A most significant single event in recent years has been the Massachusetts playground. law, essentially a local option measure. It re quires every city of 10,000 or more inhabitants. to vote as to whether or not it would maintain playgrounds. Nearly 100 cities have voted, and over 90 per cent favorably. New Jersey passed an enabling act in 1907 and Ohio in 1908, fol lowed by Minnesota in 1910, and since by over 20 •by most of these acts the larger cities are empowered to issue bonds to, acquire and improve sites for playgrounds and recrea tion centres. City playground associations have popularized the movement in, the cities.. Vari ous municipalities have playground commis sions which look into the needs of the cities and make plans for the future. Some of the cities with such commissions are Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Philadelphia and New York. In the last-named city there is a special recreation commission which has inventoried all the recreational facilities of the, city and endeavors to make them adequate ta actual needs. In Buffalo tramping trips • with the playground children have been .tried with great success. The Chicago playground asso, elation has been conducting similar, trips for adults. New Orleans is accepting only such new school sites as have• ample play space and is acquiring additional ground adjoining • its present school buildings• as fast as funds Wig permit. Cincinnati is also purchasing at great expense plots adjoining, its colder school build ings. Spokane is making similar provisions for recreational space, as are many other cities, conspicuously Rochester, N. Y. A State law Of requires a minimum of 100 square feet of play space per child on all new school sites. Wading pools, swimming pools and field houses are, common features that add much to the attractiveness and utility of In the United States at present more than 500 cities containing populations of 5,000 or over now possess playgrounds of which about 30 per cent are maintained by voluntary contributions, 20 per cent by boards of education and the remainder in some • other , way • by the municipalities.
The New York board of education main tains •about 40 evening recreation centres for young people of both sexes. In these centres the unit of organization is the boys' or girls' club. The aggregate attendance is about 2,000,000, or an average evening attendance of 10,000. Over 100 vacation playgrounds art maintained, while in several congested districts the playgrounds and rooms of schoolhouses are open to mothers and babies of th,e tenements. In summer the • average daily attendance at the vacation playgrounds is 77,000. , In rela tion to recreation piers the department of docks and ferries constructed recreation piers with an upper story used for recreation , purposes in eight river-front localities. These piers are open to the public from May to September or October and are maintained at an annual ex pense of over $170,000 for music, lighting, at tendants, etc. There is a concert on each pier every evening from 8 to 10. The piers vary in size from 300 feet to about 800 feet. On hot Sundays there have been as many as 12,000 peo pie on the larger piers In Cleveland over four fifths of the 114 public schools have audi toriums, nearly one-third possess gymnasiums, while about one-half have one or more inside playrooms. Provision is wade for the club
and play activities for the after-class and evening peones wnicn will draw boys aria girls off from the street. Recreational and de velopmental opportunities are afforded for young people's•use during leisure time,. while adult i public discussion of school and civic mat ters is facilitated in assembly halls. Many of the assembly-rooms are fitted with stereopticons, screens, stages, dressing-rooms and pianos. The after-class and evening utilization of the school edifices has assumed two main forms: (1) regular night-school sessions and (2) let tings to various clubs and organizations for miscellaneous gatherings, entertainments and indoor games. In addition,, there are a small number of affairs —entertainments, dances or bazaars—gotten up by or for the pupils of the schools. Public libraries and parks are also adapted to recreational purposes. Pittsburgh's playgrounds and recreation centres comprise 13 plots costing in the aggregate over $2,000,000. Washington, D. C., has over 30 recreation centres well equipped and supervised. New ark. ! J., maintains 17 school playgrounds, while Essex County, in which it is located, has a park commission which maintains playfields and outdoor gymnasiums in each of the city's five public parks, In England, great strides have been made recently in providing recreation. The English are very • fond of outdoor life, and provision has been made generally for grounds for cricket, football and golf in the suburban parks of the great cities. In London, the parks within the city are mostly in districts too con gested to allow for sports, but the many small squares that have been opened in connection with the extension of streets and boulevards have been adapted to the needs of recreation, in particular playgrounds for children. Great changes have been made in the thickly populated Whitechapel district. Open places have been provided to give breathing space, where chil dren may romp while their parents of the labor ing class listen to music. Likewise, the open spaces around churches and schools have been devoted to the same purpose, in many cases suitable playground equipment being provided, along with qualified athletic instructors. When connected with the schools, this instruction is nyder the teachers. Saint James Park has a shallow wading pool that may be flooded to a considerable depth and used in winter for skat ing. The greatest recreation park, however, in the city is Victoria Park, Bethnal Green, in the northeast of London. Outside of the greater cities, is in the smaller towns, every induce ment is given to sports of all kinds. The new garden cities, of which there are many in con nection with the great industrial centres, have been built with the primary purpose of giving every advantage of recreation to their inhabit ants, young and old, and playgrounds, public band concerts, bathing facilities, reading rooms, theatres and club rooms have been amply pro vided.