The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-07-05
NORFOLK NEEDS INDUSTRIES.

NORFOLK NEEDS INDUSTRIES.
To make a city, community must
have people. To have people, there
must be industries with payrolls and
lists of employees. Norfolk is steadily
acquiring these. But more are needed.
A systematic, organized effort to Sc.
cure more of these institutions will be
a systematic effort toward adding to
Norfolk's population. And no town
on earth ever had a more advantage
GUS location for distributing the pro-
ducts, once they are produced.
There are strong reasons today driv-
Ing large industries employing labor
from the large cities. In the first
place, rent on property needed, or tax
es If 1t be that, is very materially
higher In the large city than in the
smaller town. Labor is higher priced
In the city because it costs the labor
ers SO much more to live there than
In the smaller town. And labor trou-
bles which are forever blocking the
wheels of industry in the city are I'M
known in the smaller places because
the smaller town is more democratic
and there is peace and harmony in
the air which works for the good Of
all parties concerned.
| With manufacturing plants looking
for smaller cities, Norfolk should ap-
peal strongly as a favorable point if
only it's natural advantages were
brought before the proper people.
Every new industry employing la
Dor will build up Norfolk's population
and Importance. Aside from the re-
tail expansion, Norfolk's only path
toward larger population lies In the
acquisition Of new industries. Norfolk
is willing to lie awake nights or to
dig into its pockets to help along some
effective plan for accomplishing such
acquisition.
If Norfolk is to have 10000 people
in 1910 or 1920 or 1850, it may be
safely put down on paper that just a
certain number of new industries, en-
ploying certain number of people,
must first be brought to town.
And it may also be put down in
black and white that the more conf.
dence Norfolk shows in it's own fu-
ture and its own natural advantages
as a railroad and distributing center,
the more easily may manufacturers
and other investors be induced to
pitch their tents in the new north
west gateway. For Norfolk to invest
some of its money today in substan-
tial and needed public improvements,
such as the sewer and the paving of
Norfolk avenue, means that outsiders
may the more quickly be persuaded
to locate here, and the location of
new citizens and taxpayers will mean
that people not now residents of the |
town, but who are attracted here by
public improvements, will come in and
help to pay, themselves, for those |
very Improvements.
Substantial public improvements in
Norfolk will prove good investments
producing results, if the citys advant- |
ages are but properly placed before the |
army of manufacturers and investors
looking for just such location as
Norfolk presents.
Other cities secure new industries
by going after them and there seems
every reason why Norfolk, even more
than almost any other city of it's size
in the country, ought to be able to ac-
complish the same results.
Norfolk is steadily growing today.
But its population is limited unless
new industries are brought in to give
work to new people. II Norfolk is to
grow, that growth must de-
pend almost entirely upon Norfolk's
success in securing new enterprises
which will issue pay checks every
Saturday night. To remain passive
and to seek no new industries will
mean that the city will retain prac.
tically its present size. The new
trade expansion plan being adopted by