Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-09-26
TO ACT, OR NOT TO ACT.
That Is the Question Which Must Be
Answered by our People
Soon.

Last week the PILOT spoke of the
work being done up in Merrill by
that city's Chamber of Commerce,
and said that Wausau should have
such an organization. We have not
gone back on that statement. The
seven days which have interviewed
since orr last issue have brought
forth nothing to change our mind in
this respect. Standing on the top of
Rib hill, and gazing all about Us. We
can see manufacturing enterprises To-
eating in most every city, and even
small towns, in the northern part of
the state And most of them are
coming through the united effort of
citizens who are plugging" for the
town where they eat and sleep them
selves. Manufacturers in other states
are having their troubles. They want
to get nearer to the raw material, or
they may want to get into a country
where they can more readily reach
new markets of the north and north
west, or ones already established. Or
the question of cheap power may be
bothering them. There are num-
Der of such things which cause man
ufacturers to look around for a new
location. When he looks for a site,
he usually makes a selection in a town
which gives evidence that it is grow
ing industrially as well as in popula-
ton. He don't want to locate in
cemetery. The occupants of a bone
yard of course are quiet folks who
never trouble anyone and can always
] be found at home, yet are not COM
,panionable people. A manufacturer
looking for site will cut his visit
short in a town whose people evince
dOntgiveadam air. We have in mind
at the present time a certain town, if
town it can be called, of this type. A
railroad passes through the town and
so do most of the trains. The solemn
stiffness of the burg is seldom broken.
Hardly leaf ON a tree stirs for
fear of being indicted for desecration.
The grass has stopped growing and
the town COW goes outside the cOrpOr-
alton limits to chew her cud. The
dogs refrain from scratching their
fleas for fear they might offend their
bipedal brethren. Even physic re-
fuses to work. Everybody. in the
town is as full of ennui as a tariff
editorial. To be dumped off in that
burg is like being consigned alive to
sepulchre and being sodded down
beneath lying epitaph.
Many towns, once prosperous and
growing, stop, then begin to lag be-
hind. Live people in them begin to
move away and leave the laggards to
themselves, with the inevitable result
that the town goes down hill in popu-
lation as well as in everything else
When it has taken this turn it
hardly ever RECEIVERS during the life
time of the individuals then dragging
out an eXistance in the town. People,
with spark of life in them shun
such places as they woulda pestilence,
and would not dishonOr their relatives
by being found dead in one of them.
OF course the conditions we have
described may not be felt in Wausau
NOT for some time at least. But
there is no getting around the fact
that we must have little more salt
peter in our work, or we will be out
stripped by other valley towns. Co.
operation is what is needed. Our
citizens have manifested cooperation
in most every movement, except that
of improving tie city industrially.
Nausau, too, should have a Chamber
of Commerce, and live one with a
sign hanging out mo pikers need
apply for membership
We have plenty of raw material