I will not cite the hundreds of other cases where women have been the prime factors in beautifying our cities with shade trees and well-kept parks, but I will say that here is a broad and interesting field awaiting the modern woman, a field that tends to make our surroundings worth living in and our citizens better and healthier; a field that requires every virtue a woman possesses—her good taste, her moral instincts, her love of the beautiful, her patience and perseverance. Because of these, her natural gifts, she is bound to excel man in this field of endeavor, for, after all, man’s sphere of influence, in a general way, is his work and this work too often tends to become a matter of such routine that there is absolutely no inspiration in it. Men too often cannot see the moral issues at stake in living on treeless streets or in sections devoid of parks. Here we are spending so many millions of dollars on our schools, and out of the 166 public schools in Brooklyn, 86 have not even one tree in front of them, and only 10 are completely surrounded by trees. I do not believe that women would tolerate this if they could help it. There is no doubt that women are the natural leaders for the realization of the city beautiful—beautiful not with a lot of expensive cut stone, formidable fences or marble columns, but beautiful with natural parks, with avenues lined with fine trees and with front yards covered with verdure and blossoms, and beautiful with children, healthy mentally and physically. The whole subject of city trees and its vast opportunities for helping mankind has been greatly overlooked. Our schools and many other forms of civic improvement have received our attention because we have realized their importance to our health and development, but our trees, both in the parks and on the streets, have been slighted in spite of the fact that as a civic problem they are as important to our health and development and are as influential in the making of our future citizens as any other institution or form of civic improvement today.[52] Women have had to resort to law courts occasionally in their struggle for shade trees. In San José, California, they won in the courts against a corporation or mercenary property owner who wanted to override their love of beauty. VARIED ACTIVITIES While coöperating with state and national associations for civic improvement and aiding in specific reforms, such as the removal of billboard nuisances and the planting of trees, women in many localities have taken a large view of municipal advance and stirred their towns to important action. What a few women accomplished in a small community, New London, Iowa, is thus interestingly related by Mrs. Mary M. Pierson, president of the local Women’s Improvement Association: