USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1943 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
The same conditions continued through 1942; the first re- lief coming in the late months of 1943 through two small sup- plemental appropriations - one about three weeks ago - and. through partial removal of restrictions against use of build- ings, as mentioned hereinafter, and through co-operative efforts of the Acting Mayor.
That the Service survived ten years of such ever-increasing impediments. and that even a skeleton of it exists today, is in itself a fact to elicit wonder. And this remarkable fact has,
290
ANNUAL REPORTS
the Superintendent believes the Commission will agree, a re- markable explanation. The Service has QUALITY OF LEADERSHIP HITHERTO had one primary asset during its develop- ment, from the very beginning - compen- sating for very great difficulties that have made the development a continuous strug- gle. That asset has been the morale, esprit de corps, high ideals, and intelligent energy of the leadership corps; and from it has resulted the high professionl efficiency which has distinguished the Somerville Recreation Service. This remarkable condition, so long sustained, must, of course, be credited to the Commis- sion. No such staff could have been developed unless the Com- mission itself, the source of authority and the chief influence in setting example of public service, had been able to inspire the workers in its employ. As one of those workers, who more than any other, and over longer period, has had the privilege and responsibility to lead and direct other workers and to be the Commission's chief agent in promoting and preserving the spirit of the corps, the present Superintendent is in posi- tion to state that (excepting the period 1938 to 1942) the fine co-operation and spirit of understanding on the part of the Commission and its members over many years, and its own example, provided a source of inspiration, encouragement, and assistance always. (The period 1938-1942 witnessed a marked exception ).
But this long-standing asset no longer TODAY'S LEADERSHIP PROBLEM exists. Inevitably the program and the staff were to be affected by those pro- ceedings within the Commission itself between 1938 and 1942 which had appear- ed to disparage the best efforts of the workers, and which sometimes seemed to belittle the community values towards which the workers have traditionally striven at sacrifice to themselves. And inevitable was the effect upon the situation when year after year brought unwarranted, illegal interfer- ence with administration of the Recreation Service by Admin- istrative officials of the City from whose jurisdiction that Serv- ice is by law excluded; and when repeatedly the appropriat- ing authorities did not provide funds to pay even half-reason- able wages to a skeleton staff; and when, more than once, justly-earned and legally payable wages were with-held (still unpaid as of today) from faithful, devoted employes, or delayed for weeks at a time. And wasn't it inevitable that these dis- couragements, though valiantly, patiently, dutifully withstood for years - to the admiration of so many citizens who rec- ognized the facts -, finally resulted in a tendency within the
291
RECREATION COMMISSION
leadership corps in the direction of demoralization, with ill effect on the work? And when a RECOVERY from this tend- ency was just setting in (For in late 1942 the Commission re- turned to the policy of co-operation between Commission and staff.) - just as this desirable re-adjustment was in promise - the conditions of THE WAR AND SELECTIVE SERVICE AND THE GENERAL MANPOWER PROBLEM arose to be- come an even greater menance to the Service. The destructive influence of the pre-war difficulties mentioned, together with the normal course of events in a service which employs largely part-time leaders, had already eliminated the bulk of the train- ed, experienced, devoted staff members - those PRESENT SITUATION imbued with the traditions of the Service and enthusiasm to overcome its tragic difficulties and to serve more for the cause than for the re-
muneration. And THIS TIME these unusual persons were
NOT BEING REPLACED, for three reasons: - FIRST be- cause of the hardships imposed on the Service from without and the disparagement from within; SECOND because for years the salaries of leaders under your Commission have been so absurdly low in proportion to the demands of the Serv- ice and duties performed, that few leaders, of the quality of those lost, can be attracted until the City's appropriating au- thorities act to meet the financial needs of your Commission's service ; and THIRD because unprecedented high salaries are available now elsewhere on all sides to attract persons who might otherwise become efficient Recreation Leaders. When your Commission's EFFORTS TO BRING ABOUT AT LEAST HALF-WAY STEP TOWARDS LESS ABSURD SALARY RATES were not supported by appropriation of funds, at the beginning of 1943, the Commission was aware that an "all- time low" in the efficiency and morale of the leadership service became inevitable. It has come.
