Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1915-03-05
CAVE FINE ADDRESS
E. M. MCMAHON, OF MADISON,
SPEAKS TO LADYSMITH
CITIZENS
CITY MUST MAKE ITS FUTURE
Natural Advantages Are Help, But
They Alone Will Not Assure
Satisfactory Progress

There was a good audience at the
court house Saturday night that lis
tened intently to E. M. Mcmahon,
secretary of the Madison Board of
Commerce, tell how city promotion,
particularly that of the state capt.
tai, was brought about. And it was
a great talk. 1t is to be regretted
that we are obliged to follow the re-
porter's routine practice and assume
to give only the salient points.
The speaker, in opening, stated
he was pleased to be in the home
city of Hon. T. M. Thomas, who had
made a commendable record in the
legislature. Furthermore, he felicitat-
ed the city upon being the possessor
of the commission form of govern
ment-which he had helped in try
ing to get for the state capital
and also upon having such an as
set in their great, natural water-poW-
er. But his message was of a great
er motor, in business Development
which, rather than mere money and
physical location, has made cities
great, namely, man-power: the dyna-
mics of intelligent, cooperative de-
termination.
1t was this absolutely indispensable
spirit which is chiefly to be consld-
cred in accounting for the resurrec-
ton to newness of life and develop
ment of Galveston, Texas, San Fran
cisco, Cal, and Dayton, Ohio, and
which has created the Greater Mad
ison. He hoped, however, that some
convulsion of nature would not be
needed-as seemed to be required,
in the case of the first three men
toned cities-to develop in Lady
smith, this ability of concerted ac-
ton along this line. "Nor is it
called for" said the speaker, for
there is, l dare say, in this room
tonight enough of this so-called man
power, to double your city's popula-
tion in five years at the rate you
have been growing"
It was shown how this spirit and
power had, in twelve years, changed
Madison from a proverbially cold, dis
tant. commercially-stagna govern
mental and educational seat-Whlch
turned up it's nose at the overture
of an Elgin watch factory, on account
of the smoke incidental to the busl-
ness-to city with 120 manufac-
turing establishments, and an annual
publicity and promotion" budget OF
$4,000.
Such results are only to be at
tanned, said the speaker, by an ab
solute subordination to community IL
terests. of the spirit Of personfl
selfishness-that is, the predomlna
ting disposition of people to demanc
to know, before going into any pub
lie movement. what will be the val
lie of "x' in the equation, in terms
of their own individual pocket books
The warrant for making community
interests paramount, in this kind ol
city-building, consists in the fact that
what is the good of all, is the good
of each. And the greatest good, II
a community way, can only be Sc
cured by an association which is
non-individualistic, non-partisan, non
religious, and non-everythlng else
that tends to divide and dissociate
in business cooperation. In Madl
son, he said, men who have fought
each other, politically, for twenty-five
years, meet in harmony in the Boare
of Commerce, upon the proposition o
city welfare.
There will always be, said the
speaker. ~xnockers-pessimis who SET
only the hole in the doughnut ano
who, of two evils, choose both; but
this plan, which is called "commun
ity building, is the only effective
one for city advancement. There is
competition among cities, as wei
as business houses. There is the
"mail-order" proposition, which-al
though individually, and for the time
being, it may look attractive is, con
sidered in a large way, bad business
A city can only permanently progress
upon the principle of community o
interest.
In the necessarily very limite'
compass of his address, Mr.. McMa
hon was unable to deal with detail
and methods further than to sa
that permanent. profitable patrons G