New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-11-02
EES FAILOW FIELD FOR PUBLIC BENEFIT IN SC4OOHOUSES
Would Have Directing Agency Supervise
Details Of Plan by Which Father Knick-
erbocker Would Profit More Largely
by His Investment in School
Structures.

and by the commercialized agencies OF
recreation which flourish upon them.
"The existing commercial means of
recreation disintegrate the family; the
school centre will bring the family to-
gether Under present conditions the
father goes to the saloon, the daughter T.
the dance hall, the boy to the poolroom.
the dance hall or the gang. There is no
place in the great city for the whole fam
lily but the school It is the only agency
that can bring the family together By
reason of the variety of entertainments
that can be offered.
EAGERNESS TO USE PROPERTIES.
1.-THE experience of the Board Of Edu-
cation, as we'll as of the voluntary activi-
ties described elsewhere, indicates that
the people are eager TO use the public
school properties in a great variety or
ways, if they are open to them or more
generous terms and are architecturally
adjusted TO community uses. From the
point of view of efficiency, the school
buildings should be open 365 days In the
year, and for as many hours in the day,
including Sundays as is-possible without
interfering with the regular school work"
Demands for Fairgrounds. for equip
ment and for supervisors are, says Dr.
Howe, constantly being made, but. no
matter what the provision for outdoor
recreation may be, it will remain made
quate to the need, he says, because OF the
prohibitive cost of city land.
Fairgrounds, too, can be used for but
a few months in the year, and only by
children Of a certain age. They have no
value to the adult. thinks DR.. Howe
little value to the grown boy or girl, and
they, too, represent a waste when idle.
The public armories, no less than tho
public schools, offer opportunities for
recreational programme without increased
expenditure for plant, says the report.
They, too, are used for but fraction OF the
time. They are admirably suited to con-
certs, indoor athletics, municipal dances,
festivals and other gatherings. AS the
centre of n group Of schools they can be
used for competitive activities. Here, too.
is an immense unused plant, with great
possibilities of usefulness in leisure time
programme.
NEIGHBORHooD CENTRES.
The school as d neighborhood centre has
taken hold of the imagination Of more
people than any other idea in recent,
years. according to DR.. Howe. He quotes
President Wilson as follows:
THE schoolhouses, dotted here ana
there and everywhere over the great eX-
panse of the nation, will one day prove to
| be the roots of that great tree of liberty
which will spread for the sustenance and
protection of all mankind"
Speaking at Rochester school centre
gathering, Justice Charles +. Hughes
! said:
II am more interested in what you are
doing uhe social centre movemeno ana
what it stands for than in anything else
in the world. You are buttressing the
| foundations Of democracy"
The school and the branch library, says
DR.. Howe, should be housed under the
same roof. DR.. Charles +. McLenegan,
the public librarian of Milwaukee, says
of the school centre as an adjunct 10 the
public library: