The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1910-11-17

"C'opHicHt Oh tnelr respective toWHs pe-
| cause it would increase values and
consequently increase taxes.
| We have not yet secured this exag-
gerated power in Hammond and most
of ours. when properly and persistent
| ly approached by the Improvement or
ganization have been willing to modi-
| fly their old fogy ideas and make fair
iy presentable Improvements. We are
still. however, struggling with some
| of our most persistent ones.
| l had almost said that the tightwad
Is hopeless dead weight proposition.
and with us we find 1t SO until we con-
| ceived the idea OF an Investigators and
| investors council and sold stock in an
| industrial building which gave the
| tightwad an opportunity to help the
town and at the same time reap i'm
mediate and direct returns from his
| investment This. believe, has start
ed some of our less exaggerated tight
| wads on the road to reformation. We
| have some, however. we have about
| concluded, are HOPELESS; these are the
| ones that won't contribute to our in
dustrial fund, nor do anything to aid
in the development of the city that
costs money or effort. These particu-
| lar ones are in the parasite or barn
| dSiC CLASS, anu ali we Cdn 10 with LiSlL
| is to pull them along. unless we can
| induce them to move to some other
town. We have few of these pro-
| nounced cases, and II you know of any
city that is paying bonus for such
citizenship we should be glad to enter
into negotiations with them and prom
| Use that the bonus asked will not be
| large.
The CRATER is another class of dead
weight which we have found encumb-
| ering the efforts of our development
crowd. He is usually found in the city
| Offices and is against the granting OF
franchises or making of needed public
improvements Until he has been seen
and he does not care what kind of g
franchise he votes for. nor what sori
of an Improvement is made so long as
his individual rakeoff is sufficiently
large.
We have found good sized commit
tee Of business men sitting in the coun
Gil chamber when Improvement mat
tiers are cons dered has a very whole
some effect on the CRATER He realize:
he Is being watched and usually be
comes a grandstand player and is fol
what he thinks Will be popular; he ha.
no moral courage to parade before tn,
| punt OpeAiy WIN Ills pChsii'
him. Just try it in your town whei
some important franchise is being con
sidered: see how beautifully it works
You will pardon my profanity, blu
the next great retarder of which 1 wan
to speak is what we have been accus
toned to call The give DAMN tn
public service corporation. This is on
that gives a minimum of service bot
in quantity and quality and chooses
J maximum price therefor.
A bad thing TO get On your develop
ment wagon is a street car compan
that refuses to extend its lines to carr
employees to and from your new in
dustries until they have been in opera
ton a sufficient length of time t
demonstrate that they will be perma
nent, thereby forcing the manufactur
er to work at great disadvantag
until the lines are extended. We hav
: had more or less trouble with this con
, dition and are still spending consider
able time each year trying to Undue
cooperative spirit into our publ
service corporation. We have had som
, trouble with our steam railroads be
cause OF the poor depot facilities whic
they have afforded us and the unker
/, appearance of their property extendin
: clear through the city.
We have found in the State Railroa
Commission a splendid help in brIns n
our steam railroads and interurban
I into line. If you feel that you are nc
. getting a square deal from any of tn
Hines running through your town, jus
take the matter up with Judge Wood
! | chairman of the Indiana Railroad Com
mission and l am sure that your troubl
. Will be settled to the entire satisfae
ticn OF all concerned.
Electric companies that are not
4 sympathy with the efforts of your CON
4 fnerciai organization to develop til
:. town, and that cannot back up you
efforts by charging exorbitant price
for power current and refuses to &C
operate with any special lighting an
advertising scheme, are of the"Give
o dam" type, and will be found to be fir!
class dead weight People you kno
can live in towns that are intereste
: in making them comfortable and publ
a service is of vast Importance. Max
o your light companies, your telephoI
companies. your street railroad con
panies and our steam railroad tire;
your citizens we'll If you do not. notf
e ing in the world can interfere wit
l. your progress as much as to have
|
service of every kind is Of an inferic
l type.
y The hold up landlord is a constal
thorn in the flesh of the organizatio
After you have worked long and han
to boom your city and finally HAY
J things going as you like them. vol
n hold up landlord awakes to the ia
h that all of the houses and Offices in II
town are filed. and directly begins
boost rents out of all reason and yol
boom gets set back.
We had a season of that sort of thin
and great many of our manufacture
a for that reason will not turn their hal
over to assist us in our developmel
> work These reasons and the securir
lt of just few new industries will p
d the hold up landlord again in pos
- ton to raise rents and thus deprice hi
of his best help or make it necessal
u for him to increase wages in propo
y ton to the increased rent.
In other words, he is taking mon'
out of his own pocket when he he'll
to improve conditions in his tow
10 These landlords are indeed short sigh
Id he 1Ic h