The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-05-06
BY Frederick G. Howe.


New York City.
They never shut the doors of
number 63.
This is a very little sentence
just eight words I'm it.
But it is, to my mind, perhaps
the most wonderful sentence that
anyone in the world could write
at just this time in the worlds
history. It is wonderful because
it marks one Of the very first and,
doubtless, one of the very biggest
steps towards the greatest era the
earth is ever to see-an era in
which every man is to have an
equal chance with every other
man to engage i'm the uplifting as
well as the supporting things of
life.
And what is this Number 63?"
you ask, that the opening of IT'S
doors for "a hours a day should
mean so MUCH to the develop
ment of the whole great world?
What building on the globe can
be so important as that, you say?
Well. Number So" is just a
school house, not-very-big pub
lie school sandwiched between
the pressing, careening tenements
of the lower Eastside of New
York where human beings squirm
as thickly as ants In garden sands
at spring time.
BUT
Number 60" is more than
that:
"Number 63" is the very
first school house in all
America to keep it's doors
open to the public for prac-
tically n hours a day. E,
And that means, firmly
believe, that within two or
three years, every other
school house I'm this whole
country will have its doors
open from one years end to
the other!
Such a plan-NEVER AGAIN
to close the doors of our public
school houses-means MORE to
civilization than any one of us
can possibly conceive at this time.
It means the re-malxing of
the social life of the city
and that means, practically,
the REMAINING OF THE
ENTIRE HUMAN RACE.
The city, by it's concentration,
has become the designer for the
life of the race. The city sets
the styles in living-social, men,
tai and spiritual. The activities
thought out and pursued in the
cities are copied in the towns. the
villages, the cross roads and the
cornfields of the world.
so THE LIFE OF THE CITY
MUST BE MADE OVER AS THE
CITY ITSELF MUST BE MADE
OVER!
To make over the life of the
city we must ID make over the
city itself and ca open up for
"a hours a day our public school
houses and social centers as
pointed out in my first article.
In this article l am going to
tell you how we have opened up
the doors of Number IS" in
New York, that you may see how
tremendously effective an instru-
ment for the re-making of life a
school house may become.
Number SO" is striving to-
ward an ideal. There, lessons
are, at least, far from being the
most important thing they do in
the four brick walls that front on
Fourth street between the Bowery
and Avenue A.
You can see this perfectly
demonstrated any night between
and s o'clock IL you can find
standing place on the crowded
sidewalk near the building. Con-
stantly stream of boys and girls,
young men and young women
yes. and fathers and mothers, as
welfare flowing through the
doorway into the place. Their
faces glisten with smiles for they
are going out of the sordidness of
life for a while-the work and
worry that always abides with the
people who are down--and are
going amid the things of worth
and beauty to REFRESH THE
SOUL.
Inside Number So" It is very
bright. The long, clean concrete
and white tile halls are flooded
with the silver light of arc lamps.
Groups of folks are chatting in
corners and many others are
walking toward numerous wide