Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-02-10
FRIDAY MORNING. FEB. 10. 1883.
"THE BEST INVESTMENT !
EYER MADEIN SIAUNTON."

EYER MADE IN S1AUNTON."
So wrote one of the subscribers tc the !
building fund of the Y. M. G. A. in en- |
closing his subscription last week Is it |
This is question not to be answered by |
gospel hymns, or prayers, or orthodox ad-
dresses. They are very good in their way,
but they are not an answer to be set up
against business inquiry. All the men
who are looked to to aid in erecting this
building are not Christians, and they have
a right to better answer than the mere
exhibition of the machinery of religious
services in motion. They are asked for |
something, and they have right to know
what, if anything, they are to get back
for it.
Let us see what business man may
calculate without any risk, without taking
any chances. and without having to hunt
it up himself, to get in return for the aid
he is asked to give the new Association
building. Order is about the first thing
that is asked of city for the prosperity OF
trade within its walls. Without order
there is no business. Order depends in a
far greater measure on the population
than on the authorities OF the city. and
every drop of good leaven projected into
the mass of the population goes that far
to produce more orderly people. Such
leayen is an Association and so generally
recognized is that fact, that no sooner a
town achieves respectable size and popu-
Iation than 1t adds one to its other moral
enginery. 1t is an officer of moral santa
ton who stands in front of the vestibuies
of the courthouse and the church and di-
yerts the stream from the former to the
latter. 1t promotes good order and there
fore is paying investment to man who
expects to live and do business in city.
To business man nothing can be more
valuable than sober, reliable, active assls-
tants, familiar by lifelong acquaintance
with the town in which the business house
is located. Every community has the ma
terial for such, hough that material Is too
often worked up into far other product.
Every device and ii 6uence by which the
young men of a town can be moulded into
the best quality of business men. gives the
employer jus. that much larger field from
which to get his help; that many more ap-
Ilicants for the position he wants to fill. 1t
would be a very absurd proposition to say
that to be good business assistant, steady,
faithful and valuable, man must neces-
sarily be Christian or member of such
an Association as we are writing of; but
those of US who have known the world long
and we'll. its shady as well as its sunny sides,
cannot deny, if we would, that those who
are brought up under the teachings and
influence of these Associations, have many
thousands better chances to make sober.
steady, valu able business assistants than
those whose fate or choice it is to combat
the temptations Of the world unshielded by
these influences. OF their religious infu-
ence and teachings it is not cur purpose
to speak here, but Of their powerful
agency in making men, real men who can
stand the severest test the world offers, it
is impossible 10 be incredulous. 1t is a
good business investment to put money In
a moulding machine that can do this.
1t is no longer a question in other
cities-aBd we are glad to believe that it
is hardly one in this. at this day-of
whether these Associations are actually
and pecuniarily profitable to the business
of city. That has been settled by the
most practical of all tests-men giving
large sums of money as testimony to
their belief IN it. Every one of the
great Association buildings which now
adorn the American cities have been
erected by the business interesls-mer-
chants, manufacturers, railroad corpora
tions-of those cities. Their il fiuence
has been so undeniable that the business
men have come forward and voluntarily
taken from the shoulders of the Asso-
Citations the burden of building; and have
expended millions of dollars in that direc-
ton. Those business men were in large
part connected with no Association; with
little interest in the spiritual affairs of
the men they employed, and were men
who took little account of the origin or the
end of the movement, except ia one aspect,
and that one--that the Associations work
ed better with homes of their own; that
with this better work came better class
of young men in the community, and
that with better community comes
business conducted in more salts
factory manner. With some of the large
donors to those buildings it would have
made little difference whether the relig-
ious readings of the Association were from
the Bible or the koran-- it was the effect,
the improving effect, the business better
ment of the community, and their own
affairs particularly, that they looked to.
1t is not likely that plan adopted by the
leading, and not only leading, but wisest
business men in nearly every Amer lean
city can be a mistake-shrewd, caiculat-
ing men don't often make such and their
experience so far is a guarantee to our
Stanton business men that a contribu-
tion to an Association building would be
one of the best investments they ever
made here.
Apart from the individual business
benefit. it Is priceless blessing
to have growing up around us sober,
orderly, steady community. 1t is con-
ditlon OF people that inssnsibly draws to
them residents. trade and floating popnla-
ton. What is called the character of a
city goes a long way to attract to 1t new
enterprises and new investors Capitalists
avoid a dissipated city as place to open
business, not because Of the wildness Of
the dissipation, but because Its people are
bad pay. Men who spend little time ct
work, or vino, il they spend their time at
work, spend their wages in dissipation. do
not meet their obligations to legitimate