Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-07-19
AND YE DID IT
UNTO ONE OF THE
LEAST OF THESE.

AND YE DID 1T
UNTO ONE OF THE
LEAST OF THESE.
Do you believe in the right OF
the child to play? His games anC
sports teach him self-reliance
and resourcefulness. Play bring:
into use his mental and physica
faculties.
Tom johnson of Cleveland once
said that when he died he woulC
prefer to have a children's play.
ground above his grave rather
than have the space occupied by
a monument. He liked to think
of the children playing Their,
happily. That was a vivid way OF
indicating how devotedly he be-
heved in the right Of children to
play.
To-day no community can call
itself progressive if it fails to
provide for the recreationai life
of its people, says the Bruins
wick News.
Fairgrounds and community
centers are social and business as
sets. When business affairs per-
NIT a choice, parents move to
communities which have whole
some play influences for their
children, where there are play
grounds with trained leaders,
where there is community music,
social centers and amateur ath-
letic sports.
Modern conditions make spe-
cial thought and planning rec
reation imperative. In cities and
large towns where most of
America NOW lives, crowded
homes, traffic-laden streets,
haste, artficiality-all discour-
age outdoor play and sociability.
In small town and in the coun-
try, Indifference and lack Of
trained leadership and of facili-
ties often permit young people
to drift into unwholesome pleas
ures while their native talents
for constructive recreation go
upexpressed, The photograph,
the radi9 and the movie give
pleasure, to be sure, and are
marks of progress. But these
things are entertainment pas
sively enjoyed. They ARE not
an adequate substitute for rec
reation which recreates.
wise communities are provid-
ing for active and spontaneous
play. According to the Play
ground and Recreation Associa-
ton of America 215 cities and
towns in America in 1922 re-
ported year-round recreation for
their people under trained lead
ership. Not few of these COM
munities have a population Of g.
900 to 10000 only, showing
that cities and towns of mod
crate size can adequately sup
port a recreation program. Wal
ter Camp, noted exponent of
amateur athletics wrote recently,
"a community that is not plan
ming intelligently for the play
life and physical well-being of
its people is short-sighted and
improvident from both the hu-
manitarian and business point of
view. In the long run it is
bound to fall behind more enter
prising communities"
Those back of the America
Playground have not received tn
support from the community tina
they and the playground deserve,
Out there lies an opportunity flo
some one man to leave behind hin
monument more valuable tina
marble; a legacy far richer tina
mere dollars; a name that will b
on the tongue of little childre
long after all else is forgotten.
A generation ago Colonel Gran
Of Atlanta, gave to his town Graz
Park. Staticians can not comput
the hours Of pleasure he gave t
Atlanta's children. Only the Re,
ording Angel knows the joys h
made possible for young and old.
Grant Park is a monument t
Colonel Grant that will outlive a
else but Time.
A few thousand dollars WILLIE
TO THE LITTLE KIDDIES 0
AMERICUS and spent on the
playground would be an inyestmel
in little bodies yet unborn.