has had repeated and convincing
testimony of the efficacy of games to do away with this objection.
The game becomes the one absorbing interest of recess, and everything
else gives way before it. Dr. Kratz, Superintendent of Schools in
Sioux City, Iowa, was one of the first school superintendents in the
country to go on record for this benefit from games, and much fuller
experience has accumulated since.

[Sidenote: Sociological and economic significance of games]

The growth of large cities has been so comparatively recent that we
are only beginning to realize the limitations they put upon normal
life in many ways and the need for special effort to counterbalance
these limitations. The lack of opportunity for natural play for
children and young people is one of the saddest and most harmful in
its effects upon growth of body and character. The number of children
who have only the crowded city streets to play in is enormous, and any
one visiting the public schools in the early fall days may readily
detect by the white faces those who have had no other opportunity to
benefit by the summer's fresh air and sunshine. The movement to
provide public playgrounds for children and more park space for all
classes in our cities is one connected vitally with the health,
strength, and endurance of the population. The crusade against
tuberculosis has no stronger ally. Indeed, vital resistance to disease
in any form must be increased by such opportunities for fresh air,
sunshine, and exercise. This whole question of the building up of a
strong physique is an economic one, bearing directly on the industrial
power of the individual, and upon community expenditures for hospitals
and other institutions for the care of the dependent and disabled
classes.

The crippling of moral power is found to be fully as much involved
with these conditions as is the weakening of physical power. Police
departments have repeatedly reported that the opening of playgrounds
has resulted in decrease of the number of arrests and cases of
juvenile crime in their vicinity; also decrease of adult disturbances
resulting from misdeeds of the children. They afford a natural and
normal outlet for energies that otherwise go astray in destruction of
property, altercations, and depredations of many sorts, so that the
cost of a playground is largely offset by the decreased cost for
detection and prosecution of crime, reformatories, and related
agencies.

[Sidenote: