10 
North Shore Breer ze 
Published every Friday afternoon cits 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE CoO, 
Knight Buildiuy Manchester, Mass, 
Boston Office: 
44 Herald Bldg., 171 Tremont St. 
J. ALEX. LODGE, Editor. 
Telephones: Manchester 137, 132-3 
Boston Telephone: 3660 Oxford. 
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checis North Shore Breeze 
‘o.. Manchester, Mass. 
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Vol. X. December 13, 1912, No. 5¢ 
MANCHESTER'S OPPORTUNITY. 
The meeting in Manchester last week 
of twenty-five. young men and boys 
to devise ways and means for build- 
ing and an organization is indicative 
of the great need that has long existed 
in town. The consumation of the 
ideal’ of these young men will not, 
however, solve the problem in Man- 
chester. For experience has taught 
that the burden involved in an effec- 
tive Y.M.C.A. in small towns has pre- 
vented large influence because of the 
expense involved in proper mainten- 
ance. It will require more money to 
operate an efficient Y.M.C.A. than is 
now expended by all of the churches 
and religious organizations in town. 
When fully equipped will such an 
institution serve all of Manchester? 
A Y.M.C.A. or its substitute is de- 
sirable. Is there not a way in which 
all of Manchester may be served with 
an efficient social center? 
There is a crying need of a new hall 
or “nlay-building’ for Manchester’s 
old as well as her young: A building 
which will allow the Boys’ club and 
Girls’ club and the Women’s club to 
hold meetings and_ festivities,—in 
truth, a winter play-ground for all of 
us. 
We already have our 
play-ground for summer. 
out-door 
We need 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
a winter play-ground. 
We believe such a hall would rent 
well for various 'fsummer concerts, 
exhibitions and the like; dances, may- 
hap. It could be made attractive. In 
this building there might be in connec- 
tion with the hall a kitchen of small 
proportions, and the conveniences to 
allow of easy entertaining. Which 
one of the many societies in town is 
there that has not wished there was 
some suitable hall where banquets and 
suppers could be served with some 
sort of convenience? Perhaps there 
might be a show room or two where, 
in summer, we might tempt people 
from elsewhere to show us. their 
wares—a very much _ sought-after 
thing in a summer resort. 
Great progress has been made in 
the social side of municipal work and 
still greater studies may be made in 
the future. Communities are recog- 
nizing that a social center is as neces- 
sary to a community as the school- 
house. ‘Boston has established two 
good municipal buildings of this char- 
acter, one in Columbia road and 
another in Jamaica Plain. In Brook- 
line the town has established an effi- 
cient group of buildings including a 
municipal grnasium. This movement 
will be wide-spread as the years go on. 
Here is Manchester’s opportunity ! 
It could remove the Town hall and 
police station and on the site of the 
present town hall construct a modern 
building to house the police station, 
provide all town offices, a Town hall, 
small halls and lodge rooms to be rent- 
ed to organizations, and, a public 
gymnasium with shower baths for the 
boys and young men. 
The cost of such a plant, bonded 
and carefully financed, ought not to 
affect appreciatively the tax rate. 
With a rate as low as Manchester’s 
the town could well afford to make the 
investment for the returns that would 
inevitably come to it in providing a 
place for the young people. 
Manchester’s opportunity ought not 
to be neglected. Such an institution 
would not prevent the organization of 
gymnasium classes, or the development 
of different forms of organizations. It 
would provide in the most reasonable 
and economical way a good equipment, 
which could be placed at the disposal 
of the whole town and all its organ- 
izations. Such an equipment would 
increase the efficiency of the school 
department and place at its disposal 
a new building which could be used 
for educational purposes that would 
naturally suggest themselves as time 
goes on. 
The town could appoint a special 
commission of five members,— two 
selectmen, a_ representative of the 
school department, and two citizens, 
—to study carefully the situation and 
present a report at a meeting of the 
town. Such a movement would not 
be new, but would simply be a step 
taken to follow the lead of the pro- 
gressive towns all over the country, 
which are at work on similar prob 
lems. 
The Breeze is entirely in sympathy 
with the organized efforts of these 
twenty-five young men and this article 
is not to be construed as a criticism 
of their activities. Their aggressive- 
ness is to be commended. The point 
the Breeze would make is this: That 
it will be vastly more economical for 
the Town to father any building plan 
that is contemplated and provide not 
alone for the boys and young men, 
but for the girls and young women, 
and at the same time provide suitable 
meeting places for the lodges, horti- 
cultural and other secieties, etc., which 
meet in town and which serve each its 
own part of the town’s people. 
In this rigorous climate, there 
are several months in the year when 
outdoor pastimes are much restricted. 
What will the boys do, in December, 
January, February and March, when 
the cold. weather precludes baseball, 
swimming and tennis? Here is the 
opportunity for further but equally 
wise gifts. Every town should have 
not only a public playground but a 
public playhouse (or playing house), 
a building of simple construction, 
well warmed, gymnasium-like, with 
athletic apparatus and especially a 
good swimming tank. A fee should 
be charged, for self-respect’s sake, 
but of only a few pennies. Cleanliness, 
which is next to godliness, thus would 
be encouraged. Many of us who pride 
ourselves upon our daily bath, would 
go unbathed more than we do if we 
had to face each morning in a cold 
room only a pitcher of cold water and 
a tin basin. Thousands of young men 
who feel a dawning pride in a good 
physique would welcome a commo- 
dious, well-lighted, well-warmed gym- 
nasium of this sort. The Greeks and 
Romans were “short” on means of 
G. E. WILLMONTON 
Attorney and 
Counselor at Law 
ORS ee 
School and Union St’s, Manchester :-: 
WILLMONTON’S AGENCY 
Real Estate and Insurance of All Kinds 
Old South Bldg., Boston 
SUMMER HOUSES FOR 
RENT 
MORTGAGES - LOANS 
TEL. CONN. 
