A Stake in the Land Part 25

AMATEUR THEATRICALS

Perhaps the most beneficial enterprise in the community work is the amateur theater. It gives the richest opportunity for self-expression.

It includes acting, literature, singing, music, and painting. It amuses and teaches--it reflects and a.n.a.lyzes the social life and directs it in its entirety toward higher levels of achievements. Whatever the shortcomings and the sins of the Russian Bolsheviks, in one thing they have struck, the writer is sure, the right road. This is in placing the stage at the forefront in popular education, if only in an experimental and theoretical way as yet. A properly directed amateur theater is second only to the school. In a rural community it brings together varied elements, brings out the best in each, and unites them by developing common aims and ideals.

The amateur country theater has made much headway in the state of North Dakota. The State Agricultural College at Fargo took the lead in the movement. The president of the college attributes the success of the country theater there not only to the influence of the college leaders.h.i.+p, but also to the deep need for entertainment and the hunger for social life among the prairie people who are living on farms at long distances from one another. The fact that the population is largely foreign-born stock and has inherited an inclination toward stage plays is another reason.

Professor Arvold of the same college, who is in charge of the development of the country theater, stated to the writer that their little country theater has a strong Americanizing influence upon the population. It brings together both native born and immigrants of various nationalities. They learn to know one another. They learn about America, its history, present conditions, and future aspirations more than in any other way. The theater teaches them the country's tongue, for the plays are given in English. He believed that every large rural community and groups of smaller communities in the same neighborhood should have an amateur theater.

The theater, public lectures, exhibitions, and the American outdoor sports should be centered in and around the community hall. Such highly varied activities in community life require a trained director. He should be a person with a good general education, with experience in rural life and affairs and in organizing group activities. He must be a good mixer and a lover of the work. For his work he should receive an attractive salary. Colonization companies have initiated such work, which should be taken over and maintained by the community itself.

COMMUNITY TEAMWORK

To put the community work in the rural districts on an organized and permanent basis the writer recommends that a community board be created in each county as a unit operating under a state law for the purpose of directing and developing rural community work, similar to that which the writer recommends for the development of rural libraries. A community tax should be levied upon each county, the money received to be used for community work among the population in the county.

In community union there is strength. Working and planning together for any undertaking, however limited and comparatively humble its dimensions, inevitably ties its promoters in bonds of greater understanding and sympathy. Native and foreign born united for enriching and enhancing their common life act as a powerful force for Americanization. Better than any artificially devised scheme is the spontaneous pulling together for a common need of all elements of the community. This const.i.tutes real amalgamation in a democracy.

_Americanization Studies_

SCHOOLING OF THE IMMIGRANT.

Frank V. Thompson, Supt. of Public Schools, Boston

AMERICA VIA THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

John Daniels

OLD WORLD TRAITS TRANSPLANTED.

Robert E. Park, Professorial Lecturer, University of Chicago Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Sociology, Oberlin College

A STAKE IN THE LAND.

Peter A. Speek, in charge, Slavic Section, Library of Congress

IMMIGRANT HEALTH AND THE COMMUNITY. (In press) Michael M. Davis, Jr., Director, Boston Dispensary

NEW HOMES FOR OLD. (In press) S. P. Breckinridge, a.s.sistant Professor of Household Administration, University of Chicago

ADJUSTING IMMIGRANT AND INDUSTRY. (In preparation) William M. Leiserson, Chairman, Labor Adjustment Board, Rochester

THE IMMIGRANT PRESS AND ITS CONTROL. (In preparation) Robert E. Park, Professorial Lecturer, University of Chicago

THE IMMIGRANT'S DAY IN COURT. (In preparation) Kate Holladay Claghorn, Instructor in Social Research, New York School of Social Work

AMERICANS BY CHOICE. (In preparation) John P. Gavit, Vice-President, New York _Evening Post_

SUMMARY. (In preparation) Allen T. Burns, Director, Studies in Methods of Americanization

_Harper & Brothers Publishers_