The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1916-02-04

by no stretch of the imagination
could be expected to succeed under
the economic conditions existing
in the city that sought them.
Advertising was conducted without
any consideration as to whether
the town had anything to advertise
or whether there was anyone to
whom it should advertise or
whether any definite results might
reasonably be expected. The
business problems of the COM
munity were considered in desul-
tory fashion without previous study
or definite plan of action for OBJ
tanning remedies for the real or
fancied evils.
This new movement of which
speak arose in its present form
about ten years ago. Then it was
that revelations of graft in NUM-
cipal government and wastefulness
in municipal expenditures began to
awaken to the fact that the body of
American citizenship had been
content to vote and turn the affairs
of cities over to public officers,
thinking that the full duty of citi-
zenship had been fulfilled. NUM-
cipal affairs were studied from a
new angle. A new conception of
citizenship began to gain ground.
As municipal government, NUM-
cipal expenditures and municipal
improvements were studied, the
study naturally broadened until it
was brought home to the students
that every phase of community
life-commercial, industrial, social,
civic, educational-was intim ately
bound up with every other phase
and that no city could develop as
it should until it progressed along
all the various lines along which a
city and its people may develop.
And then the good citizen APP
peared as public figure. He
has been called a booster" but
the word is in disrepute because it
has come to mean an enthusiastic
worker by mouth alone. He has
been called a city-builder, or a
promoter of public welfare, but the
words have a professional tinge
and are not exactly descriptive. 1
like to think of him as a good
citizen-for that is what he is.
A citizen who appreciates that
citizenship means more than the
privileges and duties ascribed to it
in the constitution and statutes;
A citizen who loves his city and
glories in the opportunity it gives
him to live and labor in the COM
pany of his fellow men and who is
willing, even ANXIOUS, to improve
that opportunity by lettering the
conditions of city life, that he and
his fellow men may prosper in
material things, may improve in
social opportunities, may have
conditions contributing to greater
health and happiness, and so that
his city will move forward in all
directions of civic progress toward
the goal he has set up for his ideal
the perfect city of prosperity and
beauty and contentment.
AS this movement for community
development has gone forward
through the years. in an increas-
ingly large number of cities these
good citizens have appeared.
They have banded themselves to-
gether to work for the objects they
have in mind. In some cities the
old commercial organizations have
expanded and taken on new life in
conformity to the new movement.
In other cities the old commercial
bodies have died a peaceful death
crowded into the grave by the
march of progress they could not
understand, and on their graves
have arisen new, virile organiza-
tons, comprehending in their
ideals and activities all that the old
organizations did and much more.
These modern organizations
have retained in measure their
commercial significance. 1t is
fundamental that the leadership
in civic affairs must be taken bv
the business men, for they have
the greatest stake in the welfare of
their community. Business men
have been quick to adopt the new
conception of civic duty. They
have been quick to learn that after
all community effort does not con-
sist alone in seeking factories.
although that is commendable if
properly done: or in advertising
although that is essential to any
city; or in promoting other lines of
endeavor the results of which are
measured in dollars alone, although
those lines must naturally be
promoted. The modern thinking
business man can see the relation
between his business and those
movements that have for their
object the development of an agri-
cultural territory around the city
that fresh produce may be supplied
the city's markets at the minimum
cost and that the buying power of
the city's tributary territory may