The Hattiesburg news., 1909-07-06

pane SeuIl0mSn, NHO CCii uo tHSh WAY
of woe and ask our assistance, but
when Hattiesburg wants anything,
they go the other way and do all they
can to choke the life out of our COM
mercial prosperity. Hattiesburg is To-
Gated so that there must be jobbin2 |
houses and distributing stations for
certain products, for the convenience
of the small merchants in this terri
tory. 1t is a saving of thousands of
dollars annually to the small dealer to
to be able to send in an order for
goods in the evening and have it the
next morning and for this reason Hat
tiesburg will always be natural job
bing center and We must not stop
fighting until we get our rights.
The second plan which appeals to
the News is to charter steamboat in
ST. Louis, to handle grain and grain
products, hardware and such merchan-
disc as can be handled by boat and
send it to either Vicksburg or Natchez.
We can at least demonstrate by this
method what is possible and We have
no doubt that we can elist the as
sistance of business interests in st.
Louis which will gladly cooperate with
us in this plan. In fact this decision
may prove blessing in disguise for
necessity may compel us to adopt new
methods and by driving us to despera-
ton the railways may unloose some
thing which will be entirely different
from what they anticipate. The News
does not regard this decision as an un-
mixed evil, for it ought to be the
means of waking up our business men
to the necessity of closer cooperation
in building and convince them
that there is something in organiza-
ton for indirect as well as direct ben
efits. In other words it ought to make
them mindful of the fact that a city
like Hattiesburg cannot do business
without commercial organization and
that such an organization cannot ex-
list unless it has the same attention
that any successful business must
have We know that no business
man ever forgets to go to his place of
business or thinks that some one else
will go and attend to his business for
him; but ninety per cent of the busi-
ness men think there is not much
difference whether they attend meet
ings of the Commercial Club even
though there may be matters of vital
to the city which indirect
ly affect every interest and which If
allowed to go along without attention
would ultimately bring ruin to
every line of business. This
being true let us go to work
with the resolve that this de-
cision, though against us, shall be the
cement which shall bind us closer to-
gether. Let us not forget that this is
not only the concern of our wholesale
houses, but that it means that if they
cannot exist here we can only have
a town of such Importance as may be
built up on local resources. If that
is our only possibility, We may rest
assured that Hattiesburg will go back
ward and not forward. That way of
going means depreciation in property
values and a shrinkage of assets
from which no one will be immune.
We are pleased to say that the i'm
portance of the matter has not been
overlooked by those who see the ne
cessity of prompt action and that the
matter has already received the con-
sideration of the directors of the Com
mercial Club and that some plan of ac-
ton will be mapped out and then II
will be thoroughly tried.