The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-05-25
HEREIN LIES THE SECRET

Building a Community by a Com.
munity Building" is the subject OF the
interesting story given below, written
by c. c. Kirkpatrick in the Harvester
World, of how a town got the real
vision Of trade expansion and com
munity building:
Some cities, just like some men.
now and then get a real vision of the
things which mean true growth.
In western Pennsylvania, in a coun-
ty underlaid with rich deposits of coal,
l recently found evidences of a new
order of city development, The little
city of Washington, with a population
OF about $4,000, owns a community
building, and in and around this build
ing are centered all of the city's pub
lie welfare activities. A brief story OF
how this community found itself. or
how it awoke one day and put on the
garments Of real economic and civic
growth, seems to me to be worth par
rating.
The community building movement
was started in Washington, Pennsyl-
vania, in the month Of September,
1914. At the very outset was capital
lied the Trenton (Missouri) slogan,
Get acquainted with your neighbor,
you might like him" And Washing
ton, Pennsylvania, is like many other
communities in America. AS the
town, in its early history, began to
grow out of its s~waddling clothes and
take on it's 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 self-respectlng farmers
everywhere, the Washington county
farmers resented this invasion OF their
personal liberties, and the old fight be-
tween the town and country was on in
earnest. The mail order business be-
gan 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 we'll ordered sympathy
for the rural residents, gained some OF
Washington's trade.
Board Of Trade Wakes Up
About this time the Washington
board Of trade got busy, and after a
careful survey found that 81, 800, 900 an
nually was going out Of the county to
the mail order houses. This condi'
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 a real vision. These eight men
put up $4,000 each to buy and remodel
an old building in the very center OF
the business district, back of which
was a large wagon yard. In this build
ing they at once installed the execu'
tive offices Of the Board of Trade, pro
vided Offices for the county agricul'
tural agent, fitted up rooms for the free
use of the farmers and the farmers
wives-reading rooms and reception
rooms for the women. and smoking
and waiting rooms for the men. They
also provided hitching racks In the
real yards for more than half a hun
dred teams.
Call on Farmers
They sent out word to the country,
inviting the people to conn 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
ington began to go out in groups and
call on their neighbors in the rural
sections, carrying with them a new
vision Of the meaning of cooperation,
They urged the smaller towns and the
farmers to organize community better
ment clubs. On one Of these trips
into Canonsburg. a smaller city In
their county, two hundred business
men formed q procession and marched
down the main street. led by q band
playing q dirge, and with pall-bearers