Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-06-05
ASSOCIATION IN CHARGE OF MOVE
MENT WANTS APPROPRIA-
TON OF $4,000.
MODELS FOR WASHINGTON.
Scheme Advanced to Show What Can
Be Done in Capital City for
Object Lesson.
WILL APPEAL TO THE SENATE.

oelieN1uS lHdL the great play movement
which is sweeping through this country
will be materially strengthened if one
city can be equipped with an adequate
system of public Fairgrounds, from which
other cities may copy, the Playground
Association of America has been work
ing to arouse sufficient public sentl-
ment to induce the Senate to grant the
1911, 900 for Fairgrounds in the District
of Columbia, which the commissioners of
preparation is made, $4,000 of it will
be devoted Immediately to the purchase
of new sites for Fairgrounds in Wash
ington, fifteen of which have already
been selected.
Although the appropriation has been
refused by the House of Representa-
tives. the officials of the Playground AS
ISOLATION of America are hopeful that
the Senate can be influenced to act ia
vorably upon it. With this end in view,
they have sent out from the national
headquarters, Fifty-ninth street and
Madison avenue, a personal letter to-
each of the senators and representatives,
and also hundreds of letters to the lead
ing citizens of all states, requesting
them, first, to write Immediately to their
senators and urge the granting of the
playground appropriation, and, second
to secure favorable action upon the
proposition from all social and civic
bodies with which they are connected,
and forward such endorsements at once
to their senators.
Want Senate Precedence.
The argument which the Playground
association is advancing in this national
campaign is that the action of the high
est laW-making body in the land is sure
to have an important influence on that of
every law-making body. Its action will
either help or hinder other cities in their
campaigns for Fairgrounds. Moreover, as
Washington is governed by the repre-
sentatives of other localities, the whole
country is, to a degree, responsible for
the government of the district.
The establishment of the fifteen new
Fairgrounds in Washington, which grant
ing of the appropriation would bring
about, will complete only a part of the
Washington organizations plans to make
the national capital the model playground
city of the world. There are acres of
reclaimable areas in the district, consist
ing of ponds and shallow streams or
marshes, which can be filled in and made
available for playground use. It is the
purpose of the Washington playground
officers to urge these improvements, not
only for the benefit of their own city,
but to show the people of every city in
the country, especially those of longest
ed cities, how to make play sites when
ordinary property is unavailable.
A Riverside Playground.
One of the reclaimable areas in Wash
ingtOn is situated on the Anacostia river.
between the Sewage Aqueduct and the
Anacostia bridge. 1t contains more than
one hundred acres, and is to be filled in
by the dredging of the river next year.
II the riparian rights can be secured.
This Improvement would give a splendid
site for a riverside park and playground,
with bathing beach opposite the navy
yard.
The officials of the Washington organ
ization are very DESTROYS that this Ana
costa river property be reclaimed and
improved as they believe it would afford
an excellent object lesson to the entire
country. DR.. Henry S. Curtis, score
tary of the national association, and SUI
pervisor of Washington Fairgrounds, has
personally outlined the campaign in the
District of Columbia. He declares that
there is hardly city in the country
that does not contain some ponds and
marshes, now breeding places for mos
quitoes and malaria, which might be-
come breathing places for the children,
if properly filled in. He asserts, fur
ther, that there is no city OF any con-
teries, which could be used for play
ground sites, instead of being permitted
to remain a probable menace to both
public health and public morals. In a
recent interview on the subject, DR.. Lu-
Their Halsey Gulick. president of the Ma
tiOnal association. said:
Great Value of Fairgrounds.
every person in the land who is de-
sirous of protecting the future citizens
of the republic should make it his or her
business to aid the Playground associa-
ton in it's fight for adequate play facili-
ties. The fundamental condition for the
permanent development of free people
is that they shall in childhood learn to
govern themselves. Self government is
to be learned as an experience, rather
than taught as a theory. Hence, in a
permanent democracy, adequate play
grounds for all the children are a ne
cessity.
eff one city, such as Washington can
be made as model, so far as it's system
of Fairgrounds is concerned, half our
battle will be won, as playground advo-
Gates of other cities will then have some
thing definite to pattern from and argue
for Therefore, l hope that every citi-
zen in the land who can bring any infiu-
ence whatever to bear upon the Senate
to grant the Washington appropriation
will do So"