Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-01-06
VOLUME XXVIII--NUMBER 6.
How to Kill a Town.

"Pose as a philosopher. Find the
soft side Of dry-goods box and sit
and look wise and criticise every ef-
fort Of energetic public-spirited citi-
zens for the promotion of the general
good; impugn their motives, claim
that swindle is contemplated by the
promoters, or that the enterprise is
impracticable and sure to fail. Peo-
pie will then think that you are man
of deep penetration, and should there
happen to be failure, be sure to say
al told you so;" but should grand
success be the result, your prophesies
will be forgotten in the general re-
joicings, SO that your reputation as a
prophet will not suffer. When a
stranger comes to town and proposes
to establish mandatory of some
kind, as soon as your hear of it slip
around quietly and whisper in the
ears of those who may listen to you
that the party is fraud, that he has
no money of his own, that he con-
templates swindle on the people,
and, being Il wise man, that it is your
duty to warn against approaching
danger But should some of the wide
awake citizens see the benefits to be
derived by encouraging the enterprise,
and start a movement in that direc-
ton, then kick, kick vigorously, and
as like attracts like, you may soon
surround yourself with whole army
of kickers, and be instrumental in Gre
ating and crystalizing sentiment
strong enough to choke the life out of
the enterprise, and thereby drive the
stranger to u more public-spirited To-
cality. Should you be demonstrated
with on your opposition to public en-
terprises, and your attention called to
the rapid advancement of other towns
no better situated naturally than your
own, reply that there is nothing there
to build up town; that there is moth
ing substantial about it; that the
town is forced up by artificial means,
and that a reaction will soon take
place. 'Tis true that by so doing you
make an assertion that only the fu-
ture can disprove Gf ever), and so,
from your standpoint, you are in pos
session of the field. Sould u number
Of your citizens urite in az effort to
develop the natural resources of your
locality, be on hand with fund of ad-
vice as to how the company should be
managed. 1t is true that you may
have paucity of ideas ON the subject,
but give them q redundancy of words,
IAN article the kicker always has on
hand). Be very careful not to take
stock in the enterprise, then people
will think that all your suggestions
are purely disinterested. After the
enterprise is ON its feet begin to find
fault with the managers; should any
mistakes occur, magnify them, darkly
hint to the smaller stockholders that
the big fish will soon eat up the little
ones, that the whole thing is fraud
badly managed and run by few in
their own private interests. You may
know nothing of the truth OF what
you say, but that makes no difference,
just hammer away ut your assertions
and in time you may have the salts
faction of seeing your opinions crys-
talizing into facts Qn the minds of
your hearers). By persistently pur-
suing this course you may succeed in
crippling, if not destroying, an enter
prise that would have been OF in
calculable benefit to your town.
The kicker may be in good circum-
stances and perfectly satisfied with
things as they are, may be apprehen-
sive should boom strike the town Of
having strong competition to con-
tend with, or the town may be us big
= one as he wants to live in, or he may
feel that little more tax will lessen
the value of his property, failing en-
tirely of seeing that public prosperity
means individual prosperity, or he
may have none or little pecuniary in
terest in the town, and only kicks for
the pleasure it gives him. But what
ever his motives may be, follow these
suggestions and many others that
may occur to him, and persistently
find fault with everything said or done
for the public good, find fault with the
churches, the preachers, lawyers, doc
tors, schools, courts, businessmen
city government, newspapers, water
works, gas company, manufactures
| and in fact everything connected with
the town, and he and his co-workers
will soon have the pleasure OF seeing
the natural result of their labOrs."
Another way to kill town is to
| sympathize and cooperate with those
who, having no interest at stake and
nothing to lose, are doing all in thei1
power to stir up strife, create dissen
ton, breed discord and engender fac
tional bitterness, which tend to des
troy the peace and prosperity OF the
community.
VALENTINE Whitman died last weeR