GIFT OF The Municipalization of Play and Recreation The Beginnings of a New Institution By JOSEPH RICHARD FULK, Ph. D. Professor of Education, Teachers College University of Florida COPYRIGHT 1922 by JOSEPH R. FULK Giit THE CLAFLIN PRINTING COMPANY UNIVERSITY PLACE. NEBRASKA o PREFACE My work as superintendent of city schools forced me into this problem. The recreational life of small cities and towns is so unsatisfactory, so wasteful, and so morally dangerous, that I was led to attempt to understand it. My master's thesis, "The Motion Picture Show with Special Reference to its Effects on Morals and Education," increased my interest in the human struggle for wholesome and developmental ex- ercise of fundamental instincts. This little book is an at- tempt to show one tendency in this struggle. The manuscript of this book was accepted, in 1917, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doc- tor of philosophy at the University of Nebraska. It is pub- lished as written at that time with a few minor changes and additions. Some new matter has been introduced in chapters ii, iii, and iv. However, no attempt has been made to follow the problem through and after the World War. Social condi- tions were normal in 1917. Ideas and facts have been taken freely from others. Credit in no case has been purposely omitted. The writer here expresses his deep obligation to many city officials, and other persons, who have so kindly answered questions, and sent helpful material. To Dr. G. W. A. Luckey for his wise direction, and to my wife for her patient and skillful assistance in the preparation of the manuscript, I am especially indebted. July, 1922 JOSEPH R. FULK TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface Ill Chapter I Introduction .* 1-4 Leisure and work 1 Labor, congestion, and neglect of leisure 1 The American city and its advantages 2 Leisure, a serious city problem 2 A new institution forming in the city 3 Purpose of the following chapters Play versus work 3 Play, recreation, leisure, as used 4 Chapter II Active Recognition of the Social Value of Play and Rec- reation 5-14 Play and work, problems of civilization :. 5 Democracy and leisure related 5 Labor, leisure, and dissipation Power of environment 6 Conditions growing out of immigration and congestion 7 Recreation a necessary human need 8 Social changes taking recreation from the home Private enterprise exploits the need 8 Rise of Playground and Recreation Association of America - Early city play centers < The schools recognize recreation 10 The community center movement 10 Recreation legislation Recreation surveyed 12 City planning and recreation Public interest and support of recreational means 13 Industrialism fosters recreation 14 vi MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION Chapter III Page Factors Forcing Public Recognition of Play and Recrea- tion J 15-24 Slow recognition of recreation as a social problem 15 Perverted forms of recreation 16 Problem of human living together 17 Results of urbanization 17 Shorter labor day and unprotected leisure 19 Child labor laws and child idleness 20 Commercialization of leisure J 20 Failure of school and church to solve the problem 21 Recreational prestige of the big city 22 Labor's need for wholesome recreation 22 Summary 23 Chapter IV Municipal Recognition and Administration of Play and Recreation 25-37 Progressive meaning of public utilities 25 General administrative plans 25 Recreation commission and superintendent 26 The Detroit plan, the Recreation Commission 26 s Playground Department, Los Angeles 31 Cleveland, Department of Public Welfare 31 Superintendent of Recreation, Dayton 32 Board of Park Commissioners, Springfield 32 Chicago's complicated system 33 Duplication and lack of coordination 33 Forms and tendencies in municipal management 34 City expense for recreation 34 Summary 36 Chapter V A Study of the Public Play and Recreation Facilities of Forty-Six Small Cities and Villages of Nebraska.. 38-88 A. Introductory Some Recent Investigations of Munic- ipal Recreation 38-43 The survey movement .._ 38 TABLE OP CONTENTS vii Page Definition and grouping of surveys 38 Purpose of this study 39 Typical small town studies 39 Purpose of these brief reviews 43 B. State Regulations Relating to Recreation 43-45 Growth of recreation legislation 43 Native legislation 44 Positive and constructive laws 44 Permissive laws 45 C. An Inventory of the Public Play and Recreation Facilities of the Forty-Six Cities and Villages....45-59 Population of the towns 45 Density of population of the state 46 Distribution of the towns 46 Sources of data used. 46 Value of the mayors' replies 49 Grouping of recreation activities 49 Governmental agencies 50 Commercial agencies 51 Incidental Agencies 52 Religious, philanthropic, and social agencies 53 Typical recreation facilities 54 Attitude of mayors toward recreation 56 Conclusion -58 D. The Utilization and Inadequacy of the Public Play and Recreation Facilities in the City and Vil- ages 59-68 Author's right to interpret data 59 Public school recreation 59 Libraries and recreation 60 Value of open air concerts 60 Uses of city halls A 61 Billiards popular and under ban 61 The passing of traveling shows 61 Baseball and carnivals 62 Constancy of incidental agencies 62 Ancillary use of recreation 63 Relation of recreation to religious life 64 Church existence takes church energy 65 viii MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION Page Recreational trend of lectures, etc 66 Semi-private agencies 67 Uses of community buildings 67 Summary 68 E. The Evaluation and Meaning of the Complex and Over-Lapping Agencies of Public Play and Rec- reation 68-88 Systemless and inefficient recreation 68 Purpose of this division 68 Towns studied are rural 69 Ruralness of Nebraska 70 State population typically American , 70 National social consciousness 71 Travel, education, and literature as factors 71 Commercialism and big city prestige 72 Social betterment movements 74 The community Christmas tree 74 Development of community music 75 Music and industry : 77 The social center a rediscovery 78 Local clubs 79 Strength of social forces in small and large cities., 79 A conception of the development of civilization 80 Metropolitan urbanization 81 Home and congestion in small towns 82 Industrialism and the home 83 Other factors of family disintegration 83 Recreation a free-lance agency 84 Summary of factors weakening the home 84 Hinderances to social readjustments 85 Home becomes secondary 86 A new institution in the margin of leisure 87 Conclusion 87 Chapter VI Conclusion 89-90 Bibliography . , 91-97 The Municipalization of Play and Recreation CHAPTER I Introduction "Economists have been for a long time trying to dis- cover how best to employ the energies of men. Ah ! if I could but discover how best to employ their leisure ! Labor in plenty there is sure to be. But where look for recreation ? The daily work provides the daily bread, but laughter gives it savor. Oh, all you philosophers! Begin the search for pleasure! Find for us, if you can, amusements that do not degrade, joys that uplift. Invent a holiday that gives everyone pleasure and makes none ashamed." (107: 23-24.) Leisure is relief from work. Work, in ordinary usage, is whatever is purposely undertaken by an individual that "he would not at the time undertake for its own intrinsic satisfy- ingness." (114: 10.) Protected, protracted work, mental and muscular, is a product of modern civilization and a measure of its development. Unprotected, protracted work, chiefly muscular was the basis of ancient civilizations. The protection of work and the consequent diffusion of leisure are character- istic of modern democratic civilizations. The conservation of labor is a new government function that the state has been forced to assume, largely because of the social complications arising from the congestion of popu- lation in great cities, and the encroachments of modern in- dustrialism. It has grown up through the city. At first it was essentially a municipal problem. Governmental intervention has not only diffused leisure, but has added to leisure time. A shorter labor day, and child labor regulations have, perhaps, contributed most to these changes. Though leisure has been diffused and increased, no institution has assumed responsibility for its utilization. Pro- tection of leisure has not at all kept pace with protection of 2 MUNIC1PALIZATION OF RECREATION labor. The complicated and troublesome social situation of the city has forced some recognition of the problem of public leisure by municipal government. The American city is redeeming itself. "A new spirit pervades the city of today a spirit of hopefulness and genuine interest in the common welfare. A quarter of a century ago, and less, writers were deploring the failure of American cities." (89: 1.) In 1916, Dr. Munro stated that American cities had made more progress in "clean and efficient government" dur- ing the last decade than in the half century preceding. (72 :1) Dr. Wood reports that standards of living and health in the cities have risen above those of the country ; that "rural school children are less healthy, and are handicapped by more physi- cal defects than children of the city schools, including all the children of the slums" ; and, that for the years 1910-1915, the general death rate of New York City was lower than the death rate of rural New York during the same period. (120: 232-33.) The large cities have more effective pure food laws, and purer water than rural sections. The congestion of the heterogeneous peoples in industrial centers, which really make the American cities, has forced municipal recognition and solution, or attempted solution, of these and many other re- lated social problems. The extension of the functions of city government has been rapid and important during the last half century. The municipalization of such public utilities as water, sewers, and light, is a commonly accepted practice. Some provisions for public leisure have long been made by cities through the or- dinary channels of government. A wide extension of these provisions has been made in many cities within recent years. However, no attempt has been made in any city to provide and control all means for public play and leisure. The leisure problem, in all its ramifications, is still the menace of the city. Conservative estimates report that at least eighty per cent of all offenses against society are com- mitted during leisure time. Slowly the cities are assuming responsibility and providing facilities for the care of public leisure. As home, church, vocation, education, government, has each built up around itself a complex of customs, regula- tions and equipment for satisfying human wants and needs-T- in short, an institution so is public play and leisure building about itself the bulwark, and the machinery of a new institu- INTRODUCTION 8 tion, which may be called Recreation, or Play and Recreation. Chiefly through the government of cities is this institution forming. The control and management of many of the activities that will when understood and organized make the new in- stitution, are at present passing over into the recognized channels of city government are being municipalized. The municipalization of these activities marks the beginning of the institutionalizing of them. For the five great agencies or institutions of civilization the church, the home, the school, the vocation, and the state are not able, either individually or collectively, to take care of the new social situation introduced into modern civilization by the development of these activities. Just as education as an institution has grown out of and through the home, the church, and the state, so is recreation as an institution growing out of and through all the other in- stitutions. The municipality is recreation's most rapid growing point at present. The five major institutions of civilization are not five tight compartments into which the elements of civilization may be placed, all of each element in one compartment. The school does not provide all education. The municipalities will not provide for all recreation. The other agencies will continue to provide play and recreation facilities. The municipality, and finally the institution, Recreation, will provide and con- trol all public play and recreation facilities, and will at- tempt to eliminate all that are unwholesome, whether public or not, and will build up a developmental community system of public play and recreation. It is the purpose of the following chapters to show that such an institution, with powers and ideals as above stated, is in process of formation in the cities of the United States. All relief from work is not play or recreation. Play and recreation are not all of leisure, neither are they all leisure. Hard and fast lines have not been drawn between leisure and work ; nor between work and play ; nor between play and rec- reation; nor between recreation and dissipation. The fact of play is best exemplified in the unrestrained, spontaneous activities of children. We recognize the play of children when we see it, and we recognize the feeling of play in ourselves when we experience it. The origin and significance of play are not so evident. No attempt will be made here to enter into a discussion of the theories of the origin of the tendency to 4 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION play. Play is a normal activity of the child, and its free ex- ercise is necessary for complete development. Recreation in some form is necessary for normal adult life. The term, play, includes the free activities of children, and the pleasurable activities of children and adults that are not included in work or recreation. Play may exhaust child energy as work does adult energy. Recreation, so-called, may dissipate adult en- ergy, and break down character. Recreation is a re-creating a refreshing and recuperating of the energies of mind and body after work. John Dewey is right when he says of recreation: "No demand of nature is more urgent or less to be escaped. The idea that the need can be suppressed is absolutely fallacious and the Puritanic tra- dition which disallows the need has entailed an enormous crop of evils." (26: 241-42.) Some work is really not work for all who perform it. "Whatever one does for the pure love of it, that is play." (28a: 164.) The mental attitude of the worker largely determines for him whether the activity is work or play. This mental attitude is governed, in a great measure, by environment. Again, the words of Dewey are fitting. He says : "In their intrinsic meaning, play and industry are by no means so antithetical to one another as is often assumed, any sharp contrast being due to undesirable social conditions." (26 : 237.) Work done as play is not true recreation. Play and recreation may on account of misdirection, overstimulation, and excess become forms of dissipation. These chapters deal with public forms of play and recreation in cities of the United States. Though play may be creation as well as recreation, and leisure may be neither, to avoid repetition, the terms are often used interchangeably throughout this discussion. The insti- tution, comparable in importance to the home and the school, which it is contended is now in process of formation, is called Recreation. CHAPTER II Active Recognition of the Social Value of Play and Recreation With primitive man play and recreation were not sep- arated as distinct parts of his activities. He probably played at his work or worked at his play indifferently. Recreation was fortuitous. There were no rules outside of his own de- sires and needs except those fixed by nature's limitations. The problem of play and recreation has grown out of civil- ization. The civilized adult plays and requires recreation, be- cause the social requirements of a complicated civilization compel him to work at stated intervals, and usually at definite narrow tasks. Social organization fixes his periods of leisure, but does little toward conserving and caring for them. Chil- dren at present play for the same reasons that they have al- ways played, but usually with civilization's handicaps. Proper facilities are often wanting, and free periods are interfered with by institutions that are over-zealous to make adults of them, or monetary profit from them. The development of democracy has increased the margin of leisure. Probably, a larger proportion of the population of the United States has longer and more frequent periods of play and recreation, than have ever before been so used by any highly civilized people. It is the need of the conservation and the protection of this increased margin that makes the recrea- tion problem. External pressure or coercion may make an activity, though short in duration, drudgery and fatiguing. This tends to pervert nature's demands for relaxation, and dis- sipation may follow. (26: 240.) Machines, excessive special- ization, vocational misfits, and the efficiency drive of indus- trialism, augment this tendency. If there is little or no self expression in work there is not natural self expression in lei- sure. When external pressure is removed, there is a tendency to go too far in the opposite direction, and the liberty of lei- sure leads to self indulgence to perverted leisure, to dissipa- tion before the balance is restored. Man is not a machine. Cessation from regular action of work is not followed by regular inaction of rest, which is of use only as a preparation for another period of work. This re- lation between work and rest was approximated when labor 6 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION was a slave's lot, and the laborer was pushed to the limit of physical exhaustion by long hours and heavy work. But even a horse, after the hardest day in the fields, will, relieved of his harness in the evening, roll with evident pleasure on the cool grass in the orchard pasture, and afterwards kick up his heels in play. The conception of the manual laborer as a work machine, whose sole function was to provide means for the existence and enjoyment of a leisure class, is at least as old as Greek civili- zation. Today there is unequal distribution of leisure, but leisure is so distributed in the United States that some of it reaches practically all laborers. In many cases it is the prime motive that gives the urge to work. In such cases, man endures that he may enjoy, and the quality of his uncontrolled enjoy- ment or leisure is apt to be governed in a large measure by the quality of his work, as it appeals to him. t The social values of play and recreation have received re- newed attention in recent years because studies of environ- mental influences with reference to character formation have modified somewhat the generally accepted notions of the re- lative importance of heredity and environment. The fact is being more and more fully realized that environment must provide the stimulus and opportunity to develop fully the best inherited traits, and that wholesome stimulating environment may counteract untoward hereditary tendencies. (64: 274.) The careful records of the Glasgow Municipal Authorities pro- vide a striking confirmation of the newer theories of heredity. Six hundred thirty children from the worst possible stock and f romjmean and vile surroundings, were taken when very young from that city and were sent, at the expense of the municipal- ity, to the country to be reared in ordinary homes. For years the record of these children was carefully kept and only twenty- three of the number went wrong. "A smaller number than if they had been the sons of ministers or professors," asserts the Poor Law Inspector of Glasgow. All this is but an exempli- fication of the old Scotch educational maxim : "Thraw the willow when it's green Between three and thirteen." (1: 36 and 62: 208-13.) In general, records of charitable institutions show that about 85 per cent of the children of ne'er-do-wells and criminals, who are placed in good homes ACTIVE RECOGNITION OF RECREATION 7 in early childhood, develop into good citizens. Juvenile de- linquency was decreased nearly fifty per cent in the Stock Yards district of Chicago by the introduction of public play- grounds. (71: 370.) There is strong evidence that juvenile delinquency is about one-third a eugenic and two-thirds a euthenic problem. Lombroso says that where manufacturing crowds agri- culture, and still more where it displaces it, the number of crimes increases immediately. (687 130-32.) In the United States from 1850 to 1900, the percentage of urban pop- ulation (8,000 and up) increased from 12.5 per cent to 33.1 per cent. From 1880 to 1900 the urban population (2,500 and up) rose from 29.5 per cent to 46.3 per cent. The 1920 census gives the urban population (2,500 and up) as 51.9 per cent of the whole population of the United States. Almost one-tenth of the people live in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago ; more than one-fourth live in 68 cities, each having a population of 100,000 or more. Kellicott states that prisoners per 100,000 population increased during the years 1850 t'o 1904 from 29 to 125 ; and that murders and homicides per million of the entire population nearly trebled from 1896 to 1911; also that the ratio of known insane to total population rose from 183 per 100,000 in 1880 to 225 per 100,000 in 1903. He shows also that there was during these periods a rapid increase in de- fectives and unfit generally. (63: 29-J53.) There is no impli- cation here that crime and social degeneracy are the results of the rapid growth of cities. However, the environmental changes have come so quickly that society has not been able to adjust itself. The heavy heterogeneous immigration during the periods considered has complicated the situation, for as D. F. Wilcox puts it in his "fereat Cities in America," "every American city is, in its population elements, a world city." (118: 9.) The influx of millions of foreigners from all parts of the world, who came into a strange and unusual social envi- ronment, has added to the confusion of the rapid urbanization, which was not at all understood by the native population. The large foreign element in a new environment, and the Americans themselves in a changing and mysterious environment, created a unique social problem, the solution of which is yet to be found. The problem seems to be largely one of environment. The essential nature of the peoples involved has not changed much in a half century. What people do, has changed. The en- 8 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION vironment has changed most. Probably least effort has been expended in attempting to control the influences that play upon life continually. Heredity, function, and environment are all the factors of life that are known. They are the determining factors. (113: 3.) The labor problem, in its productive and financial aspects, is more on the public mind than eugenics, and eugenics until quite recently probably received more scien- tific and popular attention than euthenics. "Play is the most universal activity in the world." (85: / 110.) Recreation is an essential human need. They are both necessary to complete development and full efficiency. They know no race or nationality. Provision for their proper de- velopmental exercise is an important part of the problem of euthenics, especially in the modern city. One cannot imagine a social situation in which play and recreation are not, at least in part, cared for by the home. There is a tendency among social reformers to minimize the home or almost neglect its influence, with reference to certain social problems. Certainly social changes and conditions with- in recent years have taken many play and recreation activities from the home. Formal education has at last recognized the significance of developmental play and recreation in child and youth train- ing, and many of the former home activities in these lines have been transferred to the school, and utilized as educational 1 1 material. The church is beginning to utilize play and recreation as j! aids in religious development and training. Industrialism, rec- ognizing the commercial and moral dangers of restoring the balance when released from monotonous work, often provides means of play and recreation for employees. Both of these agencies have detracted from the home's play and recreation strength. Private enterprise has been left virtually free to exploit nature's need of play and recreation, so commercialization is the characteristic and most common means of providing for these activities outside of the home. At the National Education Association, in 1902, in dis- cussing "The School as a Social Center," John Dewey said: "I believe that there is no force more likely to count in the general reform of social conditions than the practical recog- nition that in recreation there is a positive moral influence ACTIVE RECOGNITION OF RECREATION 9 which it is the duty of the community to take hold of and direct." (27:381-2.) In 1906, the Playground and Recreation Association of America was organized at Washington, District of Columbia. It was at first called a playground association, and its inter- ests were almost entirely with playground development. The first annual Playground Congress met at Chicago, in 1907. There were two hundred delegates present from thirty cities. The proceedings of this congress are published in a ninety- five page volume. The proceedings of the second congress fill a volume of four hundred fifty-six pages. A conference of city officials was a feature of the second meeting. In Octo- ber, 1916, the eighth session of the association, called the National Recreation Congress, met at Grand Rapids, Michigan. There were present over seven hundred delegates from one hundred seventy-eight towns and cities. There were eighty persons on the program. Information concerning the work of the congress was sent to a selected list of 22,000 persons. Zueblin in his "American Municipal Progress" states that a playground was established in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1872. (124: 297.) Rainwater in his "The Play Movement in the United States," after characterizing the "play movement" >as a movement that "seeks to bring about adjustments through the organization of social activities," concludes that the move- ment began in the United States "with the sand piles of Boston in 1885." (89a: 11 and 27.) By 1900 ten cities had established playgrounds. From 1900 to 1906, twenty-six cities recognized recreational needs in the same way. (122a: 