The Prescott daily news., 1914-04-21
"CIVIC WORK IN THE LITTLE
 TOWN"

project for civic betterment, the rela- tion of numberless vital subjects at once begin to unfold to such a degree as to indicate that not only clean streets, sanitary back yards and neat ly kept alleys, but all measures per taining to the health education and moral status of the community must be comprehended in that term which now stands for the general uplift of community.
 Numbers of strangers visit our town each year. They do not get into many of our homes, but must judge our civic pride as they pass by. Many people spend hundreds of dol lars on the furnishings of their homes and only an occasionally caller enjoys them, where five or ten dollars spent on flowers and years would give plea sure to all passers by.
 Surely a rational expenditure of money, whether it be for the egotis- tic purpose of having as attractive a home as possible or for the altruistic one of giving pleasure to others, is far wiser when directed to the inn provement of the outside of the house than the improvement of the inside
 Now in these first days shall the new spirit be caught and expressed in the little towns. These days are the days when a vague and disjointed and commercialized social life is being shaped to serve human needs and hu- man growth before property rights. The new spirit is the spirit of con- munity realization, and the resulting impulse to give this some expression is definite, municipal house keeping. Little towns are social units, just as precious in quality as the great cities, but without the city's resources for community self expression. In the total population of the United States, there are more people living in towns under 25,000 than in towns whose pop ulation is greater. Therefore, one of the tasks of the times is to develop the native ability of towns of few thousands and of few hundreds, so that they may do their best for their present and their future; so that they may find themselves, each as a def mite social unit in charge of a few square miles of planet, and of an endless procession of folk
 This is not town improvement in the old sense; the sense in which a few got together to do good to the town, to give it things, to induce the most prominent citizen to contribute a foun- tain-They did that way when only a few in the town had an inkling of what the Town might be-Now the need is to develop the whole town to have, not merely an inkling, but a face to face look at what the town not only can be. but must be if it keeps up with what the world is learn ing about living.
 The new spirit of community reali- zation is to the old idea of fmprov- ing what the new principle of con- structive philanthropy is to the pro- ceedings of Lord and Lady Bountiful of mere charity. The new way of civic work in the way, not of pater- nalism, but of human-hood The civic problem of the small town is three fold:- 1st. To get into the current of the new understanding that the conservation of physical and moral life is largely economic and social and other physical conditions.
 2nd To find practical ways of ap- plying this understanding to the pres ent and future of the town, and so of the democracy.
 3rd. To do both with exceedingly little money. The first need is not to change town conditions; the first need is to create the desire to change town conditions; that is, the first step is, as usual educational; people must begin to think about civic work before they begin to do civic work.
 Therefore, town organizations that will take up civic problems and dis cuss them in open meetings make among the best possible initial tools @-let every body get to work. The women of Kirksville, Mo-, have proven that if the women of any town awake to the needs of good living conditions their husbands and children will soon be interested. Their "Civic League"