Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1918 — DEM TOWN IS ALWAYS SHUNNED [ARTICLE]

DEM TOWN IS ALWAYS SHUNNED

Community With Such a Reputation Suffers as From a Pestilence. s RESTS WITH THE CITIZENS People Can Create and Maintain Prosperity If They Will Keep Their Money at Home in Circulation. (Copyright, 191?, Western Newspaper Union.) “Stay away from that town. It’s a dead one.” Do you want that to be said of your town? Of course you don’t, for you wish, as a matter of local pride, if for no other reason, to have your town stand high in the estimation of the world. But are you sure that you are doing everything in your power to place your town in the position which you wish to occupy? That is the question that every person should ask himself or herself at frequent intervals.* When things are running smoothly, when times are good, and when it is fairly easy to make a good living for the wife and kiddles, it is so easy for a man to forget that these things do not com 6 to a town as a matter of course, but are the result of the right kind of effort on the part of the citizens of the community. It is so easy for a man to grow careless and think that because this condition existed it will continue to exist without any effort on his part or that of the other residents of the community. That is why it is Important for every one to stop and think seriously once in a while about what it would mean to him if the prosperity that makes life worth living for him should take wings and fly away. Nobody Loves a Dead Town.

Nobody likes to live In a dead town. No one even likes to visit a dead town. That is why you sometimes hear that warning, “Stay away from that town. It’s a dead one.” The town which has the reputation of being a dead one suffers as if from a pestilence. Business meh seeking new locations will have none of it. The live traveling salesman, even, will give it a wide berth. Those who live in it will get away if they can. When a town is live and prosperous, local business is good, real estate values are high and stable, labor is in demand and wages are good, the streets are well lighted, the residents and their property are protected from robbery and fire and good schools are maintained for the education of the children. When a town is dead, there is little money in circulation, store buildings stand empty with “For Sale” sign hanging on the front door, there is little employment for the laboring man, the streets are dark, the schools are crippled. What sort of town do you want to live in? There is only one answer to that question. You want to live in the live town and enjoy all the good things that come to the residents of such a community. Answer Easily Found. The only question then is as to how these prosperous conditions can be created or maintained and it is the easiest thing in the world to find the answer to that question. If the people of a community will keep their money at home and keep it in circulation among themselves, they need have no fear of ever being compelled to live in a dead town. If the people will patronize their own business men instead of sending their dollars *to the mail order houses, the prosperity of the community will take care of itself.

The local stores, to a very large extent, make every town. The .taxes paid by the business men of the community are the principal support of the schools and public institutions. It Is the taxes paid by the storekeepers, to a large extent, that make possible the public Improvements, the fire protection, the street lighting and the many other things which make a town worth living in. The mail order house does not pay any taxes ih the town from which it gets its money. It does not help to support the schools or the churches. It does not help light the streets or maintain the fire department. It is the aim of the mail order houses to drive small town merchants out of business, so that the people will be compelled to send to the cities for their merchandise and they are spending thousands of dollars every month to accomplish this purpose. If they should succeed, who would pay the taxes that are now paid by the local merchants? It’s a certainty that the mall order house would not pay them. Issue is Clear Cut Every dollar spent at home helps to make the town a live one. Every dollar sent away from home to the mail order house helps to make the town a dead one. The issue is a clear-cut one and is squarely up to every resident of the community, whether a resident of the town Itself or of the country surrounding it The man who does not care whether he lives in a live or a-dead town, If there is such a man, need waste no thought on the subject, but the man who wants to live In a live town cannot get away from it It is up to him to make his town a live one or a dead one. , '.IIIIJ- ’’J'-