Norwich bulletin., 1919-11-17
AsHFORD'S HOUSING MEETING
 FOR COMMUNITY CENTER

It was d remarkable meeting at Warrenyille Friday afternoon in re- sponse to the call for community rally It was an ideal day and Bakers hall was crowded with many standing and many mdre unable to get in at all. Not less than 250 were in attend ance, including about 50 school chi!-
 dren The train bringing the Bridge port speakers was forty minutes late at Willimantic so that Professor Charles A~Wheeler of Connecticut Az ricultural college opened the meeting at Z D. m. and made the first ad- i dress. The Babcock Ncornet band played patriotic and popular selec- 1 tionS during the meeting and was
 warmly applauded. A chorus Of school children under the direction of Miss l Powell, the NVarrenv He teacher, and with Mrs. David MaeheWson at the piano, sang the Battle Hymn of the l Republic, and there were recitaticns
 by W.nitred Bassett, Willie Nemie and
 Thomas Supina. Nelson Frink of i North Whitman gave wonderful fc!ever immitations of bird calls.
 Professor Wheeler spoke of the value of a good spirit among citizens
 and neighbors as a prime essential of sound community life. Profitable dg
 riculture is the bass of prosperity in a community like Ashford and where i the market for the producers is af a distance there must be cooperation
 and a mutual understanding; as the success of each one keeps the com mun.ty and their interest one in coIE-
 mon. He spoke of the vital necessi- 1 ty of recreation in remote com munity as one of the big factors to keep the young people from going away; also the vital importance or looking after the health of the com 1 munity. :.
 Professor Wheeler described the
 work of Professor Morgan in study
 ing the needs of country life in Mas sachusetts. He commended the ex-
 tensive work of the Connecticut Form Bureau as available to Ashford The probable extension of state trun. lines through Warrenville and through
 Phoenixville would bring Ashford
 much nearer markets, in fact would
 put Warrenv:lle within an hour and a half of Hartford. Professor Wheeler
 called for the hearty cooperation ot
 all the people of Ashford and vicin-
 ity for the community center pro-
 ject and predicted that it would be o1
 great advantage to the town in eveYy
 way.
 A. A. Ambrose, president of the
 Czecho- -Slovakia corporation of New
 port and Bridgeport was expected tc
 speak, but at the last moment was de- tained in New York on business. He
 sent as his substitute Gaza H. Mika a graduate of Yale and a member o1
 the Connecticut bar, but now associat-
 ed with Czecho- o-Sovakion corporation
 and he proved an eloquent speaker He spoke of the peculiar value o1
 American opportunity, and of how
 much the people of his home coun- try were benefitting by an infusion ot American idealism and energy MT Mika had been for several years ac- tive in Americanization work among Czecho- -Slovakions in various large cities between New York and Chica- go and he gave vivid descriptions o1 that work. He called for show o1 hands from the Czeeho- -Slovakians
 present at the meeting and about
 thirty raised their hands and it was
 explained that large proportion o1
 the children present were of Slavisf
 families. It was stated that there ' are about forty Slovak families ir l Ashford and near vicinity. ~- MT. Mika
 paid "a splendid tribute to American institutions and bespoke the loyalty ot