than they did for their lots if the purchase contract had carried with it a care provision? I feel sure they would. When you sum it all up the situation as I see it is this:

Relatively a few years ago we learned from our experience that we ought to get more money for our lots and that we ought to lay aside a certain part of it for Perpetual Care. And ever since that time we have been trying to induce the owners of lots purchased prior to that time to endow their lots by the payment of a certain amount of money mutually agreed upon, varying in volume according to the opinion of the officials of the various cemeteries and in this commendable effort we have generally met with success, which success in itself proves to my mind that they would have made this provision at the time of the original purchase had we asked it. Understand me, I would not abate this effort in any degree but we still have those with us who cannot now make this provision. In many instances the family has become extinct; in others, reverses have come and they cannot procure the money. It is true that in most cases they have only paid a fraction of the price we would now ask for the same lot but they paid us all we asked and would have paid us more if we had demanded it. Hence, if we used bad judgment and made a poor bargain for ourselves; I think we should take our medicine.

Whence originated this whole subject of Perpetual Care? Not with the owners of lots, neither was it brought about by legislative requirements subsequent to an aroused public opinion which has been the cause of many public improvements. No! We did it and I am convinced that it is one of the best things we have ever done.

Let me ask. What will you do with these lots ultimately care for them or not? They are on your hands and will never be moved away. That they are a burden to us and a menace to the welfare of our cemeteries and our lot owners, I think you will admit. Being a menace, I am sure that you will eventually care for them. My advice is DO IT NOW. May I not borrow a well known advertising slogan "Eventually, Why not now?" The satisfaction of pleasing those who are too poor to pay for it is great, and this is the class of people who most frequently visit the cemetery and who feel the loss of their dead most keenly. We have upon a large monument this sentiment engraved upon a polished granite surface," The best part of the record of every man's life is what he has done for others." The thought thus expressed is one we should cultivate and keep before us constantly while engaged in our work. Our doing for those who cannot do for themselves will bring to us our greatest reward. And besides, I firmly believe that if we remove from our cemeteries every foot of neglected, uncared for land we will make them so much more attractive than they would be if these areas were left undone that we will be able to sell our new land for a much higher price, so much higher that we will make money out of our efforts. I believe it because that has been the result of my own experience and observation.

With advancing years of experience and observation I am becoming more and more convinced that the most attractive and desirable cemetery is the one that consists largely of well-made and well-kept lawns, avenues, paths and trees with most if not all of t he ornamental plantings placed in the public or administrative areas, that is, do not yourself, or permit or encourage in your lot owners the planting of beds, graves or borders of lots or lot sections more than compelled to do. The old custom of weeping willows or syringas on the lots with two beds of scarlet geraniums in the front border is a thing of the past. Few if any now want such plantings.

You will in any section find angles and spaces of unsold land into which you may properly and effective plant hardy growths of flowering shrubs or herbaceous plants, as well as the dwarf and slow growing broad leaf and coniferous evergreens. By all means, however, avoid an epidemic of “shrub fever”. Often have we been advised to "make judicious plantings of flowering shrubs?”  I would advise a careful attention to the meaning of the word "judicious" to the end that it may not be interpreted as meaning "promiscuous," as I fear has too often been the case.

On the deciduous shrub proposition we really have two flowering seasons here in New England: Spring and Fall. It is useless in a cemetery to try to make more out of it. We have read and been told much about the desirable effects of foliage all summer and colored bark and fruit effects all winter. These are all very well in large group plantings in parks, and for some large border plantings on the boundaries of cemeteries but I do not approve their use in internal cemetery areas or between or near lots. They are overgrown and cumbersome in a very few years and provide an attractive place for harboring injurious insects as well as for the depositing of rubbish of all kinds.

I like a freer use of the spring flowering bulbs those that will live on and increase and thrive for years. How the crocus, scillas narcissus von sion, poeticus and trumpets in their several varieties do brighten things up and with so little thought and care and don't forget the hardly lilies and peonies.
 
You can always find desirable locations of them especially along the outer edges of group or border plantings of deciduous and broad leaved rhododendrons and azaleas.  They furnish a most attractive display and at a season when they will be abundantly appreciated.  I also find great satisfaction in plantings of our native ferns in shady, moist places. Their cost is trifling, as they can generally be had for the labor of collecting.

Yes, we surely have abundant cause to be grateful for the opportunity which our occupation and position in life have given to us.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention
Harrisburg, PA
August 20, 21, 22 and 23, 1923

Less than a century ago, the first rural cemetery in America was established at Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is not a very long time, but sufficient to justify looking about to see if we are going in the right direction and if we are accomplishing results that are satisfactory. Since the establishment of Mount Auburn, nearly every city has acquired one or more rural cemeteries. These, as the name implies, have usually been located in the country at a little distance from the city, and have been distinguished from the old churchyards formerly used as burial places by having more space, more trees, shrubs and flowers and more of the charm of nature. Gradually, our cities have extended their boundaries until many of the cemeteries referred to have become surrounded with buildings and are often bordered with streets carrying a heavy traffic. Various questions might be asked regarding these cemeteries. (1st) Do they allow the disposal of the dead in a satisfactory manner? (2nd) Do they occupy land that should be used for industrial purposes? (3rd) Is the municipality justified in relieving these areas from taxation? (4th) Will they continue to serve their present purpose indefinitely? That is, will they continue as long as the cities to which they are tributary continue?

Cemeteries vary greatly in character. In some an effort is made to emphasize the charm of nature by planting and by developing attractive landscapes and introducing many naturalistic features such as lakes, wooded hillsides and running streams. In other cemeteries, although at first located in the outskirts of cities, the charms of nature have been neglected. The trees have been removed or have gradually died and the ground is occupied with some grass and a multitude of monuments and headstones so that the general appearance is not very different from a stonecutter's yard. In accordance with the ideas of most persons, a cemetery lot should have a measure of seclusion, should be attractive in appearance and have quiet surroundings. It should be a place frequented by birds. The beauty of foliage and flowers is usually considered essential. Some cemeteries supply lots having the' features named, and thus furnish a quiet, peaceful, beautiful place for the burial of the dead or for the ashes of those that are cremated. When we are thinking only of such resting places, the first question would be answered in the affirmative for they furnish attractive burial grounds. If however, the charm of Nature has been lost, a negative answer would have to be given to this question concerning the first requisite of a cemetery.