Your Commission is aware that the Armed Services have taken one after another of its valuable workers; that Selective Service circumstances have made impossible their replacement by young men of the customary age; and that older men and young women - the obvious war-time alternatives - have, even when solicited or invited to accept service - "just laughed" at the wage rates available. Your Commission is aware that, even where replacements have been made, changing conditions have made very brief the terms of service of the workers enlisted; and that the personnel has thus been in con- stant change.
292
ANNUAL REPORTS
So the Commission, as has been ONLY "A NEW DEAL" CAN SAVE THE SERVICE suggested above, must be aware that only " a new deal" - an awakening on the part of Official Somerville - can save the Recreation Service now ; that its usefulness depends on recognition now by the offices of Mayor and Commissioner of Public Buildings and by the Board of Aldermen that THE TIME HAS RUN OUT IN WHICH THE SERVICE CAN BE MAINTAINED WITH- OUT AVAILABLE BUILDINGS AND PREMISES FOR ACTIVITIES, solely on the devoted sacrifice and up-hill strug- gle of men and women who have given these for twenty years and more. They are gone, nearly all of them ; and not replaced.
And meanwhile come the multi- MULTIPLIED NEED FOR RECREATION SERVICES plied needs for Community Recrea- tion - everywhere - consequent to the conditions of the times, includ- ing the conditions already cited : widespread employment of mothers, the stress and tension of War-time occupations, the abrupt rise in juvenile delinquency, etc. These multiplying needs nearly every American city has been trying to meet; but not Somerville, except in the feeble, thwarted efforts of which this Report is one expression and one. reflection.
Here in Somerville, one illustration of the ever-growing needs is this: - In the past six months more groups of boys and girls have applied for help, guidance, and assignment of Counselors than in any previous twelve- SOME EXAMPLES OF THE DIFFICULTIES month period. And this at a time when the Service had been less able to respond than ever before. As another example, in response to a public announcement and in- vitation, in October. 1943, to Somerville boys, as to possibil- ities in model-airplane-building, 600 boys were organized with- in three weeks. Similar suggestions in previous times have never brought response from more than twenty-five. The good fortune that the active co-operation of the Acting Mayor came to the aid of the Recreation Service late in 1943, led to avail- ability of some public building premises during after-school hours for housing the activities of these "Young Aircrafters" who were organized in seventeen squadrons throughout the City. In the past, the unavailability of such indoor premises has caused need of greater number of leaders employed, since
293
RECREATION COMMISSION
boys must then be served in much smaller groups. Without the present availability of these few buildings and the generos- ity of certain citizens and organizations in permitting use of PRIVATE premises, not more than one-tenth of the 600 "Young Aircrafters" could be served. And had it not been for the small supplemental appropriations made to your Commis- sion's accounts in the late months of 1943, no leaders for them could have been employed at all. For, even WITH this finan- cial help, it has been necessary, as your Commission is aware, to REQUEST and URGE men TO ACCEPT part-time EMPLOYMENT
as leaders and TO OFFER WAGES RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER THAN HAVE EVER BEFORE BEEN PAID TO PART-TIME LEADERS
UNDER THE COMMISSION.
The additional funds,
while sufficient to cover the two-and-one-half monthis period ending
this December 31, give 110 basis on which to rely for the WHOLE of 1944. And furthermore, the "aircrafting" as a hobby for the same boys will necessarily be of short duration. NOT FOR MODEL AIRPLANES, of course, but for BOYS has the activity been launched; and to HOLD the interest and activity of so many boys over a WHOLE YEAR, there must be developed a much more VARIED pro- gram through a larger number of versatile leaders, at least half-adequately paid. Those men now enlisted (not upon their application but upon solicitation) for the current "Aircrafters" season, are available only for limited and not-variable hours of service. To meet the more varied leisure hours of boys and the varied recreational interests, funds to cover TWELVE inonths (as against the two-and-a-half months between October and New Year's), and to cover MORE HOURS of service week- ly, will be necessary if another "shut-down" is to be avoided.
Other examples to the same point might be given.
