Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-09-24
WOMEN ENLISTED IN GOOD CAUSE
How Civil Club Can Help Town 9
Condition.

(Q41AkA0ne
In Chester, Pa, clubwomen are
interesting themselves in the general
advancement Of local business inter.
ests. Taken at first glance, perhaps,
there seems to be nothing worthy Of
particular note in this; but carefully
considered, with relation e Chester
alone or with reference to scores of
American cities of Che ster's class,
il is a very important matter.
The clubwomen, it appears, are
working in cooperation with the
Chester Board of Trade, the purpose
being 10 bring about conditions that
shall eventuate in Chester's becoming
properly self sufficient. At present,
like other communities similarly sit
uated, instead of being q business
entity il is rather an appendage to q
larger city.
It will not be difficult for the reader
in any part of the country, or in any
part of the world, to call to mind
towns and cities which hang in list
IL SIS and apparently hopeless depend
ence upon the fringe of me tropolitan
centers. Their people, for the most
part, have little concern in local
progress or welfare. they 90 to the
larger cities to have their wants
supplied. Their interests, seeming
ly, are all identified with the big city
hard by, rather than with the com
munity in which they live and rear
their families.
Che ster, perhaps, has not fallen
as de sply into this rut as some others,
but from the fact that its Board of
Trade and its clubwomen see the ne
cessity of doing something to center
local thought upon local interests, il
must be the case that the tendency of
the community has be en- in the d.
rection of the rut. AT all events the
energies of the m smber of the Board
OF Trade and of the women's clubs
are now directed toward awakening
Chester to a proper sense of its OPP
portunitiss which is another way Of
saying that they are directed toward
the cultivation of civic pride.
AS one of the first and most essen
tial steps in this direction, the BUSH
ness men of the city are being urged,
aud encouraged, TO make the bust
ness district and the business houses
more attractive. Home shopping is
to be promoted, but the home shops
must offer inducements. They must
put in better stocks, they must dec
crate their window more attractive
ly, they must make it an object and
a pleasure for the residents of the
city to shop in the city.
Herein lies a hint for hundreds
of dull communities hundreds of
communities that have seen traffic
which legitimately belongs to them
turned into the streams that flow
toward tire big city. They have
been too ready to blame their own
people for taking their patronage to
strangers, too ready to attribute the
dc cay of local trade to causes beyond
control.
The truth, in most cases, is that
the town and small city merchants
have surrendered altogether too early
to the metropolitan competitor.
They have taken the big city trend
for granted, have viewed il as newt.
able, have allowed their stocks anC
their stores to run down at the heel,
and have accepted the consequent
dullness and drabness of their
squares and streets as a normal
condition.
There is probably not a city OF
Chesttr's size in the United States
today that might not. by adopting
the process now in operation there,
so rise out of It's fatalistic lethargy
as to become metamorphosed within
few gears. Nor would the big
city be the loser by the change
for anything that makes for activ.
ity in the lesser units OF the socia
and commercial system must iuev
itably conduce to the prosperity Of
the greater.-Christian Scienc,
Monitor.