The answer to the second question regarding the need of cemetery land for industrial purposes will in time depend largely upon the success with which the character originally sought, that of natural beauty, hag been preserved. A cemetery to be permanently successful as a work of art and as a final resting place for the departed must also do something for the living. After the passing of a few generations, the burial place which is merely a stone yard will have no interest for those that are living, and if it could be replaced with beautiful and useful buildings that would serve future generations there would be a great gain. On the other hand, if a cemetery is really park-like and beautiful, it would be a real asset for the city in which it is located. This leads naturally to the consideration of the third question regarding taxes.  Cities pay large amounts for acquiring and maintaining parks. Taxation for this purpose is justifiable since the public parks probably give a return in health and pleasure greater, area for area, than is given by other parts of the city. A cemetery which is well endowed and park-like in character and which has become so filled with burials that no more are to be made may continue to serve the living in many of the ways which a park is of service. It, therefore, relieves the community of many of the taxes that they would otherwise be called upon to pay. Ideally, therefore, the history of the cemetery would be somewhat as follows:

First the land, preferably an area that is naturally attractive from its topography, will be secured. Then it will be made accessible by the construction of roads and paths, and its attractiveness will be increased by the planting of trees, shrubs and flowers and the introduction of other pleasing landscape features. After this it will serve as a burial place until all the land is appropriated. Its use in this manner may last from a few years to perhaps one or more centuries. After that it should continue to serve the living by giving them the pleasure that comes from looking at a group of wild crap apples, or thorp apples, from looking at a giant oak one or two hundred years old, from looking at ground covered with hepaticas and other wild flowers, from looking at maples all red and golden m the autumn, from looking at the fruits of barberries, viburnums, honeysuckles, mountain ash and roses, from listening to the songs of birds and watching their sprightly motions; in short, the pleasure that comes from the charm of nature.

The answer to the fourth question regarding the perpetuity of cemeteries may now be given as follows: If a cemetery is beautiful, if it serves as a safe place for trees, shrubs, flowers, ferns, mosses, turf and all the smaller plants that make an attractive ground covering, the whole arranged in a way to provide beautiful landscapes its perpetuity will be assured, will, in fact, be demanded by future generations. It will serve as a safe retreat not only for plants and birds but for people as well. Here will come those who get pleasure from the beauty of buds and blossoms, from open spaces surrounded by foliage, from trees made venerable by the growth of one or more centuries. Here will come those who seek quiet and seclusion, who seek relief from the noise and excitement of city streets. The fact that a cemetery is closed at night, that it is free from noisy games and picnics, and that its early purpose and use inspire a feeling of respect and solemnity, will add to its charm for certain persons. It becomes not only a secure resting place for the departed committed to its care, but a memorial park as well, a memorial of the most beautiful kind.

In this connection some quotations from our greatest authority in landscape matters will be of interest. In 1891, at the time of his greatest ability and most mature judgment. Frederick Law Olmstead, Sr., was asked by the trustees of Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit to advise them in a general way regarding its treatment. Some of his observations are well worth quoting here. Speaking of what may happen to a cemetery in the course of time, he said, "there is a liability that its turf will gradually 'run out' and not be restored, its trees fall to decay and their places left unoccupied, its roads and paths become grass-grown and gullied, and such a general character at length established for the place that public opinion will welcome any project that promises to put it to another use than that of an undisturbed resting place of the dead. This has been the history of many burial places in older towns, places containing the graves, tombs and monuments of many worthies of those towns, places which were at one time apparently much more secure from such a rate than Elmwood can be made by any laws or police provisions, or by any funds established for the purpose, except as these funds shall be used in some way for the lasting well being of the living. There are many such burial grounds that are most unattractive. Even if enclosed by strong walls, they have the character of waste places. Some have dilapidated fences, and, year after year, are resorted to only by vagabonds and dogs. If, as its trees and fences decay, Elmwood is not to have a similar fate it will be because of a regard that shall have been established for the place not in the minds of those now interested in it, nor in the minds of their children but in the minds of the people who have personally known nothing of its dead, and who will be no more interested in this particular collection of the dead than they are in many other such collections. It will be because, to many people of Detroit in the future, the place is found a grateful retreat from the town only because of such natural rural scenery as the Trustees have, long before, made provision to secure.

Regard for this soothing, natural scenery will be the deeper, with future visitors, because of the pathos and solemnity of the purpose which will be known to have led to its preservation, and because of the contrast between the sentiment which will thus be matured, and that which pertains to the purposes of rural grounds or parks originally intended to be used for the gay recreations of thoughtless multitudes.

*     *     *     *
Elmwood was probably chosen for a site for a cemetery because of the beauty of its natural scenery, and because of the feeling that it is decorous to deposit the remains of our beloved under the shadows, and within the seclusion of umbrageous trees and screening thickets; that is to say, in places that we call peaceful, and that invite to rest and contemplation. The more nearly Elmwood can now be restored to its original character in these respects, without causing the use which has been made of it to be lost sight of the more surely will the original sentiment associated with it be preserved and perpetuated and the more surely will it be allowed to remain a place of unbroken repose."

Then after giving general advice regarding roads, walks, grading and planting, he continued: "We should seek also to retain the natural low thickets as far as this would be practicable.

*     *     *     *
We would, for instance, nearly always retain such thickets where they occur near the borders of roads. * * * We should seek to prevent, by a partial screening, such a display of a multitude of monuments in all directions from the observer as would cause the destruction of that sylvan rurality which had in the first place suggested the suitability of the place for the repose of the dead and the rites of mourning. The term rural cemetery does not mean a place, the permanent interest of which lies in the exhibitions of monuments. When monuments occupy the eye more than all else in a burial ground, it has ceased to be of a rural character.”
 
Later, after speaking of his preference for indigenous trees and shrubs and of the aim of the management having been to keep a close shaven turf with "trees and shrubs, appearing upon it as decorative objects" he continues: "We were asked by some of the Trustees whether it would not be better to remodel certain parts of the surface of the ground in order to simplify the mowing process, and to avoid such niggling work necessary to the pursuit of the present policy of keeping. We shall advise such remodeling especially near the borders of the roads, for another reason but as to the purpose of keeping as much of the ground as practicable in shaven turf, we recommend that it be abandoned, and that the policy be now adopted of a general reduction of the turf area, substituting for turf, in many places, thickets or bushes; mainly, but not entirely, low bushes of sorts natural to the region, and mats of woody creepers and ground plants. Once established the expense of keeping these will be much less than that of keeping turf. There should be hardly any pruning, and the very little that may be required to check the excessive straggling of an occasional redundant shoot may be done in winter by any unskilled laborer that can be trusted to limit the use of his knife to that single purpose. All trees that are tailing, or not promising of continued growth, should be removed and where crowding is not to be apprehended, others planted with reference to future general sylvan effect.

