The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-07-22
LOCAL KNOCKERS
should READ THIS
How BrattlebOrO Stands Up
Under Burdens of War
Conditions
SAME EXPERIENCE
AT OTHER PLACES
General Falling OFF in Number of Polls
in Larger Towns and Cities Past
Year, with Exception of Springfield
Interesting Statistics.

This story is written for home con
sumption, especially for the benefit of
the knockers, those individuals who
can see nothing good in the town when
things slaeken down and who do next
to nothing to. improve conditions, either
by material support or moral encour-
agement.
Everybody whose eyes have been
open knows that in the last two years
Brattleboro has felt the depressing in
fuence of the war and has lost materi-
ally in population. The purpose of
this article is to show that while this
| is true Brattleboro is not an isolated
example and that other towns and cit
les in Vermont, some of them the
/ homes of war industries, are passing
| through a similar experience.
There is a legimate place in society
for the honest and sincere kicker, the
man who enters a protest when things
are mismanaged and tries to bring
about a change, but the knoeker usu-
ally can be set down as a parasite and
4 SidthCfr bIC WHO uOtSH L KNOW Nndt
he is talking about and who doesn t
realize that the conditions which cause
| him to knock were sensed by others
long before he noticed them and that
every legitimate effort was made to
/ stave them off, even while he slept
Na census of the Vermont tawns and
cities has been made recently, so there
is no way of telling how many inhabi-
tants they have lost or gained, but
the official figures showing the number
of polls-men q years old or over-in
a place fairly may be taken as a basis
for comparison.
For this purpose the Reformer has
secured from the town and city clerks
in the larger places in the state the
number of polls listed in the years
1916, 1917 and 1918. Of course these
' figures cannot be taken as proving
: anything except that there has been
: q general falling off in the number of
: polls, as is inevitable in view of repeat
n ed draft calls, but some interesting de
:, ductions may be drawn from them
|, They are worth careful study.
From these figures it will be seer
+ that Brattleboro s list for 1917 showed
substantial gain over the previou.
: year The list for this year shows :
I decided drop, and the cry has gone NJ
that this town ought to secure a wal
: industry Well this town has tried t,
!. get war industry, and efforts hav,
: not been given up. As has been stated
before, however. the government con
tracts usually go to places where tn,
finished articles rather than parts O
articles can be manufactured on
large scale.
But war contracts do not a1way
i keep up town s population. Windsor
Z. i'll spite Of its big machine shops, ha
y lost 19l polls the past year, after gain
e ing 155 the previous year. In Below
5. Falls, in the town of Rockingham
s where shells are being made, the nun
N ber of polls was stationary in 1916 an
s. 1917. bat fell off g. in the next YEA
Compare also Montpelier s shown
N with that of this town.
: That Brattleboro has lost in populs
a tion is not disereditable, but rather t
the town $ credit Think it over an
- see if it isn't Besides sending il