485.) The 1916 Year Book of the Playground and Recreation Association of America shows that during 1915 there was playground and recreation work, regularly conducted under paid supervision, in 3,294 playground and recreation centers of 432 American cities. During July and August, 1915, the total Average daily attendance at these centers was almost one million. (122: 383- 386.) H. S. Curtis states that the city of Chicago, in 1904, through the Metropolitan Parks Commission, issued the first municipal playground plan in the United States. (21 : 496.) The Index of the Reports of the National Education Asso- ciation for the first fifty years of its existence, 1857-1906, lists five topics on the various phases of play. These five topics cover thirty pages of the reports from 1898 to 1906, inclusive. The topic, "Playgrounds for the Poor in the Cities of Eng- 10 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION land," fills five pages of the report for 1893. (74: 148.) The index of the reports for the half century have no other mention of playgrounds. Two articles, one in 1901, and one in 1902, deal specifically with the public school as a social center. (74: 177.) At present an equipped supervised playground is a recognized part of a complete school. Schools, colleges, and universities through their playgrounds, athletic fields, gymna- siums, stadiums, competetive games, and various organiza- tions for caring for student life outside of regular classrooms, recognize the seriousness of the leisure time problem. Phys- ical education is secondary in these various activities. The school house is in many places becoming a real social center, though the movement as we now know it began no farther back than 1907. The complexity and variety of activ- ities that are grouped around the social center, or as it is now styled, the community center movement, are shown in C. A. Perry's handbook, "Community Center Activities." (87.) The nation-wide diffusion of the community center idea has resulted in the organization of a National Community Center Association, which held its first conference at New York City in 1916, and its second conference at Chicago in April, 1917. At the second conference there were present nearly five hundred registered delegates representing twenty-six states. (20: 12-14.) "The Community Center" was originally a monthly magazine issued by the association, "Published in the interest of Community Centers everywhere." The first official number appeared in June, 1917. (20.) At present "The Com- munity Center" is published bi-monthly by The National Com- munity Center Association, New York City. It calls itself "A news and discussion organ for all who are endeavoring to enrich life through community action." A wide range of activ- ities is fostered by this association. Many of them are entirely recreational. Though the recreation problem is not the whole problem of the community center, it is a large part of it. "The community center seeks to provide opportunities for the peo- ple to know how to live." (99: 15.) To do that recreation must be cared for. Community Service, Incorporated, which grew out of War Camp Community Service, an organization approved by the federal government during the World War, states in its charter that its object is, "the development in all American cities, through public and private agencies and by every ACTIVE RECOGNITION OP RECREATION 11 appropriate means, of better moral and industrial con- ditions, health and welfare, play and recreation, higher and more adequate community and neighborhood expression, and a better social life." (2a : 402.) In 1894, the National Municipal League was organized for the purpose of bringing about much needed reforms in the gov- ernment of American cities. In 1899, this league adopted a reform program called the Municipal Program. Parks and playgrounds were merely named among the attainable means by which a city should serve its citizens. (119: 225-26.) This is an early and an important theoretical recognition of the city's responsibility for providing for public leisure. Interest in all phases of city government has increased rapidly in the last twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago not more than three or four of the largest universities and col- leges of the United States gave separate courses in municipal government. In 1908, such courses were offered in forty-six institutions; in 1912, in sixty-four; and in 1916, in ninety-five. (72a: 565-573.) Knight and Williams in their "Sources of Information on Play and Recreation," 1920, list sixty univer- sities, colleges, and normal schools in the United States that offer both regular and summer courses for recreation and com- munity leaders. (65a: 39-41.) "The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education" issued by a committee of the National Education Association in 1916, places "The worthy use of lei- sure" as one of the seven objectives in education. The rapid spread of the commission form of city government, and the city-manager plan, and the general tendency towards home rule for cities, mark great steps toward the recognition of local needs in all lines of municipal government. At the nineteenth annual convention of the League of American Municipalities, at New Orleans, in 1915, "Leisure Time The Municipality's Responsibility," was an important topic of discussion, opened by the Superintendent of the Recrea- tion Commission of Detroit. (60: 19-24.) Many cities have, like Detroit, officially assumed at least part of this responsi- bility, in a more active way than by providing a few dignified display parks, libraries, and scientific museums. Recent state laws are in many cases more or less manda- tory. The Massachusetts law of 1912, provides that every town in the state having a population of more than 5,000, must at the request of ten per cent of the voters submit the question 12 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION of providing public playgrounds to the voters at the next town election. If a majority of the voters favors such provision, the town must "provide and thereafter maintain at least one public playground conveniently located and of such suitable size and equipment for the recreation and physical education of the minors of the town." (48 : 36-37.) This law has been accepted by scores of towns of Massachusetts. Several states have with- in the last few years passed laws permitting cities and towns to acquire land and to establish play and recreation centers, which are managed by recreation commissions or boards cre- ated by the cities. (2a: 416) The permissive state legisla- tion concerning recreation is in many respects similar to that which took place in the development and establishment of public, tax-supported education. The federal government through its national parks, its forest and game reserves, and its monuments, has provided some means for recreation for some of the people. Several states have established state parks for the same purpose. (81.) These facilities can be used only by a very small proportion of the people of the nation or of the states. Federal recognition of the necessity of caring for the recreational needs of the soldiers and sailors, is one of the outstanding social facts of the World War. Experience in meeting these needs is espe- cially valuable in aiding municipalities in solving their recre- ational problems. The municipality, of all governmental agencies, is the only one that has to any great extent seriously attempted to provide and control play and recreation facilities available for all its people. The dependence of the city upon the state has sometimes stood in the way of progressive city government. The fact must be kept in mind, however, that no city has at- tempted to provide and control all public play and recreation, as it provides and controls public education. There is no com- plete system of municipalized play and recreation in the United States. The Social Survey Bulletin of the Russell Sage Foundation Library for December, 1915, lists special recreation surveys of fifteen cities of the United States. The earliest was made in 1912. (14: No. 9.) Scores of surveys made in the last ten years have dealt in part with various aspects of recreation. (14.) In 1914, the report of the "Recreational Inquiry Com- mittee of the State of California" was published by the state. ACTIVE RECOGNITION OF RECREATION 13 This committee was appointed by authority of the state legis- lature. (97.) This survey is a study of all phases of recre- ation in the state, together with recommendations for meeting more fully the recreational needs of the people. Most of the numerous city planning commissions of recent years have given careful attention to the development of the recreational facilities of the communities studied. "A Public Recreation System for Newark," is the title of a special re- port issued in 1915, by the city plan commission of Newark, New Jersey. The commission describes it as "a brief review, from the city-planning standpoint, of the value of a compre- hensive system of public recreation." (17: 1.) This com- mission also says, "Ample recreation facilities properly con- trolled are absolutely essential to the making of a healthy, law-abiding and efficient city." (17: 3.) The unpublished re- port of the Municipal Plans Commission of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, first appointed in 1910, devoted in its final report, 1914, about one-sixth of its attention, measured by pages, to a ' 'Statement Concerning Playground and Recreation Center Phases of the Lincoln Plan." (94.) Though this last report has not resulted in any concerted movement for the betterment of recreational conditions, it is indicative of public interest in that direction. Community buildings, chiefly for recreation purposes, built with public or partly public funds, or by philanthropic and re- ligious organizations, are springing up in all parts of the country. In several states community buildings as war me- morials are authorized by law. In almost every community, the press, religious, social and philanthropic organizations, and people who work for the betterment of human living, are giving some attention to the improvement of some form of public recreation. There is gen- eral recognition of the problem as an all-year one, and that it applies to individuals of all ages. A study of the bibliographies of play and recreation dis- closes the fact that the problem is being approached from various angles by social workers, sociologists and educators as well as by the states, cities, and public and private corpora- tions. (124: 463-95; 14; 58: 170-184; 74; 49; 65a; 89a: 356- 65.) A number of magazines such as "The Survey," and "The American City," give special attention to the discussion of pub- 14 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION lie recreation problems. "The Playground" is the organ of the Playground and Recreation Association of America. Industrialism has discovered the monetary value of recre- ation. The recognition of this value, mingled with the desire to help people to live better, has led the management of many industrial establishments to provide wholesome leisure time facilities for their employees. Henderson in "Citizens in In- dustry" lists eighty-two cities in the United States in which one or more industrial establishments carry on important wel- fare work among their employees. He gives this as an incom- plete list. (51: 316-22.) It is sufficient, however, to show the prevalence of industrial belief in the efficacy pf proper recrea- tion. These cities are distributed throughout the nation. This sketch of the development and growth of public and governmental interest in play and recreation may, perhaps, help picture the immensity and complexity of the problems involved. The facts here given show that there is in the United States an active recognition of the social values of play and recreation, and that there is a decided tendency to utilize these values for the individual, and for the social group. In the cities this tendency is more pronounced. CHAPTER III Factors Forcing Public Recognition of Play and Recreation The recent recognition of the value of play and recrea- tion as a definite and an important factor of the social prob- lem has been shown in the preceding chapter. Play and recreation have usually been considered as use- less and troublesome, but unavoidable residua of work, or as a preparation for work. Partial conception of their signifi- cance and full conception of the need of something, have re- sulted in sporadic and in many cases questionable and unde- velopmental means of providing for these activities. The failure to recognize play and recreation as funda- mental and essential human activities, which should be cared for by a definite institution on a level with the other great institutions of civilization, has caused much confusion of methods and means, and much waste of human effort. In this chapter an attempt is made to enumerate and discuss briefly some of the factors that are silently but force- fully making play and recreation matters of deepest public concern. Cities seem to be the real growing points of our civiliza- tion. They are the most favorable fields for the consideration of these problems. In fact, recent active recognition of the social values of play and recreation and the tendency of cities to assume the responsibility of providing for and directing these activities, point toward the municipal recognition and establishment of a new institution, which will be comparable in its universality to the public school, and which may finally lead to the nationalizing of play and recreation as an insti- tution. Why are play and recreation at present of such pressing i public concern? These are times of social unrest of world stress. The problem of relaxation is a world problem. Whole- j some play was never more needed than at present. Wars J seem to be a necessary means of relieving public stress. Per- haps, inventions, increase and pursuit of wealth and freedom, have taken man too rapidly away from old racial ways of doing and thinking. Intense mental and muscular applica- 16 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION tion finds relief in the return to activities which use tracts that are old racially, and therefore satisfying in exercise. (86: 49 ff.) The complications and requirements of civiliza- tion have resulted in many perverted forms of these rever- sions. Original tendencies and instincts necessary for the preservation, and complete development of human beings are exploited, perhaps as never before in the world's history. Democracy in its leveling process seems to be increasing leisure time, without adequately providing for its conservation. The social sex dance is an example. Dr. G. Stanley Hall calls the dance of the modern ball-room "a degenerate relict." (46: 90.) All savages dance. Dancing has played an im- uportant part in the training of the race. We know the value flof the folk dance, of child dancing and of national dances. (/The early Christian bishops led the sacred dance around the altar. (46: 89.) According to some of the fathers of the early church, "the angels are always dancing, and the glor- ious company of the apostles is really a chorus of dancers/' (106: 800.) A monstrous perversion of the dance, called the "pros- perity crawl," practiced in the winter of 1916-17, in the ultra- fashionable restaurants of New York City, is described by a newspaper reporter as follows : "On a little floor into which a subway guard wouldn't try to squeeze more than three dozen couples, six dozen cram themselves and try to dance. Six dozen couples, filled with food, booze, and a determina- tion to be joyful, though the hour is after midnight, and the air is thick enough for flying, make a wonderful spectacle of themselves. Most of the dancing they do is in their minds. If they move their legs, someone ^else's leg intervenes. On the least crowded nights it is possible to dance a little (hori- zontally for the most part) and that is where the crawl comes in. From the surrounding tables the picture is like nothing so much as a can of sardines seeking to express its soul, or a bucket full of yeast just going to work." (4.) This is a ridiculous exaggeration. However, there is a decided tendency towards excess and degeneracy in niost social dances. Much crime and most juvenile delinquency are undoubt- edly the results of perverted play and recreation. (59: 307.) artificial environment of the modern city prevents nor- il instinctive development. Life means action. Unless pro- FACTORS FORCING RECOGNITION 17 vided for and directed, this activity is apt to run off into hurt- ful excesses and perverted forms. It seems that man has always preyed upon man more or less. Civilization seems to have changed the forms only. Government at its best tries to prevent it. This is an age of almost painfully awakened social con- sciousness. People have never before known so much about one another as they know now. The social problem, as defined by Charles A. Ellwood, is very simple in its statement. Pro- fessor Ellwood says, "Some of us at least, are beginning to perceive that the social problem is now, what it has been in all ages, namely, the problem of the relation of men to one another. It is the problem of human living together/' (30: 13.) The increasing complexity "of human living together" is characteristic of this age. In the United States, a heterogen- eous people makes the situation especially aggravating. The control and the conservation of play and recreation, stands out as one of the important, unsolved and difficult factors of the social problem. It is not because of its newness that the recreation question is now attracting public attention. Civi- lized peoples have always worked and rested from work. In fact, with the race, play, probably in order of time, came be- fore work. Congestion of population tends to make the problem of leisure acute. Whether or not we hold with Lombroso that "the very congestion of population itself gives an irresistible impulse toward crime and immorality," (68: 53.) we must admit that congestion does in every way complicate the social problem. Statistics prove that most crimes increase with density. (68: Chapter V, and 8: 61-109.) Dr. Reeder states that out of 130,000 children in the reformatories of the United States, 98 per cent come from cities, towns and villages. He says, "The delinquent child of today is the product of city and town life." (91:160.) Excessive urbanization has been called a deadly disease. It is said to have killed the Roman Empire. We have greater resisting power than had Rome ; but the disease is essentially the same. (32: 78-81.) In 1787, Jefferson predicted danger and corruption for America with the development of large cities. (61.) Closely related to the problem of congestion is that of 18 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION the passing of the owned home and the coming of the tene- ment, the apartment house, and the family hotel. In 1910, of the fifty cities of 100,000 or more, Spokane, Washington, was the only one in which less than one-half of all homes were rented. In thirty-nine of these fifty cities fully three-fourths of the homes were rented; and in sixteen, more than three- fourths. In five of them more than four-fifths were rented. In New York City as a whole, 88.3 per cent of all homes were rented; in Manhattan only 2.9 per cent were owned. (Ill: 1295-1314.) A dwelling house is defined in the United States census, as a place in which one or more persons regularly sleep. In the United States as a whole, in 1910, there were in urban communities, 5.9 persons to a dwelling; in rural communities, 4.7 persons; in Chicago, 8.9; in New York City as a whole, 15.6; in Manhattan, 30.9. (Ill: 1288.) The 1920 census will probably show, for the city at least, a decrease in owned homes, and a large increase in the num- ber of persons to a dwelling. In recent years, there has been in most large cities, great activity in the erection of apart- ment houses and family hotels. In 1916, twenty apartment houses were built in Omaha, valued at $910,000 ; and in Lin- coln, twenty-two valued at over $800,000. The Lincoln houses, built in 1916, have a capacity of two hundred eighty-two families, and were rented before completion. (9 and 78.) The growth of family hotels, apartment houses, tenements and flats, means yardless homes, and in most cases, a handi- cap for indoor play space for children. In 1915, there were ( 734,500 children in New York City between the ages of five and fourteen who had no outdoor play space at home. (92: 10.) A recreation survey of Kansas City disclosed the fact that in fifty-four residential blocks, selected from four typi- cal sections of the city, but seven and one-fourth per cent of the ground space privately owned, was usable for play. ( 102 : 24.) In the same fifty-four blocks at a given time 1,528 children were observed playing outdoors, and 71 per cent were on the streets and in the alleys. (102: 19.) Surveys in gen- eral show that more than thirty per cent of the population of \ cities is in districts where there is absolutely no yard space. A rented, yardless and gardenless home offers little to hold the children or the adults of the family, in the way of play FACTORS FORCING RECOGNITION 19 and recreation. "The protection and care of a piece of property makes for thoughtfulness and steadiness, individualizes." (100: 89.) The home just described offers little chance for play, for recreation, or for cultivating an avocation. Such a home tends to become "a sleeping box and eating den too often no more." (24: 3.) Congestion and the impersonal industrial system seem to develop the impersonal home. The facts substantiate Woodrow Wilson's statement that, "The eight-hour day now undoubtedly has the sanction of the judgment of society in its favor." (44: 85-86.) Eight hours is a legal work day in public employment in twenty-four states and in all federal labor. (44: 82.) A study of eighty-nine principal trades in forty-eight cities, conducted by the United States Bureau of Labor in 1914, showed a gradual shorten- ing of the labor day from 1907 to 1914. (55.) Many large industrial establishments are voluntarily shortening the hours of labor of their employees. (55 and 3.) Reliable authority affirms that over 100,000 laborers were put on an eight-hour day during the eighteen months ending January, 1917. "Sooner or later the eight-hour day will be universal," many employers are quoted as saying. (44: 85.) In 1917, at a meeting of the Building Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor, resolutions were introduced suggesting a six-hour day for all unions of building mechanics, as a solu- tion of the unemployment problem. (44: 85.) During the World War, W. N. Polakov of the War Shipping Board asserted, that "if America seriously sets out to eliminate all the friction in her industrial system, we may expect a four, or perhaps a two hour day." (88a: 209-10.) In many indus- tries, especially in the heated season, the forty-eight labor hours per week are reduced to forty-four or less. Holidays and half holidays are becoming more and more common. (3 : 440-5.) Reduction of hours of labor usually means increase in hours of leisure. Leisure, unprotected and unprovided for, is apt to be dangerous, especially for those whose labor is monot- onous, and for those who have not been trained to clearly distinguish between recreation and dissipation. There is wide difference of opinion, and variance of apparent facts with reference to the last statement. W. D. Scott says that em- ployers fear the effects of long hours of freedom from toil 20 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION and that one of the problems of the American people is to train up the rising generation, so that they may make the best use of the increasing hours of leisure. (101: 219-20.) An- other authority asserts that shorter hours of labor and in- creased wages merely give depraved men and women new op- portunities for self indulgence. (62: 310.) Josephine Gold- mark masses the facts to show that short hours of labor re- sult in better health and a higher moral tone of the workers. (42: Part I, 278-284, and Part II, 286-290.) Undoubtedly, under proper environment more leisure would be beneficial. Under present urban home conditions as have been described, and with the general public disregard of the care of leisure, enlarged leisure certainly carries with it moral danger. Children's hours of labor are very short, or are reduced to none at all. Their hours of play are long and usually un- cared for. Public play is not generally considered a public responsibility, so play as well as leisure is exploited. As the child labor problem approaches solution, the problem of child idleness becomes more important and difficult. (115: 78-79.) Children spend about one-eighth of the hours of the year in the public schools. Compulsory education laws force them to attend. Child labor laws prevent them from working out- side the home. The home furnishes very little for them to do. They go to the streets and to commercial places for play and recreation. Investigations show that from twenty to twenty- five per cent of the persons attending moving picture shows are children under sixteen years of age. Superintendent Francis is probably right when he says, "The greatest danger this nation faces today comes from the unoccupied time of her boys and girls." (36: 99.) The rapid increase in wealth and of the leisure that goes with it, together with the shorter labor day, have been im- portant factors in developing commercial recreation. The com- mercial exploitation of leisure is a matter of serious public con- cern. Only an insignificant per cent of the people of large cities are reached by public agencies of recreation. Probably not less than ninety-five per cent of the public frequent commer- cial places. (59: 317.) A few specific cases of this commer- cialization will illustrate the situation. The motion picture business is twenty-five years old. It is classed by some authorities as the fourth largest industry FACTORS FORCING RECOGNITION 21 in the country. In November, 1916, a new motion picture company was organized in New York City with a reported capitalization of $9,000,000. Charlie Chaplin's salary was reported in Harper's Weekly in May, 1916, at $13,500 a week. Newspaper reports asserted that Chaplin had sold his pictures a year in advance for one million dollars. These are press exaggerations, without doubt, but