Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1918 — TOWN GROWTH BASED ON RURAL PROSPERITY [ARTICLE]

TOWN GROWTH BASED ON RURAL PROSPERITY

The ambition of every town made nip of live people is to grow and de-, velop and prosper. Growth is the basic law of nature. When growth ceases, decay gets in. We are forced to admit that there are conditions under which a town may be and is in a measure independent of- the surrounding ebuptry, as to whether Or not that territory is prosperous. Put these instances are. rare and not by any means the rule. - The United States is pre-eminent-ly an agricultural nation. Today she is literally’ undertaking to feed the world. To accomplish this gigantic task every resource must be utilized and developed to the uttermost. The soil must be made to yield as it has never before yielded, and the millions of acres of our domain that have heretofore lain fallow must be brought under cultivation. And this brings us up to the subject olf this article.

The great majority of American towns are directly dependent for their growth and prosperity on the surrounding country. They advance or retrograde in exact proportion as the surrounding territory develops or deteriorates. The town, then, that has an ambition to advance, to build up, spread out and prosper, should, first of all devote its energies to the fullest possible development of the community from which it draws its sustenance. This not merely from a standpoint of benevolence or philanthropy, but as a measure of pure self-interest. To demonstrate the truth of this one has hut to observe

the number of towns in this country that are really overgrown—developed out of all proportion to the surrounding country. And in every one of such towns business conditions are abnormal. The growth has been a mushroom growth, with no enduring foundation, and as soon as the general prosperity of the country has a slight decline, these are the first towns to suffer. This was particularly noticeable in the old boom days of the eighties and nineties when many towns sprang up without any other excuse than the ambition of some syndicate to unload a piece of property bn the publid. The wrecks df many such towns still mar the landscape in all parts of our country. The town that would insure its growth based on a solid foundation, should make the development of the

surrounding territory its first consideration. The establishment of any and every industry of the rural districts is of as much vital interest to the dwellers in the town as to the parties directly concerned therein. The organiatiozn of farmers' clubs, girls’ canning clubs, boys’ pig clubs and corn clubs—all these as vitally affects the town people as the country folks, because they are factors in the general prosperity from which ,the town must draw its enduring strength. A poor road leading from any community tb the town is as much a matter of concern to the town as to the community affected. And thus it goes through the entire list of community interests.-'The enduring prosperity of the town dwellers bears an exact ration to that of the rural population. Their interests are inextricably interwoven. It is, however, far easier for the farmer to dispense with the backing oif the town people than for

the latter to ignore his support. We have written thus plainly with the hope that we might perhaps cause some to view the national problems in a national light. This is an era of development. The world is calling for the best th’t America can give it. Thousands of our men are flocking to the great manufacturing centers. Not only must war material be furnished, bat all the arts of peace must Be sutplied. But the farms are the great food storehouse of the land. The farmer must feed us if we are fed. and without his product all other branches of industry become impotent. His calling is, has always been and always will be the bedrock foundation of our national life. Upon the farm must we build our prosperity, and by the prosperity of the farm must we stand or fall. To the millions of dwellers in the cities and towns we wish we could get this message: Give your first and best efforts to building a solid, enduring rural prosperity, developing its every interest to the utmost, and all the adverse powers of earth can not prevent your sharing as an equal jjartner in that prosperity.