Bluefield Evening Leader

The Billboard Offense.

A billboard opposite a church in the central part of the city is to be removed as a result of a protest on the part of the congregation. One of the most serious questions in American cities at present is the encroachment of the huge billboard nuisance. The external aspect of cities has become largely billboards. In every large town their area mounts up into the square miles.

Once cities were proud of their architecture. Now it is largely obscured or snuffed out by billboards. Civic improvement societies talk of beautifying cities, but the cities are largely hidden behind billboards. In former times a few small billboards were devoted to theatrical or other announcements. But there are acres of billboards where once the surface was limited to square feet.

High billboards and long billboards are the modern rule. They obstruct the view, cut off the air, offend the eye and put a town in nauseating eclipse. Probably the next step will be to flash on the backs of pedestrians as they trudge along in the billboard alleys and canyons.

In European countries this matter is managed infinitely better. Paris restricts billboards in size and location, and they are taxed so as to produce a large revenue for the city treasury. Paris continues to be visible to the visitor. It has not rendered itself beautiful in order to be put under an eruption of the billboard disease. Parisian billboards are big enough to be read with ease, but are not permitted to overshadow and overmaster views in the city. Size in such matters is comparative. In St. Louis billboards have almost a go-as-you-please. They keep on expanding. When night comes they have the aid of electricity and magic lanterns. The public be blowed is the basis of the great billboard invasions.

What are the municipal authorities going to do about it? St. Louis Globe-Democrat.