public interest in the ludi- crous work of Chaplin would justify an enormous expense for his services. It is estimated that over $400,000,000 are spent annually by the people of the United States for admission to moving picture shows. Ninety-nine per cent of the pictures shown in the public motion picture houses of this country are censored or passed by the National Board of Review of Mo- tion Pictures of New York City, a non-official board supported chiefly by film producers and others financially interested in the motion picture business. (95: 20-21.) The gate receipts from the 162,859 spectators of the five games of the World Championship Baseball Series, in 1916, were $385,590. The share of each winning player was $3,826, and of each losing player, $2,715. (121: 412.) Estimates based on the figures of the Secretary of the National Associa- tion, place the sum paid out or invested in organized base- ball in the United States, in 1916, at $34,000,000. The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, the great bil- liard equipment company of America, states in its advertising matter that there are 400,000 billiard tables in the public bil- liard halls of the United States, on which over 2,000,000 people play daily. Some of the factors that have to do with the decadence of the home, or at least of the home as it was a half century ago have been discussed. The rehabilitation in the city, of the home of the past, which was essentially the rural home, is a physical and social impossibility. The old ideas and ideals of the home must be reconstructed, really remade, to meet new conditions. Failure in the recognition of this fact, has made the recreation problem much more acute and danger- ous. The city home is not doing and cannot do the things the home used to do. The public school is burdened almost to the point of breaking, by attempting to do everything that seems to be needed to be done. Undoubtedly some of the early develop- 22 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION mental stages of play and recreation can be best cared for by the public school, but even the ideal school can not be ex- pected to solve the adult side of the recreation problem. The readjustment of the church in its attempts to meet the present social situation is in a great measure due to a shifting of leisure. Recreation has gone out of the home. The institutional church is chiefly an effort to control leisure for the church. The multiplicity of social and fraternal or- ganizations complicates the problem of recreation for all, be- cause they are more or less exclusive, and are apt to tend toward sportiness and snobbery. (98: 251.) Society is beginning to realize the fact that while labor is hedged about and protected by numerous laws, and social regulations, there is scant attention given to the conservation , and protection of leisure. Physical injury is evident, so we \ have working-men's compensation laws. Moral injury i through the perversion of leisure is none the less real, and / often more serious. There is great need of protecting society i from the immoral tendencies of commercial recreation. Easy and rapid means of communication bring most rural communities in contact with city conditions. The prestige of the big city is in no field more powerful than in that of re- creation. Practically every village, town and city in the United States is affected by New York's morality, through films passed by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. The machines of industry are making machines of men. The intense crushing specialization and the forced efficiency of industrialism make recreation doubly a necessity. The in- crease and seriousness of occupational or industrial diseases have kept pace with the developments of the industrial revo- lution. (112: 3.) "With each new form of mechanical in- vention which calls for skilled manual labor, some new occu- pational neurosis arises." (22: 45.) The tension of dull monotony must be relieved. Wholesome recreation makes bet- ter workers. Industry is beginning to recognize this, so pro- gressive establishments provide suitable recreation for their employees. There are many other factors that are silently forcing the significance of play and recreation into public conscious- ness. The weakening of the grip of the church gives over more of the time of the young especially to perverted forms FACTORS FORCING RECOGNITION 23 of public recreation. The press with its description of social and recreational excesses, and the sex novel are really forms of commercial exploitations of leisure. The passing of the American saloon raises the question whether some of the rec- reational features that have made it so powerful are not worth preserving. Specialization without due regard to individual adapta- tion, and economic pressure, have placed thousands of people in vocations for which they are unfitted, and in which they are unhappy. With these persons the joy of life must be sought outside of life's work. (26: 240.) Numerous organ- izations and movements are drawing people away from home. Nearly all homes seem to be interested in outside plans for social improvement. The craving for play and recreation is as fundamental and natural, and its satisfaction is as necessary as the crav- ing for, and the satisfaction of food. Another institution or agency of civilization must surely emerge from the social com- plex to definitely provide for this fundamental need. The need is greatest in the cities. They are slowly meeting it. Bryce declared in 1888, that the government of cities was the one conspicuous failure of the United States. (13 : 637.) "Amer- ican cities have made more progress in the direction of clean and efficient government within the last ten years, than they were able to make during the preceding fifty/' so wrote Dr. Munro in 1916. (72: 1.) Reforms have generally come in city government as a necessity. The chief factors forcing public recognition of play and recreation are here restated. The strains due to modern in- tensity of life have taken perverted forms in seeking relief. Congestion prevents normal instinctive development, so the problem of "human living together" becomes more complex and difficult. More than fifty per cent of the people in the United States live in cities having a population of 2,500 or above. In the city, the home with its former activities is pas- sing away, and with it home play and recreation facilities. The shorter labor day gives more leisure for adults, and the seasonal public school, the changed home, and child labor laws, make child idleness a serious problem. Commercial recrea- tion agencies prey upon these enlarged play and leisure pe- riods. The prestige of the big city carries much of its recrea- 24 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION tion into small towns. Municipal governments are being forced by social maladjustments to recognize, and to provide for the care of public play and leisure. In doing this they are slowly developing an institution for the care of these activ- ities. The following chapter points out concretely how this institution is being evolved in some typical cities. CHAPTER IV Municipal Recognition and Administration of Play and Recreation The political upheavals that have, in many cases, been necessary to remove the more glaring defects of municipal- ities, and the social complications described in chapters ii and iii, have disclosed latent, much needed governmental possibil- ities. The term public utilities has come to have a progressive meaning. The paternalism of the nation is being far out- stripped by what may be called the maternalism of the city. Municipal market, municipal laundry, municipal nursery, municipal swimming pool, and municipal playground call up some of the maternal functions assumed by American cities in recent years. (30: 86 130.) This invitation, issued by the Board of Playground Commissioners of Los Angeles, illustrates a new municipal function: "The City of Los Angeles offers for the free use of the general public at Recreation Center, a finely equipped building with a gymnasium, bath, lockers, club rooms, library, dance hall, bowling alleys, wrestling and boxing room, handball court, playgrounds, and furnishes free of charge trained leaders in the gymnasium, club work, dra- matics, and other recreational activities." "The City Recre- ation Center Building is open to the public from 2:00 p. m. until 9:30 p. m. daily except Sunday, and persons are cor- dially invited to use the Recreation Center facilities." (18: 1 and 4.) Cities that have adopted a definite recreation manage- ment program have usually approached the problem through one or more of three administrative departments: 1. The Board of Education ; 2. The Park Board ; 3. A distinct depart- ment of the city government, usually called Recreation Com- mission. (7: 79-99, and 60: 24.) In placing these activities under the management of the school authorities there is danger that the formalism and over-supervision of the public schools, may tend to reduce them to a deadening fixed system, and that professionalism will tend to magnify the interest of the child, to the neglect of adult needs and interests. However, the wider view of 26 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION school education, resulting largely from the socializing ten- dencies of recent years, may somewhat counteract these forces. Park departments have the advantage of the control of open spaces, and of many other important recreational facil- ities. They are, however, apt to be handicapped by traditional notions of the purpose and uses of public parks. (60: 19-24.) The still common tendency to consider parks as the beauty spots of cities, and their chief value their influence upon peo- ple who look at them, stands in the way of the full recogni- tion of their recreational worth by park authorities. Park policemen, in large cities, still spend too much of their time in keeping people from using the parks. A Recreation Commission, freed from the corrupting in- fluences of city politics, and composed of citizens representing the important interests and institutions of the city, would probably have a wider vision of the meaning and purposes of public play and recreation than any ordinary departmental board or committee. There is a tendency in recent years to place the public recreational activities of a city in the hands of one person, usually called Superintendent of Recreation, who is appointed by, and responsible to a Recreation Board or Commission. Detroit, Michigan, is an example of this type of organization. Because it furnishes one of the best cases of this recent de- velopment and for other reasons to be discussed later, De- troit's system of recreation will be described here with consid- erable detail. In 1914, Detroit amended its charter, creating a Recrea- tion Commission, This amendment was adopted by 21,187 for, 14,936 against. (90: 9.) The first section is as follows: "There shall be a Board of Commissioners in the City of De- troit known as The Recreation Commission/ Said Commission shall consist of ten members five citizens of Detroit appointed by the Mayor and the following five members : The Superinten- dent of Schools, the Park Commissioner, the Librarian of the Public Library, the Police Commissioner and the Commissioner of Public Works." (90: 36.) The personnel of "the Recreation Commission" is significant. The ex-officio members represent the social forces of the city that are very closely related to the play and recreation problem. They also give permanence and stability to the Commission because of the probable long ten- MUNICIPAL RECOGNITION 27 ure of their major positions, and because of their technical knowledge of public affairs and public needs. The five un- official citizens give the check which specialization is apt to need. The duties and powers of the Commission are pointed out in Sections 2 and 3 of the amendment. (90: 36.) In gen- eral, they are "to manage, direct and care for whatever pro- visions are made by the city" for play and recreation, and to inspect as provided by city ordinances "all forms of commer- cial recreation for which licenses are required by the city." The Commission is given power, unless "vetoed" by the Board of Education to use school buildings and grounds for play and recreation purposes without expense to the Board of Edu- cation. It is also given power "with the consent of the Park Commissioner" to use park property, and to equip and care for other recreation facilities in the parks. An important power with reference to commercial recre- ation is vested in the Commission. All licenses for commercial places "shall be issued only on the written recommendation of said Recreation Commission; that such a recreation place for which license is sought is furnishing recreation of a whole- some and moral quality." (90 : 36.) The funds supporting the work of the Commission are appropriated and turned over to it by the Common Council. The money is raised by an annual city tax "to provide for the establishment and extension of a recreation system under the Commission." Bonds may be issued by the city for purchas- ing or erecting buildings "for the further extension of the recreation system under said Commission." (90: 36.) "The Commission may appoint a recreation superinten- dent and one chief assistant, and such other directors and caretakers as are necessary for the proper conduct of an ade- quate recreation system for Detroit, all appointees except the superintendent and chief assistant to be subject, however, to the act providing for a system of civil service for the city of Detroit." (90: 36.) Such is the amendment provision for the selection of the recreation faculty and helpers in this city system of play and recreation. One purpose in giving this detailed description of De- troit's recreation system is to bring out the fact that Detroit is building up a scheme of public recreation that in its legal 28 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION framework resembles the municipal public school system as it exists in American cities. Even the method of selecting the Recreation Commission does not differ from that used in the selection of members of school boards in Chicago, New York and San Francisco. (72: 361.) The general functions of boards of education may be grouped under three heads : 1. To provide the school plant; 2. To purchase supplies of various kinds; 3. To appoint a superintendent and assistants. (72: 369.) These things are done for recreation by the Recrea- tion Commission of Detroit. The provisions for financial sup- port are much the same in Detroit's public recreation system, as in municipal public school systems. School boards do not provide and control all formal education of the cities, how- ever, they do in most systems, have some supervision of pri- vate and parochial education. This is somewhat comparable to Detroit's inspection of commercial recreation. The American people have often been accused of law neg- lect. Much needed and progressive legislation has been placed on statute books, but not enforced. Charles A. Ell wood tells us that we have "a childish, almost an absurd faith in the power of governmental machinery, and in the power of the ballot to work all sorts of social wonders." (5: 200.) De- troit's recreation system was adopted by a majority of 6,000 in a total vote of 36,000 citizens. Has it been administered? If so, how? This introduces a third reason for devoting so much space to Detroit's recreation plan. The Recreation Commission was organized in December, 1914. The work of the Commission .for the first year is published under the title, "The Recreation Commission of the City of Detroit Report at the end of the First Year of its Organization. January 1, 1916." (90.) This report shows what the Commission accomplished during the first year of its existence and what plans were formulated for the following year. In a forty page pamphlet are given: The roster of the Commission, with its four committees adminis- tration, finance, licenses, real estate ; the roster of the staff 174 in the summer, and 50 in the winter season; map show- ing the distribution of the recreation activities of the Com- mission ; report of the President to the Common Council ; re- port of the Superintendent to the Commission; illustrations of play and recreation activities ; special activities ; attendance MUNICIPAL RECOGNITION 29 at summer playgrounds; financial statement and budget for the year beginning January 1, 1916. Although the commission was organized in December, 1914, funds were not available until July 1, 1915, so the actual organized work as reported was carried on for only six months, July 1, 1915, to January 1, 1916. (90.) This fact should be considered in measuring the Commission's work, also it should be kept in mind that the Commission "took over from various city departments activities which had heretofore been conducted by them. With these changes in administra- tion and a reconsideration and broadening of the scope of the work, many new problems were presented; consequently a very large part of the work of the Commission was of a cre- ative character, for which no precedent existed." (90: 8.) A few of the general features of the Report will be con- sidered here. Finances of the Recreation Commission July 1, 1915, to January 1, 1916 (All amounts are here given in even hundreds) Total appropriation for one year $169,500 Total expense for six months 65,600 Salaries Administration 4,000 Supervision 1,200 Playground Direction 28,600 Swimming Supervision 2,700 School Garden 300 Janitors and Caretakers 9,800 Athletic Supplies 1,600 Industrial Supplies 300 Equipment New School Playgrounds 4,100 New Library Playground ~ 100 Other New Playgrounds 900 Playground Improvements 5,700 Lockers, Benches, etc 400 Medical Services .-. 300 Laundry Service (Bath House) 400 Field Day 1,500 The above items are selected from the financial statement in order to show the expenses of the system, and to point 30 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION out the activities emphasized. The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1916, calls for $129,900. (90: 38-40.) Supervised Summer Playgrounds Total number of play centers 69 Average weekly attendance 91,400 Total attendance 1,015,000 Cost per individual child per day 3 cents Daily programs, 10:00 a. m. until dark: Young children's activities in early periods. Older children's activities in afternoons. Adult activities in evenings. (90: 14 and 37.) The summer playground season closed August 21, with the first annual Recreation Day program. "This program was shaped to give expression to the fundamental recreational instincts, athletic competition, group exercises, dramatics and dancing." (90: 17 and 31.) Commercial Recreation The Superintendent asks for "adequate funds to insure intelligent and constructive supervision" of commercial recre- ation. The allowance for this purpose for the first year was $1,900; the second year budget calls for $3,500. (90: 28.) /Training of Play and Recreation Leaders The Superintendent organized a normal training class in the theory and practice of play, as soon as the work of the Commission was established. A definite course in the train- ing of recreation and play workers was at once put into opera- tion. (90: 12.) In his recommendations for the year, 1916-17, the Sup- erintendent urges the Commission to increase the salary ap- propriation, so that he may be able "to employ suitably trained and able supervisors to assist in directing and training the employees of the staff." (90: 25-26.) He also urges the adoption of a graduated salary schedule, which will allow an annual increase in the salaries of efficient employees so that the Commission can develop and hold capable recreation leaders. (90: 26.) The Civil Service Commission of Detroit, during the year 1915, established standard minimum qualifications for direc- tors and play leaders. These requirements include general MUNICIPAL RECOGNITION 31 education, physical fitness, and training in the theory and practice of play direction. (90: 26.) The first report of Detroit's Recreation Commission, in form and in methods of administration resembles in many ways the reports of boards of education of city schools. De- troit's Recreation Commission seems to be striving to estab- lish a municipal recreation system a system that will finally control and direct all public recreation of the city. The city of Los Angeles by a charter amendment estab- lished a Playground Department in 1911. This Department is under the management and control of a board of five com- missioners styled the Board of Playground Commissioners. (96: 54; 48: 90-91.) This Board is appointed by the Mayor, subject to the confirmation of the Council. There are no ex- officio members. Their duties and powers are much the same as those of the Detroit Commission, except that the Los An- geles Board has nothing to do with commercial recreation. In general, the recreational activities provided by the two are about the same in kind. (96.) Two special features of Los Angeles deserve mention. The Board of Playground Com- missioners operates a Summer Camp in the San Bernardino Mountains, 75 miles from Los Angeles. This camp of twenty- three acres, is really a city-conducted outing home in the mountains. (96: 41.) Large well ventilated cabins provide comfortable shelter. Campers are taken in groups during the hot season, under the supervision of an official director. There are boy groups, groups of girls and women, and family groups. The city of Los Angeles has been providing for all decent citizens who care to take advantage of it, a two weeks' outing in this camp for $7.50 for each person. This includes trans- portation, food and housing. (96: 41.) Almost 1,000 per- sons took advantage of this outing in 1916. In order to keep in close touch with neighborhood recre- ational conditions and needs, the Los Angeles Commissioners require a director to reside on each city playground. (96: 47.) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, the Los Angeles Board spent $63,600 for recreation. (96: 24.) In Cleveland, play and recreation are cared for by the Department of Public Welfare through the Sub-Division of Parks and Public Grounds. This Sub-Division includes parks, 32 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION boulevards, forestry, playgrounds, baths, bath houses, dance pavilions, recreation and park refreshments. (6.) The chief officer of the Sub-Division is Commissioner of Parks and Public Grounds. The important inferior officers are Park Engineer, City Forester, Supervisor of Recreation, and Sup- erintendents and Physical Directors of Baths and Gymnasi- ums. Cleveland's system is very complicated. The recreational activities permitted and provided by the authorities do not differ widely from those of other cities. The outdoor facilities of the parks are excellent. There is a lack of facilities for indoor play and recreation. Two special features of the parks should be noticed. Cleveland park management provides ade- quate dancing facilities with a charge of three cents for each couple for each dance. In 1914, 1,300,000 persons partici- pated in this recreation in the two park pavilions. (6: 9-11.) In Cleveland parks all refreshment stands are operated by the park management. (6: 8-9.) The Superintendent of Recreation of Dayton, Ohio, is a divisional officer under the Director of Public Welfare. In the summer of 1916, eighteen playgrounds were managed by the Superintendent. Eleven of these were financed by the Playgrounds and Gardens Association, and seven by the city. (93: 1.) The Board of Park Commissioners of Springfield, Massa- chusetts, has charge of the city's recreational work. This in- cluded in 1916, fifty-seven parks, eighteen playgrounds, two swimming pools and six social centers. (83: 6 and 12.) A common attitude of park officials toward the recent develop- ments of municipal recreation management is shown by the following extract from the Park Commissioners' Report for 1914: "Last winter an effort was made to have Springfield adopt a new commission that of Recreation. One of the greatest sources of foolishness and waste of energy in the United States at the present time and for several years past is the tendency to create new laws and regulations which have no solid reasons for existence save in the minds of the persons originating them." (84: 20.) The new commission was not established. However, the Park Commissioners ap- pointed a Director of Recreation. This was in 1913. In the last report of the Board (1916) there is clear evidence of a MUNICIPAL RECOGNITION 33 clash between the Park Board and the School Board with ref- erence to the distribution of educational and recreational ac- tivities. (83: 13.) Springfield makes provision in the parks for out-of-door social dancing, on low uncovered platforms. This form of dancing is very popular. (83: 12, and 84: 11 and 23.) Chicago has a complicated system of parks, boulevards, municipal playgrounds and municipal bathing beaches. The city of Chicago has spent more than $30,000,000 on its park systems. (124: 274.) The South Park System of Chicago consists of twenty- four parks and nineteen boulevards. (5: 8.) The following list of conveniences and facilities provided by the System will suffice to show the activities of these "most humanly useful parks." (5: 46.) Golf Courses 3 Running Tracks 15 Tennis Courts 359 Children's Playgrounds .... 19 Baseball Diamonds 76 Assembly Halls 11 Football Grounds 26 Reading Rooms 11 Skating Houses 15 Club Rooms, Men 13 Swimming Pools 11 Club Rooms, Women 28 Boat Houses 4 Bathing Beaches 3 Shelters 19 Private Showers, Men 41 Inside Gym., Men 11 Open Showers, Men 242 Inside Gym., Women 11 Private Showers, Women.. 