The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-01-03
THE LESSON or ONE INDUSTRY.

THE LESSON or ONE INDUSTRY
once upon a time, in one OF the fair
est counties OF Southern California a
capitalist built a great factory. And
the great factory built town. 1t was
announced with a great flourish OF
trumpets, that the new town was to De
the town of the county. To be sure
there was already a county town, on
the sea. coast. but that was to be left
far in the rear by the growth or the
modern progressive factory town AS
a matter of fact, for time 1t seemed
as II the prophecies of the new town
men were to be fulfilled. Everybody
who was anybody, all that there was
OF progress in the county, rushed at
once to the factory town. Two week.
ly newspapers were started, merchants
came from far and near, even aban-
doning business in the old county town
to go to the new center of the county $
commercial life. Houses were remoV-
ed bodily to the new place, so great
was the rush for accommodation, from
other parts of the county, and one
small town close TO the factory was
completely and altogether bereft of It's
inhabitants.
II was said that the new town would
be the county seat. The Southern Pa
cific rebuilt its main line so that the
factory town was on the map. And
the whole countryside was filled with
a crowd Of blatant boomers who laugh
ed to scorn the notion that anything
could stop the rush of their favorite
no.. had hn
That was the whole thing. And for
time the town that was built by the
factory grew like mushroom.
Then, all at once, a strange and I'M
locked for condition made itself APP
parent. There were more grocers and
hardware dealers and cloth merchants
and boarding houses in the new town
than the people who worked in the
factory, large as it was. could keep up.
Rents went down, and business houses
were closed. The town was still
fiamboyant in it's pretensions, and its
boomers were as blatant as ever, but
the town had come to a standstill. 1t
was confronted by condition, and not
theory.
A little later, and there came fall
ure of the crop of that staple manu-
featured in the town. Things in the
factory town went from bad to worse
There were no actual business failures
although many men went out OF bust
ness. There was, In fact, no business
to do. The failure of the crop was an
incident, merely. The new town, as a
matter of fact, had felt its limitation
before that
And, in the meantime, the old county
town had gone serenely on in its own
way. 1t had only the bean crop. and
the barley crop, and the fruit crop
and the production of oil to depend
upon-yet, strangely, the sum of al
these things amounted, in the long run
TO the creation of more stable pros
perity than was given to the factor.
town by it's one industry-and wheI
the bean crop or the barley crop o.
the fruit crop failed, or when there wa
a slack time in the oil fields, the othe
things that kept the town alive die
not also come to standstill.
1t resulted, that while this old tow
had its seasons of depression, 1t wa
never altogether depressed. as the new
town was-and there was never any
thing more than talk to the tall
of the boomers who had boaste'
that they would take the count.
seat, and everything else. of an.
value that the old town had
The old town is still there, and tn
new town-but the old town has los
the fear that II may have had ono
that its days were numbered. 1t still
thrives and prospers on the trade II
the bean crop and the barley crop un,
the fruit crop and the production of pc
troleum, and occasionally 1t lends
brotherly hand to its neighbor. the ney
town, more humble now than when /
was first built. For both towns hav
learned the lesson that some othe
communities may learn, perhaps, I
their profit. A great prosperity ma
be built on one industry. When tn;
one industry meets with a setback, {
every industry does at one time or al
other there must come distress to Il
prosperity that is built upon it.