120 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



would agree to maintain at least its current park budgets, and also 

 to hire workers from the training program. The more trained 

 workers hired, the larger the grant. 



The training program would supply workers equipped with many 

 kinds of skills and many degrees of skill. Trainees whose interest 

 and capacity merited it, would have received advanced training and 

 specialized experience. 



This program would not work if it were only to supply menial 

 labor. It would not work if it were cynically meant to placate 

 angry, unemployed youth during the summers. It would not work 

 if it were motivated by fear of the people, rather than confidence 

 in the people. It would not work unless there were jobs open and 

 waiting at the end of training. It must be a way of opening up 

 permanent, genuine and responsible park careers including careers 

 that do not now exist. We need new blood, and new blood always 

 comes from below. 



The training program would use city parks leased by the Federal 

 Government. These classroom parks would also serve, simultaneous- 

 ly, as experimental parks. While each classroom park were under 

 lease, it would be done over in part or in whole without reference 

 to existing practices and standards. Training would combine with 

 the work of creating these experimental parks and learning to operate 

 them. This would be training not for things as they are now done, 

 necessarily; but as they can be done. 



Experiment must be at the heart of our search for quality. And 

 by experiment, I do not mean drawing up new sets of specifications. 

 It ought to be a sin, if not a crime, to standardize the design, ma- 

 terial or equipment of parks. 



Today many park departments, imprisoned as they are in their 

 low budgets and fine print, seem to have lost the capacity to want 

 parks intended for more than minimal maintenance. Does the 

 cheapest fence to maintain happen also to be the ugliest? Is one 

 monster skating rink or pool cheaper to operate than five smaller, 

 scattered rinks or pools? And no rink at all still cheaper? Is 

 asphalt cheaper to maintain than sand or stabilized earth? Is grass 

 a cheaper green than a garden? Is a concrete wall less troublesome 

 than a slope? Is a Keep Off sign cheaper than building a good turf? 

 The thing is decided. All kinds of possibilities are ruled out in 

 advance. A recent English visitor, Lady Allen, noting the effects 

 of such prudence and the mentalities of the people who are good at 