100 Outside Gym., Men 18 Open Showers, Women 78 Outside Gym., Women 18 A further consideration of methods of management, and of the reports of play and recreation officials of cities, would not show wide variation from the types described. In the conduct of play and recreation, most of the cities through their reports show duplication of activities and facilities, and lack of coordination in management. There is often magnifi- cation of the importance of details, or of minor unrelated activ- ities. In some cases these reports clearly show lack of both training and vision on the part of officials. There is generally little effort made by cities through their recreation officials to inspect, supervise or control commercial recreation. J. R. Richards, Superintendent of Sports and Recreation, South Park Commission, Chicago, says, "Many of our social problems are 34 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION nothing but manifestations of the effects of commercial rec- reation in a social organism that offers no decent and adequate substitute." (98: 246.) Richards also holds that "dividends and not human development are the chief concern of com- mercialized recreation." In December, 1915, the Board of Estimate and Appor- tionment of New York City, appointed a Committee on Rec- reation. In a Report, October, 1916, this Committee listed the four tasks set for itself. They are as follows : "1. Working out a comprehensive plan of development for recreation activities in New York City. "2. The co-ordinating of the work of various public boards affecting recreation in New York City. "3. The co-ordination of public and private agencies. "4. Making recommendations on the budget and on all current matters referred to it by various public boards in order to see that a co-ordinated plan for recreation development is being carried out, and thus to prevent the city from taking steps which will have to be retraced." (92 : 7.) This Committee is making a most comprehensive study of the recreation conditions and needs of New York City. In 1915, that city spent $2,660,400 for recreation. (92: 15 and 22.) Throughout the country in general, there is a marked movement toward placing playgrounds and recreation work under municipal management. In 1916, 237 of the 371 cities reporting the authorities managing public play and recrea- \tion, to the Playground and Recreation Association of Amer- ttica, were wholly or in part administering these activities them- jj selves; that is, 63.8 per cent of the cities had some form of I municipal control. That was an increase of 6.8 per cent dur- ing the year. In forty-two cities playground and recreation centers were maintained by recreation commissions; in four- teen cities by playground and recreation departments or divis- ions. (122: 492.) School boards provided these facilities in seventy cities; park boards in thirty-one; city councils or boards of selectmen in nine; departments of public welfare in two; departments of parks and public property in three; and municipal playground committees in eight. (122: 492-93.) Play and recreation were managed by a combination of I municipal departments in a number of cities. The following I are common combinations : MUNICIPAL RECOGNITION 35 Park department and board of education. Board of education and board of recreation. Board of education and city. Park department and board of recreation. Department of parks and playgrounds, board of educa- tion and board of health. Board of public works and other city departments. (122: 493.) Private management of play and recreation was reported from forty-five cities. This was chiefly by women's clubs, civic clubs and associations, improvement clubs, parent-teacher associations, home-school leagues, Y. M. C. A.'s, Y. W. C. A.'s, and playground associations. In six cities, play and recreation were managed by industrial establishments ; in two by cham- bers of commerce ; in two by private endowments ; in three by private individuals. (122: 493.) During 1916, 171 cities reporting to the Playground and Recreation Association of America, supported play and recrea- tion by municipal tax ; 94 by private funds ; and 95 by municipal and private funds. Twelve cities issued bonds for recreation purposes in 1916. (122: 494.) One hundred forty-two recreation buildings were reported from fifty-six cities. These buildings were erected for recrea- tion purposes. (122: 495.) Play and recreation centers in the cities reporting were open for the first time in forty-one cities during 1916, and sixty-seven were planning to put in recreation work in 1917. (122: 496-7.) One means of measuring public interest in a governmental affair is by the amount of money put into it. Though most recreational facilities of the cities are privately owned, there is a heavy governmental investment in them, and the cost of maintenance is large. However, an examination of the dis- tribution of the expenses of city government shows a small outlay for recreational purposes when compared with other expenses. In cities of the United States having a population of over 30,000 each, the most important governmental expenses are distributed as follows: general government, 11.3 per cent; pro- tection of persons and property, 22 per cent; highways, 11.3 per cent; education, including libraries, 31.4 per cent; con- servation of health, and sanitation, 10.1 per cent; charities, hospitals and correction, 6.8 per cent ; recreation, 3.7 per cent. 36 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION (33: 212.) In cities of 500,000 and over, and in cities of 100,- 000 to 300,000, 4 per cent of municipal expenses is for recrea- tion. The lowest, 2.6 per cent, is in cities of 50,000 to 100,000. (33: 212.) The value of properties held for recreation in these 204 cities of over 30,000 each, is $1,205,076,000. (33: 291.) The total expenses in these cities for recreation purposes in 1915. were $21,389,000. The recreation buildings in thirty-eight cities are valued at $4,094,000. (122: 496.) A recent bulletin by Arthur Williams, issued by the Play- ground and Recreation Association of America, summarizes the administrative tendency of recreation so well that parts of it are quoted here. Mr. Williams says: . "The present tendency is to coordinate all the recreation activities of the city under one administrative body with legal standing in the community with adequate funds appropriated by the municipality. "There have been, however, slight differences of opinion as to what municipal department this work should be entrusted the school boards, the park board, or a recreation commission. "The great majority of recreation workers today, however, feel that because of the varied kinds of activities which it is necessary for an effective administrative body to carry on it is advisable to have a separate body for this work in which can be coordinated all the playground and recreation work of the city, including the supervision of commercial amusements. "A special committee appointed by the Playground and Recreation Association of America to study the question of administration found that the cities having commissions were on a whole better satisfied with this form of .administration than cities having other forms of control. Ten out of thirteen commission correspondents favored commission control. Seven out of thirteen park board writers favored commission con- trol in some form. "This committee reported, 'It is fair to conclude that in cities where the interest is greatest, the problems most varied and the movement furthest developed, the distinct tendency is toward the commission idea, playground or recreation commissions composed of people having an appreciation of both the park and schools' ideals, but with a social insight that per- mits a deeper appreciation of the meaning of leisure from the MUNICIPAL RECOGNITION 37 standpoint of civic-righteousness and efficient citizenship and the physical and moral welfare of the race'." (119a.) There is a tendency toward the development of a munici- pal system of public play and recreation, that is somewhat comparable in organization and administration to the public school system. The development of this system is hindered especially by social conservatism, and by boards and depart- ments that have control of certain phases of recreation, also by commercial agencies, that in a large measure really con- trol recreational activities. Attempts to deal with play and recreation as parts of other institutions, have led to a multiplicity of means of man- agement, and to duplication of facilities. Financial investment means public recognition. Cities are spending more year after year for recreation. (33: 95.) As education, through much the same processes that recreation is now passing, has grown to be a definite public responsibility assumed by public author- ity a separate institution so does recreation seem to be slowly becoming a municipal responsibility in the large cities of the United States. CHAPTER V A Study of the Public Play and Recreation Facilities of Forty-Six Small Cities and Villages of Nebraska A. Introductory Some Recent Investigations of Municipal Recreation Surveys and studies covering practically all phases of human activity have been made in great numbers in the last ten years most of them in the last five years. Two recent definitions of social surveys by experts, one in the field of municipal administration, and the other in the field of social research, will be given here to indicate the present status of the survey movement. Dr. W. B. Munro says: "A social sur- vey is simply an elaborate inquiry into the conditions under which the people live, particularly in the crowded areas; it is a study of their earnings and expenditures, their places of work, their homes, their recreations, in fact all their economic and social relations." (72: 69.) "A social survey," writes Dr. Carol Aronovici, "may therefore be defined as a stock taking of social factors that determine the conditions of a given com- munity, whether that be a neighborhood, village, city, county, state or nation, with a view to providing adequate information necessary for the intelligent planning and carrying out of con- structive and far-reaching social reforms." (7:15.) An examination of social surveys shows that the second definition more nearly approaches the best present practice. However, many social surveys are merely social diagnoses. The following list of groups of social surveys provides a sort of measure of social unrest: city, rural, school, health, hous- ing, industrial, municipal administration, vice, delinquency and correction, poverty and charity, mental hygiene, church, vo- cational education, infant mortality, leisure time. (7: 217-52; and 15.) This list is not complete, but it is sufficient to indi- cate the extent of the social survey movement. In 1916, more than two hundred social surveys had been made in the United States, and the results printed. (7:213.) Dr. Aronovici lists in his book, "The Social Survey," twenty-four social organizations and foundations in the United States, which advise and assist in social survey work. He gives INTRODUCTORY SMALL TOWN STUDY 39 this as a partial list of such agencies. (7: 215-16.) It is worthy of notice in this connection that eighteen of these or- ganizations are located in New York City, three in Boston, two in Philadelphia, and one in Baltimore. Most of the recreation surveys have been made in large cities. School surveys have devoted considerable attention to recreation and play from the standpoint of the child. The study of small towns and villages here presented does not claim to be a leisure time survey of these communities. It is rather an attempt to do three things : 1. To inventory the public play and recreation facilities of these towns ; 2. To de- termine to what extent they are utilized by the people; 3. To evaluate the agencies that provide them, and to interpret the means of controlling them. This study will also help to bring out the fact that the metropolitan character of the urban- ization of rural regions and small towns has not been duly con- sidered in dealing with American social life. This is especially true with reference to metropolitan influence on forms of pub- lic play and recreation in small cities and villages. Before entering into the discussion of the main purpose of the study, it seems relevant to note a few typical cases of recent investigations, chiefly in small cities. Dr. W. B. Forbush in "The Coming Generation," published in 1912, describes the recreational facilities of thirty county seats in the Middle West. He spent a week in each of these cities, which ranged in population from 3,000 to 10,000. The towns were, he says, typically American, representing the average community life in the United States. Dr. Forbush considers these county capitals as places .in which life is "dreary and colorless." For the sake of brevity his interesting descriptions are omitted and the recreational features of these towns, as he saw them, merely listed. The following condenses the chief points of his observations: 1. Libraries. There is usually a Carnegie library, con- taining a well-chosen collection of books. The reading rooms used very little except by children. Generally some good pic- tures. 2. Theatres. A number of picture shows exhibiting films "usually irreproachable in character," in a poor building "not suggestive of moral associations of the highest quality." During the winter season these are supplemented by traveling 40 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION troupes that dispense melodrama and vaudeville at the "opera house." 3. Chautauquas, fairs and lyceums. A chautauqua last- ing from one to three weeks, is supported by every fourth or fifth county seat. These are usually held in groves near the cities, where the people are instructed and entertained by the able talent of "these great outdoor universities." The county fairs in the late fall are "great reunion places for kinsmen and neighbors." The lyceums come in the winter bringing to the people the chautauqua minus the fellowship of outdoor life. 4. Churches, lodges and clubs. Of the churches Dr. For- bush makes this statement, "It is a surprising thing to one who has visited the churches in these county seats, to find how generally institutional and social features are absent." He further states, that except for Sunday schools, with their occasional festivals, and a few other special occasions, the churches are closed all week, being open only for Sunday wor- ship and mid-week prayer meeting. The great annual affairs of these churches are the revivals, which are described as "oc- casions of religious turmoil" and community excitement. He laments the fact that the churches have entirely neglected their social duties and opportunities. He says, "The relation of such churches, for example, to the problem of amusement of young people is a dangerous and impossible one." Nearly all of the men in these county seats belong to one or more fraternal orders. The lodges, too, have failed in their social obligations to their communities, for most of them equip commodious rooms, and keep them closed except upon meeting nights. Dr. Forbush contrasts the passiveness of men's organizations with the social efficiency of the women's clubs. He says of these clubs, "They organize departments for definite social purposes, and they earnestly set themselves to studying and supplying the community's needs." (35 : 241-48.) On the whole, Dr. Forbush looks upon the recreational facilities of these towns as inefficient and inadequate. His con- clusions are probably authentic and just. His training and reputation would justify such an assumption. During the last five years recreational surveys of cities have been made from several standpoints and for several purposes. It seems pertinent to call attention here to typi- cal surveys, and to the general recommendations based on the findings. INTRODUCTORY SMALL TOWN STUDY 41 In 1914, the Department of Surveys and Exhibits of the Russell Sage Foundation, in cooperation with the Springfield Survey Committee, conducted a general social survey of Spring- field, Illinois. This survey is published in nine sections. One section deals with recreation in Springfield. In discussing the "Basis of Public Concern in Recreation," the authors say: "The cities which up to now have gone farthest in municipal care for recreation have been mainly those in which the ex- cessive delinquency of children in certain well defined districts has called public attention to the external causes of viciousness. .... The movements for playgrounds thus originated became finally a movement for all sorts of recreation facilities under public auspices. But in Springfield the conditions that hamper play are not conspicuously present, and as a consequence, its public conscience has not been greatly burdened with recrea- tion matters. Nevertheless, in this city just as in other com- munities, whether or not they show the plague spots peculiar to bigness, there occurs each year an appalling wreckage of hu- man careers appalling both because of its size and prevent- ability." (50:5.) The recommended recreation program for Springfield in- cludes a wider use of the school plants, and public parks ; and proper inspection and control of commercial recreation, under the coordinate control of the public school and park author- ities, and a city committee of recreation. (50: 97-103.) Springfield is a city of 52,000 people. "The Recreational Survey" of Madison, Wisconsin, a city of 26,000, was made in 1915, by a survey committee appointed by the Madison Board of Commerce. C. W. Hetherington was chairman of the committee. The purpose of this survey from the standpoint of the Board of Commerce is thus stated by its Board of Directors: "It is conceded by the modern city planners and community builders that the city of greatest material growth in the future will be that city which gets the largest number of people to acknowledge the superior quality of its human background. "Adequate play and recreation facilities have too im- portant a future economic value for a community to inventory the present worth of a study, such as this, from the stand- point of financial outlay alone. Then, too, a large proportion of crime and misery is found to have its inception in negative recreational facilities." (70 : Foreword.) 42 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION This survey stresses the economic value of adequate play and recreation equipment, and recommends a permanent play and recreation committee, appointed by the Madison Board of Commerce, and cooperating with the city, park, school, church, and charity officials. This committee is to direct and coordinate with various recreation agencies of the city, and to prevent especially duplication of work and financial waste. (70: 2 and 102.) At the request of the Ipswich School Committee, H. R. Knight of the Russell Sage Foundation, made a recreation sur- vey of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1914. This is published under the title of "Play and Recreation in a Town of 6>000." The director says of this survey: "Its purpose was to deter- mine what the schools might do to meet the recreation needs of the community, with special reference to the school children. As the investigation progressed the larger aspect of the prob- lem demanded attention owing to their inter-relation with most of the free time activities of the people." (65: 3.) This survey recommends that the recreation facilities of Ipswich be administered by the public school authorities co- operating with the Park and Playground Committees. This plan centralizes authority in a permanent body directly re- sponsible to the people. (65 : 66-71.) In Illinois, under the direction of R. E. Hieronymus, Com- munity Advisor of the University of Illinois, there is now be- ing conducted a state wide survey of the school and the com- munity. (52.) Two sets of detailed and searching question- naires are being used. One deals with the various activities "apart from the usual school work, carried on through the school system for the betterment of the community." These are considered under the following heads : Educational, Civic, Health, Social, Recre- ational, Religious, and Miscellaneous. These topics are in- tended to include all types of community service, apart from the regular school, rendered by the school to the community. The other questionnaire includes "the educational agencies independent of the public school, or connected indirectly with it." In great detail ten large pages call for community in- formation under ten topics: 1. Library; 2. Press; 3. Moving pictures and theatres; 4. Lectures, lyceums and chautauquas; 5. Clubs; 6. Schools and classes not elsewhere included; 7. INTRODUCTORY SMALL TOWN STUDY 43 Health; 8. Recreation; 9. Religious; 10. Special "Days," oc- casions, etc. (52.) This Illinois survey is not alone municipal, and is not chiefly recreational. It covers all sorts of activities in all kinds of communities, in a very comprehensive manner. It is described here because it is a present example of survey effort, with the end in view of listing, evaluating, and co- ordinating community activities, and social resources. The observations of Dr. Forbush and the facts of the sur- veys just given, are noted here in order to call attention to the public interest in the problems of play and recreation, and to give some conception of the ways in which the smaller cities are trying to meet and solve these problems. At a conference on recreation in towns of less than ten thousand population, held during the last Recreation Congress at Grand Rapids, Michigan, this statement was made by a recreation leader, and was unchallenged, "Cities of less than 10,000 people show the greatest lack of interest in the play movement. There commercial recreation is the dominant factor." (2: 162.) In 1910, there were only four cities in Nebraska having a pop- ulation of more than 10,000 each. B. State Regulations Relating to Recreation It is only within the last twenty years that recreation has been generally considered a matter of public concern. In 1894, there was but one state that had a definite recreation law. (47.) In 1907, five state laws were passed in the United States relating to recreation. In the seven years preceding, six state laws were enacted dealing with the subject. In 1911, twenty- seven important recreation laws were passed by the state leg- islatures. (2: 2-3.) The number has increased very rapidly since that time. Recent state laws on recreation in twenty- seven states, and the District of Columbia are given in the 1915 edition of "Recreation Legislation" by Lee F. Hanmer and August H. Brunner. (48 : 9-75.) City laws and ordinances are of course much more numer- ous than the state laws. Twenty pages of the pamphlet just mentioned are filled with typical city ordinances on recreation taken from the laws of the following sixteen cities: Boston and Brockton, Massachusetts ; Buffalo, New York ; Charleston, South Carolina ; Cleveland, Ohio ; Detroit, Michigan ; Hartford, Connecticut ; Holyoke, Massachusetts ; Los Angeles, California ; New Britain, Connecticut ; Newport, Rhode Island ; New York, 44 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION New York; Oakland, California; Providence, Rhode Island; Syracuse, New York ; and Worchester, Massachusetts. In de- scribing these city ordinances the compilers say, 'The number of city laws and ordinances on this subject is so great that we are including in this pamphlet only those that are typical and that illustrate the different methods used locally in dealing with public recreation.'