Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1917-03-30

ICOuuIAy bOWns III ceTt9m states That
we're losing population, and the dia-
grams showed how everybody in a
farming section, from the merchant in
town to the hired man in the country,
is bound up together, to stand or fall,
according to the way the community
is going. He drew the lumber men
together in meetings, and talked to
them about these things, and got them
organized for improvement.
| Today that publisher is the unofi-
cial head of an informal club of lum-
Der dealers scattered all over the mid
die west. Each man in this club is a
lumber dealer who has walked up to
the wrong community tendency that
had produced the loafing retired farm,
er in town, the soil-starving tenant in
the country, tumble-down buildings,
tumble-down trade and all the rest of
it, and has volunteered as leader to
bring the community back on the high
road again. One live leader in a
country town can accomplish wonders
in regeneration, it has been found.
The club figures that this leader may
as well be the lumber dealer as any
body. 1t undertakes to teach the lum-
Der man to lead because it knows him
better, and once he has got taste of
the fun of leading he helps his COM
munity and helps the club, which is
scattered over twenty states, and
bound by no definite organization, but
keeps up the work by constant con-
facts, suggestion and help.
On the surface it looks like a new
kind Of sociological uplift. But re-
duced to fundamentals, it is just plain
uplift for the lumber business. The
lumber dealer goes into community
boosting because the lumber business
is bad, and it isn't going to get any
better until the community is better.
If there are two lumber dealers in
town which is rich in retired farmers
and poor in public spirit, they drop
competitive bitterness and get together.
Mail order houses are probably taking
trade out of that town by the simple
method Of making goods attractive
through printers ink. They go to
the newspaper publisher, who is strug-
Cling along with small following of
Indifferent advertisers, and contract
for a lot Of space in his paper, In
this space they advertise lumber at
tractively, and also boost for the COM
munity. The newspaper publisher is
easily enlisted in any practical pro-
gram for lettering community. He
begins writing editorials about Big
ger, Buster, Better Smithboro. The
dry goods merchant, the hardware
man, the implement dealer and others
fall in line and advertise, and the
town is made more attractive as
buying center for farmers, and devel-
ops town spirit that rouses interest
and pride. A new conception of town.
building is developed.
Ten years ago, in the average corn
belt town, BODYBUILDING was blind
hustling for everything in sight that
was not too big to be moved. Towns
fought with each other to see which
could move the most men and things
inside town limits, from the county
seat to the farmer who retired yester-
day. Today, it is seen that such a
town was really medieval, with phan-
tom walls around 1t that strangled
growth. Now the idea is to go back
into the countryside as far as farmers
can travel to trade in town, and few
miles further for good measure, and to
build up all the territory from which
the town draws its life. For that is
the real community.
The job Of building up such COM
munity is something bigger than
hustling for few retired farmers. 1t
takes hundred forms and enlists
thousand interests.
Interests to be Enlisted
The country schools must be reor-
ganized, so that farm children can en-
joy as good an education as town
children. The country church must
be once more made a spiritual and
social center to hold people together.