Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-10
Municipal Affairs
ABOLISH HOUSING COURT
SAYS HIGH SCHOOL MISS
Fair Speaker Wins Plaudits of
City Club Members by
Sound Logic.

IF the people only knew what 81
down and 81 a week meant in acquir-
ing a home they would cease to laugh
at certain residents of Watts who are
trying to better their condition in life
by getting away from tenement house
influences and purchasing q home that
they may call their own" said Miss
Marie Clark a graduate of the Los
Angeles Polytechnic high school of the
class of 1910, who addressed the City
club at its luncheon at the Westmin-
ster hotel yesterday. George Bettinger,
a co-graduate addresse dthe club on
Fairgrounds and Their Mission"
Miss Clarke strongly advocated the
abolition of housing courts, where are
congregated a great mass of aliens,
who unless a movement to lead them
to the purchase of a home is inaugu-
rated, are content, she said, to rear
their children among unfavorable sur
roundings-a condition which breeds
poor citizens.
THE housing commission considers
that Los Angeles has too many hous-
ing courts" continued Miss Clark,
land is gradually working toward the
elimination of what it considers an
evil Under the favorable conditions
of the ownership of a homo men,
women and children improve and be-
come valuable additions to the COM
munity
THE possession of q home makes a
man look up to the brighter things of
life: makes him abstain from liquor,
that his home may be improved with
the money saved through temperate
habits; makes him love his family, his
city. his country and his God"
President Finlayson of the City club
warmly congratulated the speaker on
her handling of the subject saying:
1--WE of the present generation should
be satisfied to know that the destinies
of our country are safe when we look
on Miss Clark as type of the coming
generation"
ADVOCATES MORE FAIRGROUNDS
plato" said George Bettinger, in
his speech on Fairgrounds and Their
Mission" understood the necessity of
children being permitted to play under
proper conditions. He recognized that
the play of children has the mightiest
influence on the maintenance or non
maintenance of the law when these
same children reached mans estate.
1.-THE establishment of Fairgrounds
tends to keep children off the streets,
where they are apt to come in contact
with bad influences. Fairgrounds aid
in the preservation of order. AS an
example, there is a certain quarter of
Los Angeles to which, prior to the
opening u pay JULIUS III IIlS CltS'
additional police protection was given
as soon as school vacations commenced.
ION the year of the opening of the
first playground in Los Angeles extra
police were sent to this quarter, and
for the want of action nearly died of
ennui. The bad boy disappeared. He
was over at the playground being
nodded into what will later be good
citizen.
Ten years after the opening of the
Panama canal Los Angeles will have
population of 100000 This influx
will bring hundreds and hundreds of
aliens, who, on feeling the uplifting
of the oppression under which they
lived in their native land. will run to
license. The playground will be a cor
receive of the idea of license, for,
through the child, the man may be
reached, and with the training Of the
public school the alien child will de-
velop into a good citizen.
1--WE need more Fairgrounds and va
cation grounds in Los Angeles, and
now is the time to begin to establish
them. Every school community should
have a playground. Robert Louis
Stevenson says of play:
Happy hearts and happy faces,
Happy play IN grassy places;
That was how in ancient ages
Children grew to kings and sages