The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1917-04-26

DtI. atlu u iOt Ot Pubh- odt ooSsc eOc'A
friend of Blickerville had urged him
to come and look the town over and
see II it does not look like going
concern. Well it does. The town
looks good.
"And you've got everything here TO
make a hne town. All you lack is to
pull together-and get a factory"
They take the factory man out in
a machine and show him sites and
great deposits Of clay. His factory Is
for the manufacture of clay pipes.
He likes il. All he asks the town
to do is to give him a forty-acre site
and erect a building. OF course the
citizens individually will be allowed
to buy stock in their own home en-
terprise. But they will be eager TO
do this for the fat dividends that are
waddling down the path of the future
toward their pockets.
You see. the clay business is prac-
tically unfailable. There is a big
market-and it never siumps. Pro
hibition may spoil tie beer business;
the war smash cotton Industries: the
change of fashions ruin silk manufac-
turers; but clay pipes 20 on forever.
and the proft-if the factory is well
managed-is enormous"
II the clay-pipe man half believes
in himself-and he often believes fully
for he is the type OF man who eternal
ly believes in the next thing he is
going TO do-the Commercial Club
members are convinced. They call a
mass meeting. The assembly listens
to four speeches on the new glory
of Blickerville and cheers loudly the
prophecies OF street cars ani seven
story office buildings. After which
they subscribe ten thousand in cash
and appoint a committee 10 so out
and solicit fifteen thousand more 10
erect a suitable building for the Bliek-
erville Ciay-Pipe Factory. II is prom
ised that thirty men will be employed
at the very start-and heavens knows
how many in the end, BY dint of
much persuasion and tremendous
pressure. the bucking members of
the community are roped in for TWEEN
ty-fve. fifteen. ten, i've dollars each.
In the meantime the new citizen.
Biickerviile's great benefac;or. moves
to town and begins experimenting
the building at a very modest salary
say. two hundred dollars a month.
which Is only three times what he
ever earned before he went to build
ing factories.
At odd times-and most OF his time
is odd he works up enthusiasm
and sells stock to citizens at par.
Sometimes the factory starts. More
often ii quits before the first ERE Is
built. But six months is long life
for one-and the last three months
of that is expiring agony in the way
OF drummed-up additional subsorip-
tions.
The man with the hankering eye,
the towns great benefaetor. the pro
moter. does not steal the money. He
gets salary and n few free trips
and several free feeds out of il. The
money is merely wasted. Either. the
clay won't make pipes or the market
for pipes is glutted or beared; or
something goes wrong with the mach
inery. Anyway. the promoter. manag-
er and salaried booster for the town
goes on to see about something. and
never gets back.
Ambition is n great thing IL II is in
teiiigent and not Overlapping. II Is
a healthy spirit for a town to want to
grow. 10 be better. to have more bust
ness. more employment. and for val
ues 10 increase. There are many legi-
Innate enterprises that help the town
in which they locate. There are a
score of things the Commercial Club
can bring to town that not only add
value to real estate. but TO real liv-
ing as well. But II is the irony of
too much greed for population that il
usually gets-free-the kind II does
not need; and pays for the kind il
does not get.
The Commercial Club is supposed
to be organized for the best interest
OF the town. and usually has in Its
membership some OF the most success.
full men in the community! II is an
organization intended to push the
welfare of the whole town; and hence
It is to blame in a large measure
when the town is bunkoed.
Whether the Commercial Club itself
is actively backing project or not.
II owes 1t to the town not only to in
vestigate extensively but to complete