¡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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