St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1937-02-05
HERE and
THERE
By W. M. Smith

rather sinister meaning. We are
apt to forget that propaganda is
simply the support given to
movement and becomes evil only
when the action it supports is evil.
With that protection against being
misunderstood I wish to remark
that the cleverest and most con-
vincing propaganda I have ever
witnessed was emphasized in the
excellent program in connection
with the annual dinner meet of the
Halle @. Brown Community House
last week.
Most of us who know about this
settlement house, know all about
the tremendous handicaps it has
had to surmOunt in achieving the
remarkably fine job it has wrought.
Most of us know, too, the fine per-
sonality that is it's inspiration and
its leadership.
But how to get it over to the per-
sons who can do something about
it-that is the rub. To write of
it's crowded condition, of it's made
quate equipment, is perhaps not so
difficult for those in intimate daily
contact with it's inefficiencies. But
to convince others of the impera-
tive. need of doing something about
it by this method, is something
else again.
So Halle @. visualized it in its
program. By dramatizing a day in
the life of the community house,
all and sundry could see it's heart
breaking insufficiency. There were
many present who could scarcely
fail of being impressed with its
bitter need of enlarged facilities, as
scene after scene showed many
more demands upon it's helpfulness
than it was prepared to give.
I am asure that many who wit
messed the reproduction of it's limi-
tation felt just as the little boys
did who were told they must be
sent home because there was no
room for them in the house that
day and who dashed out exclaim-
ing, Gee, Miss Garden, that's what
you said yesterday. You ought to
get bigger place."
It would be useless to say this
much without adding something of
what I have said repeatedly in this
column concerning the economic
problem a larger Halle @. Brown
inevitably raises.
All the st. Paul welfare agencies
that have satisfactory homes have
been built, not by those who use
them, nor by the Community Fund
that carries their upkeep. They are
provided by the citizenry who have
profted individually or collectively
from the contributions of labor and
spending power of the group thus
aided. It is understood and ac-
knowledged that the united COM
munity of st. Paul is improved and
benefited only as all its people, are
permitted to develop the finer quail
tiles of citizenship. And, as it is
known that these finer qualities
may not be developed through the
unaided efforts of the underprivi-
legged, citizens who have the inter-
est and the means unite these and
provide the necessary money. Thus
grow the settlement houses, the
Y. M. G. A., the W. C. A. and 9TH
err welfare agencies. Thus must
grow larger, more adequate Hal
lie @. Brown. st. Paul's colored citi-
zens contribute to the general COM
munity welfare enough of labor
and spending power to justify
them in asking it's well to do citi-
zens to give some thought to it's
possibilities for making better citi-
zens of it's young people. And in
this they will join, as did Mime
apolis' colored people in building
Phyllis Wheatley.
feel very strongly that the
dramatization of its daily work was
shown to a group of white and col