606 PARKS 



activities should be maintained. In fact statistics which are generally com- 

 piled by social service organizations should be kept. 



5. Statistics showing the effect on the morale, juvenile delinquency, etc. 

 Cooperation of the park department and the local court authorities should 

 be of such a nature as to facilitate the keeping of court records in a form 

 which will be of use to the park department. This involves keeping the 

 juvenile court records in such a form that the time when the delinquency 

 occurred can be readily ascertained both the time of day and the time 

 of year and also the type of delinquency itself, so that the effect of play- 

 grounds on the morals of the youth of the community may be ascertained. 

 Where actual measurable effect cannot be obtained, the statement of prison 

 authorities and court officers and police records are of importance. 



6. Summary. The whole purpose of these and similar statistics is to 

 measure the use or the value of park areas to the people of the city. These 

 records are the most intangible of all those kept by the department, yet 

 they are the records which are quoted and referred to in determining any 

 policy involving additional park areas and the enlargement of a park system. 

 They tend to justify or not to justify the existence of the park department 

 itself. They form the basis of propaganda work where propaganda work is 

 justified at all. They are important. 



Uniform Systems and Records. 



I. Uniform accounting system. The opinion is often expressed that a 

 uniform accounting system for all park departments would be a blessing 

 to those compiling statistics of the various systems of the country. Since 

 practically all park executives are making such comparisons continuously 

 the significance of this statement at once becomes apparent. However, it 

 seems hopeless and, in fact, it would be impractical to hope that a uniform 

 accounting system should be adopted by all departments. Each has its 

 own local problems to solve and each must keep its financial statistics in 

 such a manner as to answer best the local questions which would be asked. 

 There are, however, certain questions the answers to which are uniform 

 and desired by all park executives, and no matter how the records are 

 actually kept and what detail is gone through to arrive at the results, the 

 answers to these questions should be available to all persons interested. 

 The necessity for having these figures available is so obvious that it would 

 be unnecessary to make special mention of it here were it not for the fact 

 that these figures are not generally available. 



Referring back to our discussion on funds, we recall that the first sub- 

 division consisted of general or current expense funds and special funds. 

 In those park departments having only a general appropriation for current 



