The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-10-24

welfare of the team. Rigid rules in
cuicate fair play. The boy has the OPP
ton of obeying the rules or not play at
all. New standards are set up; stand
ards Of self-cOntrol, Of helping the other
fellow, of fighting shoulder to shoulder
for the one team, of defeat preferable to
unfair victory. These standards trans
lated into the language OF political life
we call self gOvernment, respect for the
law, and good citizenship.
Nor does the value of the playground
stop here. In the Chicago Fairgrounds
provision has been made for the child
from babyhood almost to manhood and
womanhOOd. In the cOngested districts
tired mothers may take their little chill
dren and leave them at the sand pile or
in the wading pool while they obtain
much needed rest. Swings, teeter-
boards, climbing poles are arranged for
the larger children; baseball fields foot
ball fields. tennis courts, basket ball
grounds, swimming pools, and in the
winter time. snow Notifications and
slides are provided for the larger boys.
Salt Lake Behind.
Salt Lake is woefully behind in this
work and the reason, of course, les in
the fact that the deep necessity for pub
lie Fairgrounds has not yet been real
lied by our citizens. I recently re-
ceived a letter from the president of the
Fairgrounds Association of America, in
which he states that there are only two
cities in the United States with a pop
ulation of 100000 or over without a
playground of some description or a
definite plan toward which they are
working, and Salt Lake is one of these
cities. Liberty park and Pioneer park
cannot be called public Fairgrounds, as
they are absolutely unsupervised.
The playground investment in Chca-
go amounts to S11,0OO, 900. This enOr-
nous expenditure was made necessary
by the fact that Chicago did not realize
her responsibility to her biggest asset,
the children of the town, until land was
so high that it cost a small fortune to
establish one little playground. Phila-
delphia is spending thousands upon
thousands of dollars for its comprehen-
sive playground system, and the end is
not in sight. New York, Baltimore
PittsbuTg, Boston, CIevelan6, and cities
in the class of Salt Lake, Des MOines,
Scranton, Salem, Seattle, Portland, all
have their Fairgrounds well established
or definite plans under way.
Salt Lake needs now to come to a
realization of the fact that in the in
evitable progress of the city, the time
will come when Fairgrounds will be an
absolute economic necessity, not only
for the health and safety of the chill
dren, but for the prevention of Juvenile
delinquency. Our streets are be- Oming
crowded with wagons, automobiles
street cars and vehicles, and are just
about as safe now for the children to
play in as are the railroad yards.
Whenever the playground movement
is started in Salt Lake, a comp~ehen-
sive scheme should be set up which will
be adequate to the probable future
needs of the city. To establish a small
playground here and there is penny
wise and pound foolish. Areas should
be obtained now while the price is com
paratively cheap, set aside and dedi-
Gated, to the play idea and to the chill
dren of the town.