*     *     *     *
The removal of all trees which are destroying others of greater value and of all trees that are growing decrepit, like many now on the ground, and the introduction of young trees that will gradually supply the place or those removed, should henceforth be a constant process in all the history of the Cemetery. If the Superintendent is qualified for his responsibility, it will be one of the most important duties of the Trustees to sustain and encourage him in such a course, under the attacks which the ignorance and superstition of the general public will, from time to time, bring upon him. The Superintendent should in every way be assured of his freedom to use the axe and should always have a few well-grown nursery trees of different native sorts ready for planting when he sees occasion, having constantly in view the reproduction and perpetuation, as similar to that originally found in the locality."
   
*     *     *     *
Again he writes, "What we would advise is that the Superintendent be required to make what progress he finds practicable every year in the direction we have been pointing out. First, perhaps in removing the absolutely bad trees that are destroying the value of others not yet absolutely bad; second, in grading down to an agreeable natural character the roadside banks, and restoring as much as possible the agreeable, undulating character of the original surface of the ground; third, in obliterating the useless walks. Not one of these walks, in our opinion, has a degree of use justifying its destructive effect on the rural aspect of the place and the addition which its expense makes to the cost of a suitable keeping of it. Fourth, in the introduction of thickets of native bushes that will soon take care of themselves; fifth, in the removal, as fast as private owners can be persuaded to consent, of all artificial objects not absolutely essential to the main purpose of the Cemetery, more especially useless stone steps and copings and iron fences."

*     *     *     *
"In our judgment, after the general line of policy which we suggested had been pursued a few years, the lot owners would find the results increasingly pleasing and would become gradually inclined to proceed farther in restoring a simpler and less fugitive and meretricious character of scenery than the Cemetery has at present. The further the Trustees shall be thus enabled to proceed in this direction, the greater will be the security acquired against the gradual lapse of the ground, after burials shall cease to be made in it into the sad condition in which most of the older burial grounds of the world are found. There is no reason why Elmwood should not thus come gradually to be a place of permanent value to the people of Detroit as a retreat from the streets and buildings and bustle of the town. It is necessary to this end that people should be able to pursue within it more or less sequestered walks, to sit under the shade of ancient trees, and to find such a degree of seclusion as would be provided by considerable patches of under-wood and by a covering of the ground that will not be as notably artificial as that which it is the present aim of the management to maintain.”

In following out a course of treatment in harmony with Mr. Olmstead's suggestions, it would be well in any cemetery to secure a woody growth or thicket along the boundaries and to have certain waste spaces revert to woods, at once the most interesting treatment and the one having the least expensive maintenance. It is often taken for granted that the only suitable ground cover is a well-kept lawn, but there are other covers more interesting and less expensive since after they are established, they will largely take care of themselves. The spreading juniper, the American yew and the low form of the Japanese yew myrtle (vinca minor), Pachysandra, or the Japanese Spurge, some of our wild roses, various vines and brambles, native herbaceous plants and in certain localities heather, are examples that come to mind but the list might be multiplied extensively.

In Graceland several owners nave requested the superintendent to have their lots covered with thickets and the ground underneath planted with wild flowers. With this treatment there will, at times, be a profusion of flowers, and at other times fruits interesting for their bright colors or peculiar shapes such a thicket would attract birds by furnishing food and ideal nesting places. It would moreover be an admirable protection for one's ashes. What greater honor could be shown a grave than to cover it with wild violets surmounted by a low spreading wild crab apple beautiful in appearance, fragrant with blossoms, and to which a wood-thrush might come each evening and perform a musical service by giving the sweetest of bird songs?

Think then of a cemetery as being first the solution of a problem-namely, to transform a portion of the earth's surface into an artistic composition suitable for a burial place for those we wish to honor. In this solution use would be made of all suitable existing growth, boulders, water and other topographical features. Artificial objects, roads, stonework, fences, etc., would be subordinated as far as possible.  Next, the cemetery would serve its purpose through a long series of years, the burials gradually increasing in number and then as gradually decreasing until they ceased altogether. Finally, it becomes a memorial park sacred to the forefathers and their families, in some cases for several generations, a retreat for plants and birds and for persons who delight in beauty and quiet retreat, and as such it should continue to serve future generations for many years, becoming continually more venerable and more cherished.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention
Harrisburg, PA
August 20, 21, 22 and 23, 1923

In addressing the members of this Association, there can be no necessity for explanations as to what perpetual care is, nor arguments as to its necessity in every cemetery. There can hardly be a member who is not thoroughly familiar with these matters and who does not understand the vital importance to the cemetery management, and more especially to the lot and grave owners, that some adequate system of perpetual care be adopted for every cemetery in our country, from even the smallest country graveyard up to the largest metropolitan cemetery.

Those among us who are fortunate enough to be in charge of cemeteries, in which this provision was made from the first, are to be congratulated and to be envied. Those others, undoubtedly constituting a large proportion of our membership, who are in charge of cemeteries that were started and conducted for many years with no thought of provision for perpetual care and who have gone through the harrowing experience of adopting perpetual care and endeavoring to persuade the older lot owners to make this provision for their lots have found themselves confronted by a task, compared to which all the other difficulties and perplexities which come to the manager of every cemetery, pale into insignificance, and no one of us in that class but has said numberless times: "How criminal and how needless was the lack of foresight which has forced this disagreeable burden upon us."

As this paper may finally come to be read by lot owners or others who are not familiar with the subject, or by inexperienced people starting new cemeteries, who, as we all know, quite generally fail to realize that the development and management of a modern cemetery requires a high degree of  technical ability and the supervision of trained men of long experience, the present audience will no doubt accept a brief definition of the subject and some explanations of facts which are already well known to them.

What is Perpetual Care?

The term "perpetual care" in cemeteries has come to mean the providing of funds, to be held in perpetual trust, the income of which is to be expended in keeping up forever the necessary care of the individual lots and graves, and the maintenance, repair and future renewal of the borders, drives, water and sewer systems, enclosures and necessary buildings. In some cases, two separate funds are provided, the income from one of which is devoted exclusively to the care of the private lots and graves and the other to the care, maintenance and renewal of the balance of the cemetery. In other cases, the funds are still further subdivided, while the more recent tendency seems to be to establish one fund and apportion the income from year to year as needed to these various purposes. The best of the argument seems to be in favor of the one fund, because every lot owner is almost as vitally interested in the upkeep of the cemetery as a whole, as he is of that of his own lot, and it would seem to make for the best interests of all to have the application of the income not too specifically tied to definite things, so that in future years the persons in charge of the trust may be free to more effectively meet varying conditions as they occur. However, the purpose of the present paper is not to open a discussion on that much disputed point.

How Large a Fund is Needed?

