The Washburn leader., 1916-05-19

j. the knockers to their shame. 4.
i. Boost them when they need your help. +
j: Make them yell instead Of yelp. +
i. Boost them till they have to boost: !.
j. Belle Fourche in Commercial Club !.
i. Journal. 4!
.i..s....s..s..ss..s..l..s.s. i. .s..s..s.s4.ss+.i
NEW USE FOR TOWN MARSHAL
Kansas Town Solves Municipal Prob.
lem by Means Of Advertising.
Luray, Kan, has solved the para
mount problem Of the country town,
says the Chicago Tribune. The re-
sourcefulness Of o. I. Stevenson, city
clerk; members of the city council and
a want ad. did 1t. Luray wanted a
town marshal, but there was no one
there who would fill the bill, and SO
City Clerk Stevenson put an ad. in
a Kansas City paper. Forty men an
swered. One of them, George H. Arm
strong Of Newton, Kan, was selected
for the place. He is an experienced
police officer and is making good not
only by way Of keeping the peace in
tact, but by the satisfactory perform
ance of many other and varied duties.
He virtually is city manager.
The life of city marshal in Luray Is
no sinecure. Luray was confronted
with the same difficulty that thrusts
itself into the life of every other coun-
try town-the enforcement of town
ordinances and finding a man to per-
form the many municipal tasks, no
one of which is of sufficient volume
to require all Of his time, but which
in the aggregate make up an impor-
tant and responsible position. The
former marshal was born on the town
site, and he knew everybody, and ev-
erybody knew him. How could he ar
rest anybody for a violation Of the
town ordinances? Why, the idea!
The town never gets particularly
good, nor does it get particularly bad.
It moves along at the same old pace,
regardless of city ordinances that af-
feet the personal atmosphere Of the
old home town. Luray was up against
that very proposition. Describing its
solution, o. 1. Stevenson, city clerk.
said:
"Here we area small country town
of 500, situated in the wheat belt Of
west central Kansas. Luray probably
is no better nor no worse than the
average country town of its size with
the same natural surroundings. OF
course, out here everybody knows ev-
erybody else, and all are neighbors.
'There Is almost no social distinc-
tion. But, as is the case in every town,
large or small, there are two elements.
One is known as the 'roughnecks' and
the other usually as the law and order
element.
I'm our little town we have always
had some difficulty in enforcing our or
dinances, owing to the fact that our
marshal has been one of our own
townsmen, and everybody knew him.
As all were his neighbors, he wouldn't
do anything unless they got pretty bad.
We found that some Of the people
would go further in even little things If
they had no officer except a neighbor
whom they called by his first name be-
cause he would be slow in taking any
action against them.
''Then we tried getting along without
a marshal, but that didn't work at all
Finally We thought of advertising for
man. We put little want ad. in the
Sunday edition of the Kansas City
Star, and I received forty replies. We
selected man who came here person
ally and applied for the position. We
pay him $65 a month. He has had ex-
perience in police work and in tbe Sc
cret service department Of railways.
"His duties are many and varied. We
have a municipal water system. and he
looks after that and collects the water
rent. He acts as street commissioner,
tax collector and peace officer. The
job takes up so much Of his time that
he doesn't have opportunity to pitch
horseshoes or go fishing.
"In other words, we plan that this
one man shall do about all the actual
work the town requires-except the
team work on the streets. If he is YER
satile enough to do all these in satis-
factory manner we will have found the
solution to the problem that has trou-
bled the town council"