* No ordinance in the list is over eight years old. Only three are over five years old. (48.) The older legislation, state and municipal, affecting recre- ation was chiefly to protect society from those whose recrea- tional practices were in some way objectionable to society. In Nebraska, as in the other states, positive legislation re- lating to recreation is a recent development. Most of the laws until in very recent years were attempts to prohibit, regulate or suppress, forms of recreation that were considered ob- jectionable and injurious to society in general, or to certain classes or age groups. Sanitation and public physical safety of recreation places have been given considerable attention in recent years. This negative legislation has, in Nebraska, dealt chiefly with cigarettes, saloons, billiard halls, bowling alleys, theatres, motion picture houses, and baseball. It is not necessary to go into the details regarding the numerous regulations and restraints placed upon many recreational agencies by these laws. In general, the laws are suppressive and destructive. Some positive and constructive recreational legislation has come from the last two legislatures. Two laws relating to the use and erection of public buildings for community purposes, may add much to the public recreation facilities of the cities of the state. The legislative act of 1915, gives boards of ed- ucation in cities and villages, and electors in rural school districts, the right to allow the people of the community to use public school buildings for neighborhood purposes. This law makes it legally possible for every school house in the state to become a community center. (105 : 553-54.) The municipal auditorium law of 1917, gives to cities of the second class, the power "to accept by gift, to purchase, or to build" an auditorium, and "to maintain, manage, and operate the same for the benefit of the inhabitants of said cities." (79.) Bonds may be issued for the purpose of purchasing or erecting such a building. A one-mill tax may be levied to maintain it. The mayor and the council levy the tax, and determine how STATE REGULATION 45 the building shall be managed. Important recreational agen- cies may by this law be placed under full control of the cities. Another step toward municipal provision for recreation, was made by the law of 1915, which is titled "An act to author- ize all incorporated villages, towns and cities to levy a tax of not more than one mill for music and amusement fund." (105 : 488.) The levy for this fund is made by the city council or village board, and the management is placed with a committee on municipal amusements and entertainments. This commit- tee is selected from the council or board. (105 : 488.) Two bills were before the legislature of 1917 to permit the tax levy for the music and amusement fund to be increased to two mills. Neither bill passed. Another measure which became a law in 1915, provides for amusements in second class cities and villages, by giving the local authorities the power or right to levy a tax of not less than one mill, and not more than three mills annually for a park fund. This fund must be used for "amusements" and for developing and caring for parks. (105: 228-229.) While all this legislation is of a permissive character, it marks a distinct step in advance of the "power to restrain, prohibit and suppress" recreation legislation that preceded it. Mandatory laws will very likely in a few years follow the optional laws. Public assumption of activities that have pre- viously been left to non-governmental agencies are apt to fol- low this order. C. An Inventory of the Public Play and Recreation Facilities of the Forty-Six Cities and Villages In 1910, twenty and four-tenths per cent of the people of Nebraska lived in cities and villages of less than 2,500 popu- lation. (109: 4.) There were at that time seventy-seven cities and villages in the state having from 900 to 2,500 in- habitants each. This study has to do with forty-six of the cities and villages of this group; twenty-eight of these have a population of from 900 to 1,500 each. These are placed in Class I. Class II includes eighteen cities of 1,500 to 2,500 in- habitants each. These 46 towns are distributed over 36 of the 93 counties of the state. The Class I towns are scattered over 22 counties. The 18 towns of Class II are in 18 different counties. Cities of both classes are in four counties. In two of the 36 counties the number of inhabitants per 46 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION square mile, in 1910, was from 2 to 6 ; in 11 counties, from 6 to 18 ; in 22 counties, from 18 to 45 ; and in one county from 45 to 90. When the density of the population of the state is consid- ered, the distribution of the cities is found to be representa- tive. The greatest number of cities are in the southeast section of the state, where the population is from 18 to 45 persons per square mile. The fewest cities are in the north- west, with from 2 to 6 inhabitants for each square mile. The central section, with a population of from 6 to 18 for each square mile, is represented by eleven towns. Below is given the list of counties in which the 46 towns are located. Unless a number follows the name of the county, there is but one town in each county in each class. Class II Towns 1. Boone 2. Burt 3. Butler 4. Cuming 5. Custer 6. Dawson 7. Fillmore 8. Johnson 9. Kearney 10. Lancaster 11. Merrick 12. Nuckolls 13. Pawnee 14. Saunders 15. Scott's Bluff 16. Seward 17. Thayer 18. Valley Class I Towns 1. Boone 2. Buffalo 3. Cass 4. Cheyenne 5. Clay (3) 6. Cuming 7. Dakota 8. Dawes (2) 9. Fillmore 10. Franklin 11. Furnas (2) 12. Harlan 13. Knox 14. Nemaha 15. Nuckolls 16. Pierce 17. Polk (2) 18. Richardson 19. Saline 20. Sarpy 21. Sherman (2) 22. Stanton Most of the data used in this study were obtained from the mayors of the forty-six towns and villages. Omitting Omaha and Lincoln there were, in 1910, one hundred places in Nebraska, each of which had a population of 900 or more. A questionnaire was sent to the mayors of each of these 100 RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 47 towns. Replies were received from fifty-three places. There were but seven returns from cities having a population of more than 2,500 each. These ranged from 2,600 to 10,000. The reports from these larger places were not so complete as those from the smaller towns. On account of the wide range of population, and the small number, and incompleteness of the replies, these seven cities are not included in the study. A critical examination of the questionnaire will make quite evident the reason for the small number, and the incom- pleteness of the replies from the larger places. Below are given the essential features of the question- naire. A brief letter explaining its purpose was sent with it to each mayor. The form used had spaces for answers and discussions following each question and item. The question- naire was sent out in February, 1917. The Questionnaire Means provided for Play, Recreation and Leisure: I. By the City of Paid for en- tirely or in part by city funds : 1. Does the city own open land spaces that are used for play and recreation? How many? Area in acres? The approximate value of such land? How used? 2. Do you have a City Hall? For what pur- poses is it used? 3. What city building or buildings are used for recrea- tion purposes? For what recreation purposes? 4. Is there a gymnasium in any city building? (Not in- cluding school buildings) 5. Are summer concerts or other music provided by the city? 6. Does the city provide supervised summer playgrounds for children? Open how many weeks? 7. Any other places or means provided by the city?..r^.... 8. Does your city levy a tax for amusements or park fund? If so, how many mills? 9. Is there a move on the part of the city or of the peo- ple to erect a community building? '. If so, who or what organization is back of the movement? For what purposes is the building to be used? 48 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION What is the building to cost? Who is to pay for it? 10. Is there any move on the part of the city to acquire by purchase or otherwise lands within or without the city for parks or other recreation purposes? If so, please describe the movement. II. By Commercial Places, for profit : 1. How many Billiard or Pool Halls? No. of tables? 2. Bowling Halls? No. of alleys? 3. Moving Picture Shows? 4. Theatres or Opera Houses? 5. Public Dance Halls? 6. Saloons? 7. Baseball Parks or Athletic Fields? 8. Race Tracks? 9. What other means or places? Please indicate by number which of above Commer- cial places are regulated by city ordinances. Num- bers III. By the Public Schools : 1. Are school buildings used for other purposes than for regular school work ? 2. Are evening or night schools provided? If so, for whom? How many weeks each year? 3. Are school buildings used for social or recreation pur- poses? In what ways ? r 4. Is there a gymnasium in a school building? 5. Does the School Board provide for summer schools? For summer playgrounds? 6. What other means? IV. By the Churches. Unusual uses of buildings: 1. How many church buildings and buildings used for church services in your city? 2. How many of these have reading rooms? Recreation or game rooms? 3. What other means of providing for play and recrea- tion? V. By other Organizations or Groups of People: 1. Do you have a Commercial Club? Does the Club have recreation or game rooms? RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 49 How used? 2. Is there a Lecture or Entertainment Course in your city? How managed? 3. Is there a Chautauqua each year? How managed? 4. Did your city have a Street Fair or Carnival last sum- mer or fall? 5. What other means? Are the public play and recreation facilities of your city satisfactory? If not, what changes or improvements would you suggest? Please answer on the back of this sheet ; also use the back of this sheet for explanations, or additional information. The mayors of the larger cities would not be apt to have in mind the intimate detailed knowledge of their cities, neces- sary to fill out the questionnaire. To secure the information from other sources would have taken time and been trouble- some, so it was not done. On the other hand, the mayor of the small place would in most cases know his city well enough to answer the questions easily and quickly. The fact that these mayors had held office almost one year, at least, when the questionnaire was filled out, adds materially to the accuracy and completeness of the returns. The mayor of a small town in his official capacity, or as an observing citizen, would very likely know the recreational conditions of his community, and would take note of social welfare or other unusual community movements. He would not be liable to allow his enthusiasm for a particular social reform, or a special activity of the town, to color his opinion. Persons active in social or religious work in a narrow field are usually too near the problem to see it in its real relations. Taking into account all the factors in the case, it is probable that no person in a small community knows better the entire social situation, or would report it more fairly than the mayor. The returns from the mayors were checked and supple- mented from various sources. Many facts were taken from the "Nebraska State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1917." (77.) Public play and recreation activities may be grouped in various ways. The following grouping will be used: 50 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION 1. Governmental agencies. These include all play and recreational facilities provided by the city or board of edu- cation. 2. Commercial agencies. Here are included all agencies whose chief aim is selling recreation. Examples are motion picture houses, billiard rooms and dance halls. 3. Incidental agencies. These are commercial agencies whose chief aim is selling something else, but which incident- ally provide means for positive or negative recreation. Sa- loons, barber shops, drug stores and livery stables belong to this group. 4. Religious, philanthropic and social agencies. This group includes churches, Y. M. C. A.'s, chautauquas, etc. 5. Unorganized agencies. Here are placed all agencies and facilities not covered by the other groups. Vacant lots and buildings, lumber sheds, alleys, etc., are included. This group is an important one in many small towns. No attempt is made in this study to deal with it. The above grouping of public play and recreational agen- cies is an adaptation of the classifications used by the Madi- son Recreational Survey, and the Survey Committee on Rec- reation, of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, New York City, 1917. (70 and 82.) The governmental agencies that contribute to the play and recreational life of the community will be considered first. These are listed in Table I. TABLE I Governmental Agencies of Play and Recreation In Class II Towns No. Description 8 Area, 5 to 14 A. 11 By Citizens, 3 13 Not public, 1 13 Other than office use, 12 In Class I Towns Facilities No. Description 1. Parks 15 Area, 5 to 23 A. 2. Music 16 3. Libraries 19 Not public, 4 4. City Halls 14 Other than office use, 12 5. School Bldgs. 35 6. Amusement or Park Tax Recreation use, 11 Gymnasiums, 18 13 35 12 Recreation use, 9 Gymnasiums, 13 Total 33 27 32 27 70 20 31 25 There are public parks in fifteen cities of Class I, and in RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 51 eight of Class II. They range in area from two to twenty- three acres. (Crawford has a park of 134 acres, leased per- petually from the United States Government.) These parks are used for all sorts of outdoor sports, concerts, picnics, and chautauquas. Only four towns report special park equipment. One city (Broken Bow) floods its park in winter for skating. Summer concerts or other music is provided by sixteen cities of Class I, and eleven of Class II. Three cities support concerts by private contributions. Twenty-five of the forty- six cities levy a special amusement or park tax. There are public libraries in nineteen cities of Class T, and thirteen of Class II. Of these thirty-two libraries, nine were built during 1915-16; eight of these are Carnegie libra- ries. Four cities of Class I, and one of Class II, have libraries that are not supported by public taxation. These are main- tained by women's clubs or other associations. Fourteen Class I cities, and thirteen Class II, have city halls. Twelve in each class are used for other purposes than city offices. These uses are chiefly as headquarters for fire- men, and rooms for band practice, and public meetings. There are thirty-five school buildings in each class of cities. There are eighteen gymnasiums in Class I, and thir- teen in Class II. Twenty-five high schools of these towns took part in the 1917 state basket ball tourney, and twenty- three are members of the Nebraska High School Debating League. Four cities report summer supervision of school playgrounds; one a summer school. Four have evening schools. "Are school buildings used for social or recreation purposes?" was answered in the affirmative by eleven cities of Class I and nine of Class II. The purposes usually given were basket ball, entertainments, social gatherings, class parties and plays, concerts and lectures. One city, in appar- ent despair, reported, " is 50 years behind the times in the subjects you mention." The commercial agencies considered are listed in Table II, in the order of the frequency of their occurrence. 52 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION TABLE II Commercial Agencies of Play and Recreation In Class I Towns In Class II Towns Total Facilities No. Description No. Description 1. Moving ; * _ ; \ Pictures 28 No. of houses, 30 * 17 No. of houses, 25 45 2. Opera Houses 24 16 40 3. Billiard Halls 22 42 halls, 220 tables 12 33 halls, 163 tables 34 4. Baseball Parks 19 23 parks 12 14 parks 31 5. Dance Halls 14 18 halls 9 16 halls 31 6. Race Tracks 10 9 19 7. Bowling 12 8 10 halls 20 8. Street Fairs 10 8 18 One city in Class II has no moving picture show. This city is built around a church college, and is really a suburb of the state capital. Two in each class have no "opera houses." Billiards is evidently the most popular indoor game, and base- ball the most popular outdoor game. Public dance halls are found in just half of the towns. The nineteen county fair cities account for the nineteen race tracks. Bowling is found in but twenty places. Street fairs or carnivals are reported from eighteen towns. One city has a skating rink. Before taking up the incidental agencies, it may be well to restate the meaning of the term. These agencies are com- mercial. Their chief aim is selling something besides recrea- tion, but incidentally they provide recreation, much of which may be of a questionable character. Persons not intimately acquainted with life in small towns, may not see the signifi- cance of some of the items of this list. These agencies are grouped in Table III. TABLE III Incidental Agencies of Play and Recreation Column 1 shows the number of towns in each class that have the agencies listed; column 2 gives the total number of each agency in each class. Column 3 is the total of columns 1 and 1 ; column 4 is the total of columns 2 and 2. Agencies 121234 1. Saloons 9 32 2 10 11 42 2. Drug Stores 28 57 18 52 46 109 3. Restaurants 27 52 17 47 44 99 4. Barber Shops 28 72 18 57 46 129 RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 53 5. Livery Stables 26 42 18 30 44 72 6. Garages 25 50 17 47 42 97 7. Commercial Clubs 19 19 15 15 34 34 8. County Fairs 9 9 10 10 19 19 9. Newspapers 28 43 18 41 46 84 The state prohibition law has become effective since these data were collected, so saloons may be counted out. However, it is worth noting that only eleven of the forty-six towns had saloons. Drug stores and restaurants are about equal in num- ber, 109 and 99. They are in many cases also ice cream and soda parlors, and cigar and candy stores. Class I cities have 72 barber shops; Class II, 57. The 46 towns have 72 liv- ery stables, 97 garages and auto liveries. Only eight of the commercial clubs were reported as hav- ing special recreation facilities. Nine cities of Class I, and three of Class II have no commercial clubs. County fairs are held annually at nineteen of the twenty-five county seats. They usually last four days. Newspapers are listed in this group. There are forty- three local papers published in Class I towns and forty-one in Class II. The recreational features of newspapers have de- veloped greatly in the last few years. Sensational news, sports, funny columns, cartoons, and so-called funny pages provide real recreation for many readers. The patent side of local papers usually abounds with these attractions. The influence of newspapers and magazines not published locally is undoubtedly much greater than that of the local press. In many respects this influence is not good, and may become anti-social or even criminal. (31: 92-93.) The list of religious, philanthropic, and social agencies given in Table IV is not by any means complete. TABLE IV Religious, Philanthropic and Social Agencies of Play and Recreation Class I Towns Class II Towns Total Agencies No. No 1. Churches 28133 bldgs. 18132 bldgs. 46 2. Chautauquas 26 17 43 3. Lecture Courses 22 17 39 4. Boy Scouts 43 12 5. Y. M. C. A.'s 02 2 6. Y. W, C. A.'s 00 54 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION Of the 265 church buildings in the forty-six towns, only thirteen reading rooms are reported from seven places, and fifteen recreation or game rooms from ten places. One church gymnasium and one church tennis court are reported. Three churches report special social uses. There are two Y. M. C. A. buildings in Class II cities. There are only thirteen such build- ings in the state. The total membership of the thirteen asso- ciations is a little less than 8,000. One-half of this member- ship is in Omaha and Lincoln. There are no Y. W. C. A. build- ings in these towns. There are but two such buildings in the state one at Omaha, and one at Lincoln. There are three town and county Y. W. C. A.'s in the state. These own no buildings. The Y. W. C. A. membership outside of the county associations is about 3,500. Chautauquas are supported by forty-three towns, and lec- ture courses by thirty-nine. These are managed by various organizations such as commercial clubs, public schools, li- braries, and committees of citizens. Twelve towns have Boy Scout Troops. There are 120 such troops in the state. Each troop numbers about twenty boys. There are 85 groups of Camp Fire Girls in the state. A list by towns is not available. In Table V is listed the public recreation facilities of the typical town of each Class. Means or activities are counted as typical, if they appear in half or more than half of the forty- six places. TABLE V Recreational Facilities of the Typical Town of Each Class Agencies Class I Class II I. Governmental No. No. 1. Park 1 1 2. Municipal Music 1 1 3. Library 1 1 . 4. City Hall 1 1 5. School Building 1 2 II. Commercial 1. Moving Picture Show 1 2 2. Billiard Hall 2 3 3. Opera House 1 1 5. Baseball Part: 1 1 III. Incidental , v 1. Drug Store 23 RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 55 2. Barber Shop 2 3 3. Livery Stable 1 2 4. Garage 2 3 5. Restaurant 2 3 6. Commercial Club 1 1 7. County Fair (If county seat) 1 1 IV. Religious, Philanthropic, and Social 1. Church 5 7 2. Chautauqua 1 1 3. Lecture Course 1 1 In the typical town, government provides a five or ten acre park with very little equipment, open air concerts during the summer season and a library containing from 1,500 to 2,000 volumes. The city hall is used occasionally for recreation and social purposes. The public school gymnasium is used for basket ball games. Other occasional uses of school buildings are, class functions, school plays, concerts, lectures and musical festivals. The commercial agencies are, in part at least, subject to the control of state laws and local ordinances. One or two moving picture shows, and two or three 'billiard halls are constant in all seasons. The dance hall is not so firmly es- tablished. Baseball seems to be commercialized. No other recreational agencies are open so many hours in the day, and so many days in the week as 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the incidental agencies. (See Table V.) Small towns are evidently over-churched, when the uses made of the buildings are considered. The typical Class I town has five churches; the Class II town has seven. A chautau- qua and a lecture course are found in the typical town of each class. Community buildings are reported from three cities. Steps for the erection of community buildings are reported from eight Class I cities, and six Class II cities. The city gov- ernment is in some way back of these movements in nine places, women's clubs in two, a public service club in one, pri- vate support in one, and the citizens in one. The question, "Are the public play and recreation facilities of your city satisfactory ?" was answered, "Yes" by nine cities, eight of Class I, and one of Class II ; and "No" by twenty-one, twelve Class I, and nine Class II cities. Eight cities of each Class did not answer. One rty reported, "More than satis- 56 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION factory; too much recreation." Fifteen mayors discussed changes and improvements in the management of public play and recreation. Their attitude toward the recreation problem is best shown by quoting their statements. These are given below. i | ^| 1. "We should have a city park and play and recreation ground for children. We should have a down town public reading room, with bowling alleys, and billiard tables and pool tables, properly looked after for the men, and public places should be abolished." 2. "We want a public park for recreation purposes." 3. "There should be public playgrounds, baseball for the little boys. Band concerts, etc." 4. "I would suggest an athletic park and public playground for one thing, and a building of some kind that could be used for public gatherings and recreation during the winter months. Our city is sorely in need of a public park and playground as there is no place for the children to find amusement." 5. "In my opinion we need some form of amusement for our children, especially during summer months. We also need some form of amusement for our young men and women." 6. "Our town is not as progressive as other towns. It seems like our business men are all for themselves and for the dollars." 7. "We hear a great deal of the 'conservation' of our re- sources. We should conserve our greatest resources, our chil- dren, upon whose character the nation depends. Every com- munity should have a well organized community building." 8. "I feel that the city should purchase a few acres of ground adjoining the corporation, where fields should be pre- pared for outdoor exercises for the children during the sum- mer months. Swimming pools should be established." 9. "We go to church and picture shows and quit at that." 10. "There is a sentiment growing favoring the establish- ment of public playgrounds, and gymnasium which the Com- mercial Club and School Board will no doubt endorse." 11. "I do not thing it is isufficient as the children are not properly cared for in the way of amusement/' 12. From a State Normal School town : "The advantages of the Normal are open to the citizens of the town, so that we do not feel this problem as some places do. The Normal School Athletic Field and Model School Playgrounds are at all times RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 57 open, as well as the gymnasium, library, etc. Numerous musical entertainments, literary societies, etc. meet these needs of our people." 13. From a town of 2,300 in the west-central part of the state : "Amusements are for children more than adults. The man or woman who can't amuse himself had as well die and be done with it, but with the kids it is different. They should have good, wholesome, strenuous amusement handed to them where it would be supervised and looked after by some one authorized so to do. From November to about this date (March 12) I have provided them with a skating pond at public expense and have policed and supervised it in the interest of the children. " I permit the children to use the streets and side-walks for all kinds of games, telling them to keep off the congested streets. They have never violated my instructions nor con- fidence. Roller skates are used to quite an extent on the side- walks Baseball is played on the streets and on vacant lots The schools maintain quite a library, and we have a Carnegie library also. Both are well patronized. A lyceum course undertaken by the high school during the past year was a loss The public Service Club has a contract for the Chautauqua for the coming year. We buy the program outright and give away tickets to all who can- not afford to buy them. We have a membership of 75, and are growing. We maintain a thorough reading course mag- azines periodicals papers dailies of all kinds. We have in our building two bowling alleys, four billiard and pool tables, piano, victrola, stage, card tables Wives and children of members are welcome at any time, day or night. Strangers are given the privilege of the club The club room is modern in every respect. "Picture shows are well attended I never saw a picture show that did not have a suggestion of evil in it. As they are run now they are breeders of vice They are the next thing that must be regulated or put out of business in the state. "What every town, every community in fact, needs, is a recreation park of ten acres or more The question here always arises as to how to pay for it. We do it only by private subscription." 14. From a western town of 1,200 : "There are in every 58 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION community people, who, having no children, or sense of com- munity interest and spirit, 'concentrated in self are opposed to every movement in the general public interest that would re- sult in an increase of taxation. Their conception of govern- mental efficiency, apparently, being based on the minimum of taxation. Therefore, in order to provide for community build- ings, public playgrounds, publicly supported musical concerts, parks, good roads, and the conveniences and wholesome recre- ation and amusement which make community life better .... the voting of bonds within reasonable restrictions, must be expressly provided for by the legislature, and all unnecessary restraints removed." 