The theory of the establishment of a perpetual care fund is that it should be large enough, when invested in safe securities, to furnish an income sufficient to accomplish the purposes set forth above. We are all aware that the care given in different cemeteries varies within wide limits, and the nature and extent of the buildings and other improvements varies in the same way, depending upon the location of the cemetery and the demands of the patrons, so that a fund which would furnish an adequate income for one cemetery undoubtedly would be entirely inadequate for another in which the care was better and the improvements more extensive and of a higher grade.
 
A survey of the conditions made some years ago revealed widely varying amounts, some of them so grossly inadequate as to be of little use, and some so excessively high as to constitute an unnecessary burden on the lot buyer. The average amount at present set aside by the better class metropolitan cemeteries seems to be about 50 cents per square foot of the area sold for burial purposes. Certain rather extended investigations made by the writer indicate that where perpetual care prevails from the establishment of the cemetery, and every lot sold has paid its proportion, 40 cents per square foot would be a sufficient amount to maintain a high grade metropolitan 100 acre cemetery in most excellent condition, and half this amount should be sufficient where the care is not so complete and does not include watering of the grass, and where the buildings, waterworks and other improvements are not so extensive.

Assessment of the Perpetual Care Charge

There are two generally accepted methods of' assessing the charge for the perpetual care deposit. One is by charging a fiat rate per square foot uniformly for all lots sold, either by deduction from the selling price which is fixed to include it, or as an additional charge over and above the price of the lot. The other is to set aside a uniform percentage of the receipts for lot sales, prices of course being adjusted with that end in view.

Either method by proper adjustment may be made to yield practically the same gross total, although future increases in prices under the percentage system will give increased payments to the fund unless the percentage is reduced, which is a difficult thing to explain satisfactorily to previous buyers.

Considering the fact that the care is, or should be, uniform for all lots in the cemetery and the actual expense annually is the same tor every lot in proportion to its size, it is evident that the percentage system forces the buyer of the higher, priced lot to pay more than his share and allows the purchaser of the cheaper lot to escape paying a part of what he properly should pay, the flat rate system appears to be the better and the more equitable.

How Should the Funds Be Controlled?

Wide variance is found in the matter of the control of perpetual care funds in various cemeteries. In some cases, the handling and investment of the funds and expenditure of the income are left entirely in the hands of the cemetery corporation, and if the management is able and honest, this will result in high efficiency and economy, but there is always the danger of a change in future management which will put the funds under the control of unscrupulous persons, and it must also be borne in mind that very efficient cemetery managers may not be well posted on matters pertaining to the care and investment of large sums of money, and hence will arise the possibility of loss through injudicious investment, although the persons in charge may be scrupulously honest and sincere in their intentions.

Another method quite commonly followed is the establishment of a Board of Trustees or even another corporation, for the purpose of handling these funds, the members of which are elective by vote of the lot owners in the cemetery. This method in theory should be an equitable one, as it nominally gives the future control of the funds into the hands of those who are directly and personally interested in their proper expenditure. But the same danger from inexperience and inefficiency exists as in the control by the cemetery corporation. It is also to be noted that lot owners are certain in time, many of them, to move to far distant points of residence and all are apt to become indifferent to the matter and fail to attend meetings and elections, thus frequently rendering it possible for small minorities to acquire control, for personal, selfish and perhaps dishonest purposes.

Another method coming rapidly into favor at the present time is the placing of the funds in the hands of trust companies such as are authorized by many states to handle estates and court funds, these companies holding the funds, making the investments, collecting the income and seeing to the expenditure of the income for the purposes specified in the trust, the cemetery corporation, however, requiring all proposed investments to be submitted to it and retaining the power of forbidding any investment which does not meet with its approval. This would appear, on the whole, to be the best and safest method, as it places the investment of the funds in the hands of expert financiers who are thoroughly familiar with such operations, and who generally have wider opportunities for good investments and have expert men for investigating values.

How Should Funds Be Invested?

The first consideration in investing trust funds of this kind is safety. The question of a high rate of interest must be entirely subordinated to this supreme question of safety of the principal.

Real estate mortgages, when made for a low percentage of the actual value of the property, have always had a high and well deserved reputation for safety. Where the fund is not administered by expert and honest officials, however, there is great chance for loss by inflated values of the property and the loaning of excessive amounts. There is also the danger, when making loans on unimproved or non-income producing real estate, in case of default, of the loss of income over considerable periods through the long time necessary to acquire title in many states under foreclosure and through the possible difficulty of disposing of the foreclosed property, and so that a wise provision would be to limit real estate loans to property which produces an assured income well in excess of the interest on the loan.

Stocks in general are not proper investments for trust funds of this nature, although occasionally preferred stocks of small issue in proportion to the value of the corporate holdings may be good investments.

Bonds as a whole seem to be the better type of investments for perpetual care funds, although there are of course bonds and bonds, and there are great quantities of such securities that are to be let severely alone. Bonds of all classes issued in large amounts in proportion to the security are of very doubtful safety. Industrial bonds are to be investigated very carefully, as well as railroad bonds.  Government bonds are the highest class and safest bonds that can be obtained, but the interest rate is low, especially as such bonds are quite generally in ordinary times held at a premium.

Perhaps on the whole there is no class of investment so good, both from the standpoint of reasonable return and security, as public bond issues, state, county, municipal and the like-although there are some sections of the country where the record for prompt payment of interest and principal has not been very good. Another advantage connected with bonds of this class is the tax exempt feature, as the tendency seems to be increasing in many localities to tax the income from perpetual care investments.

Why Should the State Establish and Enforce Provisions for Perpetual Care?

The histories of all cemeteries where perpetual care is not provided is practically the same. When the cemetery is new and during its early years, reasonable care, quite satisfactory to the patrons, is generally given. As time goes on, and more and more lots are sold, the burden of this care becomes greater and the management becomes unable or unwilling to keep it up. The next step is the abandonment of the care of the private lots, except where the owners are willing to pay an annual fee. By this time, a large number of the original owners are either dead or have moved away or are unwilling or unable to make the payments, so that we have a condition in which a part of the lots are more or less well cared for and the balance surrounding them and perhaps interspersed with them, are neglected, making the whole appearance shabby and unsightly. Later again, when all the lots in the cemetery are sold out, the income to the management begins to fall off until a point is reached where the expenses can no longer be met, and the cemetery is abandoned. By this time, the proportion of the lot owners who are able and willing to pay for the upkeep is so small that it is impossible for them to take over and operate the cemetery, so that the conditions go on from bad to worse. About this time, or perhaps sooner, those lot owners who are interested in having their burial plots and the surroundings properly maintained, will purchase lots in newer perpetual care cemeteries, and remove their dead and their monuments to other locations, so that in a short time the once beautiful cemetery becomes a desolate jungle of grass, weeds, un-pruned shrubbery, dead trees, tottering or overturned monuments and stonework, so that instead of being, as the Germans call it, "God's Acre," it may well be called "a God-forsaken Acre." Cemeteries in this condition can be found all over the country. This is the natural and inevitable consequence of lack of perpetual care.

