New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-09-10
MECHANICAL PLAY
Too Much apparatus Sad 10 DC
Benumbing to Children.

a
mechanical thing over and over with apparatus nc
fs n,nre like a machine than anything else ne MI
as well be in factory working saio III. -
Arnold in talk Some Inexpensive App
at yesterdays morning session OF the ssooii -
congress of the Playground Association OF AIheito
DR. Arnold objected very strongly to overorganiza-
ton in Fairgrounds -
"A playground should leave room for the
development OF ingenuity he said Dld you ever
NAV I'm a lumber yard? Now, that's an ideal play
eronnd-a good big lumber yard; and so is half
finished building When 1 was a boy playei
around railroad 1t against the law oul we
broke the law without conjunction ana no olnOe'
could catch
Il don't recommend having lumber yards ana ran
roads for Fairgrounds. but 1 say that our play.
grounds ought to supply little of that sort OF
thing They shouldn't be too much organized
The playground movement, DR.. Arnold said. had
come upon like thief in the night ana as Is
often the with things that develop rdPiNiS'
had not been attended with the best results
Equipments are too expensive" he said Il call
apparatus expensive not only when 1t costs good
deal. but when it requires lot of supervision ana
when It can be used by few children only at
time A teeter swing. which a couple OF chill
dren play at a time, isn't the best apparatus
Then Dr. Arnold described some Of the inexpen-
sve apparatus he played with in the eight acres OF
ground that made the playground Of the German
school where he educated boy
One was a jumping pit deep and wide at one
end. for long jumps. shallow and narrow at the
other end. The sand at the bottom was fine to
play in. Another the balancing tree-a tree
denuded of its bark and limbs and placed horizon
tally. 1t served for all kinds Of balancing tricks.
and made admirable horse for any number OF
children Then there the hillock, for jumping
and rolling and hurdng. and the climbing tree.
which beats all your gymnastic climbing Equip
ment such as this costs little. and be made by
the children themselves in many instances.
The manual training departments in the schools
ought to be turned to account in making apparatus
for the Fairgrounds. They had much better be
making clubs. dumbbells etc. than sol disant art
work to ornament East Side tenements, where six
teen people live in room"
Dr. Arnold called attention to defect of the
Fairgrounds which. he said he noticed in
pictures shown at the congress that morning.
Ten boys were playing game" he said, land
one hundred looking on That's very bad eco
nomics'
Everett w. Lord read paper on 1.-The Play
ground Movement as n Necessary Supplement to
Child Labor Restriction"
Some people argue extenuation Of child
labor he said. that it is better for child to be
in a factory than on the street. child learn
more evil in a factory than he can on the street.
and the mOnotouous repetition of one mechanical
task does not form habits of industry Do the ex-
cusers of child labor realize that the army of
tramps and the reforma tories recruited largely
from the ranks of those who child laborers?
Child laborers don't grow up into good workmen."
Mr.. Lord thought Fairgrounds the best places to
keep children busr. Boys and girls employed in
healthfu play much further from ideness than
boys and girls performing monotonous tasks in
mines and factories " he said E. B. De Groot
gave a paper Recent Playground Development
in Chicago and emphasized one dangerous ten
dency he in the playground movement. the
exploitation of children by job-seekng politicians"
The paper by Arthur LelanI. Winter Organ
izatOn of Fairgrounds was read by Mrs. Leland,
Mr.. Leland being i'll He described snow baseball
and other winter games. and spoke of the need of
having the Fairgrounds open ali the year, ''since
the desire 20 play is not confined 20 one season
Mayor George A. Hibbard of Boston presided at
the session last evening, and presented three phases
of the problem of providing suitable Fairgrounds
for children in cities, which he discusses.
First. in creating Playground he asked. lis
not primary obligation to the small child with
his sand garden and baby swing rather than to the
grown-up boy with his baseball and football?
Second is not the neighborhood playground OF
five or six hundred feet in area, and duplicated
throughout the congested district. better munich
pal investment than the field Of large acreage?
.'Third-and this relates to the theory of admin
istration-in the haste acquiring playground area
have we fully appreciated the equal responsibility
of administering it?''
Aller Burns of Chicago. in paper on the Re
lation of Fairgrounds to Ju, emile Delinquency"
said it was hard tell how far the large parks
were responsible for the prevention crime. but
he did say that in tracing the history Of cases
4s per cent showed improvement. taken in area
contiguous the parks. In seven years in Chicago.
he said. Juvenile delinquency had decreased IS per
cent. Within a quarter of a mile radius Of each
park there had been a decrease of "A per cent in
Juvenile delinquency. Taking into consideration
the half mile around each park there
shown a 10 per cent increase, demonstrating that
a small park exercises it's functions for about a
quarter of a mile
The conference closed with address by
Miss Harriet Heller on The Play Movement as a
Phase of Social Reform"