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About The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip. (Portland, Or.) 1923-1927 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1925)
¡NOVEMBER 1925 Page Seventeen THE UNITED AMERICAN [good suit for social occasions. Addresses, music, and bther parts of the programs were of high type. Dances that occured at the . end of the programs were [conducted with such courtesy and refinement as to occasion comment by American visitors. They were of a type really superior to many such events which are attended only by Americans. A great change has pome over some of the Mexican settlements in our city within three or four years. During recent months individuals and groups of [foreign born have given entertainments of various kinds and types on a great variety of occasions. [Sometimes two or three numbers were introduced in a program, but more often the entire program was rendered by the Americanization representatives. [Women’s clubs, men’s organizations, churches, all kinds of groups have had opportunity to become kcquinted with some of the talent possessed by many of the foreign born in Los Angeles. An example of such programs was one given in one of the large churches of the city, where a group of Russian musicians rendered an evening’s program of classic music. Not a jazz number or other cheap type of composition appeared. At other times, groups of immigrants have Appeared before two or three of the largest clubs in the city, and have given a varied program lasting one and one half or two hours. Among the foreign born in Los Angeles are scores of talented people of great culture. To many of our citizens, the numbers presented by these people have been a revelation. If the various groups of people residing in our ®ity are to understand each other and are to work in Biarmony, it will be necessary that they become Acquainted. During the past year, the Americanization Department has been devoting much time and atten tion to the promotion of mutual acquintance by bring ing together the different peoples in the way Suggested above. ■ One feature of the work in our school system that seems unique among the cities of the country is the cottage plan which has been employed here about Seven years. A piece of land has been leased with a house or bungalow, or a bungalow has been moved upon a leased lot, and day and night Americanization work for the benefit of the neighborhood has been instituted. These cottages have proved centers of illumination from which the torch of education has been held aloft. Visitors from other states have been much interested in this type of institution, and have reported that they have not found it elsewhere. The cottage really establishes a type of home center in the midst of a group of foreign born people, .and not only gives opportunity for instruction of all kinds but serves as.a center of influence. Some neighborhoods have been changed greatly by these cottages. The visitors from the East consider that this plan is very valuable. During the past summer, the Director and Assistant Director of Americanization of. an eastern state returned from a visit in Los Angeles determined to place before the Legislature during the coming winter a bill which would permit the establishment of cottage centers in their state. 1 Since the establishment of the Olive View Sana torium, a county institution for the elimination of tuberculosis, the City Board of Education, in whose district the sanatorium is located, has endorsed Ameri canization work among the patients, most of whom are foreign born. The usual lines of Vocational Thera peutics have been taught, and in addition classes have been formed for the children who are in the institution. The sanatorium now has six hundred beds, and com tains among its patients sixty children. The Board of Education has completed a three room bungalow adapted to use under the sanatorium conditions. What heretofore has consisted of group work in the sana torium soon will be a school of the Los Angeles System. Since most of the children are foreign, and since all of them are special cases, the school will.be an Americanization project; Americanization, leads into ah kinds of conditions, and into numerous types of work. The Olive View Sanatorium is the last out standing development. AN INTERESTING TREE At Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the property of John F. Scott, which was formerly a portion of the Kenmore estate, the home of Betty Washington Lewis, sister .of George Wash ington, there is still standing one of the thirteen horse chestnut trees which George Washington planted to represent the thirteen original colonies. This tree has been viewed by. thou sands of visitors during the course of more than a century. At the present time, however, the tree is slowly dying because of its great age and the inroads of the chestnut blight. Martin Davey, famous tree surgeon and congressman from Ohio, has volunteered his personal services, made a preliminary exami nation of the tree and announced that he will gladly undertake the work of ministering to its ills at his own expense. Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers. —Penn. 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