The Washington times., 1906-09-23
Be Fair to Your Home Town!


Jobbers and Shippers Association
very properly took up at its last
meeting the several articles unfav-
orable to Washington which have
appeared lately in papers published
in other cities. On some broadly
insufficient basis of fact, those
papers have woven remarkable and
grossly unfair pictures of the Ma
tionaI Capital as a plague center,
and the publicity committee viii do
extremely well 10 correct the inn
pressions which such publications
may reasonably be expected 10
create.
But the episode has a wider inter
est than these several articles mere
~ 1t involves the attitude of every
citizen Of the Capital toward his
home town. For IL is only TOO like
ly some of those reports had their
origin in observations ON Washing
ton by Washingtonians.
The Times does not believe in con-
cealing undesirable local conditions
for fear of the effect the disclosure
may have upon other cities. On the
contrary. il believes that the only
way for a community 10 improve is
TO search diligently for the things
that are wrong, recognize them
when found, and correct them reso-
lutely. To that end it has not hesi-
tated to report the evils of life in
our alleys and comment vigorously
on such insdmtarY conditions as
have come to its notice. If the pub
lication of such information works
to our disadvantage temporarily it
must be reckoned part of our pun
ishment for allowing undesirable
conditions to come into existence
and part of the cost of correcting
them.
II is submitted, however, that we
all owe il to ourselves TO be sure
we publish unfavorable information
in such a spirit and for and under
! such circumstances that il may be
reasonably expected TO make for "a
correction of the evil. Any other
attitude is rank injustice TO a mans
own neighborhood, TO his own home,
10 his own family. He should bear
himself toward municipal troubles
of whatever sort as toward family
troubles of whatever sort - he
should take every step necessary to
correct them and advertise the oper-
alton as little as need be.
And if this is the right attitude
toward real evils, how much more
careful should the citizen be in re-
porting evils which are not known
to exist! Thus, it is the custom
among certain of our people 10 eX-
claim in horror over the prospect
of spending a summer here. They
are always out of town not later
than the middle of May" and, by
advertising that fact, together with
much Struggling of the shoulders at
the mere mention of August in
! Washington. they have contributed
| chiefly to create the impression that
the Capital is worse than Arizona,
Yet the fact is that the great ma
jority Of our people stay at home
the year through and suffer no more
from the heat than their neiehbOrs
who swelter on the hot sands at
some beach. OF course it is hot here
il midsummer. Can any of these
people find a large city in America
where it is not?
While travelling the WashingtOnian
is potentially a factor for the bene-
fit or the discredit of his home. If
he is a healthful, normal, honest
American he viii speak with un-
forced enthusiasm of the things
which are making this city distinc-
tive among all the capitals of the
| World. If he is merely Indifferent
he can keep still. He must be worse
than indifferent and less than a
normal American if he is content
not only to deny his own home the
credit which is its due, but to en-
large upon and advertise evils which
do not exist.