VOL. XXII, No. 12

Recreation and Delinquency.-Testimony as to the effect of playgrounds on delinquency appears in the annual report issued by William S. Patterson, superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society.

"Better recreation than has been afforded youngsters in past years has resulted in a remarkable decrease in juvenile delinquency," Mr. Patterson stated. "The Recreation Commission is deserving of great credit in that local parks and playgrounds and various other enjoyable features provided kept children from trouble. Some people look to home conditions as the great cause for children getting into trouble. This is not the real reason. Recreation is the one thing which will keep a child's mind occupied to such an extent that he will not desire to start trouble. Every child seeks and needs recreation. If it is not provided he will use his own judgment in finding it."

Public Recreation and Delinquency.-Recreation workers will be interested in knowing that the January issue of The American City contains an address on "The Relation of Public Recreation to Delinquency," given by Lee F. Hanmer of the Russell Sage Foundation before the American Prison Congress at Kansas City. Mr. Hanmer brought together the testimony offered by a number of cities, individuals and organizations on the favorable influence of playgrounds in the reduction of delinquency. He cautions, however, against a too hasty assumption that recreation is a cure-all for juvenile delinquency and urges a careful interpretation of the facts and a consideration of the many other factors involved.

In much the same vein is a pamphlet just issued by the P. R. A. A., entitled Children's Play and Juvenile Delinquency. Copies of this pamphlet may be secured from P. R. A. A. at five cents apiece. In quantities of a hundred they may be purchased for $3.50.

MARCH, 1929

Because of Walker Playground. "The Walker Playground," was the telling reply of a patrolman of Springfield, Massachusetts, when asked why he thought it was he had not had cause to make a single complaint or investigate a misdemeanor of any child from that section of the city.

The D. A. R. Forest.-According to the Boston Herald of January 19, 1929, the Massachusetts chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has acquired a thousand acres of forest land in Goshen, Massachusetts, bordering the Berkshire trail, which will be dedicated in April and turned over to the Commonwealth as a Memorial State Forest.

Some Activities in Pontiac, Michigan.Among the developments mentioned in the Sixth. Annual Report of the Division of Recreation, Department of Public Welfare, Pontiac, Michigan, is the rapid growth of the Business Girls' Recreation Association. From a small group of girls this has increased to a membership of 125. With the assistance of the Federated Women's Clubs of Pontiac, a club room on the third floor of the Welfare Building has been furnished by the members. The activities of the Association include, art, bridge, dramatics, study and bowling clubs during the winter and hikes, riding, tennis, golf and swimming during the summer.

Play on the municipal golf course during the past year was nearly double that of 1926 while the bathing beach had the largest attendance in its history. No fatalities and 500 people taught to swim is the proud record of the Department. Tobogganing, introduced for the first time last year became so popular it was necessary to increase the number of slides from six to sixteen. Picnicking, too, was popular and 11,658 members of churches and luncheon clubs, city employees, school teachers, factory workers and mercantile

employees took advantage of the leadership service offered by the Recreation Department for picnics and parties.

Recreation Activities in Bloomfield, New Jersey. The World War Memorial Association, Inc., which conducts the community house of Bloomfield, in its report for the year ending May 1st, 1928, counts as one of its most far reaching accomplishments the appointment of a public recreation commission to take charge of playgrounds, athletic fields, swimming pools and other facilities.

Under the auspices of the Memorial Association, a community house boys' club is maintained with a membership of over 110 boys from twelve to seventeen years, divided into junior and senior members. Eleven nationalities and four religions are represented in this group. The Kiwanis Club of Bloomfield has become greatly interested and is paying the salary of one of the directors. The forty boys who belong to the Harmonica Club wear hats and sashes of orange and black at all "engagements." Many girls have learned to play the ukelele in the junior and senior classes which are conducted.

Social Recreation in Portland, Maine.The Recreation Department of Portland, Maine, is conducting an active program of social recreation under the leadership of Miss Aroline Clarke. A recent institute in social recreation brought out sixty people who paid a registration fee of one dollar each. Every member received a sheet for each section meeting with the games to be taught on that particular evening and a brief list of suggested reading-chiefly references to game books. Another activity of the department is the City Hall Recreation Club which conducts a series of parties and gatherings of various kinds. A Home Play column in the local paper provides the opportunity to get games and party suggestions into the family circle. Here appear pencil and paper games and directions for other social activities. Editorials on the importance of home play are also published.

North Plainfield, New Jersey, Obtains First Appropriation through Tax Funds.— North Plainfield, with a population of 10,000, has just made an appropriation of $800.00, its first from tax funds, for the local playground and recreation program during 1929. In 1927 the BallKirch Post Number 265, American Legion, purchased equipment for the first playground in the

Borough and provided sufficient additional funds for two supervisors. At the request of the Post. Mayor Alexander Milne, with the approval of the Borough Council, appointed a Recreation Commission of five members which administered the program. During the past summer the Post again contributed $500 with which a second playground was opened and with contributions from a few local citizens provided the Commission with the necessary funds to equip the second ground. and supervise both areas, the total expenditure being $625. Both playgrounds are located on school property and the Board of Education has a member on the Recreation Commission.

Playground Registration in Memphis.From July 16th to August 26th, 1928, was registration season on the Memphis playgrounds. Each child coming to the playground registered once during the season, giving his name, address, age, parents' nationality, school and telephone number. Four children, two boys and two girls from each playground were appointed to take charge of the registration book for a period of a week.

San Antonio to Have $50,000 for Recreation. An ordinance has been passed giving San Antonia, Texas, two cents on every hundred dollars valuation, approximating $50,000 annually for the Department of Recreation. The ordinance will go into effect June first.

Parkersburg, West Virginia, Reports New Developments.-The Recreation Board of Parkersburg, West Virginia, was created in the summer of 1927 when the first tax levy for recreation was received. The Board has issued a very attractive home-made report illustrated with snapshots. In spite of the fact that the Board is very young it has conducted a broad year-round program on a budget approximating $10,000. The program includes eight playgrounds, a dramatic program, athletic leagues and tournament and an industrial athletic program, five community centers, a picnic service and many special activities. There are three year-round workers, including an office secretary.

Recreation Activities in Knoxville, Tennessee. Last year thirty-six basketball teams played in the leagues organized by the Knoxville Bureau of Recreation. This year as the result of a vigorous campaign conducted among industrial

plants, commercial houses, fraternal organizations and similar groups, there are sixty teams with other groups waiting to play as soon as facilities can be provided. The following classification is used in the organization of teams in each league: AAA-Teams made up of bona-fide members of

the club, class or business they represent. AA-Independent teams recruited at large. A-Junior teams for players under seventeen years of age.

Each team is asked to deposit $10.00 with the Knoxville Amateur Basketball Association before permits for practice periods are issued. This is credited to the account of each team and deducted as the team uses the gymnasium.

Parks and Recreation in Springfield, Massachusetts. More playgrounds in the residential districts, a club house for the municipal golf course, additional land for athletic purposes near State street adjoining Blunt Park and a suitable entrance at State street for this park, greater extension of recreational facilities in most parks of the city and a second summer camp at Forest Park so that both boys and girls will be cared for, were among the needs mentioned by the Park Department of Springfield, Massachusetts, in its forty-sixth annual report. The year 1928, according to the report saw the addition of nearly 200 acres of land to the city's park areas. This includes 146 acres for the municipal golf course. These additional tracts bring the total park area of the city up to 1,441,893 acres or nearly an acre of land devoted to park and recreation purposes for every thousand population.

"Additional playgrounds should be established from time to time in the residential district of the city to meet the natural growth and development. The value of recreation is becoming more recognized and is being emphasized not only by park officers but by educators as well."

A Large Participation.-William J. S. Schultz, superintendent of the West Park Commission, Chicago, Illinois, reports that 6,647,750 people participated in the indoor and outdoor activities of the West Chicago parks.

Recreation Projects for Knoxville, Tennessee. Of the fourteen projects indorsed by the Knoxville Journal for the civic developments of the city, four relate to community recreation. As stated by the Journal these projects are as fol

A system of city parks and a zoo

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A municipal swimming pool or bathing beach The completion of Smoky Mountain National Park

The erection of an auditorium built jointly by the city, the county and the University of Ten

nessee.

Three New Playgrounds in Los Angeles. -Three new playgrounds will be added to the recreation system in Los Angeles, the Playground and Recreation Commission having approved plans for the equipping of three sites. According to estimates submitted a total expenditure of $52,015 will be necessary to put these new play areas into service. This includes $10,000 to be set aside for each playground for the erection of a community center building.

Winter Sports for Los Angeles.-Camp Seeley was officially opened in January as the all year-round mountain playground of the city of Los Angeles The Board of Playground and Reccreation Commissioners acted as hosts to a number of honor guests and to the general public on the opening day when a program of winter sports was launched. With five inches of snow on the ground it was possible to have exhibitions of skiing, snow shoe races and other winter sports.

For the Men of Waltham.-The city of Waltham, Massachusetts, has received a trust fund of about $200,000 established under the will of Hamblin L. Hovey, who died in 1904. A board of five trustees has been appointed to construct, maintain, and operate a building which will be known as the Hamblin L. Hovey Institute. The purpose of the Institute is to provide recreation, amusement and free baths for the men of Waltham.

Automobile Hiking.-With the help of the automobile club staff the Recreation Department of Reading, Pennsylvania, last year prepared and helped distribute descriptions of thirteen automobile hikes.

Community Golf in Cleveland Heights.Last winter the Board of Public Recreation, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, organized a community golf club for indoor playing which carried over until the opening of the outdoor courses in the

was fitted up with six driving nets and putting greens were built. A golf professional gave instruction at each session. Members paid a fee of five dollars and a daily greens fee of thirty-five

cents.

Industrial Recreation in Wilkes Barre.The 1928 report of the Store Employees' Association of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, organized by the Playground and Recreation Association, shows a membership of fifty-one organizations. The activities include bowling for men and girls, baseball, basketball, swimming and social recreation. The financial report shows that the employees themselves paid seventy-six percent of the total cost of their own recreation, the employers, twenty-four percent.

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Municipal Athletics in Milwaukee. The Municipal Athletic Football Association of Milwaukee had one of its best seasons in 1928, according to the December thirtieth issue of the Milwaukee Journal, largely because of a method of classifying teams. In place of the weight system, the Extension Department of the School Board in charge of municipal athletics substituted the age system regardless of weight. There were three leagues-National for players under twenty-two years of age; Junior for players under twenty and Cadet for players under eighteen. The three leagues brought together

-Strong Hinman, Supervisor of Physical Education, Wichita, Kansas, public schools, reports that the intra-mural program adopted during the past year is reaching many more pupils than did the old inter-scholastic program. The results of the year's work show that 6,128 more boys and girls took part in activities under the new plan than were reached formerly.

The Department of Physical Education has worked out an interesting point system of awards. Pins have been adopted as awards for those earning points, one for boys and one for girls of the intermediate schools, and honor keys for high school boys and girls. In the intermediate schools the pins are bronze; in the high schools keys are silver. When a pupil graduates from high school the silver key will be exchanged for a gold one as an additional reward for completing the public school work. To earn the awards the pupils may participate in individual tests, intra-mural sports or, in the case of high school boys, in interscholastic sports.

Schools cannot make men better citizens than their communities demand and their working lives determine. The school can, for a time, lure an individual student beyond the standards of his community, but, save with the exceptional person, the community will sooner or later get him. The community has its schools, but the community is itself a school. And our education is the product of all of our experiences, not merely of our classroom experiences. All this means, I think, that we must revise our ancient notion of the relationship between school and society. The school and the social order must be saved together or they will sink together.

From On the Firing Line of Democracy, published in The Journal of Adult Education, February, 1929.

Basketball for Employed Girls in Columbus. The most outstanding winter recreation activity for the young women of Columbus is basketball. Three leagues are organized each year, a business girls' league of representatives of commercial firms, all of whom must be employees over eighteen years of age; an independent league of working girls who want to play basketball but who cannot get enough players from any one business house to form a team and whose teams are thus made up of girls from different business firms, and a recreation league of beginning players and junior players from church groups. In the