Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1916-05-10
Building a Community.

Building a Community.
Some cities, just like some men,
now and then get a real vision of the
things which mean true growth. In
westernP Pennsylvania in county under
laid with rich deposits of coal, re-
Gently found evidences of a new order
of city development. The little city of
Washington, with population of about
$4,000, owns community building.
and in and around this building are
centered all of the city's public welfare
activities. A brief story of how this
community found itself, or how it
awoke one day and put on the garment
of real economic and civic growth,
seems to me to be worth narratng.
The community building movement
was started in Washington, Pa, in Sep
TENDER, 1914. At the very outset
was capitalized the Trenton (MissourD
slogan, "Get acquainted with your
neighbor, you might like him. And
Washington, Pa, is like many other
communities in America. AS the
town, in it's early history, began to
grow out of it's swaddling clothes and
take on city ways, and to develop its
manufacturing, the city fathers began
to enact laws and make regulations
looking to the comfort and ease of the
residents of the city, and designed to
make trading irksome for those who
came in from the rural sections.
Hitching posts were abolished on the
main streets and around the court
house square. Like all seif-respecting
farmers everywhere, the Washington
county farmers resented this invasion
of their personal liberties and the old
fight between the town and country
was on in earnest. The mail-order bus
mess began to pick up and the smaller
towns of the county cried out In holy
wrath against the intrigues of the big
town and, by this well-ordered SYM
patty for the rural residents, gained
some of Washington's trade.
About this time the Washington
board Of trade got busy, and after a
careful survey found that So, 500, 900
annually was going out of the county
10 the mail order houses. This c)ndi-
ton opened the eyes OF business men
and many demanded the return of the
hitching post, but to this the city
fathers turned a deaf ear. Then the
board of trade found eight men who
had real vision. These eight men
put up S., 900 each to buy and remodel
an old building in the very center of
the business district, back OF which
there was a large wagon yard In
this building they at once Installed the
executive offices OF the board of trade.
provided offices for the county agrlcul-
tIral az ent, fitted up rooms for the
free use Of the farmers anG the farm
ers' wives-reading rooms and reception
rooms for the women, and smoking and
waiting rooms for the men, They also
provided hitching racks in the rear
yards for more than half hundred
teams. They sent out word to the
country inviting the people to come in,
only to find that the rural residents
were still suspicious of the meaning OF
their good deeds This did not stop the
zeal Of these community builders. The
merchants and business men Of Wash
ngto1 began 10 go out IN groups anu
call on their neighbors in the rural sec
tons. carrying with them a new vision
of the meaning of co operation. They
urged the smaller towns snd the farm
ers to organize community betterment
clubs. On one Of these trips into Can
onsburg, smaller city in their county,
TWO hundred business men formed q
procession and marched down the main
street led by band playing a dirge,
and with pail bearers carrying huge
coffin containing the body of ''Mr.
Vicious Competition. They were met
by throngs of their rural neighbors and
in front Of the Yorick club. Vicious
Competition was cremated with fitting
ceremony. From the ashes of Vicious
Competition there sprang into exist
ence new being-"Community Spir-
it, and hundreds sang together 1--WE
Believe in Washington County and
Want TO Know Others Who Do" 70 the
tune OF I'VE Won't Go Home until
Morning." Just couple Of illustra-
tons will suffice TO tell the story of
the new conditions brought about by
getting acquainted.
| In the fall of 1915 the Washington
county fair had 35, 900 paid admissions,
while the largest number IL attendance
! in any previous year was only Is, 900.
The county community picnic had been
al established fair. for a number Of
years. The attendance at this annual
event last fall was over 25, 900, while
the former high mark in attendance
had reached only 5000. Officials of the
borad of trade estimate that the com
u1unity building is used daily by more
than 100 people, rs per cent of whom
are farmers. A nominal membership
Of five dollars year is now provided
for farmers in the board of trade ant
scores of them are availing themselve!
of the privilege.
The farmers and business men nov
unite in campaigns for good roads
better livestock, COW testing assoca
tions, and in the production of NOR
and better fruit and truck Five fire.
wagon yards are now found in variou
sections Of the city. They have be
come acquainted with each other an
they really do like each other, an,
they are building their community b.
the use of their community building
And best of all, this idea is growin
rapidly until today more than sixt
/ cities and towns in America are Twin
together III peace and harmony wit
the surrounding country because the
! use community building to build u
their communities, and because the