Evening star., 1947-03-09
lmposse Reached in
D. C. Recreation Row

| DC Recreation Row
Congress Would Render Service
by Ending the Argument
By Rudolph Kau1mann II.
| Recent hearings of q Senate Civil
Service Committee have focused atten-
tion on Washington's failure to date to
unity its public organized recreation
system.
/ Senator Baldwin, Republican. of Con.
necticut, chairman of the group, and
his fellow members Senators Flanders,
Republican of Vermont and Johnston,
Democrat of South Carolina, have
heard from recreation and park oflcials
that there is still considerable overlap
ping, particularly where swimming pools
and tennis courts are concerned
They have also heard that the Ma
tional Park Service continues to operate
] varied organized recreation program
II in the Capital through concessicn,ices,
mainly Government Services, In, the
/ quasi-public corporation whose multiple
activities are being investigated by the
subcommittee.
This has drawn from Senator Baldwin
the remark that the act of 1942. which
purported to unity the city's program
Of organized recreation under the pres
| ent seven-man District Recreation
| Board, was intended to end confussiola,
but hasn't ended it. the implication be-
ing that he is strongly In favor of doing
something about It,
| This has been coupled with word that
the District Commissioners and the Rec
reation Board are now wor.:i..g en-
bill to force the Interior Dera. 1t to
allow the District Recreation -, ert-
ment to operate six swimming pools
presently being run by GSI.
There are indications that this bill
will be expanded during hearings to
cover the entire situation, which has
resulted in five years of pickering and
bad feeling between the District and
| the Interior Department.
Here are the main reasons for the
| pickering - problems which must be
cleared up if Washington is. to reap
the real benefits of unification
Recreation is hard to define. Broadly,
the word means anything one does in
his spare time-anything done to pune
tuate the hard and earnest job OF
living.
Approached this way, public recrea-
ton would mean anythi!,1 Of this kind
done on public property o. requiring the
use of facilities provided at public ex-
pense or under public control. 1t can
range from sitting on the grass to play
ing game of baseball
But recreation breaks down into two
major classifications:
!. Organized recreation - for which
special buildings, equipment, supervision
or public guidance are needed
2. Unorganized recreation - the sit
ting on the grass, looking at the birds,
rhotograpning the Lincoln Memorial,
visiting the Eco, taking stroll kind.
Type 2 couldn't possibly be unified,
secause it. can be almost anything
museum visiting, watching a debate in
the Senate, reading in the public IL
:..ary, feeding the squirrels or contem-
.olating the fate of nations from the
"ar1tage point of a park bench. 1t is the
main job of the city's park system to
fH'ipply type 2 recreation to flavor
rban living with taste of open space,
'ees, flowers, wildlife and provide me-
-lorials and public buildings with an
attractive setting.
But Type requires trained SUPER
visors and leaders, special equipment
and special guidance. Management of
this kind Of play would be most efficient,
ideally speaking, if handled by a single
qualified agency
To achieve this ideal, Congress set
up the present board to unity the old
District Playground Department, the
Community Center Department of the
Board of Education and the Type ac-
tivities of the, Office of National Capital
Parks.
The District Commissioners and the
Board OF Education have contributed
their share OF unification. But, the In
terror Department, parent agency Of
the park office, has not.
A majority of the Recreation Board
holds that the 1s42 act requires the In
terror Department to do this. The In
terror Department claims the question Is
eft 10 its own discretion.
*x*
Park officials claim it Is either impos-
sible or unwise to 60 along with full
unification because:
l. The racial non-segregation policies
of the National Park Service, which
are written into basic law, prevent 1t
from allowing segregation to be enforced
on land iticontrols. The District Recre-
alton Department, responsive to MAJOR
ity community sentiment, follows the
segregation practices of the Board OF
Education.
2. The park Office does land mainte-
nance work on repayable basis for the
Recreation Department but Is under
rigid Budget Bureau employment CELL
ings. Hence it would be impossible to
take on the JOB of maintaining SWIM
ming pools, golf courses, row boats, biz
cycles, canoes, riding stables, ETC., now
maintained under contract by conces-
sionaires, even though the latter had the
money to pay for it.
3. Recreation department oreration of