15. A city of 1,600 in the southeast part of the state: "We had some ladies here last summer who thought we ought to have a teacher to teach the children how to play. I offered to hire one, if they could find a business man who was making a success and supporting his family that had hired a teacher to teach him to play when he was young. We talked about the high cost of living. We need more people to produce than we do to play. I think more of one man who causes one hill of potatoes or one onion to grow than I do of all the play busi- ness that you can put up." These replies show a keen appreciation of the recreation problem, and a recognition of public responsibility for its so- lution. In but three of the replies (10, 11 and 15) are play and recreation clearly looked upon as children's activities only. The others recognize recreation as a community problem. In only one case (15) is the lack of sympathy, and the entire mis- conception of public needs clearly shown. The bearing of these replies upon the entire study will be brought out in division E of this chapter. This inventory discloses the fact that the public recrea- tion facilities of the Class I and Class II cities are almost identical. The only important difference is in the number of recreation places provided. Only three Class I cities, and one Class II city reported other means of play and recreation pro- vided by the city than those indicated in the questionnaire. Four Class I, and three Class II cities reported other commer- cial means besides those listed. One Class I, and two Class II cities mentioned school activities not suggested ; and two cities in each class reported unusual uses of church buildings not listed. RECREATIONAL INVENTORY 59 Though this inventory is not complete, it includes all the important public facilities for play and recreation in these villages and cities. The uniformity of these provisions is ap- parent, and their similarity to facilities for the same purposes in larger cities, is evident. D. The Utilization and Inadequacy of Public Play and f Recreation Facilities in the Cities and Villages No direct attempt has been made through the question- naire to find out how often, and to what extent the play and recreation facilities are used in the forty-six towns studied. However, it is not so difficult to determine this from other sources. The writer's seventeen years' experience as principal and superintendent of public schools in five villages and cities of the west, central, east, northeast and southeast parts of Nebraska, has given him first hand knowledge of typical towns of the groups under consideration. This experience has not been confined to the social contacts necessarily incident to the management of village and city schools. During the last eight years, especially, definite practical attempts were made through the schools, and other social betterment forces, to understand, and to help to improve play and recreation facilities. This statement of personal experiences and interest is offered here to aid the reader in measuring the worth of the interpre- tations of the data under consideration, and also to establish the right of the writer to introduce facts gained through these experiences. The public school of the governmental agencies, perhaps the most important and the most far-reaching in its influence, is a seasonal institution. It is usually closed three months in the year. During these three months no use is made of the school buildings. Only four towns report summer supervision of playgrounds, and the same number have summer and even- ing schools. It is common practice to dismantle school play- grounds during the vacation season and to store the apparatus in the school buildings. Systematic supervision of playgrounds is not usually provided even during the school days of the school year. The desire to win in school athletic contests has resulted in making school gymnasiums and athletic fields largely train- ing places for school teams. Evidence of this is shown by the 60 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION fact that 120 high schools of Nebraska sent 1,007 boys to the Seventh Annual Basketball Tourney, at Lincoln in March, 1917. This tourney was held under the auspices of the University of Nebraska. Twenty-five of the forty-six towns considered in this study sent teams to this tourney. (103.) Much of the athletic energy of these small high schools is spent in training teams for this annual event. This training is obtained in part through games with neighboring school teams. Public use of the gymnasium is confined largely to these contests, which are held usually two or three times a month during the late fall and winter season. Thirty-one towns have gymnasiums. Twelve mention basket ball first in giving social and recrea- tional uses of school buildings. In answer to the question, "Are school buildings used for other purposes than regular school work?" seventeen replied, "Yes"; twenty-five, "No"; four did not answer. Although legally permissible, there is not by any means complete utilization of school houses as community centers or for public recreation purposes. The public libraries of these towns are usually open on afternoons and evenings during the entire year. The num- ber of patrons indicates the use made of the reading mat- ter. The first ten Class I towns selected from the alpha- betical list, have an average of 648 patrons; three having less than 500 ; four from 500 to 800 ; and three from 800 to 1,100. (80: 18-20.) Ten Class II cities selected in the same manner have an average of 898 patrons. Nine representative libraries of Class I cities, have an average annual circulation of 4,800 volumes ; ten, of Class II, 10,000 volumes. (80 : 18-20.) When these facts are considered in connection with the state- ment of a competent investigator that 74 per cent of the library books drawn by young people, and 70 per cent of those drawn by adults, are novels, the recreational influence of the public library is apparent. (23: 108.) In addition to the regular uses of the library buildings, some communities have equipped basement rooms, and set them apart for the use of various local clubs, thus making the library building, in a sense at least, a community center. A children's reading room, a children's story hour, and a collection of pictures for children and adults are common in these li- braries. The music provided by the towns is in most cases band music. It is given generally by a local band as an open air con- USE OF RECREATIONAL FACILITIES 61 cert, one evening each week, or every other week, in the public park or at some central point. These concerts are given only during the summer and fall. Being informal outdoor affairs, they really become neighborhood centers, places where neigh- bors and friends gather in groups to enjoy music and to visit. Incidentally, they attract people to the busines center of the town, and add to the evening sales of the stores. From the data at hand, and from direct observation, it seems safe to assert that the city halls are not used for many recreation purposes. Quarters for volunteer firemen are fre- quently provided. These in some instances are well-equipped game rooms and dance halls. A room for band practice is also a common provision. Commercial agencies exist for gain, so they are open to the public whenever state laws and city ordinances permit, or as much as the patronage will justify financially. Motion picture shows in these towns are open afternoons and evenings or evenings only. Few of the towns of Nebraska permit picture shows to open on Sundays. In 1913, only seven out of 57 towns of the state allowed these shows to open on Sundays. (37: 136.) The typical Nebraska town of Class I has two billiard halls, each containing five tables; the Class II town has three halls of eleven tables each. These halls provide in most of the towns the only public indoor game privileges. The popularity of the game is shown by the fact that twenty-two Class I towns have 42 billiard halls. Eleven out of twelve Class II towns reported the number of billiard tables. These reported 163 tables. There are 33 halls in the twelve Class II towns. In the thirty-three towns of both Classes reporting there are 383 billiard tables, or an average of more than twelve to each town. These facts prove the demand for, and the popularity of this game. The game is not in good repute. It is generally under the ban of the church. It is subject to stringent state and local regula- tions. However, it is a game that appeals in a peculiar way to young men ; also the halls provide in all seasons a convenient, interesting and comfortable loafing place for men of all classes. The coming of the motion picture show has made a cheap means of amusement easily accessible to all. Every town ex- cept one, a suburb of Lincoln, has at least one motion picture show. The growth of the motion picture shows has resulted in a decrease in the number of traveling shows, and so in less frequent use of the "opera houses." Forty of the forty-six 62 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION towns still have opera houses. In some cases they are used also for public dance halls. Baseball ranks first among the out-door sports of these towns. There are thirty-one baseball parks in the forty-six towns. This, of course, is a seasonal game. The other com- mercial agencies are seasonal or transitory. The carnival or street fair is a transient, commercial agent that seems to be passing away. Many of the incidental agencies are unique in the con- stancy of their influence. No other agencies of public play and recreation are so continually available for all, as are most of these. Necessity, custom and legal provisions permit drug stores, restaurants, livery stables and garages to keep open for business day and night throughout the year. No legal re- strictions are placed upon attendance at these places. They are open practically all of the time, to all who wish to take advantage of the indirect recreation provided. The paucity of proper recreational facilities for the young especially, in small towns forces them to seek the Indirect means offered by the incidental agencies. Of the thirty-four commercial clubs of the forty-six towns only eight are mentioned as providing continuous means of recreation. Occasional social functions are held by these clubs in many of the towns. The membership of the clubs is made up in most cases of business men only. Their recreational influence is wielded chiefly through their prestige in city gov- ernment in securing and financing public entertainments that primarily bring trade to town. The reported recreational uses of the club rooms are cards, billiards and other indoor games. Not all the places and means included in the incidental group are listed in Table III. To those given in the table may be added the following, which are common to all the towns, either as separate establishments, or as departments of other businesses candy shops, tobacco shops, news stands, ice cream and soda parlors, and railroad depots. Any one who knows intimately the ins and outs of life in small towns, cannot fail to realize the importance of many of these incidental agencies. They provide convenient and much used meeting places for young people, and since there is no equipment for active recre- ation, and no direct supervision of conduct, there is often a tendency towards dissipation rather than recreation. The fact USE OF RECREATIONAL FACILITIES J 63 that all the important incidental agencies offer only indoor attractions, adds to the possible banef ulness of their influences. In studying Table V one is impressed with the fact that the incidental agencies provide more places for recreation than any of the other agencies. The lead in numbers and in avail- ability help to make these agencies an important, but in a large measure an undetermined, and an unrecognized factor in public recreation. In one sense the religious, philanthropic and social agencies are incidental. These agencies do not exist for the purpose of providing play and recreation. Their chief purposes are in- dicated by their names. Experience has proved that in some cases the ends for which they exist can best be attained by pro- viding some means of play and recreation as an incentive to those who are to be the recipients of the higher values. Perhaps, no institution has been so slow to recognize this ancillary use of play and recreation, and, in fact, of all forms of social service, as the church. 'The church must recognize that social conditions affect the spiritual side of life, and that spiritual conditions affect the social side of life." (16: 5.) "When the church actually labors at the tasks of evangelism and social service, they are found to be inter-dependent. So- cial service is found to have definite evangelistic values, and evangelism to have genuine social values." (117: 2.) The data with reference to unusual uses of church build- ings point to the failure of the churches in these communities to realize the truth of the above statements. There are 133 churches in the 28 Class II towns, or an average of five for each town. That means in general one church building for each 300 persons. The proportion is almost the same for the 18 Class II cities, which have 132 churches, or seven for each city. With the exception of the home, no other institution of civilization in these cities owns so many buildings as the church. The reported unusual uses of these 265 churches are as follows: Seven cities have thirteen churches with reading rooms; ten have fifteen churches maintaining recreation or game rooms ; one church gymnasium is reported ; and in three cases special mention is made of social uses. Of course, one must not fail to take account of the fact that many of the ordinary uses of churches are at least in part recreational. Religion at its best is a mode of relaxation. 64 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION Its highest exercise decreases stress and tension, and tends to shift responsibility to a higher power, so, is in a true sense recreational. (86: 85.) The informal social features of regular church services in small cities add to their recreational value. The formalism and stiffness commonly characterstic of church exercises in large cities are not prevalent. The people meet as neighbors and friends. Sunday preaching is but a small part of the activities that are common to practically all church organizations. The Sun- day school with its occasional special programs, the young people's meetings, the class organizations, the various church socials, choir practices and the casual entertainment, include most of the extra activities of the average church. Attendants at regular church services in small towns, and also in large cities for that matter, are accustomed to hear the ministers recount each Sunday the numerous religious, semi-religious, educational, social and recreational functions and activities of their congregations and the community for the current week. These various affairs are not all held in the church buildings. The church buildings are not at all con- sidered social or recreation centers for the congregations. Some pastors and church officials regard many of these activ- ities as dangerous, and will not allow them to be held in the church buildings. A church in small towns is so rarely used avowedly for recreational purposes that it would undoubtedly attract atten- tion. The mayors report but six per cent of the total number of churches so used. A small gymnasium, little used, is listed as a part of the equipment of one church. The other direct provisions for recreation are recreation or game rooms. With only six church buildings in a hundred utilized directly for play and recreation purposes, it seems evident that the Chris- tian people of these small cities do not recognize the importance of the relation of play and leisure to religious life. While there is a church building in these towns for every 300 persons, it does not at all follow that the recreational facil- ities offered by the churches are available and utilized by all of the people. In the United States as a whole about one-third of the population is affiliated with some church. (121 : 598-599.) Statistics show that, in 1906, there were 346,000 church mem- bers in Nebraska. (25:226.) This was very nearly one-third of the population at that time. USE OF RECREATIONAL FACILITIES 65 The multiplicity of denominations, and denominational strife and jealousy which are common especially in small cities tend to alienate people from church attendance. A town of 1,500 people cannot support five pastors of wide training, and insight into present social conditions and social needs, This is another factor that militates against church attendance and affiliation, and prevents the church from rendering the service to the community that it would render under more efficient leadership. Not all of the pastors of these small churches lack training and social vision, but as a rule the small congrega- tions are unable to provide an income sufficient to attract well trained men, and even if they are secured, they are usually handicapped by inadequate equipment and conservative church officials. In 1906, the average salary of ministers in the United States was $663 a year. The average annual salary of min- isters outside of the principal cities (cities of less than 25,000) was $573. (25:94-95.) It seems that little can be expected from the churches in these cities in the way of providing recreation, as long as de- nominational lines are drawn as closely as they are now. Too much of the energy of the small church is expended in keeping up traditional religious activities in keeping itself alive to permit the introduction of many socializing influences, or to affiliate with other social service groups in providing for the care of community leisure in other buildings. A case to the point, the facts of which came from the principal of the public schools of a Nebraska town of about 1,000 people, illus- trates this conservatism of the church with reference to recre- ation. In this town a community club had rallied the people to the support of a tangible proposition for securing a community building. Provisions for the necessary funds had been worked out. The movement had reached the stage where definite plans for the erection of the building, and necessarily the uses to be made of it, were discussed. At this point a large number of the citizens wanted the building planned for billiards. The conservative church men objected. The discussions then ran into other uses of the building. Dancing and card playing were proposed and advocated by some. Church men straightway withdrew their support from the entire proposition. The com- munity divided, and the community building movement im- mediately collapsed. This town had two commercial billiard 66 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION halls and a dance hall. At the next town election the billiard halls were voted out by a vote of 89 to 88. The small church buildings cannot well be adapted to meet the requirements, even in a small way, of the institutional church. The movement toward the federation of American churches has affected the small towns very little. There is, however, a tendency toward cooperation among the churches of the same town. Ministerial associations, union meetings and interchange of pulpits among the pastors, are indications of this cooperative spirit. In a recent study of the recreation facilities and social activities of the churches of Nebraska, it was found that out of thirty villages and towns in Classes I and II, there were twelve ministerial associations. In only five of the twelve towns, were all the pastors members of the association. There is little evidence of loss of denominational identity, though there is evidence of the breaking down of de- nominational prejudices. As has been pointed out, many changes seem necessary before much progress can be made by religious organizations towards meeting social obligations and recreational needs. So it appears that fuller utilization of present church plants for recreation purposes cannot be ex- pected in the near future. Chautauquas and lecture courses are not always easily maintained, though forty-three of the towns hold chautauquas and thirty-nine have lecture courses. The character of the programs offered by these organizations has changed within the last two decades. There has been a constant tendency in both cases to offer entertainment courses rather than solid lectures, and other heavy matter. This change has undoubt- edly helped to place these recreational activities in almost every town and city. A lecture course consists generally of from four to seven numbers. The chautauquas last from five to ten days. No attempt has been made to secure data for all of the religious, philanthropic and social agencies. The number and complexity of these agencies make them very bewildering, for here are included social and philanthropic clubs, associations of all sorts, and fraternal orders. These organizations are characterized generally by the narrowness of their purposes. Each is usually built around a single idea, or a group of closely related ideas, and in striving to attain its desired end or ends, does not readily cooperate with other social forces. This keeps USE OF RECREATIONAL FACILITIES 67 most of the activities rather closely confined to a more or less selected membership. For these reasons, many of the relig- gious, philanthropic and social agencies cannot be classed as public, but are rather semi-private, and the numerous recrea- tional facilities that are common to them cannot be considered as subject to utilization by the public. Their recreational ac- tivities are generally restricted to the membership. The more serious purposes of these organizations are usually presented in contacts with the public. Not enough community buildings are in use in these towns, and their growth has been too recent to enable one to determine to what extent the facilities offered by such buildings would be utilized by the public for play and recrea- tion. Only three of the forty-six towns report community buildings. The term "community building" varies in meaning for each community, so the local definition of the term is neces- sary in order to know just what it includes or does not include. One so-called community building or community center consists of a public library with club rooms in the basement; (80: 7.) another provides a library, gymnasium, swimming pool, auditorium and social rooms; while the third one is a Y. M. C. A. building and public library, in which are housed a complete City Y. M. C. A., a High School Y. W. C. A., and a public library. The basement rooms of the library of the third building are used by various local clubs, and the gym- nasium of the Y. M. C. A. is also used as an auditorium. Social and game rooms are provided in each of the Association sections of the building. The gymnasium is used by the two Asso- ciations. As an auditorium, the large gymnasium is used for lecture courses, festivals, banquets, local talent plays, various public school activities, etc. The play and recreational facilities offered in this third building are used constantly. The actual uses of this build- ing from January 1, 1917, to June 1, 1917, as reported by the secretary of the Y. M. C. A. and the librarian of the public library, are as follows : public meetings, 23 ; lectures, 6 ; public school exercises, 3; local plays, 3; socials, 11; banquets and "feeds," 5; gymnasium classes, 62; special stunts, 8; other play and recreation uses, 28. This makes a total of 149 uses in six months. Not one of these community buildings is maintained en- tirely by taxation. Only the public library part is so supported. 68 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION The other facilities are provided by voluntary contributions, and fees, rents and donations from local organizations, and others that use the buildings. The facts presented clearly show that there is generally a wide use made of public play and recreation facilities. Gov- ernment is not apt to provide for that which is not used, and is very slow to take over new activities, or those that have previously been cared for by non-governmental organizations or agencies. This conservatism on the part of city govern- ments is the chief cause of the inadequacy of governmental provisions for public play and recreation, and of their failure to allow the public to fully utilize the play and recreation facilities at governmental command. The limited uses of city halls, libraries and school buildings are examples of these re- strictions. The very existence of the commercial and incidental agencies is proof of public patronage. The adoption and ex- tension of means of play and recreation by religious, philan- thropic and social agencies, as an aid in attaining their desired ends, is certain evidence of public demand and public response. The trend of public opinion with reference to public play and recreation, as expressed in the responses of the mayors, given in division C of this chapter, and the trend of public action along the same lines as expressed by the erection, and movements for the erection of community buildings, are in- dicative of the inadequacy and the inefficiency of present facil- ities for public play and recreation in these villages and cities. E. The Evaluation and Meaning of the Complex and Over- Lapping Agencies of Public Play and Recreation From the evidence produced in the preceding divisions of this chapter it appears that the complex and almost system- less and non-cooperative agencies of public play and recrea- tion in the forty-six cities and towns of Nebraska are not pro- viding adequate and efficient facilities for public play and leisure. The means of public play and recreation seem to be as fully utilized as controlling authorities will permit. The nu- merous facilities provided in these towns, and the trend of pub- lic action and public opinion towards the extension of these facilities are facts full of significance. It is the chief purpose of this division to account for the MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 69 growing demand in these towns for play and recreation out- side of the home, and to attempt to determine why these ac- tivities are being assumed by agencies that formerly almost entirely discarded them. The inventory of the public play and recreation facilities given in division C of this chapter discloses the fact that the recreational features of these towns do not differ much in kind from those of the large cities. In these provisions at least the small town seems to be a large city in miniature. The replies of the mayors, and the inventory itself, point to- ward the tendency of the small town to transplant into its midst the activities of the big city. Nebraska is essentially an agricultural state. In 1910, 73.9 per cent of the inhabitants lived in rural districts that is, outside of incorporated places having 2,500 inhabitants or more. The largest city in the state (Omaha) had a popu- lation of 124,096, and there were two cities (South Omaha and Lincoln) having between 25,000 and 50,000 inhabitants each. At that time there was one city with a population of 10,000; nine between 5,000 and 10,000; and twelve between 2,500 and 5,000. (109: 2-4.) According to the classification of the United States Census Bureau, the villages and cities under consideration in this study are parts of rural communities. A study of the dis- tribution of the forty-six villages and cities shows that one place is in direct contact with Lincoln. Twelve are between twenty and fifty miles from Lincoln, and five are between twenty and fifty miles from Omaha. Omitting the cities that are counted twice in the over-lapping of the fifty mile radii from Omaha and Lincoln, there are nine places out of the forty-six that are between twenty and fifty miles from these cities, and one place in contact with Lincoln. There is one city outside of the state (Sioux City, Iowa) as large as Lin- coln that is within fifty miles of three places not included in the distances from Omaha and Lincoln. The cities of Nebraska are not connected by interurban electric railways. The southeast one-fourth of the state is quite well supplied with railroads. There are over 6,000 miles of railroads in the state. Excellent public highways are com- mon throughout the state, and automobiles are in common use all over the state. 