Evening star., 1939-11-30
Recreation Opportunities
Limited Here, Experts Declare
Report Suggests Solution Lies in
Unificution Rather Than Coordination

The fourth OF a series OF articles
analysing details OF the report
made by t1Uo experts after study
OF the National Capital Parks.
Another 1Oill appear tomorrow.
Indorsing recommendations of vir-
tually all experts who have studied
the city's public recreation setup,
H S. Wagner and Charles G. Sauers,
collaborators borrowed by Secretary
IckeS to make study of the Ma
tional Capital Parks, urge in their
report that the city's recreation
should be unified rather than CO.
orGinated.
They attempt, however, to qualify
this by recommending that certain
facilities and activities involved in
the city's recreation equipment be
left solely as the province of the
Office of National Capital Parks,
either to operate directly or to let
out on concession.
In so doing they propose little
more in the way of unification than
already is in existence or about to
become so.
Limited Play Opportunities.
In regard to unification versus CO.
ordination of recreation facilities, a
title which has ragged for years and
which was only partially settled last
July when the District Playground
and Community Center Depart
ments were placed under the joint
control of the Board of Education
and the District Commissioners, the
two experts say:
Opportunities for recreation in
the National Capital Parks do not
exist in the same measure found in
other cities of similar population.
1t is equally true that the co-ordi-
mated programs of the Board of
Commissioners of the District of
Columbia, the Board of Education
OF the District of Columbia and the
National Capital Parks are not pro-
viding the recreat tional opportunity
W lIlC puUllC tlldp lllC pCOplC lldFC d
right TO expect.
I'VE believe that upon the choice
between coordination and unifica-
ton lies the solution of the problem.
We believe that all three responsible
agencies recognize that unification
is the only way out"
They propose that "a new and
separate commission must be es-
tablish having complete RESPONSE
bility for the recreation program IN
the District of Columbia beyond the
land acquisition stage" They also
say that equal representation of the
several agencies involved on such
recreation commission is impor-
tant' and that "the using public be
represented" also.
Financial Responsibility.
Financial responsibility, they pro-
pose, might be based upon the policy
of levying taxes on the District for
the recreational facilities in the
parks. That part of the present
park program should be transferred
to the new commission, they sug-
gest. They propose also to transfer
"all lands adjacent and subordinate
from use standpoint to Fairgrounds >
to the proposed commission.
However, the two experts attempt
to draw a line which others have
had no little trouble in drawing be-
fore. Certain facilities" they say,
"are so located as to make it i'm
perative that jurisdiction remain in
the National Capital Parks; namely,
all picnicking facilities, bride paths,
golf courses, tennis courts which are
incidental to the landscape in which
they are located, as well as play
fields, baseball and football fields,
where the player rather than the
spectator is the dominant user"
In other words, the line is drawn
where it has been drawn many
times before, between unsupervised
and supervised recreation. The ex-
perts put it this way as well: Pos
sibly the line of demarcation can be
established by providing that the
recreational opportunities for boys
and girls up to 16 or II be made the
responsibility of the proposed recre-
alton commission exclusively"
They propose, in connection with
the administrative setup which
would execute the policies Of the
recreation commission, that the
present duties of co-ordinator Of
recreation, at present Lewis r. Bar
rett, who at the same time is acting
as director of recreation for the Dis
trict under last July's reorganiza-
ton, be assumed by the executive
officer of the new commission.
Two Agencies Unified.
The chief of the recreation divi-
sion and permit Office of National
Capital Parks, now Albert Clyde
Burton, would be made assistant
chief, however, of the special activi-
ties division under the proposed new
parks organization.
Taken as whole, these recon-
mendations go little beyond what is
already in effect. For two Of the
former three recreation agencies In