The Newtown bee., 1900-11-30
TOWN TOPICS THE EXODUS OF THE RUBBER BUsI
 NESS.
LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE
 PICTURE.

Little by little the great rubber trust is vacsting the town. A the machinery is shipped to the company's Passaic fac tories, the workmen, such a are desira- ble, are invited to go with the business. And thus the payroll is gradually being reduced. Only small per cent of the 50 or 60 men who have left the place up to this time, continue in the employ of the trust. Some of them have gone to other companies in the same business. and others have found different kinds of occupation, in Bridgeport and other cities nearby.
 The upper factory, in which the re. claiming process was carried on. has been closed several weeks. The work of pack ing, moving, and closing up at the main factory may not be completed for weeks to come.
 Meanwhile the business and social changes in the community, incidental to this exodus, are going on with deepening interest. Families are forced to leave the only homes they have ever known the seeial oircle is broken; friends are separated; marriage h postponed, or hastened children are taken and tho parents left houses are deserted, sold, of rented |; and some in their declining years find themselves lonely and desolate. It is time of sadness and perplexity with many. no dosbt, though there may be little or no actual suffering in store for any perhaps. This is great country, business in general Tis good; and those who 1fe sober, reliable, and willing to work will soon find employment, homes. new relations, and eaeily adjust ihem- selves to the changed conditions.
 Those who remain will perhaps suffer most. Every removal means the reduc. tion of trade, and the cutting down of business in general. The pews in the churches being vacated their means of support will also be withdrawn. Tho schools will become smaller, and if -poa- sible there will be less concern for public education. As rule, theless people in . place the more difficult 1t is to promote any sort of enterprise for the popular benefit. There Is an element of enthusi- asm in numbers. There is no denying the fact that sense of loneliness is growing upon us. It has, indeed, been creeping over us for several years. Some Of us have realized that it was inevitable, and must come. Natural retribution has at last paid us . visit. We have killed the goose that lsid the golden egg, and what shall we do now?:
 But, there is another and brighter side to this experience. Bad as it seems, it is not all evil. Indeed, in the long run 1t may be aN for the best, for those who go and those who stay. Most of the fam flies which move to cities and larger towns will in all probability find them eelves in better conditions of life. The children will enjoy better and larger school privileges; the young men and young women may, if they choose, enter into higher and wider social circles, such as will afford them many advantages to be desired: greater opportunities for promotion and success in the business
 world and many means of self-improve- ment. Who can doubt that it is better to reside in we'll governed city where law and order prevail, and sin is rebuked, and vice and crime promptly punished, than in . lawless, degraded community, in which corruption wins more than honesty?
 And 50 the exodus in itself may prove to be . manifold blessing to everyone who has any desire to improve his situa- tion and prospects,; while the effect which will gradually come upon the whole town by one means or another, may mark the beginning of a new era
 in it's history.-[O. o. Wright.