On the other hand, we may glance for a minute at the future of a cemetery established and operated under adequate perpetual care provisions. The cemetery will be properly cared for from the beginning. When the lots are all sold and the annual income diminishes to the point where the management could only operate at a loss and would necessarily abandon it, the income from the perpetual care funds may be sufficient to induce them to continue the operation, or if not, the income will surely be sufficient to enable the trustees to maintain it and to retain all of its original beauties. As time goes on, new interments in the cemetery will be less and less in number and the tract itself will become more and more a beautiful, self maintaining park, furnishing to the community without cost all of the advantages of such open air breathing places except, of course, those of sports and playgrounds.

Many cemeteries are being established today without perpetual care through the ignorance of the people constituting the cemetery association, and unfortunately of late cemeteries are being established all over the country for the avowed purpose of exploiting the public and squeezing out every possible present dollar without any regard for the future interest of those whose money they are taking. In many such instances, in view of the fact that the public is coming more and more to demand perpetual care, actual fraud is committed. Lots are sold with the statement that they have perpetual care, when no funds are set aside for the purpose at all, and in other cases the fund is so grossly inadequate as to be of no value whatever, or so poorly safeguarded that it is subject to being embezzled or lost by bad investment.

These seem to be adequate and convincing reasons why the state should step in and compel all individuals, associations and corporations alike to make some definite provision in this vitally important matter, and why it should also throw the protection of the law around the proper investment and safeguarding of such funds.

What Should Be the Provisions of Such a Law?

A state law should provide that a portion of the receipts for every lot and grave sold in every cemetery in the state, whether owned by private individuals, associations, or corporations, should be set aside in perpetual trust for the care of the cemetery.

It should have much the same provisions that are in force with regard to savings banks and insurance companies in many states as to the investment of the funds.

It should provide, in a broad way, for the control of the funds and the application of the income accruing.

It should especially provide for publicity, requiring the annual publication, or at least the deposit with some public officer to be held as a public record, of sworn statements in detail as to the investment of the funds, the income arising there from and the disposition of that income.

It should provide supervision and investigation from time to time to assure that the money is being properly set aside, legally invested and the income properly expended, perhaps much in the same way that Building and Loan Associations are supervised and invested in some states.

Then finally it should provide drastic penalties for evasion or violation of the law's requirements, including the withdrawal of all tax exemption provisions for property owned by the cemetery management, of course excepting the lots in the hands of private owners and used by them for legitimate interment purposes.

How Much Money Should Be Required to Be Set Aside by Law?

We have already shown that the average amount deemed necessary by the better class of metropolitan cemeteries was 50 cents per square foot, but that in many cases a much less sum would be sufficient to meet the requirements of the case. Perhaps some method might be worked out by which cemeteries could be divided into classes, and the sums to be set aside graded upwards from a comparatively small amount, according to the class in which the cemetery falls. This, however, would be a rather difficult matter, and it might work out that the requirement of a minimum amount and uniform for all cemeteries would answer every purpose, the publicity required making it an easy matter for intending buyers to ascertain whether the funds were adequate or not, thus leading them to patronize the cemeteries making the best provision in that respect and forcing the others, through competition, to increase the amounts set aside by them in order to hold their patronage.
 

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 36th Annual Convention
Omaha, Nebraska
September 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1922

Through the courtesy of the Omaha Convention Committee I have been asked to read a paper discussing this Association from the view point of an outsider. The man who is accountable for the suggestion is present and his identity will be disclosed so that he may pay the penalty in case anything in the remarks which are to follow should arouse your spirit of pugnacity.

That cemeteries do not always receive that which is supposed to be coming to them was demonstrated in the following incident. A hurry-up order was received at a Wisconsin cheese factory for a shipment of "limburger" conditioned on immediate delivery. Shipping limburger by express in winter had been prohibited, and the order was about to be turned down when a salesman took the matter in hand and proceeded to deliver the goods. He obtained an undertaker's rough box, packed in it the required amount of cheese, and engaged an undertaker to deliver it at the railroad station a few minutes before the time for the train to depart. The salesman, attired in his most somber clothes, arrived just in time to purchase two tickets. Shortly before the train reached its destination he went to the express car and found the express-man in a somewhat excited frame of mind. The heat from the stove had caused the cheese to emit the most unbearable odor imaginable and the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. "What can I do for you?" shouted the express-man, going about with his nose in the air. "I just came to be sure that the body will be put off at the next station" was the reply. "Well, I'm, mighty glad of it, and let me say right here if that man in the box is a friend of yours you surely have one consolation-you may be damned sure he's not in a trance."  It is needless to add that case never reached a cemetery.

The futility of attempting to do more than lightly touch the high points in a survey of the activities of an association whose existence ex tends over one-third of a century in the time that can be allotted me is sufficiently obvious to require no apology. I am "an outsider" as far as ever having had any actual experience in the management of a cemetery, but for many years my interests kept me closely in touch with cemeteries, and I am proud of having been a booster for the AACS before it was organized and of having had the honor of being present at its beginning, when "Father" Nichols officiated on that memorable occasion in 1887. I recall receiving a letter from Mr. Nichols in which he rejoiced at the prospect of having an attendance at twenty-five at that first meeting.

This organization came into existence at the time when what were called "rural" cemeteries were taking the place of the time-honored church-yard burying grounds and city graveyards, which had about reached their lowest ebb. Lot owners did things according to their own sweet wills, enclosures of any and every description were permitted, and established grades were an unknown quantity, the only known quantity being what some plain speaking superintendents of today would, in every day parlance, designate as "junk." Men were seeking light on the subject of cemetery betterment when Mr. Nichols, who, inspired by the suggestion of your own honored life-member, Mr. William Salway, sent forth his appeal in behalf of an organization which should undertake that very work. Mr. Salway had recently been appointed as successor to Mr. Adolph Strauch, superintendent or the Cemetery of Spring Grove, where the first really modern lawn plan cemetery had been established the brain child of that gifted landscape gardener, and the most appropriate birthplace possible for the AACS. The men who gathered on that auspicious occasion were imbued with enthusiastic zeal and a most commendable desire to reform the cemetery practices of their day, but they were by no means unanimous as to how it was to be accomplished. It is interesting to note that the first vice president, for example, was a staunch advocate of high grave mounds, and another member favored having a "gravel path on at least one side of every lot and corner posts several inches above the surface."

These men however, "builded better than they knew". The results of their early deliberations have made American cemeteries the admiration of travelers from all parts of the world; for nowhere on the globe are there to be seen cemeteries that can compare in park-like beauty and scrupulous care with those under the management of the men whom I have the honor to address.

