in the community. Through the funds which they have raised privately the municipal appropriation of $6,000 has been greatly increased and a much larger program made possible.

Other Activities. Among other activities initiated have been after school centers open during September, with a weekly schedule of games, a playground picnic and an inter-center meet; coöperation with the School Department in making available for the teachers outlines of graded games, victrolas, records, balls and other equipment and in conducting game demonstrations; assistance in directing activities at the community house for colored citizens; the organization of athletic contests and industrial leagues on a community wide basis; the sending of play leaders into institutions to promote recreation and the supplying of leadership for Sunday School picnics and similar events.

The work which has been accomplished in a year at York is a practical demonstration of what can be done with a small budget when careful planning, initiative, wise leadership, the ability to organize social groups and to secure the coöperation of community organizations are brought into play.

The Association's Legislative Program

Another phase of the field work which has meant the expenditure of considerable time on the part of the field secretaries has been the legslative program of the Association. This work of helping the states pass home rule bills permitting the establishment of year-round municipal recreation systems has gone forward as fast as the time available for such work would permit. Legislation was secured in Ohio and amendments were obtained for playground laws already existing in New Jersey and Illinois. The Connecticut Home Rule Bill previously passed was also amended. The splendid progress which has been made possible in a number of Pennsylvania cities because of the form of organization and procedure permitted by the terms of the Home Rule Act passed in 1919 bears testimony as nothing else could to the importance of the legislative work of the Association.

At Headquarters

Important as is the field work of the Association it by no means represents the full service which is being rendered. The answering of inquiries on all phases of community recreation received from hundreds of people in all parts of the United States and in foreign countries, and the sending out of literature continue to be an important function of the organization.

Correpondence and Consultation

Each month between 400 and 500 inquiries or letters come to the Correspondence and Consultation Bureau. In replying to many of these special study is required. Literature is being sent each month to an even greater number. In this way the Association is

helping communities and community groups who cannot be aided through the field service.

In increasing numbers individuals are coming to the office of the Association to consult the files and to secure help and suggestions. Through these conferences the Association is establishing relationships with other national organizations and with local groups and is rendering a personal service which is far-reaching in its scope.

Publications

The pamphlets and handbooks of the Association represent a channel of service which each year grows in importance. Practical material is being made available for the use of anyone interested in community recreation. Layout and Equipment of Playgrounds, Pioneering for Play and other handbooks equally practical are being sent into rural and small communities in all parts of the country.

In The Playground, the monthly magazine of the Association, there has appeared during the past year exceedingly practical material on recreation, most of which is available in no other form. A few of the articles of special interest include Rural Imaginative Recreation by Constance D'Arcy Mackay; The Construction and Maintenance of Municipal Golf Courses; Special Days on the Playground; Lists of Plays for Community Groups; Suggestions for Making a Short Budget Go a Long Way; Festival Producing in Parks and Playgrounds; Some Rural Community Programs; Play Production in Churches and Sunday Schools.

The Year Book telling of the status of the recreation movement in communities throughout the country is being widely used by community groups who are aided in their campaigns by having information regarding methods of organization and expenditures in other cities. No more helpful publication is issued by the Association, many recreation officials believe, than the Year Book.

Other Service Items

Publicity Helps. Photographs, cuts and lantern slides showing recreational activities were available for the use of communities conducting campaigns during the past year. These have been effectively used.

Athletic Badge Tests Many local recreation associations and commissions, schools and other community groups have during 1920 and 1921 made use of the physical efficiency tests whose popularity and usefulness have speedily grown. Practically every state has been represented in the list covered by last year's figures. Between December 1st, 1920 and November 30th, 1921, 4,023 boys and 2,314 girls were awarded badges for passing the tests. Employment Service

As the communty recreation movement has grown the need for helping local communities secure workers who are qualified to organize and conduct recreation on a community-wide basis has

assumed great importance. The Employment Service of the Association through which contacts are made between officials wishing workers and workers desiring positions is therefore no insignificant part of the work. During the past year 82 positions were handled by the Association. Many letters have been written and advice has been given prospective workers through correspondence and conferences.

National Physical Education Service

With the growing appreciation of the need for measures which will increase the physical efficiency of America's young people and make them healthier, stronger and abler citizens, the National Physical Education Service established by the Association has had a very vital task in the promotion of state and federal legislation for physical education. In the past twelve months physical education laws were passed in Missouri, North Carolina, Connecticut, West Virginia and Massachusetts, as a result of which approximately $45,000 has been appropriated for the carrying out of the provision of the laws in the various states.

Constant and wide-spread publicity has been kept before the public and a nation-wide campaign conducted for the Fess-Capper National Physical Education Bill proposing federal cooperation with the states in making available opportunities for physical education for all children. An intensive effort is being made to secure a vote on this bill by Congress.

Resuming Pre-War Basis

During the war the Playground and Recreation Association of America gave the larger part of its strength and its trained workers to meeting war needs. At the present time the Association is just getting back to the volume of work which it had when the war came. The one addition to its work has been the National Physical Education Service, undertaken only at the urgent request of a group of representatives of many national organizations, who stated that the Association was in position to carry on the campaigns for state and national legislation for physical efficiency more easily than could any other existing group or any new group. In its regular work the Association is merely trying "to carry on," keeping the pre-war basis without any enlargement. This year, however, the emphasis in the field is on strengthening the work already started rather than starting new work, though there is every indication that many new cities will secure year-round municipal recreation within the next twelve months.

The Responsibility of the Association

With the increasing emphasis on the leisure time movement as a great constructive force which is being reflected in magazines, in such books as Main Street, in sermons and public addresses and, most important of all, in the requests which constantly come from

community groups, the Association is faced with the necessity for placing its service on a broader basis.

The fact that 502 cities reported centers conducted last year at an expense of $8,858,769 is significant of the growth of the movement. The expansion of municipal recreation programs to include community-wide events in which private organizations and local groups cooperate; the organization of neighborhood groups by the municipal recreation departments; the permeating of the whole recreational life of the community by the forces set in motion by the municipal government-these are facts of vital importance. The Playground and Recreation Association of America would be shirking its responsibility if it failed to recognize in them an opportunity for broader and more effective service.

The Association can serve only as its friends and supporters provide the necessary funds. It therefore asks that at a time when the need is imperative for building up the morale of the individual and the community through recreation which will make for happiness and courage, it may be given the means to make the experience accumulated through fifteen years of service, count to the full for the men, women and children of America.