Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1915-09-11
It Points a Good Moral
By WALTER FERGUSON.

1t IS true IN the agricultural pOr-
tons of Oklahoma that the towns, and
more especially the smaller ones,
would be worth nothing without the
support given them by the farmers.
In the smaller towns the merchants
would be unable to remain open a
day without a trade from the pro-
ducers of the community, who are the
farmers. While admitting that this
fact is true, there is another side to
the question much less analysed but
equally potent. 1t is the merchant
of the small town who pays for the
things that develop community CEN
ter and fix the valuation of the land.
The land close to the small town, as
a rule, is worth an average of Is per
cent more than that ten or more miles
from the center
This fact was amply illustrated in
a settled community in a Northern
state not so many years ago when a
prosperous country town practically
died from want of support The land
values were high and a succession of
abundant crops had fixed a prosperity
that seemed permanent and impreg
nable. The values of land in the par
ticular community were the highest in
the state and the country town that
was the social and business center was
regarded as the most substantial in
that section. First buying away from
home habit developed to an alarming
stage and for several years an in
creased indiff erenCe toward the local
merchants grew until failures were
recorded where prosperity seemed as
sured. Merchants and business men
accepted the lack of interest in their
efforts to build and maintain the COM
munity as an indifference toward
community cooperation, and those
who were able moved away Others
who tried to keep up the standard of
old failed, and still others who re-
manned and met conditions as they
were, allowed their stores to dwindle
until they amounted to practically
nothing. A fine city park that was
the pride of the entire state, which
had been maintained by subscriptions
from local merchants, and handsome
trees, on which 1t was impossible to
place values, were allowed to die.
place OF beauty became one of de-
serted interest. The town, that had
the proud record of never having
turned down an extra tax for public
improvements, rejected the necessary
increase over the legal levy for the
schools and the efficiency of this most
potent factor in the Specialization of
the community was all but destroyed.
The contract for a Chautauqua that
had been thirty years an annual event
in the county was Cancelled because
it had always been better than the
actual patronage had justified. The
extra expense had been met by the
merchants clubbing and using some
thing over a thousand tickets as
premiums. The county fair, which
had been largely supported by an
annual contribution of from SIS to
$500 each from local merchants, in
addition to a like amount for charity
advertising in the annual catalogue,
was not started in the town as it had
been every spring for twenty-five
years. The board of directors scat
tered over the county held the fair
just the same, but without contribu-
tons and support of those merchants
who had left and scant amount from
those who remained. The first time
a deficit was ever allowed to stand
was recorded this year. 1t was not
the first deficit, but in former years
the merchants would hold meeting a