70 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION While facilities for travel are good, at least in the south- east one-third of the state, the distance of most of the towns studied from the only two cities of the state that can be classed as large cities, is so great that it practically precludes very much influence of these two cities by direct contact with the smaller places. Evidently the tendency of these smaller places to adopt and adapt the recreational features of large cities cannot be caused by direct influence of large cities. Most of these towns are located in rich agricultural regions, and, so far as distance from one another, or from more densely populated places, is concerned, are isolated communities. When one considers that the rural population of the United States in 1910 was 53.7 per cent of the total popula- tion, and that in individual states there was a variation in rural population from 3.3 per cent in Rhode Island, to 88.5 per cent in Mississippi, the ruralness of Nebraska becomes more significant. The ruralness is even more apparent when we consider the number of dwellings, and the number of fam- ilies in the state. According to the census of 1910 there were 258,967 dwellings, and 265,549 families in Nebraska. That is, only in a very few cases did more than one family occupy a dwelling. (110: 51.) Only seventeen states have a higher per cent of rural population than has Nebraska. Nearly four- fifths of the land area of the state is in farms. Nebraska's population is typically American. In 1910, 53.9 per cent were native born whites of native parents ; 30.4 per cent were native born whites of foreign or mixed parents ; and 14.8 per cent were foreign born whites. In the United States as a whole, 14.7 per cent of the population is for- eign born. Of the foreign born whites in Nebraska in 1910, 32.6 per cent were German ; 13.9 per cent, Austrian ; 13.2 per cent, Swedish; 7.8 per cent, Danish; 7.4 per cent, Russian; 4.6 per cent, Irish ; 4.6 per cent, English ; 4.2 per cent, Canadian ; 2.2 per cent, Italian; 2 per cent, Greek; other countries, 7.9 per cent. (110: 44 and 50.) These facts relating to the composition and distribution of population, resources, and industries of Nebraska are given here in order to emphasize the fact that the forty-six towns under consideration are essentially isolated rural commun- ities, located in agricultural regions, and have a representa- tive American population. A ten-minute walk in any direc- MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 71 tion from the center of almost any town in the list would take one out into the country, into open cultivated fields. In chapter iii are enumerated some of the important in- fluences that have in recent years caused the play and recre- ation problem to occupy an increasingly prominent place in public interest. Perhaps, the factors of the problem as dis- cussed in that chapter may not carry the same values when applied to conditions in small towns. A re-examination of some of these factors with special reference to their applica- tions to the case in hand, may help toward the purpose of this division. Physical isolation does not necessarily carry with it social isolation, nor does physical proximity insure socialization. "Persons do not become a society by living in physical proximity, any more than a man ceases to be socially influenced by being so many feet or miles removed from others. A book or a letter may institute a more intimate as- sociation between human beings separated thousands of miles from each other, than exists between dwellers under the same roof." (26: 5.) Though these towns may not know condi- tions in large cities by the actual social contact of a great number of their inhabitants with those conditions, there are many other means by which they may be drawn into the great current of national social consciousness, which is now essen- tially municipal, for, municipalities are the real growing points of our nation. National social consciousness as here used is due to "the awareness of resemblances and of differ- ences," (40: 66.) and is a more or less conscious recognition and response of the local social mind to national stimuli or to social forces that are. acting throughout the nation. Among the agencies or means through which these com- munities are brought into contact with the social forces of the nation, the most potent are, travel, literature and the press, education, commercial effort, and social betterment move- ments. Travel includes all the influences that are brought to these towns by transients or by residents who have made ex- tensive trips to other parts. When one considers the excellent facilities and the wide uses made of them, the importance of travel as a socializing factor, is evident. The general use of the automobile and the common practice of making long vacation and excursion trips, have within the last few years 72 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION much augmented this influence. Travel is usually in itself a form of recreation, and unusual recreational activities are apt to appeal strongly to the traveler, and to be reported at home. Another important means of socialization by personal contact is provided through the various forms of higher edu- cation. The population of Nebraska increased 11.8 per cent during the decade ending in 1910. During the same period the enrollment at the State University increased 70 per cent. The estimate made by the United States Census Bureau, Jan- uary, 1917, showed an increase of 14 per cent in the popula- tion of the state since the census of 1910. From 1910 to 1917 the enrollment at the State University increased 71 per cent. Other educational institutions of the state have grown rapidly. This growth means a more general dissemination of the pro- ducts of higher education. The recent trend toward the so- cialization of education more and more makes students car- riers and distributors of socializing forces. The fact that more than 400 students at the State University during the school year, 1916-17, were from the forty-six towns here con- sidered, is an indication of the distribution of these influ- ences. The various phases of school extension work, chau- tauquas, and lecture courses, are other definite educational means that tend to unify thought and action, and to establish a social consciousness. As has been shown in a previous chapter, play and recre- ation have in recent years been recognized as forming a part of a complete educational program. The dissemination of progressive education necessarily carries with it better care of play and leisure. (26: 241.) Commercial advertising in newspapers and magazines is based upon the belief that they are potent forces in getting people to do things. (31: 93.) Books and periodicals on so- cial subjects have appeared with great rapidity in the last quarter of a century. A new or an unusual piece of social work is soon in print, and made available to the people through the small or large public library. Newspapers and magazines abound in material dealing with amusements, pleas- ure resorts, sports and kindred topics. As a rule they em- phasize the superiority of urban life. The popular magazines reflect the life of the great city. Most of them are published MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 73 in New York City. (100: 188.) By actual count, out of the list of magazines and periodicals classed by Severance under the title "Literary," thirty-four of the forty-seven leading publications, are printed in New York City. Five are published in Boston, four in Chicago, three in Philadelphia and one in San Francisco. (104.) This list was made in 1914. At pres- ent the Curtis publications and "The Atlantic" are the only generally circulating, standard magazines published outside of New York City. Print is one of the silent factors that dis- turbs provincialism and aids in the formation of the larger social consciousness. Commercial agencies are quick to grasp the monetary value of a dynamic social mind, so they strive to introduce into the small towns metropolitan commercial practices. The prestige of the big city in these matters makes this compara- tively easy. "Metropolitan fashions, amusements, pastimes, drinks, topical songs, books and magazines enjoy everywhere the right of way," (100: 188.) not alone because the smaller communities consciously imitate the city, but also because commercial agencies cultivate and exploit the racial tendency or instinct of gregariousness. (114: 85-88.) Perhaps, Gerald Stanley Lee is not far from the truth when he says : "We live in crowds. We get our living in crowds. We are amused in crowds. Civilization is a list of cities." (66: 191.) Ross asserts that New York City leads the nation in matters of fancy, taste and caprice. He says: "Foreign artists, singers, actors, musicians and lecturers make their debut there, and the verdict of the metropolitan critics gives the cue to the rest of the country. Books, plays and operas are launched in New York." (100: 188.) In chapter iii, is a discussion of the influence of New York City in fixing recreational stand- ards. It is in the field of activities that appeal primarily to the emotions and feelings that the prestige of the great city is most powerful. Congestion, leisure and commercial greed pro- duce a combination of forces that are apt to lead to dissipat- ing forms of recreation. Congestion itself tends to lead to crime and immorality. (68: 53.) It is the sex appeal in one form or another that gives the holding power to the the- atre and the motion picture show. (38: 43-47.) Perhaps, none of the other instincts or original tendencies of man are 74 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION so potent for making or unmaking right character as the sex instinct. The theatre, the motion picture show and the public dance are the common forms of public recreation that make strong appeals to this instinct, and these appeals are often perversive. The various lines of commercial effort tend to stimulate local social mind by provoking wants, and satisfying desires. These wants and desires may lead to better social conditions, or may not. American capital is looking for productive chan- nels of investment, and is not always particular about result- ing social values. Probably no other important social force loses so little of its metropolitan momentum in passing to the smaller places as does commercialized public recreation. Social betterment movements usually develop in large cities as the results of attempts to solve specific, pressing social problems. The local need is great. Some citizen or group of citizens sees the need, and through organized effort attempts to relieve it. If successful, and somewhat spectacu- lar, the movement quickly spreads to other cities and soon reaches the small towns. Somber success is slower but passes the same way. A recent striking example of the rapid spread of a somewhat spectacular social practice is seen in the growth of the community or municipal Christmas tree. The first community Christmas tree was placed in Madison Square, New York City, during the Christmas season of 1912. It was inspired by the loneliness of a young American student in a strange German town during the holiday season of 1911. He resolved that on the following Christmas he would, if possible, provide a Christmas tree for lonely people. He told his experience to a friend in New York City. She conceived the idea of a public Christmas tree. (67: 415.) Ten thous- and people gathered about the tree on Christmas Eve. Christ- mas spirit, common underlying racial tradition, and instinctive curiosity made it a success. "The American cities represent the debris of Europe's social tradition. It can never be res- urrected in any literal way, but by community action as such, it can be re-created in far richer and deeper kind." (67: 415.) This tree appealed to social groups to old world traditions- common to the cosmopolitan population of New York City. Its appeal aroused community sentiment, and for a little time there was the pulsation of community life. There are all MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 75 sorts of seeds in American social soil. Community habits of gladness and friendliness and symbolic days will cause them to grow. (67: 416.) Newspaper and magazine descriptions carried this tree to the farthest corners of the nation. More than three hun- dred cities in the United States had community Christmas trees in 1915. (28: 6.) A committee called the "Tree of Light Committee" with headquarters at New York City distributes free of charge suggestions and directions for organizing and managing community Christmas tree celebrations. Data are not at hand to give the exact number, but many community Christmas trees were given in the towns of Nebraska in 1916. The rise of various forms of community music illustrates the second type, or a somewhat slower growth of a social movement that at present in some of its forms permeates al- most every community, large or small. The present status of this movement as a national social force, seems to be best expressed in "A Call to a National Conference on Community Music," issued in April, 1917, by twelve leading members of important organizations, "devoted to various aspects of this movement." This conference was held in New York City, May 31, and June 1, 1917. The development and purposes of the movement are given in the call as follows : "The Community Music Movement has in the space of a few years risen to im- mense proportions in America, bringing to the people of the nation a new message of unity, of patriotism, of brotherhood in song, and of universal expression in beauty and joy. "It is well recognized that the movement is identified with a new current of social consciousness which carries its significance far beyond that pertaining to the special field of musical art in itself. The movement recognizes fully the place and value of a high development of artistic refinement, but in its present stage it exists primarily to liberate the spirit of the people through free participation in great forms of com- munal expression." (73:1.) The relation of community music to other social move^, ments is thus described in the conference call. "Among the many activities and organizations touching the Community Music movement there may be mentioned: municipal con- certs, civic music associations, community choruses, symphony and other concerts at popular prices, community Christmas 76 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION trees with music, community orchestras, and school choruses, pageants and community masques and dramas, music school settlements, musical activities in settlements generally, peoples institutes, social centers, the recreation movement, Americani- zation and patriotic societies, and many others." (73: 1.) Few of these musical activities have yet reached the small towns. In twenty-seven of the forty-six towns of this study, summer concerts, or other music is provided by the city, and paid for entirely, or in part by city funds. Only since 1915 has the state legislature permitted a tax to be collected for this purpose. A music supervisor is a part of the public teach- ing force in twenty-five of the forty-six towns. (75.) Ten years ago only twelve of these towns had music supervisors. (76.) School choruses, orchestras, festivals and other musical ac- tivities of a like character, are common in towns that provide a music supervisor for the public schools. Community sing- ing has appeared in a few Nebraska towns. The first Inter- Community Conference held under the auspices of the Ne- braska Federation of Musical Clubs met at Lincoln, Novem- ber 25, 1916. An inter-community concert and community singing were important features of this meeting. These recent developments of musical activities are not new. They are old forms modified to fit social conditions. The singing school of the past was a form of community music ; it was often community singing. Social readjustments caused chiefly by the rapid growth of cities, changed indus- trial conditions, immigration and the struggle for wealth, for a time seemed to have made impossible, or to have drawn the people away from many former social and recreational prac- tices. Rural communities have lost many of their saving forms of entertainment and recreation. Urban communities, primarily industrial centers, caring little and thinking little of social conservation, have permitted public leisure to be preyed upon by the dominant force of the city commercial- ism. Perversive appeals to deep-seated racial instincts have been carried too far. Perverted and distorted forms of music have been used for commercialized, dissipative purposes until a sort of social revulsion seems to have taken place. "Music more than any other mode of expression, is a language of the feelings We can say that music is the expression of the mind of man that is larger and deeper than MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 77 the consciousness of the individual. It comes from the generic and ancestral life, and appeals to the racial in us." (85: 272-3.) Modern industrial conditions give little chance for the expression or appreciation of music in connection with work. Machinery and efficiency interfere. This is true not only in the large factory and shop, but also in small industrial plants and mercantile establishments of all kinds. Music is permissible only when it helps to sell something. Formerly, people in practically all occupations sang at their work, "but in these days there is a terrible silence of humanity while at work." (39: 454-5.) The shadoof men along the Nile River as they perform their monotonous tasks hour after hour, with their primitive tools, are said to chant weird songs as they work. (11: 3.) In America, we have more efficient ma- chinery and more efficient men, but the men are not as happy as they work, as are the shadoof men of the Nile. The recognition of these industrial conditions and the commercial perversion of racial desire have been the chief factors in bringing about the community music movement. There has been a natural reversion to old forms of expression. "We are all animals in captivity, and we eagerly seize every kind of vicarious function which can give at least a memory of the life from which we are excluded." (54: 28.) So the artificiality of modern congestion finally seeks relief in social practices of a simpler past. Community music in its various forms, appears as an expression of an effort to recover an almost lost force for social betterment. Dr. Rose Yont after a very careful survey of the entire field of music, states that in general the cultural value of music in the United States has never before been so keenly appreciated as at the present time. (123: 224-29.) The social center movement is ten years old. It is now called the community center movement. Whatever name is given to it, it is little more than a re-discovery of local social consciousness, a recognition of a neighborhood feeling which was formerly characteristic of rural settlements. The process of urbanization tends to dissipate cooperative inter- est, except in things that finally lead to monetary values. So- cial neighborhood life almost disappears under such condi- tions. Social isolation is almost complete in the large apart- ment houses of a great city. Social isolation is one of the 78 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION results of excessive congestion. Even the school house may become an institution unrelated to the community, except as a place supported by public taxation, to which parents are forced to send their children five days in the week for nine months in the year. Edward J. Ward, the leader in the organization of the first social center in the United States, at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1907, defines the social center as follows : "The Social Center of any community is the common gathering place, the head-and-heart quarters, of the society whose mem- bers are the people of the community." (116:1.) The move- ment has developed very rapidly. In 1916, there were at least 500 community centers in the United States. (19:12.) The community center is much larger in its purpose as at present conceived than was the original social center. The first Na- tional Conference on Community Centers was held in New York City in April, 1916. The second was held at Chicago in April, 1917. At the first conference Dr. Gulick said : "The community center is a social structure for the promotion of friendliness, which is the most important thing in the world. The product of the community center is friendship, and the community center is to be judged by the quantity and quality of friendship it produces, just as a factory is to be judged by the quantity and quality of its output." (45: 9.) "The com- munity center is not a place. It is the people organized for the enrichment of life and for common action." So said John Collier at the same conference. He further states, "Its aim is that the common life of, by and for the people shall not per- ish." (19: 12.) Throughout all the discussions of the aims and purposes of the community center there runs the idea that the movement is primarily to care for public leisure, to utilize leisure as a recuperative force, instead of allowing it to continue as it has been and now is, in a large measure, a dissipative force. As was shown in division D of this chapter, the terms, community center and community building, are used in small places to designate local development, and so vary much in meaning. The village of Elgin, Antelope County, in the north- central part of Nebraska, furnishes an example of a peculiar development of a community movement. Elgin has a com- munity club. Through this club an effort is being made to MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 79 unite village and country social forces for the welfare of all. The club is financed by a fee collected from each member, and is a legally capitalized corporation. Karl W. G. Miller, the organizer of the club, in describing its activities says: "This club now is engaged in the work of transforming the town opera house into a community building, which will house all the activities of the organization. There being no other theater or public hall in the town, this virtually means that all 'shows' and other public entertainment features will be placed under the supervision of this association of public spirited citizens who will be guided by a sense of the community good rather than of the dollar. But amusements constitute only a part of the activities to be taken up by this club." (53.) Elgin has a population of about 900. Governmental in- fluence does not enter into the management of this club ex- cept in an advisory capacity. The village officers, the county superintendent of schools, and the village school teachers are consulted with reference to community welfare work, but offi- cial position does not carry with it any special power, and no public money is used by the club. (53.) Pleasant Dale, a village of about 300 people in Seward County, has a community club with the public school building as the center. Its purpose is "to give good and wholesome entertainment to the people of the community." (88.) This community club is evidently an extension of the idea of the school "literary society" of years ago. Whatever form these community movements may take, there is evidence in all of them of the influence of the original social center idea, and their rapid rise throughout the nation in cities and villages, large and small, is certain proof of pub- lic social and recreational needs. Reverting again to the discussion of the factors that have pushed play and recreation into the forefront of public con- cern, as given in chapter iii, it is necessary to re-examine in detail some of the forces there enumerated in order to at- tempt to account for the growing demand for public recrea- tion in small towns. Why are the agencies, through which these communities are brought into contact with the social forces of the nation, so powerful ? Are the commonly accepted agencies of civilization the home, the church, the school, the vocation, and the state individually equally potent in the big 80 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION city, and in the small town? That is, for example, does the home in the big city count for as much in the sum total of metropolitan civilization, as does the home in the small town, in its civilization? Admitting that the five agencies of civilization do "con- serve the past, preserve the present, and make possible a pro- gressive future," (56: 1.) is it possible to determine, even in a general way, the varying influence exerted by each agency at any given time and place? All the elements of civilization were in the primitive home. Considering civilization as an indefinite series of con- stantly enlarging concentric circles, the home is the center of all the circles and is the center-most circle. From it has radiated all civilization. As the radii have lengthened, the other agencies have been thrown off from the home, and have become distinct portions of the ever enlarging part-sectors. Thus in general, the home portion of the part-sectors, the primary agency, has constantly decreased in proportion to the total area lying between any two consecutive circumfer- ences. The relative proportions of the five part-sectors have varied at different times and with different peoples at the same time. No attempt can be made here to trace these variations through the mazes of the past. A recognition of their exist- ence, however, is essential. A civilization is never static. The circles are ever vary- ing. The part-sectors continually change proportions. As the circles enlarge there is a constant tendency for new part- sectors to appear, formed by activities that grow out of and become institutions not dependent upon the other sectors. A new part-sector is thus another secondary agency of civiliza- tion which is not functionally dependent upon the older sec- tors. A civilization is never uniformly distributed even among the most homogeneous people; the