Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-05-01
MUST KEEP MOVING.
The True Secret of Rock Islands
Present Progress.
A Healthy Public Spirit and Pride In
the City is Worth More Than Manu-.
factories---As We Improve so VIII
We Grow.

The coming season ought to be the
most prosperous that Rock Island has
ever experienced. The paving and beau.
tifying operations now in progress are
sure to attract new capital to the city.
New capital means increased work for
our laboring classes. more people and
more homes. This will open up new res.
idence portions. 1t will stimulate the
street car lines to extend their track and
take in more territory. 1t will give the
retail men plenty of trade. The new
houses that are going up will employ all
our mechanics. New enterprises natur-
ally seek growing. active and enterpris-
ing city. 1t is the outside people that
come into towu that give it renewed
impetus and additional push Capital is
beginning to investigate our resources.
The town is beginning to show the symp-
toms of continued development. On
every side we hear the hum of improve
ment, new edifices are going up. people
are buying lots and preparing to build.
and those who have them already are m>
proving them.
Everyone is looking upon the future
with high hope. How foolish then it is
to grumble and growl over the little in
cidenis that are inseparable to the growth
of any town. How foolish it is to be
croaking and groaning and predicting
disaster and failure. when the most in
different observer can see the lie given
TO these predictions by the signs of pros
gress on every hand. Everyone ought to
hep on this good work, if not in ma
terial aid. at least in good words and
cordial sympathy. Every citizen ought
to be loyal TO the city, and insist upon
his belief in its progress. This is the
way towns are built up. 1t is this gen.
eral and universal enthusiasm that has
always marked the progress of Chicago,
and now in spite of its drawbacks and
disadvantages, in spite of the fact that it
was located in a swamp and that it had
everything to contend with, made it the
metropolis of the west, the characteristic
and model city of the continent.
The Peoria Journal says that the great
drawback to Peoria heretofore has teen
a "peevsh, fretful. fault finding spirit
on the part of its citizens-a disposition
to hang around the corners and whine.
And this on the part of men who never
aided the town to the exten: of a dollar,
who never helped forward any enterprise
IN any way, shape or form. What we
need here is healthy, public spirit. We
need it more than capital or manufac,
tories or population" What the Journal
says OF Peoria has been in large measure
true of Rock Island. but that spirits be-
ing overridden by determination to ad i,
vance and make the best of our oppor-
tunities. A great many fancy that our
growth depends upon manufactures. But
it doesn't altogether thought does TO a
great extent. Some of the manufacture
ing towns of the east ara dull and dead
about half the time. Some of the most
active enterprising cities in the west have
no manufactures. They make pleasant
place for people to live in and other de,
velGpments follow. Out first duty now is
to continue to fix up our streets. make
our town pleasant and enterprising. ems
tertaining. lively and beautiful and then
it will attract people here who want a
desirable place in which to live.