Evening star., 1943-04-28
ParIey 10 Study
Curb on Youth
Recreation Stuff to
Confer With Experts
In Few Days

The staff of the District Recrea-
ton Department will meet within a
few days with Juvenile Court Judge
Fay L. Bentley and Women's Bureau
Chief Rhoda Milliken to discuss
what can be done on District play
grounds to curb the rising rate of
juvenile delinquency.
A preliminary meeting on delin-
quency was called for his staff men,
bers today by Recreation Supt.
Milo F. christensen. He informed
the employees of the latest figures
from the Juvenile Court, where the
$50 cases reported last month were
the highest in the courts history.
About 80 per cent of the cases in
volved boys.
Il want them to be familiar with
the problem" said Mr.. Christianson,
before we meet with Miss Bentley
and Capt. Milliken." He also has
invited j. Edgar Hoover, Federal
Bureau of Investigation chief, to
give the department his views on
supervised recreation as a weapon
against juvenile delinquency.
The conference of recreation en-
ployes with delinquency experts will
not be public, Mr.. Christianson said
at the Recreation Board meeting
yesterday. The Federation of Citi-
zens' Associations and the Council
of Social Agencies are planning a
similar city-wide public conference
net month.
Special Meeting Tomorrow.
The Recreation Board will hold a
special meeting tomorrow to decide
whether to do all its repair work
itself or turn control of play
ground maintenance over to Ma
tional Capital Parks.
The District Recreation Board
will hold special meeting at the
District Building tomorrow to de-
eide whether it should do it's own
playground repair work or give
National Capital Parks complete
control of District playground main
tenance.
The legality of the present
method of paying NCP for District
playground repair work every three
months has been questioned, said
Walter L. Fowler, District budget
officer and member of the Recrea-
ton Board. He added that the
board will decide tomorrow whether
to have all funds for District play
ground repair work put into the Ma
tional Capital Parks budget in the
first place or whether the depart
ment should begin to do it's own
maintenance work.
Representatives of the corporation
counsel's Office, the Park and Plan
ming Commission and the NCP also
will attend the meeting. The meth
cd OF ordering repair work done
by NCP was set up by the recreation
department about year ago.
A baseball diamond will be set up
on the Randle Playground, it was
announced, to help replace the facil-
tiles lost FOR older children by occu-
patton OF, part of the Lincoln Play
ground by the Navy Yard.
More Children in Area.
The Navy Yard a year ago took
over about block of the Lincoln
playground, which had been used
mainly by older children for baseball
and football. The smaller section of
the Lincoln Playground still remain
ing at Sixth and L streets Sc, Mrs
Alice Hunter said, can now care for
less than half of the former play
ground population.
In addition, she said. building of
Alley Dwelling Authority and other
family units in the area has in
creased the number of children to
be accommodated. The children
have been using two triangular lots
at street intersections in the neigh
borhood as Fairgrounds, she added
and asked Parks Supt. Irving c.
Root to consider taking these over
officially as parks area for the dura-
ton.
Already badly cramped for plav-
ground areas for colored children in
both the Southwest and Southeast
sections, Mrs. Hunter added. the
residents Of the area are now afraid
the Navy might add the rest of the
Lincoln playground to its storage lot