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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 183 STATEMENT OF M. G. WHITFIELD, COUNTY PAEKS RECREATIONAL FACILITIES FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Mv. Whitfield good afternoon. We are glad to see you. We are glad to have you with us. Mr. Bobo, you take over. Mr. BoBO. Mr. Whitfield, what type of work and in what activi- ties are you engaged that envoive you ? Mr. Whitfield. I am commissioner of the county parks recrea- tional facilities for the county of Los Angeles. I am also in business. Chairman Kefauver. You are a great Olympic champion. Speak a little louder. Mr. Whitfield, Yes, sir. I was a member of the 1948 Olympic team and in 1952 I won three gold medals in the Olympics. Chairman Kefaltver. You did the half mile, didn't you ? Mr. Whitfield. That's right, 800 meter. Chairman Kefauver. What did you do that in ? Mr. Whitfield. I set both the 1948 and 1952 Olympic world's rec- ord, 1 minute, 49.2 seconds. Chairman KEFAu^^R. You still hold the record, don't you ? Mr. Whitfield. That is correct, sir. Chairman Kefauver. I used to be a track man myself. I was a discus thrower. [Laughter.] Well, we pay tribute to your accomplishments as an Olympic cham- pion. I don't know of many who have w^on the record twice in suc- cession, and you are a fine influence among your people. You have been recently appointed to this position by the board of supervisors? Mr. Whitfield. Yes, by Kenneth Hahn, Supervisor Kenneth Halm. Chairman KEFAu^'ER. Tell us your recommendations and something about your work and what you think this subcommittee or the people can do to help with our problem of juvenile delinquency. Mr. Whitfield. Thank you very much. Recently I returned from a 5-months tour with the Department of State as Ambassador of Good W^ill through the field of sports, and of course the State Department is using spoi'ts more than ever before to try and help foster good will between our country and countries abroad, and of course the prob- lem, the tour was a success, and I was very happy to take part in it. Of course I felt it was very eft'ective and most educational to me. From the program I learned that the people of the world think that America is the father country, and they feel they would look to pat- tern their country after America and their way of life, but I find some of things we have done in the past that these people have found out about, such as the gangsterism in Chicago and several other places, and making pictures showing these many things, they have come to criticize the American way of life, and they feel that a child, learning and seeing these things, develops the same attitude of what he sees in the picture, that that is not going to do the child too much good. They have criticized our way of life here in letting the youngsters find out too much about the way of life here, such as what older people are doing. Also I think from my experiences that I have found that working with groups, families, mothers and fathers have really not done their