At the second meeting of the Association, held in Brooklyn in 1888, Mr. Eurich, in his prophetic paper, on "An Ideal Cemetery", said "In all artificial and architectural structures there must be no evident desire to show what art and mechanics can produce, but they must all be in harmony with and in subordination to nature." In the remarkable development apparent in American cemeteries we do not yet note an entire absence of "evident desire"-ostentation still obtrudes itself as it always has in the sacred precincts of the dead, but fortunately, those who still believe in gratifying their pride in this manner are obliged to conform to rules and regulations which either prevent the erection of inartistic memorials or minimize their most objectionable features, and none can gainsay that very much has been accomplished in bringing "architectural structures" in closer "harmony with and subordination to nature." In Mr. Eurich's paper above quoted, he expressed the most radical views concerning monuments, and at the Cleveland convention in 1900, Mr. Hatch, a prominent citizen and member of the Board of Trustees of Lake View Cemetery, advanced the idea of abolishing monuments entirely. It was such discussions as these that gave impetus to the most advanced ideas in cemetery practice.

The education of the public as to what constitutes harmony in a cemetery has not been an easy task. Rules that seemed harsh and arbitrary to the lot holder were not easily enforced because these rules were misunderstood, and much bitterness resulted, when only the most harmonious relations should have existed. The pioneer work in this most beneficent reform was done by the founders of this Association, and those who now follow in their steps know as little of the trials with which they had to contend as does this present generation of the hardships of the pioneers of our own fair land.

"Graceland", Chicago, "Spring Grove", Cincinnati, and "Lake View"', Cleveland, and possibly others, set apart entire sections or portions of sections in which monuments were prohibited, or, if allowed, were permitted to extend only a few inches above the ground. Other cemeteries soon followed this example, and it has been the experience of many of the members of this Association to hear lot owners express their approval of the, restrictive rules pertaining to monuments. Old and revered though the custom may be, its observance had been carried to an excess, and rules that would correct this abuse were a natural result. Progressive monument builders who have caught the spirit of the ideas advanced by advocates of the modern lawn plan realize that the restrictive rules which may seem somewhat arbitrary were in reality adopted not so much with the intention of eliminating monuments, as of elevating their standard. Monument builders who are not cooperating with their local cemetery managers lack vision, and retard their own progress. But it is gratifying to note that the Memorial Craftsmen of America are now urging closer cooperation between that Association and this.

This Association has disseminated information of immeasurable value to cemeteries pertaining to the subject of acquiring funds for the future care of cemeteries. Perpetual care has been and doubtless will continue to be a perennial subject for consideration. Long-term financing as applied to cemetery lots and the structures erected thereon is a complex problem. Perpetual care involves many considerations, not the least uncertain of which is the earning power of the unstable dollar. Think of what must be taking place in Germany today, if they have perpetual care funds based on the pre-war value of the mark. The ablest minds in this Association have deliberated on it, and only future generations can tell whether our present systems have made good. My sole purpose in alluding to the subject at this time is to direct attention to an angle from which it is seldom discussed, namely, the proper safeguarding of funds of this nature. Lot owners, who by bequest or otherwise, place sums of money in the keeping or cemetery companies for a certain specified purpose, do so with implicit confidence that the conditions of the trust will be faithfully complied with. The question arises, "are cemeteries availing themselves of the safest means of keeping their trust funds from falling into the hands of dishonest or incompetent persons or of those who, through indifference will fail to have a proper regard for their trust?" Trust companies of recognized responsibility are, by virtue of their experience, conceded to be the safest depositories for cemetery funds. Granting that the funds are placed in such hands, can they be said to be properly safeguarded unless both the trust company and the cemetery trustees are obligated to conform to conditions that will render violations or the trust impossible?  A distinguished Chicago attorney, who has made a very thorough investigation of the subject, is authority for the statement that in his opinion, the perpetual care funds of some of the best known cemeteries are not as properly safeguarded as they should be. While there may be no question whatever as to the integrity of the men who are handling these funds today, these officers and their immediate successors will be responsible for them but a comparatively short space of time, a few generations will see them under the control of those far removed from present day conditions: it is, therefore, obvious that cemetery associations cannot be too careful in safeguarding such trusts, and that there should be more rigid laws in every state in the Union concerning them. Without the least desire to cast any shadow of doubt upon the integrity of those who will come after us, it is surely not only the part of wisdom, but an imperative duty as well, to so protect these sacred trusts that they will riot tempt man's cupidity, or, having tempted it, will make impossible any, attempt to divert them to any other purpose than that for which they were originally intended.

Progress in the development of American cemeteries has more than kept pace with other branches of Art and Industry. To continue this record of achievement and pass on to posterity cemeteries that will be a blessing and not a burden, it behooves cemetery managers to give more serious consideration to the subject of endowing mausoleums and other cemetery structures, to provide for their future upkeep. While the importance of this matter has been recognized at many cemeteries, and the necessary action taken, this practice is by no means as general as it should be. The boards of trustees of many cemeteries that stand high in the estimation of the public, are either ignoring or purposely side-stepping the issue, for fear of offending lot owners. In so doing, they have allowed many costly structures to be erected without making the slightest provision for repairs that will be inevitable in years to come. The ultimate result of this unwise course will reflect upon the cemetery, builders of today. In this connection it is interesting to note that the City Commission of Grand Rapids, Mich., has adopted very rigid rules concerning the endowment of mausoleums in "Woodlawn", the new municipal cemetery: these rules also prohibit vertical joints in all monumental work: The question that naturally arises in this connection is, "what is the most practical method by which to determine the amount of endowment necessary?" Some cemeteries solve this complex problem by requiring a minimum deposit of ten percent or fifteen percent of the cost of the proposed structure. The consensus of opinion is that it is not practical to arrive at even an average percentage to use as a basis for estimating such deposit. This subject has not been stressed by the AACS to an extent commensurate with its importance.  Mr. Eurich discussed it in a very informing paper several years ago, but the matter is one so far-reaching it should be reiterated again and again.
 
Landscape engineers and gardeners who have gradually transformed our cemeteries from places of gloom to spots of sylvan restfulness and beauty have had their visions of the cemetery beautiful just as truly as any sculptor, artist, or artisan has had his ideal. Discouragements have come to them just as they have to all who have labored earnestly to express their highest ideals in their work. In this respect the experience of the cemetery idealist is unique: he has been obliged to contend with not only the prejudices of the public, but in many instances with unsympathetic boards of trustees whose vision was dimmed by the figures on the balance sheet.