factors or agencies that form the civilization may be the same in number and general character. There is an American civilization, and a German civilization, but each of these civilizations varies probably as much within itself as the two national ideals vary from each other. "Civilization is a kind of a mould that each nation is busy making for itself to shape its men and women according MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 81 to its best ideal/' (108 : 13.) This mould is variable, or there could be no movement forward or backward. This variation of the civilization of an apparently homo- geneous nation is due largely to the unequal distribution among the people of the fundamental agencies of civilization. If the sectors were proportionally constant throughout the nation the civilization would be more nearly uniform. Why do the sectors vary so widely? The division of the population, by the United States Cen- sus Bureau, into rural and urban is not merely a convenience of classification. Of course, the government definition of ur- ban is purely arbitrary, but there is a fundamental basis for the two divisions. Urban civilization differs from rural civ- ilization. "The physical development of Humanity since its earliest stages has been largely due to the reaction of individuals upon one another in those various relations which we characterize as social." (34: 66.) Human beings never normally live in isolation savage and civilized men alike dwell in groups. (41: 81.) They are always more or less dependent upon one another and upon physical environment. People as a rule live where they can live easiest and attain the greatest amount of pleasure, so regions or places favored by nature tend to at- tract human beings. Individuals react upon one another more readily when they are near to one another. "Aggregation is itself a condition favorable to further aggregation." (41 : 87.) Highly favored spots in regions favorable to aggregation, aided by man's transforming powers have become great gan- glia of populations. (57.) In very recent times some of these ganglia are placed and developed by business enterprises, al- most regardless of natural fitness. Accumulated wealth and modern transportation facilities have made this possible. Ganglia or urban populations are called agglomerations; the ordinary aggregations are rural. Agglomerations may be termed the cerebra of civilization. So, the division of the pop- ulation into urban and rural is really based upon physical and psychical differences, and is as old as civilization itself. As has been shown in the first part of this division, re- cent changes in the various means of communication have made it possible for metropolitan social forces to pass easily and rapidly into nature-favored rural communities, regard- 82 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION less of the distance of these communities from great agglom- erative centers. The rapid urbanization of rural regions in general is an accepted fact of American social life, but the metropolitan character of this urbanization has not been duly considered. The first hand influence of the big city, especially in mat- ters relating to emotional life, has been noted in another part of this division. The very existence of rural and urban popu- lations in a given region accounts for much of the variation of the sectors of the civilization of that region. It is not neces- sarily the difference in the quantity that marks the distinc- tion between urban and rural. It is the proportional distri- bution of the sectors. The total area of the two circles may be the same. As urbanization becomes more complete the sectors approach one another in proportional area. The magnification of one sector is apt to cause a diminu- tion in one or more of the other sectors in the same circle ; or in other words, an increase in the functions of one agency of civilization is likely to be at the expense of one or more of the other agencies. In chapter ii, the social complications arising from con- gestion of populations are considered with special reference to public play and recreation. It is shown in that chapter that the home has undergone marked changes, chiefly as a result of congestion, which is largely an outgrowth of mod- ern industrialism. In the communities under consideration, there is no real problem of congestion. There are, of course, in each of these rural agglomerations, a few families living in the up town "blocks," that is, on the second floor or possi- bly the third floor, of store and office buildings, and there is at least one slum district in which there are a few over-populated houses. There is, however, no over-populated district. The houses have open spaces about them and there is usually a garden attached to each. Very few, if any, homes are half a mile from the public park, open fields, or open play spaces on vacant lots. The streets of western towns are wide and the blocks are not large. Congestion per se cannot be an im- portant factor in changing home conditions in these towns. The owned home is not passing away in the small towns as it is in the large cities, as is shown in the chapter referred to above, though there is a gradual increase throughout the MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 83 nation in the number of rented homes. (110: 1295.) How- ever, the industrial changes of the past fifty years have had much to do with the small-town home. There is no home in- dustrial group. The members of a family usually engage in diverse vocations. There is not the bond of common in- terest that formerly bound the family together. The indi- vidual vocational duties and interests of the members of the family take them outside of the home circle for at least half of their waking hours. Social ties and groups are formed, based largely upon these outside interests. These draw away from the home during hours of leisure. The shorter work day gives also in these towns more hours of leisure. The misfits in occupations and the consequent perversions of leisure are at least as common as in the large cities. Other factors strengthen this tendency toward family disintegration. The taking over by the public schools of much of child and youth training that was formerly given by the home, has transferred some interest from the home to the school. Some assert that this training reflects back into the home and improves it. The movement is too new, and pres- ent social changes are too complex to measure accurately the results of this transference. However, there must be some loss to the home when the child looks to the school instead of to the parents for home training, social activities, and play direction. Not alone in matters of discipline, does the teacher of the present stand in loco parentis. The multiplicity of church activities in these small towns has been described. Religious training has largely passed out of the home into the church. The Sunday school is slowly adapting public school principles and practices to religious training. Religious training is being approached through social service. The Sunday school is beginning to take the place of parents in other matters besides religion. The church is very slowly adjusting itself to meet constantly growing social and recreational needs. This study of Nebraska cities and villages has brought out the fact that there is a marked tendency in these small places to provide some means of leisure and recreation as a public utility to be paid for by public taxation. Public parks, public libraries, municipal music, school gymnasiums, and occasionally city halls are facilities through which this is usually done. 84 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION These activities are not new in the large city, but they are in most cases recent developments in these towns. That there is a growing demand for the enlargement of public provisions for play and recreation, has been pointed out in division D of this chapter. The recent permissive leisure and recreation legislation on the part of the state is further evidence of this. (See division B of this chapter.) These public means of play and recreation have not grown directly out of the home. They are rather the expression of a growing community conscious- ness of scoial maladjustment, and their use and the trend of public opinion in regard to them, are certainly indicative of the failure of the other agencies to supply and safeguard play and recreation. The inventory of public play and recreation facilities, and the uses made of them clearly show that a large share of public play and recreation is provided by private concerns, or indi- viduals as a business proposition. There is in most cases a sort of legal supervision which is often little more than nom- inal, or at its best suppressive and regulative. There is no legal supervision in case of many of these activities, so many of the facilities for public recreation are provided by what might be called an unattached, free-lance, composite agency. The meaning, which the cumbersome term just used in- tends to carry, needs to be made clearer. Recurring again to the conception of civilization as a series of concentric circles, with the home as the center and the central circle, it will be recalled that the four secondary agencies of civilization de- veloped from this center; also that a civilization at any given time is the total area made up of the five part-sectors, including more or less varying parts attached to these sectors, plus other free portions in process of forming a new sector or agency. It is these free portions to which the term unattached free- lance, composite agency applies. The industrial revolution, the socializing and homeish tendencies in education, the social service movement in the church, and the remarkable expansion of governmental func- tions, especially in municipalities, are, as has been pointed out, the most potent factors that have been in recent times, and are at present, working toward the dissociation of the home. The industries have gone from the home. The household is no longer an industrial plant. Another agency takes care of that field of activity. Parents are no longer teachers or trainers MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 85 of their children. Formal education, all phases of vocational training, and moral and religious instruction have in a large measure passed over into other institutions. Authority over individuals in the ordinary situations of life, even in the home, and provisions for human welfare in general, have been in many cases assumed by government, particularly by municipal government. The home, minus the various definite activities that have been transferred to these agencies, and minus other less definite activities that have passed over into what has been called the free-lance composite agency, seems to be in the throes of an acute, social readjustment. The future influence of the home is problematic. One thing seems certain, the re- habilitation of either the rural or urban home of the past is impossible. Perhaps, this rehabilitation is neither necessary nor desirable. Social readjustments are often hindered by institutional conservatism, and institutional sanguineness. A fixated in- stitution is usually slow to assume a new function, (69: 12.) and the institution that parts with it is apt to be over-sanguine of the results accruing from the transplanting. The attitude of the school toward recently acquired activities, and the re- sulting high expectations of the home and the vocation, are examples of this readjustment. The home in this social re- adjustment seems to look to other agencies to do what it should be able to do for itself. The school is already heavily loaded with home and vocation functions. The church is as- suming former home duties. The state through the school and other channels of municipal government is providing and controlling many former home activities. This more or less abstract discussion of the causes and re- sults of the dissociation of the home and of the consequent social readjustments, may seem somewhat far afield in this connection. However, a reconsideration of the facts of this chapter clearly indicates that, in the main, the agencies of civilization affect the small towns and cities here considered in the same way that they do the large cities. The above state- ments concerning the home as applied to the large cities, are generally accepted, or have been supported in previous chap- ters. The instability of the home and its maladjustment to present social conditions are recognized facts. (43: Chap. 13.) The underlying cause of this social unrest and of the so- cial maladjustment of the home, are not so apparent, and 86 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION the relation and application of these social disturbances to play and recreation, may seem remote and even visionary. The home is not a sentiment only. It is not merely a physical fact with a biological basis. A genetic study of the home shows that it has been both. As used here, it is the place in which, or at which, lives the basic monogamic family of two genera- tions parents and children plus the social complex that arises from responses to the situations growing out of close and constant association - within the home, and contact with other institutions of civilization. Since the other in- stitutions have grown out of the home, the character of the home determines the character of civilization. The close and constant association of the individuals of the home is necessary for its complete functioning. Whatever disturbs or prevents this close association causes maladjust- ments of the agencies of civilization. The dissociation of the home has taken place because the members of the family have been forced out of the home to perform the functions that have become attached to the institutions that have developed from the home, (43: 413-27.) On account of these develop- ments and transfers, the close and constant association of the home has to a great extent been made impossible. No in- stitution has developed for this close association of the family outside of the home. The home has been in a great measure sacrificed in order to meet the needs, real or supposed, of these later institutions. The home has really become a secondary agency of civilization, subordinate to the institutions that have developed from it. Each attempts to adjust the home to fit its needs. Each of these functionally primary institutions has built up about itself more or less definite purposes, and social machinery for attaining these purposes. Although these later institutions are organically related to the home, the present status of the home indicates that there is no bond that holds them close enough to the home or to home-like fundamentals, to secure satisfactory social adjustments. There is normally a margin of leisure around the serious and essential interests of every institution or activity of mod- ern life. It has not always been so. Until within recent times there were two classes of people: 1. The working class, 2. The living class. The first class had little or no leisure; the second class really made civilization out of leisure time. (60: 19-20.) This margin is growing wider. (See Chapter II.) MEANING OF OVER-LAPPING AGENCIES 87 Within this margin of public leisure, which includes the play of children, lie the activities which if organized into an insti- tution or sixth agency of civilization, would strengthen the home and help much in social adjustments. This margin, misunderstood and misused, accounts for many of the harm- ful elements of the free-lance composite agency of civilization. The margin of public leisure has in it the possibilities of an institution with purposes, plans of operation, and social ma- chinery as peculiar to itself as are these relations to any other agency of civilization. Such an institution may be called Recre- ation. This new institution could provide in a measure at least for the lost associations of the home, by grouping in a develop- mental system all the public play and recreation activities of the community, so that each family would have a recreation home, a common home-leisure center. The beginnings of this institution are seen in the efforts of governmental agencies to control and provide for public play and recreation, and in the attitude of religious, philan- thropic and social agencies toward leisure and recreation activities. The demand is shown by the general utilization of the various facilities provided, and also by the numerous un- related, systemless social betterment organizations and move- ments that are at present really institutionless, and inefficient in general application. The need is shown by the general ex- ploitations by commercial and incidental agencies of instinctive desires by over-stimulation and perversion, and by the dis- sociation of the home, and by the human and economic waste of the present means. The assumption on the part of cities of much of the re- sponsibility for public play and recreation is described in chap- ter iv. The large cities are spending vast sums of money, and making painstaking efforts to provide wholesome play and recreation. These efforts, however, are being made through existing agencies. In a few cities there seem to be the be- ginnings of a recreational institution. The fundamental dif- ferences between rural and urban conditions make it evident that the municipalization of play and recreation must pre- cede the complete institutionalizing of play and recreation, and that this municipalization must develop first in the large cities. Chapter iv, and divisions A, B, C and D of this chapter support this statement. While facilities for play and recreation in the forty-six 88^ MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION small cities and villages are not provided by the municipalities to the extent that they are in the larger cities, there is con- clusive evidence that the tendency is decidedly in that direc- tion, and that the public demand, and the public need are al- most as urgent as they are in the larger cities. The factors of home dissociation are almost as pronounced in these small towns as in large cities, and the need of an institution to care for play and recreation is almost as great. Though this in- stitution is forming, these activities are at present generally cared for, or exploited by, other agencies. CHAPTER VI Conclusion Some conclusions, may with a fair degree of assurance, be drawn from the massing of the data submitted. Also, some suggestions for a possible municipal recreation system may be allowed. The provision and administration of public play and recre- ation is one of the most serious and important problems of government. It is especially a grave problem in the city. Congestion, industrialism, immigration, increase of leisure, and the consequent dissociation of the home, have been large factors in making this problem. Commercial exploitation of play and leisure has hurried public recognition of the serious- ness of the problem. Easy and rapid dissemination of social practices makes this problem much the same in cities large and small. Sufficient evidence has been given to establish the fact that big cities do in a large measure control the quality of the recreation of the people of the smaller towns. The smaller cities and villages pass their recreational practices to the most rural communities. In this sense municipal control of public recreation is an accomplished fact. The proper control of the recreational output of the big cities through their own institutional machinery is the key to the complicated problem. The main burden of this discussion has been to point out that large municipalities are recognizing and assuming recre- ational responsibilities, and in so doing are slowly developing a distinct instituton for the care of public play and leisure. It is within recent years that cities have undertaken to work out the leisure problem as a distinct problem. It has been dealt with as fragments of existing institutions. It is only within the last few years that it has been recognized as a social problem, comparable in importance to the problem of public education. It has been shown that cities in meeting this problem are providing and assuming the control of their public play and recreation facilities. The municipalization of play and recreation seems to be the beginning of the formation of the institution, Recreation, which promises to become in import- ance and universality comparable to public education. 90 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION There is great need of a master mind to put together the fragments of this forming institution, to bind them into a system, not fixed and set, but based upon human developmental needs. Conservatism, commercialism, and clash of authorities hinder. As at present provided and administered, playground and recreation facilities of cities are often too far removed from the people who need to use them, and in their administration there is lack of the recognition of the developmental nature of play and recreation. Systematic municipalization of these activities, which implies full ownership and control, or at least absolute control, would establish recreation districts. Within these districts would be provided outdoor facilities and recrea- tion buildings easily accessible to all the people of a given neighborhood. These units placed close to the people, pro- viding wholesome developmental play and recreation for all members of the family at all reasonable times, would become a recreation-home for the family, and a neighborhood center. This institution would do much towards unifying the home and readjusting it to the present social situation. Parents and children would be bound closer together by new emotional interests, which the present city home cannot provide. The impersonal aspects of city life would tend to disappear under the influence of small community recreational interests. The school would continue to educate for "the worthy use of leis- ure," but Recreation would provide means for wholesome and developmental uses of leisure outside of school. Labor would be protected and directed in its free hours. The church would continue to profit by a wider use of recreation, and govern- mental machinery could be simplified and coordinated. Such an institution would save the child and adolescent from commercial exploiters of play and leisure and from dan- gerous idleness, and would, with the normal support of the other institutions of civilization, make them sound adults, capable of transmitting their mental, moral and physical vigor to their offspring: for the problem of heredity is the problem of the child and adolescent. The adult, as guardian of the child and adolescent, and as worker, would be made more efficient through this institution. This new institution is developing in the city. Urbaniza- tion is making the nation a city in social practices, so this in- stitution promises in time to become national. BIBLIOGRAPHY The following bibliography is not comprehensive, and is not classified. It is a list of sources used directly in the prep- aration of the preceding chapters. It does not include all of the sources consulted. 1. Adams, John. - Precept versus Example. Moral In- struction and Training in Schools. Report of an International Inquiry, Vol. I. M. E. Sadler, com- piler. London, 1908. 2. American Labor Year Book, 1916. New York, 1916. 2a. American Year Book. New York, 1920. 3. Andrews, John B. The American Year Book, 1915. New York, 1915. 4. A New Prosperity Dance. Lincoln Daily Star, Decem- ber 15, 1916. 5. Annual Report of the South Park Commissioners for the Fiscal Year Ending February 29, 1916. Chi- cago, 1916. 6. Annual Report of the Sub-Division of Parks and Pub- lic Grounds, Department of Public Service of the City of Cleveland, 1914. 7 Aronovici, Carol. The Social Survey. Philadelphia, 1916. 8. Aschaffenburg, Gustav. Crime and Its Repression. Translated by Adelbert Albrecht. Boston, 1913. 9. Assistant Building Commissioner, Omaha. (Private letter.) 10. Atkinson, R. R. Conference on Recreation in Cities and Towns of less than Ten Thousand Population. The Playground, XI, No. 3, June, 1917. 11. Blackford, Katherine M. H. and Newcomb, Arthur. The Job, The Man, The Boss. New York, 1914. 12. Brown, Dorothy K. The Shorter Work Day. The Sur- vey, January 6, 1917: 388-390. 13. Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth, Volume 1:637. New York, 1893. 14. Bulletin Russell Sage Foundation Library. No. 2, 1913 ; No. 9, 1915 ; No. 16, 1916. New York. 15. Bulletin Russell Sage Foundation Library. The Social Survey. No. 14, December, 1915. 92 MUNICIPALIZATION OF RECREATION 16. Carroll, Charles E. The Community Survey in Rela- tion to Church Efficiency. New York, 1915. 17. City Plan Commission. A Public Recreation System for Newark. Newark, 1915. 18. City Recreation Center. Los Angeles. (A folder issued by Board of Playground Commissioners.) 19. Collier, John. The Dynamics of the Community Move- ment. The Community Center, No. 1. New York, February 2, 1916. 20. 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New York, 1915. 65a. Knight, H. R. and Williams, M. P. Sources of Informa- tion on Play and Recreation. New York, 1920. I 66. Lee, G. S. Crowds. New York, 1913. 67. Leyien, Sonya. Sentimental New York. Survey, XXIX: 415-416. 68. Lombroso, Cesare. Crime, Its Causes and Remedies. Translated by H. P. Horton. Boston, 1911. 69. Mace, W. H. Method in History. Boston, 1897. 70. Madison, "The Four Lake City." A Recreational Sur- vey. Madison, 1915. 71. Mallery, O. T. The Social Significance of Play. The Annals of the American Academy of Science, XXXV: 368-73. BIBLIOGRAPHY 95 72. Munro, W. B. Principles and Methods of Municipal Administration. New York, 1916. 72a. Munro, W. B. Instruction in Municipal Government in The Universities and Colleges of the United States. National Municipal Review, V; October, 1916. 73. National Conference on Community Music. A Call and Program, New York, May 31, and June 1, 1917. 74. N. E. A. Index, 1857-1906. Winona, Minnesota, 1907. 75. 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New York, 1916. 122a. Year Book of the Playground and Recreation Asso- ciation of America. New York, 1917. 123. Yont, Rose. Status and Value of Music in Education. Lincoln, 1916. 124. Zueblin, Charles. American Municipal Progress. New York, 1916. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 150ct658G REC'D L MAR 14 LD 21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY I