Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-09-21
Ashland, Or, Thursday, Sept. 21, II
THE VALUE OF HOSPITALITY.


Elsewhere in the Tidings today
appears a news item revealing the
value to Ashland of hospitality ex-
tended to strangers by citizen of
the town.
Because these results are concrete
and definable and can be verified by
anyone they bring forcibly home to
the reader what he himself may ac-
complish If he has the disposition to
be good live citizen, helpful to
himself and to his community. Many
times the results of advertising and
the extension of the glad hand"
have to be estimated and conse-
Quently are often discounted by the
pessimistic and overestimated by the
too sanguine. But when man
through his own Efforts, and entirely
aside and apart from his regular em1
ployment, can be the means of per-
suading twelve families to locate in
o community, and when seven
of the twelve are so convinced of the
desirability of the place for home
that they will buy property, it is not
difficult to calculate that the bene-
fits derived are far out of proportion
and in excess of the effort expended
to secure them.
In the particular instances cited
above the man to whom credit is
given for his loyalty to Ashland
states that the time he spent with
each of the twelve families would
not exceed from fifteen to thirty
minutes. In each of the twelve cases
the people have told him that they
would not have located here if they
had not been made to feel so much
at home. This made the town look
even better to them. We are aware
that these people probably talked
with others about town and found
in the town itself the things to make
them happy here. However, from all
our information at hand we conclude
that each of the twelve decisions
hung in the balance. so far as known,
until our fellow townsman tipped the
scales in the right direction. You
can do the same. You may not have
as much time as someone else and
you may not have an equal oppor-
tunity to meet strangers, but you can
use the time and opportunity you do
have. After all 1t is not a question
so much of time and opportunity as
OF disposition. With some the dispo-
sition is natural; with others II must
be cultivated; with all it is possible
TO some extent. If, with a little of
your time and your genial hospital
fly, you can make someone feel that
Ashland is a good place in which to
live. you will have rendered a triple
service-to the town, to the stranger
and to yourself-meaning an eX-
penditure on the part of the new
conner, taken as the head of an aver
age family, of probably not less than
$500 per year and meaning for you
personally new and perhaps a very
valuable friendship. II you can do
a third as we'll as the man we have
been talking about, and if there are
forty-eight more in town who can
do as we'll as you can. that will make
fifty good live boosters. for we are
satisfied that the inspirer of this
communication will continue his eff
forts. Without undue mental effort
we conclude that these fifty may be
able to bring to town 200 new resi-
dents who will spend $4,000 per
annum, and II half or them BUY
homes. 100000 worth of real estate
will change hands On the basis Of
our calculation these results will be
secured with the expenditure, pri-
marily, of ten days time divided
among fifty persons-only two hours
each. Is the result worth the effortY
We think so. However. the intangi-
BILE and direct results may far out
weigh the direct and immediate Pc
cuniary returns. All people have
friends and some influence. Each
new resident becomes a link in an
endless chain the drawing power Of