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Show oo A PEACEFUL USE FOR ARMORIES Tho agitation for the use of the public school buildings as c!ic cen tern is gaining force not only In Ixr Angeles but In many othor cities, and It Is certain that "nothing can Ion; prevent a continuance of the wasteful Idleness of tho buildings the gre"ter part of tho calendar day when thoj might be put to so many useful pui jwses People needed only to have their attention called to tho economic folly of erecting great properties and getting such a limited return out of them Onco that Idea look root It Is not strange that some one asked why our armories should represent so much waste Investment, and It seems prob able that a similar agitation for their more liberal use will spring up. In most of tho large cities there are costly and elegant armories that nre dark and deserted most of the tlmo Only a public extravuganco such as has grown up In this country would I fall to ask If better returns could not be had out of the great outlays they ropiosenL For example, every largo city needs a great building for expositions and conventions Whv could not this ' need be soned In a combination I building lntorfering in no way with the fncllltlos for tho mllltla but rather rath-er improving thom by pro Idlng a largor drill floor7 Some cities nre finding It advlsablo to coro with the private dance hall evil by ostablleh Ing municipal resorts of the kind un-dor un-dor moral regulations It Is only suggestive of tho posslblo uses of ar morlcs that they might bo employed in thin and many othor ways to improve im-prove urban social conditions The money of all tho peoplo pays for schools), armories and othor public buildings, and to bar any part of them If feasible use can bo mode In hours of usual Idleness Is wrong In prln-clplo prln-clplo Private money-making enterprises enter-prises should, of course, bo oxcluded with the possible exception of those purely for chajltnblo purposes, "but a llttlothought will suggest many ways 1 In which partly Idle public buildings might bo used more to the benefit ZK the peoplo at large, Los Ansele3 Herald. |