The best known and oldest SUMMER PLAYGORUNDS SERVICE THREATENED branch of the Service is the Sum- mer Playgrounds organization. In years previous to 1943, the highest average wage rate to seasonal workers in this branch (normally 40 to 45 in number ) had been $15.50 per week. ( They are usual- ly college graduates, of whom the Service has required high calibre of leadership and organizational and promotional work, and intensive training without pay; and normally a majority of them are of two to twelve years of previous experience.) In 1943, your Commission, anticipating a July supplemental ap-
294
ANNUAL REPORTS
propriation of $1,000, most of which was to be applied to Sum- Iner Playgrounds salaries, fixed salary increases for these posi- tions, bringing the average rate to $19.25. But this was done at cost of canceling certain positions, important to the activ- ities-program, such as those of workers in Inter-playground Athletics, Folk Dancing, etc .; and at cost of closing two play- ground units for the season. Your Commission is aware that organizing a staff proved impossible under those conditions ; and that persons appointed declined in order to take positions elsewhere at salaries twice those available here. Your Com- mission is aware that when further increase was provided for particular positions BY LEAVING OTHER POSITIONS VACANT, there resulted even then an organization employing only SEVEN MALES IN PLACE OF NORMAL TWENTY- FIVE, and a male-and-female staff of thirty-one persons in- stead of normal forty-nine (including year-round workers). with women leaders charged with direction of boys' athletics, with inter-playground activities dropped, and with one man for each three or four playgrounds, and with workers entering their duties without the customary pre-season training; caus- ing the least fruitful season in twenty-five years. Your Com- mission is aware that these unfavorable conditions will be even more extreme for 1944.
OTHER BRANCHES IN DANGER
There are silmilar crises in the other branches : - the Boys' and Girls' Clubs work, the Saturday Play organ- ization, etc. etc.
The war-time community conditions WAR-TIME AND POST-WAR NEEDS that breed unprecedented need for serving the leisure and recreational interests of boys, girls, men and women; the morale- saving and morale-building requirements of today and tomorrow, and yesterday's ignoring of these de- mands by Official Somerville; the situation that will follow the slow-down of the Nation's production drive; the release of Service men and the beginning of the re-adjustment to civilian life after the violence and excitement of this barbaric war: these present and impending needs that on all sides cause pub- lic apprehension, have been mentioned earlier in this Report. And they are so well known as to need no amplifying at this point.
295
RECREATION COMMISSION
The Superintendent, during many SUPERINTENDENT IS PREPARED months, has given to these war-time and post-war needs careful thought and study ; has systematically exchanged views with other Recreation executives throughout the Nation, with agen- cies of allied governmental and social services, with Federal authorities, and with agencies for municipal planning ; in order to apply the Superintendent's obligation as advisory and ex- ecutive agent of your Commission, with respect to these mat- ters. But, as your Commission is aware, NONE OF THESE PRECAUTIONS AND PROVISIONS by the Superintendent CAN BE IMPLEMENTED UNDER PRESENT CONDI- TIONS; namely, the financial status, the depreciation in the morale of the leadership personnel, the scarcity of assistance to the Superintendent because of lack of funds, the lack of indoor facilities, and the uncertainty as to general Municipal support of an adequate Community Recreation enterprise.
More detailed, more specific recom- SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS AVAILABLE inendations as to the specific matter of war-time and post-war planning are available to your Commission from the Superintendent. But until there is shown some likelihood of attention on the part of the proper authorities to the more GENERAL recommendations set forth here, it may not be wise to attempt such items of SPECIFIC recommendation in this already long statement. Before such ADAPTATIONS of a Service TO CHANGING SITUATIONS Can be introduced, should not the PERMANENT SUB-STRUC- TURE of an adequate service be firmly established ? And in the structure now administered by your Commission the FOUNDATION-FACTORS HAVE BEEN SO LONG NEG- LECTED AND UNDERMINED AND OFFICIALLY IGNORED that the substructure itself is in greater jeopardy each week.
WHAT MAKES A PUBLIC RECREATION SERVICE
As to those major elements so long neglected, this Report now respectfully attempts an over-all summary.
Obviously the component elements in any Community Recreation Service are these five : - (1) The POSSESSION OF LEISURE by the citizens served : (2) Adequate FACILITIES; (3) LEADERSHIP for guidance and organization in use of these facilities; (4) ADMINISTRA- TION ; and (5) DISSEMINATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND
296
ANNUAL REPORTS
INFORMATION, to citizens, as to the existing services. In terms of these five, a brief analysis of the present situation would be as follows : -
(1) EXISTENCE OF LEISURE, as the first of the five, has been adequately covered above, by statement and implica- tion.
(2) FACILITIES: -- The basic fact here is that, despite its name, the Recreation Commission has not and can not as- sume jurisdiction over the City's Recreation facilities-"tools" of Recreation: - Play areas, storage- RECREATION FACILITIES places, wading pools, bathing beach, athletic fields, rooms or halls, etc. for indoor Recrea- tion ; that jurisdiction being distributed, un- der the city Charter, among several Departments - chiefly the The Statute Engineer's and the Buildings Departments. which sets up the Service under the Commission makes it de- pendent, for use of such "tools", upon co-operation and approv- al of other Departments. Since neither the Buildings Depart- ment nor the City Engineer's Department (whose major work is in such services as maintenance and construction of sewers and drainage) is financed, manned, or organized from the point of view of service to Recreation; it is natural and legitimate that these Departments do not easily concern themselves with "Recreation thinking" or planning for Recreation service. Ac- cordingly, any co-ordinated and sustained planning and effec- tive operation for Recreation must come by sustained "team- work" among these Departments, co-ordinated from the Recre- ation viewpoint. To provide that viewpoint and to act for co- ordination, HAD been an important function of the Recreation Commission, according to the accepted view, within the Com- mission and within the Departments mentioned, until 1934. This Report, in its review of past developments, has pointed out that during the times when this function of the Commis- sion was RECOGNIZED AND APPLIED, developments for Recreation in Somerville were PROGRESSIVE, though slow as to facilities; and that the END of progress came at the time WHEN THIS FUNCTION WAS NO LONGER REC- OGNIZED. Again this Report has pointed out that the IN- DOOR ACTIVITIES FLOURISHED AND EXPANDED dur- ing the TIMES OF RECOGNITION of the simple and obvious fact that rooms, halls, gymnasia, and other parts of BUILD- INGS ARE NECESSARY TOOLS of public Recreation and are so designated legally ; and that PROGRESS WAS IMMEDI-
297
RECREATION COMMISSION
ATELY REPLACED BY THE OPPOSITE as soon as use of even minimum facilities was denied; and that the level and variety of program continued thereafter to descend, UNTIL in very recent months a very SLIGHT RESTORATION of availability of buildings BROUGHT IMMEDIATE REVIVAL of activities-program for boys - in very slight degree propor- tionate to the very slight restoration. The conclusion, as to remedy or key to progress, is obvious. On this point the Super- intendent's recommendation is included among a series of rec- ommendations below.
In any community there are varied in- NON-PUBLIC LOCAL FACILITIES door facilities (often many) NOT controlled of owned municipally. They may well be styled "semi-public". In Somerville these are numerous in ratio to the municipally- provided ones, since the latter are so extremely few. The groups or oganizations owning or controlling them -- often constitut- ing large sections of the body of citizens of Somerville - usual- ly LACK some OTHER kind of facilities, which ARE available through the municipality or OTHER "semi public" groups. To effect pool and exchange of uses of all available facilities - public, semi-public, and semi-private - on wide scale, would be a great accomplishment as to the purposes of which your Commission's Service exists. In reciprocity for their extend- ing to the community the use of facilities, the proprietary groups and organizations should, of course, receive municipal services, through leadership and otherwise, and services through the other co-operating groups. This reciprocity and mutual sharing, to the benefit of the whole community and of each sub-sectional group as such, is PRACTICAL. It can be done. It has been done elsewhere. In Somerville today it seems a necessary condition to anything like full realization of the objectives of a progressive public Recreation enterprise. The values to the community in directions other than recrea- tional would, of course, be even greater than the obvious and immediate values to a Recreation program as such. To effect such a measure requires, it will be recognized, skillful and ener- getic and thorough administrative activity of a community- organizational nature. And to provide that, there must be that deep-reaching re-organization of your Commission's Service which has been mentioned earlier in this Report. The civic values to Somerville - values much sought - would be im- measurable, and well worth the effort and cost. Recommenda- tions growing out of the considerations in this paragraph are listed below. The considerations here are INTERWOVEN
298
ANNT'IL REPORTS
WITH CONSIDERATIONS, UPON OTHER TOPICS, EX- PRESSED IN OTHER PARAGRAPHS OF THIS REPORT, where some of these considerations are further pursued.
As to OUTDOOR facilities: - They are
OUTDOOR meagre in Somerville; and not so simple is the solution of the need for more, as to quantity and number. But BETTER VALUE IN THE USE OF EX- ISTING FACILITIES seems possible. With no suggestion of criticism towards the Departments or Department officials (whose co-operation has through most of the years been marked) the Superintendent repeats previous reminder that careful attention to wise and equitable allocation of permits for use of athletic fields is a matter which involves "the Recrea- tion viewpoint"; while the technical jurisdiction is (under our peculiar Charter omissions) in Departments not organized, manned, or financied from that viewpoint. To know the vari- ous recreational groups and the relative weight of their claims 10 use of fields, etc., and to the frequency of uses, is part of the duty of the Recreation Commission's agents. It can hardly be expected of the agents of the Municipality's Engineering-Sewer agency. When, for example, a baseball team is given permit for use of a field, it is often the case that other teams have re- quested the same field at the same time. The conflict of inter- est and the relative claims affect sometimes very large numbers of citizens whose recreational interest is that of spectators. The recreational rights of spectators (as citizens) may be of prior importance to those of players in some cases. Certainly so if numerical proportion of players to spectators be the measure. The knowledge of the "athletic facts", of the spec- tator-interest of the degree of reliability in use of permits, etc. etc., is ordinary knowledge within any Community Recreation organization that is "on the job". Some system of administer- ing permits, services of ground-keepers, use of field houses, etc. in a manner that utilizes this "on-the-job" knowledge and com- munity contact, is obviously a desirable element in a worthy public Recreation Service. But no such method or policy of administering these things has existed within the past ten years in Somerville. A recommendation in this connection is included among the Superintendent's recommendation below.
A parallel situation exists in such matters as lay-out of playgrounds, location of the various items of equpiment on a playground, kinds of surface, type of fencing, location of en- trance gates, etc. etc. An organization that employs profes-
299
RECREATION COMMISSION
sional Recreation directors and executives who, as part of their routine work, have given years of thought and study to such matters and have year in and year out USED these "tools" of their professional services (experiencing the disadvantages of previous mistakes and existing difficulties and the advantages of existing assets and previous achievements in lay-out) - in other words, an organization such as your Commission has maintained - either "has something to contribute" to the thinking that directs administration of these facilities, or else is not worthy of its trust and is a failure in its work. If it "has something to contribute" and this is not utilized because Charter provisions do not so provide, the obvious conclusion seems to be that some recourse should be had to that (previ- ously-mentioned) kind of co-ordination of the scattered ef- forts of the non-Recreation Departments which can be had without violating the Charter. This subject is also treated in the list of the Superintendent's recommendations, below.
It is encouraging, of course, to note that, in keeping with long-standing recommendation by the Superintendent, adopted in recent years by the Commission as its recommendation, the City has in 1943 acquired an ample plot of land for replacing the long-and-sadly-inadequate Conway Playground by a far more ample one likely to be of modern construction, lay-out, and equipment. The attention of your Commission to the great possibilities of this project is respectfully urged. If your Com- mission can exercise its once-recognized function to help di- rect the planning and lay-out, lest the work once again be done with little application of the viewpoint of those who must promote USE of the playground, a significant and progressive achievement for Recreation may result.
Towards acquisition of additional play areas, and towards the conditioning and equipping of some now available, recom- mendations are included hereinafter.
Meanwhile, as illustrative of the limitation of facilities, the Superintendent points out that in "playground" service un- der your Commission, so few are the PLAYGROUNDS in this most congested of cities (playgrounds officially so called and constructed for the purpose the word implies) that your Com- mission operates ou a larger number of SCHOOL-YARDS (most of them very small, most with concrete FEW REAL PLAYGROUNDS surface) than of playgrounds; and that in some sections to provide even minimum op- portunity for girls and very young children
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.