Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-11-16
Names Greatest Need.
Bangor News1

(Bangor NeWS)
On the whole we think if pays to be
fair and to speak the whole truth regard
ing any topic which may be under dis
cussion In this issue we have referred
to the debt which Maine owes to Repre-
sentative Edwin G. Burleigh, for SAVING aas:
to us a member of the national house tor
ten years longer. Beyond doubt, if Mr..
Burleigh had not worked hard and used
much persuasion there would have been
three representatives from Maine today
instead of the four we now have. But DO
we ever stop to think how the relief
which was thus affored was only temper
airy? Do we fully understand the fact
that after 1910 Maine will have no more
than three representatives and no more
than five electoral votes, unless our people
and boards of trade make extraordinary
efforts to increase our population by
building up new and profitable industries
which shall call people hither and cause
them to abide among us as permanent
residents? While the population of Maine
has been growing steadily with every de-
cade, the west has grown so much faster
that our strength in the lower house OF
congress has been decreasing from de-
cade to decade until We are now nearly
down to the vanishing point Had it not
been for the fertile lands and the wide
Maine would have fallen behind in the
two last decades. We are almost at the
parting of the ways Men who are not
yet in their dotage can remember when
the lower house. And now we must
thank God and Mr.. Bureigh that we have
four.
1t was with no desire to make any sen
sation the we opposed the idea of repre-
senting Maine at the worlds fair with
log cabin. Hunters and summer visitors
are all well in their way, but Maine wants
more than casual callers. Our great and
population, for population which shall
reside in Maine and work in Maine,
pay taxes in Maine and make
money in Maine. The need is APP
more apparent every year. One of the big
railroads states in it's advertisement that
Maine is the playground of the country"
This advertisement is in nearly all the
pers, and we are sorry to say there is
more truth in it than is wholesome fol
our welfare. We had one man who was
paid by the State to advertise our aban-
doned farms, as if they We're an asset of
which we should feel proud. Following
out the same line of thought, we have
worlds fair commissioners who are paid
to advertise Maine as a place where log
camps are our highest types of architec-
ture and where nearly all the residents
gain living by boarding summer visit
ors and taking hunters into the woods to
shoot big game. tif
Candidly, we think this style of SHOW.
ing off, our State has gone far enough.
Instead of promoting the abandoned farm
industry, we should encourage Aroostook
potatoes, and Penobscot dairies and Wal
do apples and try and let the outside
world know that we are striving to work
and live like other people. Instead of adj
vertisng Maine as playground of the
country we should strive and strive
hard to make it a place of industrial ac-
tivity, a State which is clearing up the
wilderness and utilizing the water power
now running to waste, and in opening up
new factories and new mills and building
new cities and villages. We may be old
fashioned and inclined to get cranky. but
so long as we have so many natural adj
vantageS which are unmproved we still
believe there is a chance for Maine.
Meantime it is very certain that unless
we do wake up to the condition into
which some of our would be promoters
are leading us. our influence in the nation
will be lost and we shall see the other
states go past, in the race for supremacy,
while we remain a playground until our
comparative Importance shall have dwin-
died so much that we can hardly be
clasSed as a territory. Massachusetts
with one-third our area. with similar
climate and with not half of our natural
advantages. is advancing year by year
and in spite of keen competition. And
what Massachusetts has done and Is do
ing, Maine can do better and more rapid
ly. Our chance to make choice is still
open, though the time for decision is
bref-which shall Maine become, q great
err Massachusetts or a smaller Alaska?