The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-10-28
THE VALUE OF A TOWN

HE VALUE VI a 4UWN
SHOULD BE EDUCATIONAL AND
SOCIAL CENTER.
Relationship of a Rural Community
With the Nearly Town, and Why
Citizens Should Support 1t.
Everywhere nowadays farmers and
townspeople are working together in
preserving and developing their COM
munities. This is a logical result of
modern conditions, for there has
hardly been time in the history Of
the United States when this kind Of
cooperation has been more needed
than at present. In the pioneer days
the town was little more than a place
to trade. but it was indispensable for
that purpose alone. The modern town
is not only the trading center of the
community but it is it's social and
educational center as well.
Some citizens have sometimes over
looked or underestimated the impor-
tance of the social advantages afford
ed by the small country town that
would be wholly unsupplied if not
provided by the town. Local trade
and commerce produce and retain
wealth and prosperity where that
trade is carried on-in the rural COM
munity. AS wealth accumulates in q
community every citizen in the COM
munity-but especially the property
owners benefited. Where money
is in circulation money may be ac-
quired, wealth may be accumulated.
The only way in this world to
make community rich and prosper
| Gus is to promote trade in it, both
| producing and consuming. The near
er the consumer is to the producer
the better both are off, and this takes
cognizance of the fact that every Dy-
ing man is in some of his aspects a
producer and in others consumer.
Town and community are not made
prosperous by the money that is sent
away, but. by the money that is spent
at home. The best possible way, in
fact the only practicable way to make
this community more prosperous is to
make it more populous; we must have
more people right here to consume
what we produce and sell. So far as
the wealth and prosperity of the COM
munity are concerned, they will be
promoted as directly by the purchase
and consumption of what is sold as by
the consumption of what is produced
here. In other words things must be
bought here and the money produced
in the community must be spent and
used here if the community is to
prosper as it should.
Town and community are not mere
accidental features Of the landscape;
they are indispensable factors in pro-
ducing not only the highest but the
only known civilization. The human
race can as conveiently dispense with
houses as with communities. Man Is
a social animal and the community is
but development of mans social in
stincts. OF course the community
can be destroyed, the rural town can
be wiped off the map; but not with
out serious loss to civilization. The
/ fact that some persons are so short
sighted as to ignore the necessity OF
the community organization does not
make that necessity any the less ur.
gent. Nor does it make injuries tc
the community any the less vital be.
cause the persons inflicting the in.
juries are ignorant of the harm they
are doing. A community gives tc
each Of its citizens great many
things that they would sorely miss il
deprived of them. In return and fo1
its own preservation the local town
the nucleus of the community, with
out which it would not exist-de-
mands something from the citizen
his trade.
We sometimes wonder how many
citizens use this town to the greatest
possible advantage to themselves
Suppose everybody look upon this
town as an organization designed
especially to contribute to his com
fort, his progress and his happiness
What has it to offer that he must
have in order to be happy and con-
tented and that he can not secure
elsewhere? How often does the citi-
zen-farmer or townsman-as he
goes to the bank to cash check or to
the post Office, Can he imagine bank
and post Office without town, Can
he imagine town without stores and
other places of business? Can be
| imagine the existence Of stores with.
out patronage? Let him for mo-
ment consider the intimate relations
and connections that exist between
local population and the patronage OF
local merchants, the supporting and
maintaining of schools, churches and
places of amusements, the performing
of governmental functions, and in
deed tie maintenance of civilization
| 4AOQ3A llO 41loy W AIo Oy % w SASSS
connections and ignore his duty in
the premises, the connection none the
less exist and the duty is none the
less obvious.
Men move forward intellectually
and socially, and they make progress
in all the important concerns of life,
in small groups. In general the local
community may be considered as one
of these units of progress. The unity
of the rural community is clearly so,
for its people unite in promoting its
schools, its churches and its public
utilities, through local self-govern-
ment. For political action and ex-
preston the local community is in
dispensable il our form Of govern
ment. In fact our government is bas-
ed upon and is framed in conformity
| with the theory that citizens shall
consider and act upon political ques-
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