Guide Text-American City Magazine, Aug., Sept., Dec. 1926

American City Magazine. August, September, and December 1926.
Published monthly by The Civic Press, New York, N.Y. Subscription $4 a year.

A journal for professionals engaged in providing municipal services and improving the quality of urban life. Transportation, recreation, safety and security, and sanitation are just some of the topics regularly covered.

Selections reproduced as facsimile page images. 18 pages.

Selected Page and Title List:

August Selections:

162 "Recreation for Colored America" by Ernest T. Attwell describes progress made in supplying playgrounds and other recreational programs and facilities to African-American neighborhoods in northern and southern American cities. Attwell shows how efforts to broaden the recreation movement to include black as well as white urban residents draw upon private philanthropy, such as the Harmon Foundation, municipal commitment, and community labor. He recognizes that African-Americans have special needs, such as indoor community centers in the South where other facilities have traditionally been segregated. The article is illustrated with photographs of children performing various pageants. The author maintains that children grow physically, mentally, and morally when exposed to such recreational activities. Attwell is Field Director for the Department of Colored Work, Playground and Recreation Association of America.

Front Cover | Table of Contents (for reference only)

September Selections:

285 "The Secretary of Labor on the Value of Recreation" by James Davis, U. S. Secretary of Labor, warns of the dangers of luxurious and effeminate living in an extract excerpted from the August 1926 issue of Public Affairs. Davis is of the opinion that children need directed play and should have the opportunity to learn swimming, boating and camping, and encounter the "great out-of-doors." "Vast tracts of state and national parks" should be developed as recreation resources. Secretary Davis believes that this is a sure way to lower crime, especially juvenile delinquency, and help ensure "a better humanity in the future."

364 "Helping Those Who Help Themselves to Get Playgrounds: The Harmon Foundation Again Offers Assistance to Small Communities in Play Land Purchase" by Mary Beattie Brady, Acting Director, Harmon Foundation, New York. The author describes how the Harmon Foundation makes grants "to small, rapidly growing towns and cities for final payment in the purchase of land that is deeded in perpetuity for recreation purposes." She indicates that a playground movement is emerging in these towns spurred on by the Foundation's award of an honorarium to playing fields showing the most promising development over the course of a year. Occasionally the award goes to individuals or communities themselves. An amount of $50,000 is available for final land purchase grants in 1926.

Front Cover | Table of Contents (for reference only)

December Selections:

863 "Leisure as a Cause or Cure of Crime" by Charles Platt, M. D., Ph. D., and President of the National Probation Association, believes that the increased leisure which "inventive skill and managerial ability have made possible for the adults and the youth of America," presents a challenge. Leisure can result in idleness, boredom, and crime or it can lead to the inculcation of good moral values through wholesome recreational activity. Honor, sense of duty, self-control, and a strict regard for truth are themselves "of the very essence of play." Play must be a community responsibility. The author describes the beneficial results of play when introduced to prison populations. He also says that the impulses which lead to crime are not always in and of themselves evil and describes the misdirected but playful motivations that sometimes lead youths to steal cars. "The captain of a gang," he says, "can be changed into the captain of a team." To Platt, "juvenile delinquency in our large cities increases in direct ratio with the distance from a playground" and urges that more playgrounds be constructed.

Front Cover | Table of Contents (for reference only)

August Selections:
162	"Recreation for Colored America" by Ernest T. Attwell describes progress made in supplying playgrounds and other recreational programs and facilities to African-American neighborhoods in northern and southern American cities. Attwell shows how efforts to broaden the recreation movement to include black as well as white urban residents draw upon private philanthropy, such as the Harmon Foundation, municipal commitment, and community labor. He recognizes that African-Americans have special needs, such as indoor community centers in the South where other facilities have traditionally been segregated. The article is illustrated with photographs of children performing various pageants. The author maintains that children grow physically, mentally, and morally when exposed to such recreational activities. Attwell is Field Director for the Department of Colored Work, Playground and Recreation Association of America.
Front Cover \| Table of Contents (for reference only)

September Selections:
285	"The Secretary of Labor on the Value of Recreation" by James Davis, U. S. Secretary of Labor, warns of the dangers of luxurious and effeminate living in an extract excerpted from the August 1926 issue of Public Affairs. Davis is of the opinion that children need directed play and should have the opportunity to learn swimming, boating and camping, and encounter the "great out-of-doors." "Vast tracts of state and national parks" should be developed as recreation resources. Secretary Davis believes that this is a sure way to lower crime, especially juvenile delinquency, and help ensure "a better humanity in the future."
364	"Helping Those Who Help Themselves to Get Playgrounds: The Harmon Foundation Again Offers Assistance to Small Communities in Play Land Purchase" by Mary Beattie Brady, Acting Director, Harmon Foundation, New York. The author describes how the Harmon Foundation makes grants "to small, rapidly growing towns and cities for final payment in the purchase of land that is deeded in perpetuity for recreation purposes." She indicates that a playground movement is emerging in these towns spurred on by the Foundation's award of an honorarium to playing fields showing the most promising development over the course of a year. Occasionally the award goes to individuals or communities themselves. An amount of $50,000 is available for final land purchase grants in 1926.
Front Cover \| Table of Contents (for reference only)

December Selections:
863	"Leisure as a Cause or Cure of Crime" by Charles Platt, M. D., Ph. D., and President of the National Probation Association, believes that the increased leisure which "inventive skill and managerial ability have made possible for the adults and the youth of America," presents a challenge. Leisure can result in idleness, boredom, and crime or it can lead to the inculcation of good moral values through wholesome recreational activity. Honor, sense of duty, self-control, and a strict regard for truth are themselves "of the very essence of play." Play must be a community responsibility. The author describes the beneficial results of play when introduced to prison populations. He also says that the impulses which lead to crime are not always in and of themselves evil and describes the misdirected but playful motivations that sometimes lead youths to steal cars. "The captain of a gang," he says, "can be changed into the captain of a team." To Platt, "juvenile delinquency in our large cities increases in direct ratio with the distance from a playground" and urges that more playgrounds be constructed.
Front Cover \| Table of Contents (for reference only)