The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-07-20

Washhstaa's rablie Country Club.


The Msa Of providing hish -.
facilities 10 here carried ont n.
There are probably no fner =.
ting greens in the country ~.
those Of this public course "a y
every other way, it is 4 course ~ 4
has received the praise Of erpsss.
Furthermore q field hohser ~
been provided which is to m Il
tents and purposes a country 49, G
house, where each man who -
golf can get 4 locker and a 49,
bath. This field house is n 4.
tractive bit of architecture ~
first class establishment in 60
way. The new tennis courts A. !.
be placed near it, and its facilit,ss
will then be extended to ten,s
players as we'll.
This idea Of public country ~
house Is one which instantly -
peals to the imagination. n
easy to see how it might be devs,
oped into a center of Commute,
social life.
In putting the golf course i'm.
use the management Of Potom,s
park has regretfully departed IN.
its traditional policy ia one respsss
1t makes q charge Of Is cent? a,
each game Of golf played BY eees
individual. Superintendent CilISs
says this is necessary because h
costs at least ten times as mucA
per player to keep up a golf coursS
as to keep up any other kind M
recreational facility, and the thinr
would be impossible without thin
small tax. The tax is also destined
to make the individual realize thai
he is enjoying a privilege which i
worth something. The psycholory
Of the thing, according to Mr.. Gl.
len, is that if the player pays soma.
thing he will incline to be mora
careful Of the course.
One of the most interesting fact,
about Potomac Park is that it was
dredged up from the river. Back
in the seventies, all of what is nov
park was either river or marsh. In
the making Of a navigable channel
to Georgetown, a seawall was built
and the area behind this filled with
the dredged material. This began
about 1884, but the development Of
the park as a place for recreation
! has taken place almost wholly In
| the last ten years. There is abund-
ant room for further development
and a splendid plan for such devel-
opment has been peri ected by GiS
len and his associates.
Nation Controls Parks.
The parks of Washington ara
strangely enough, controlled by thu
war department, of which the parl
management is a branch. The orig.
inal theory of this arrangement
seems to have been that the parks
are an important factor in the de-
tense of the city in case of invasion
and should therefore be designed
and controlled by the war depart
ment. Probably no one any longel
fears an invasion of Washington b!
land forces, but the placing Of thu
parks under the control of the wa
department has. prevented an in
vasion of another kind. Bushes
interests here, as in some othe
cities, have not favored any parl
i development which would possibl,
be considered to interfere with In
dustrial development. Thus sew
eral years ago an active agitatio
was carried on by local husinel
men to have Potomac Park throw
open for use as factory sites, as
occupies a long strip Of the be-
waterfront on the Potomac rive
They asserted that Washington
Industrial development was nippe
! in the bud by the use of this waite
front for parking purposes.
\ It. is easy to see that if the parl
had been controlled by the local II
stead of the national governmen
this agitation might have been SUI
cessful. AS it was, it got nowher
And we are earnestly assured til
it never will make any Roadway.