There is (and quite naturally too) a division of sentiment among the members of this Association as to what will constitute the ideal cemetery. That it will be far more park-like than many of our cemeteries of the present day is very evident from the trend of present cemetery planning. No landscape gardener of any reputation would think of recommending a plan for a new cemetery or for remodeling an old one that did not conform to present-day practice in planning and planting, and in regulating the extent to which stone work shall be permitted. Rapid progress has been made in approaching what is believed to be the ideal most to be desired, and in many cemeteries as beautiful effects have been created with trees and shrubbery as are possible under similar conditions. There will be still greater improvement when lot holders give their sincere cooperation, and are willing to consider the cemetery as a whole more than they do their individual lots, when selecting their memorials.

There are few professions or callings in whose daily labors the apathy of the public is so constantly in evidence, as in that of the cemetery man, be he sexton, superintendent, or manager, and the apathy is not always confined to the public; it frequently is seen in the indifference of members of boards of trustees or directors whose failure to provide for the needs of the cemetery is reflected in the inability of a handicapped, disheartened superintendent to obtain the results he knows are expected of him. This spirit of indifference is illustrated by the experience of the man who was soliciting funds for a fence to enclose the village cemetery. "What's the use", said the villager; “of putting a fence around a graveyard?  Then what’s in can't get out, and then what’s out don’t want get in."

The public has always been apathetic on the subject of cemeteries and will continue to remain so until it has been educated out of this undesirable state of mind.  Educators are loud in their praises of moving pictures as a means of making lasting impressions on the minds of the young – the minds of older persons are equally impressionable when the subject under discussion is one that has sentimental reasons as its basis of appeal. The educational value of illustrated lectures on this subject has not received the consideration which could profitably be given it in any community.

The necessary qualifications of a successful cemetery superintendent are many and varied. The outstanding factor of his success is found in his ability to render just the kind of service that the emergency calls for. This implies tactfulness such as shown when Mrs. Newlyrich consulted the superintendent in regard to the most appropriate flowers for the grave of her late husband, who she said was very fond of smoking.  She thought that sweet-smelling tobacco plant and some salivas would make a real nice bed: "yes" replied the tactful superintendent, "and we'll border it with some beautiful spittoonias." Needless to remark he made a hit with that lot owner.
 
The service rendered by your late Mr. W. C. Rapp, of Fort Plain Cemetery, Fort Plain, NY, endeared him to his lot holders and enabled him to establish a record unique and worthy or emulation.  Years ago Mr. Rapp became imbued with the idea that cemetery memorials could be made to fill a two-fold purpose by serving the public in a useful way and also perpetuating the memory of the departed. Through Mr. Rapp's efforts several noteworthy memorials of this character have been erected in Fort Plain Cemetery. (They, with other cemetery memorials of this kind, will be illustrated at the close of this paper.) Herein lies a very pertinent suggestion for cemeteries to profit by: bring to the attention of your lot owners the thought of erecting memorial chapels, entrances, conservatories, fountains, etc., that more real significance may attach to their memorials, always remembering that no such memorials should be erected without adequate endowment. Memorials of this character have been referred to as utilitarian, and therefore unfit. That the public is not in sympathy with that idea is seen in the constantly increasing number of memorials of this nature.

In connection with the subject of useful memorials is not this centenary of the birth of Adolph Strauch a most opportune time for this Association to establish a memorial scholarship in his name that would assist and encourage young men and young women who may desire to follow the profession of landscape gardening as applied to cemeteries? Mr. Strauch originated and put into practice the landscape lawn plan in cemeteries. He was superintendent of the Cemetery of Spring Grove from 1854 until the time of his death in 1883, during which period he corrected and cultivated public taste concerning cemeteries in the face of the bitterest and almost insurmountable opposition, and laid the foundation for the high standard of cemetery development we enjoy today.

Statistics ordinarily make dry reading: a few, however, pertaining to the membership of the AACS may not be without interest. In 1897, at the close of the first ten years of the Association's existence, the membership was 192; in 1907 two hundred nineteen; in 1917, two hundred eighty and four years later, the Detroit report showed an enrollment of 360. Analyzing this membership, we find that approximately sixty percent of it comes from six states, numerically in the following order-Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. Of the forty-odd members west of the Mississippi River, two thirds are from Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri. In the states south of the Ohio and including the great state of Texas, the membership is about 30. It is also interesting to note that of the 68 cities in the U. S. with a population exceeding 100,000, twenty-five percent are not represented in your membership. These figures are given simply to show that there still remains a vast territory into which the inspiring message of this Association has not been carried.

Every cemetery manager is interested in knowing how other cemetery managers get the best results, and this Association has been the means of gratifying that desire. There are, however, thousands of cemeteries whose managers seldom, if ever, have the opportunity of participating in the deliberations of this national organization, who could be benefitted through state organizations. Organizations of this kind will not be formed without leaders, and who are better qualified for such service than the men who have made this Association what it is today? Ohio and New England have demonstrated what can be done in this direction and what cemetery men in those states have accomplished, others can.  The Ohio Association has a membership of seventy-eight, twenty-two of whom are members of the AACS. The New England association also has a goodly membership including many who are active members of the AACS.

Mr. Oscar F. Burbank president of the New England association in a recent letter says: "The New England Association has been responsible for a great deal of work which has been very helpful to cemetery men as well as to the general public. Not the least of the services rendered have been with relation to needed legislation. One of the best features of the Association, to my mind, is the fact that members are ready at all times to assist other members to obtain facts necessary to the efficient operation of their various cemeteries.  Therein the very essence of the association idea is expressed.

Mr. Painter and Mr. Jones with the assistance of other AACS members in Pennsylvania, or organized an association in that state. Its principal work has been to direct attention to and aid in defeating pernicious legislation, in which it has been successful. Far-reaching, through the influence of this Association has been, it must continue to widen, until, through its efforts, every state in the Union has seen the wisdom of having laws that will insure adequate provision for the permanent care of cemeteries and that will also protect the credulous and gullible public against the why schemes of promoters and speculators who promise fabulous returns from investments in cemetery projects.

Here lies a most potent reason for establishing local clubs and state associations. There is no surer way of spreading the gospel of better cemeteries and of arousing public sentiment when the necessity arises, against get-rich-quick propositions of this kind. The fact that state organizations have failed in some cases should not be allowed to discourage further action. The more the AACS does in this way, the more will its own strength increase and its ability to do good be multiplied. Every convention of this Association should give impetus to the organization of associations of this character until they become nation wide.

There are persons who prefer earth burial, others who regard it as abhorrent, and consider sepulture in vaults or mausoleums the only way to inter the dead, and still others who will have neither of these methods when cremation is possible. Cemeteries, therefore, which are prepared to give the public what it wants and to do it in the most acceptable manner usually, find favor. Personal prejudices should not deter a cemetery from fulfilling its rightful mission. When the AACS was organized there were but six crematoriums in this country; today there are eighty or more and nearly half of them are located in cemeteries. Each year marks additions to the number of crematoriums at cemeteries; several are now under process of construction, and others are in contemplation. The Association has never gone on record in favor of this method of disposing of the dead. It is a fact, nevertheless, that many of its members approve of it and are members of the Cremation Society of America, an organization which deserves the cooperation of all who believe in cremation. The subject of cremation has been discussed at conventions of this Association-it is one that might profitably be considered from time to time, for the benefit of those who should be thoroughly informed, as well as to remove some of the mistaken ideas that have retarded its progress. Cremation is more popular on the Pacific Coast than elsewhere in the US. Los Angeles and its environs has seven crematoriums, and there are five in San Francisco and nearby towns.

It seems almost incredible that eleven years ago automobiles were excluded from a number of cemeteries whose superintendents are on record to that effect. The transition that has come in the meantime, in conducting funerals, and the constant development of air travel, also the broadcasting of all manner of services, give one visions of funeral parties being transported by airplane, and funeral services disseminated by radio. When that time comes, metropolitan cemeteries will have sections set apart for landing stations for the accommodation of their lot owners who arrive by airplanes and chapels will be equipped with radio broadcasting apparatus. A funeral by airplane has already taken place in Chicago. Three planes were in the cortege that recently paid tribute to a captain whose ashes were dropped into the waters of Lake Michigan.

While this Association has had no special axe to grind, and has, therefore, given but little attention to the matter of newspaper publicity it cannot be said to have received the degree of publicity to which an organization of its importance in public affairs is rightfully entitled. Possibly this is due to the fact of its having no duly authorized press agent. The Association manages to get into the spot light about once a year during the annual conventions when newspaper reporters who are assigned to the hotels give the public a glimpse of its activities in a story often times as pain fully abbreviated as the most modern bathing costume. Most persons seem loath to think or speak of cemeteries until the subject is forced upon them. Members of this Association can greatly assist in changing the attitude of the public mind regarding cemeteries by supplying their local newspapers with items of public interest. Excerpts from some of the excellent papers that have been read at your conventions would be published by the editors of your home papers if they were given the opportunity.

The subjects discussed in papers and question box have run the entire gamut of things pertaining to cemeteries, from bugs, birds and beetles, to reptiles, roads and the most radical rules and yet, like that famous biblical story, "the half has not been told," nor will it until every cemetery in this country has felt the refining Influence of this Association.

Between sessions, congenial spirits have hob-nobbed and swapped experiences, and of these occasions every one of the older members has pleasant memories. The dream of a certain superintendent which points a moral is timely. "I dreamed that I had died", said this certain man "and to my dismay, I found the elevator going down instead of up. On arriving at my destination, which was decidedly tropical as far as temperature was concerned I was registered and questioned as to my vocation on earth. When his Satanic Majesty heard I had been a cemetery Superintendent he remarked, “I have a very interesting department to show you”. He proceeded to escort me to a compartment above the doors of which I read the words Cemetery Superintendents and Officials and informed me this was where the kun-drying was done. “Why do you need such a place?” I asked. “Why” remarked “His Majesty, this is where we have to put the cemetery men who did not join the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, they are so green they won't burn.” I saw my finish and wakened in a cold sweat. The next morning my application for membership in the AACS was on its way to Mr. Jones.

This Association has numbered among its honorary and active members men distinguished in various walks of life, at least two of whom deserve mention. The Rt. Rev. Bishop McQuaid, of Rochester, NY, whose presence at Rochester in 1903 was an inspiration, was unquestionably among the first Catholic clergymen to take the initiative in bettering the condition of Catholic cemeteries. Mr. Charles M. Loring, president of Lakewood Cemetery Association, Minneapolis, who died recently at an advanced aged, was one of that city's most distinguished citizens. He was president of the first Board of Park Commissioners of that city, and did much to promote the planting of trees there and elsewhere.

With the passing of the weeping willow, the impossible lamb, the attenuated slab, and the variegated forms of lot enclosures, we cannot fail, to note the infrequency of the tombstone that "could stand up and at the same time lie on its face" with such ineffable complacence. The days of the quaint epitaph truly have passed. Do you realize, gentlemen, that in bringing about a changed condition you have deprived some visitors of one of their chief joys? At the Richmond, VA, convention of this Association in 1893, one of the memorable places visited was St. John's church and churchyard. There we were permitted to stand where Patrick Henry delivered his famous address. In the graveyard one epitaph fixed itself indelibly in my mind. It ran: "Remember friends as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I, as I am now, so must you be, prepare for death and follow me." It was that which followed, however, that made the lasting impression. A wag had written under the epitaph these words:  "To follow you I would not be content, unless I knew which way you went."

Professor Bailey paid a very high compliment to the AACS when he classed it as "one of three national societies conserving the landscape gardening and rural art of the country." Yet cannot something still greater be said in its favor when we consider the absolutely unselfish motive that brought together its founders to organize an association whose object "shall be the advancement of the interests and the elevation of the character of cemeteries in America"? For thirty-five years these men and their successors have met in annual convention to carry out their high purpose with never a thought of personal financial gain; without the slightest suspicion of graft and without any emolument or salary whatever, to any officer excepting the utterly inadequate remuneration paid the Secretary-Treasurer. The men who have brought this Association to its present high standard are amply qualified to speak with authority on all practical and ethical matters pertaining to cemetery management. With many of them it has been the study of a lifetime, and out of their actual experience they are giving freely to all who choose to attend their annual conventions.
The bane of many associations is the tendency to form cliques: its absence in this Association is cause for genuine congratulation. This real spirit of democracy of which have been born ties of warmest friendship, should never be allowed to wane.

Theodore Roosevelt said: "Every man owes some of his time to up-building of the profession to which he belongs." It was that very principle which actuated the founders of this Association, and has been preeminent in all of its deliberations.

The talented men who organized and carried forward to success the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents have immortalized themselves in their profession by raising the cemeteries of America to their present high standard and earning for themselves an everlasting debt of gratitude from the public.

This cursory glance at the activities of the Association would surely be incomplete without allusion to the part women are taking in the improvement of cemeteries as well as to the inspiration of their presence at the conventions. They have played a most important part in the always delightful social functions, and have on several occasions made valuable contributions to the program. Landscape gardening as a profession, has a natural appeal to women as a vocation, and is so closely allied to cemeteries that women are finding here, as they are elsewhere, new and not inappropriate fields of activity.

All hail to the men and women who have helped the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents reach its high peak! May their tribe increase!

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 36th Annual Convention
Omaha, Nebraska
September 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1922