The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-11-07

stimson, when 1t is recognized to be
Just as much civic responsibility
and duty to provide by public support
for wholesome recreation and con-
structive use of leisure hours as 1t is
to furnish system of public educa-
ton.
I'm America he continued, and
relatively throughout the world, the
advance OF civilization is marked by
an expanding leisure for the masses
OF the people. The hours of labor are
being shortened and the wages grad
ually increased. thus enlarging es-
sentiaI leisure in two forms. Leisure
well used IN the basis of progress in
every phase OF life: in art, science.
invention, music, education, religion.
LEISURE MissPENT.
"But just as truly, leisure misspent
Il the seed-plot of a hundred agencies
of moral disintegration and the wreck
age of character. Under modern con-
ditfons and tendencies. in large cities
and small and even In rural regions,
thousands upon thousands Of our
children and youth are given no
wholesome outlet and leade hip for
the use of this precious leisure. This
whole problem has been overlooked or
neglected, and wholesale demoraliza-
ton has come, through enforced idle
ness, the loafing habit and its attend
ant forms of brutalizing and vicious
practices, producing automatically the
delinquent Juvenile Offenders, the
gangs, the casual workers, the va
grants, tramps, drunkards, prostitutes,
criminals of all sorts, and finally the
imbecile. the insane, the paupers. The
boy without a playground is father of
the man without a job 1t takes a
decade of neglected and maltreated
childhood to produce the barroom
loafer and the woman of the street.
Wherever in Chicago or New York the
recreation centers and Fairgrounds
have been opened in the eongested
alum sections, within six months to
a. year the actual court records have
shown a decrease in Juvenile delin-
Quencies and crimes ranging from %
per cent to over 20 per cent, with an
average decrease for the first year of
about 43 per cent for all such sections
contiguous to the recreation centers.
substantially this result has been
elsewhere seen. Startling facts have
been revealed in investigations con-
Quoted in different cities as to the
actual habits of children and youth in
our cities. In Detroit recently thou
sands OF children were observed as
to their occupation when on the
streets Of the city or about their home
yards and 81 per cent of them, were
found to be doing nothing. While
nothing is bad enough, much OF the
activity was worse than the demon
aiizing nothing. A very small per-
centage were found to be engaged in
wholesome and character building
forms OF play. In Kansas City a po-
lice investigation showed that over
sixteen hundred girls around 16 years
or age were aimlessly rowing about
the streets of that city between the
hours of 10 p. m. and g. m without
chaperonage. These were not bad
characters. but just ordinary city
girls hungry for life and without a
wholesome and attractive and safe
outlet for satisfaction Of their normal
cravings and necessity for companion
ship and happiness when not at the
grinding tasks OF work time Over
30 per cent OF all misdemeanors and
crimes take place between seven and
ten o'clock in the evening This is
the time when school buildings and
churches and Fairgrounds are for the
most part closed and dark and locked
and the people kept out.
SOCIAL SANITATION.
The nationwide awakening to this
problem OF social sanitation and moral
engineering as of primary Importance
is highly significant. Chambers OF
commerce are placing welfare work
and public recreation on a level with
other activities for it is recognized
BY statesmen in industry and COM
naerce that character building is even
more fundamental as q basis OF in
dustrial efficiency than any other fac
tor. Health and happiness and moral
sanity are the primary factors in pros
perity and industrial efflciency That
nation which most fruitfully uses its
leisure win be the dominant nation.
That nation which suffers it's masses
TO be corrupt by demoralizing and
vicious uses of leisure will rot at the
core and irretrievably sink into ruin
The annual cost to this nation of
the care of its criminals, detectives.
degenerates and insane exceeds six
and q half billions OF dollars-ar al
most incomprehensible sum. The So