Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-16
TO BUSINESS MEN

" HE wonderful progress that the
city of Los Angeles has made
= along both material and moral
| lines is due most largely to various or
ganizations of public spirited citizens
who have banded themselves together
to work for the common good. The
chamber OF commerce, the Merchants
and Manufacturers association, the
Municipal league. the City club and
the Good Government organization are
| examples Of what we mean. But there
is another organization in the city hav-
| ing for its principal object the moral
! betterment of mankind, that at the
same time achieves an immense mate
rial result as well. We refer to the
Young Mems Christian association,
| which under its present broad and
/ intelligent management has grown to
be a factor not only in the moral, but
in the material welfare of the city
whose Importance few of our citizens
not directly connected with it fully ap-
preciate.
By the energy and enterprise of its
managers and the generosity of our
citizens the association has been housed
in what is the most modern and up-to-
date association building in the United
States, which means in the world. 1t
| is one OF the largest and most costly
buildings of the kind in existence, and
certainly greatly the largest and most
costly owned by any city of the size of
Los Angeles. These commodious quar-
ters have enabled the institution to
inaugurate many undertakings that are
working immense advantage to the
moral and material betterment Of the
young men of the city. The association
has embarked upon various educational
enterprises, including night schools and
technical instruction of different kinds
that are daily equipping hundreds of
young men the better to fight the bat
tie of life and making them more use
ful business men and citizens. and of
more economic value to the community
in which they live
Believing in a sound body for a
sound mind, the association has pro-
vided the most complete gymnasium in
the city, fully equipped with every
appliance necessary for the physical
development of the young men who
patronize it. This includes a great
swimming pool and a complete system
of baths.
The association has also provided
sleeping quarters for a large number
of young men, which enables many OF
them to make their homes in the build
ing. where they are surrounded by the
very best moral influences. 1t is doing
more than any other organization in
the city to furnish that sort of amuse
ment and occupation for young men in
the hours not taken up with their bust
ness enployments, which tend to keep
them out of the temptations that beset
the paths of young men in city.
The association, whose membership
now exceeds three thousand, is just
embarking upon an effort to increase
that membership to five thousand. If
It is successful it will mean nearly two
thousand more of the young men OF
the city brought into an organization
where their lives are surrounded by
the best and highest moral and mate
rial influences. The business men of
the city have come to understand that
about the most efficient ally that they
have in keeping their young men en-
ployes straight is the Y. NJ. c. A, and |
the result of this is that the business
men of Los Angeles universally favor |
it. They cannot better show their ap- |
probation of what the association has |
done in the past than by aiding in !
every way the effort that is now being |
made to add to its membership. Every |
business man of the city who is inter-
ested in keeping the young men in his |
employment in that sort of moral and |
physical condition which produces the |
highest efficiency of service should use |
every effort to promote the assoc!a-
tion's membership campaign now in |
progress.