192 MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

" The Educational Value of Public Recreation."
I said not a word of the story I had heard about
the playgrounds of the city. What I did
describe was a public playground known to me
at home—unsupervised as so many of them
are—where somewhat similar conditions prevail.
The whole audience knew at once what I was
referring to and gave a cheer when I drew the
obvious moral. Since then I have heard that a
group of the citizens have got together and
provided the means for furnishing the playgrounds
with skilled supervisors. There are splendid
people in Kansas City; though I confess the place
gave me the horrors as I wandered about the back
streets and the stockyards, where " damaged
humanity " seemed even more abundant on the
sidewalks than I have noticed elsewhere; such
impressions, however, need to be kept in their
proper place. About " damaged humanity " I
had a good deal to say in the course of my address
and the audience again applauded when I
described the recreation movement as a campaign
against that evil. The citizens of Kansas City
had evidently been thinking about it. A lady
who spoke to me afterwards said " You have put
your finger on the danger spot of American life.
Unless we can stop the human damage that is
going on in our cities America will go to the dogs,
no matter which party wins the next presidential
election," I remembered that I had often made
a similar observation at home.