Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1919-07-04
Community That Is Not Prosper
GUS Cannot Attract New
Residents.
IS LIKE Big CORPORATION
People Are Stockholders and When
They Spend Their Money Away
From Home They DepIets
Its Capital.
tcopyrIght)

toWn. Try as hard as IL may to con
ceal the facts, the truth Is written all
over II so that he who runs may read.
No camoufage Of blum and buster can
conceal the true situation from anyone
who comes within the limits of the
community A dead town Is dead and
that's all there Is to II.
The worst of 1t Is that once "a town
dies IL stays dead. There have been
exceptional cases in which dead towns
have been revived, have taken on new
life and prospered, but these are mere
( ly the exceptions that prove the rule
The fact that town can seldom
come back" Is easily explained. The
growing and prosperous town today
is the one that can attract new resi-
dents and new capital. 1t Is one that
! can offer attractive inducements for
the location of new industries. The
dead town offers no attraction to out
! side capital. A man looking for a
place to launch a new business or a
new location for an old industry, is
not going to pick out dead town.
He Is going to select a town In which
hiRh'J - RAthhAutf a tONfh NAAtoF DuoA~
ness men are progressive and whose
residents, as a whole, are prosperous
and contented. There are too many
live and thriving towns In the world
for man to risk his future In one
that Is dead. This is the reason that
town, once dead almost always re-
mains dead.
Town Like Corporation.
There is just one thing, ordinarily,
that kills a town in the first place and
that is lack of money. A town is
just like a corporation and the money
possessed by its inhabitants is It's cap |
ital. II this capital Is depleted the |
town will fail just as the corporation |
whose capital is depleted through poor
management or other causes, fails |
Aud just as the corporation which has
once failed can seldom retrieve its lost
fortunes, the town which has failed
cannot often come back"
The capital of community is de-
pleted when It's money is spent away
from home In way that brings no
return benefit to the community. II
takes no great amount of thought to
be able 10 realize that the town. like
the individual, cannot last long If 1t
Is paying out more money than Ii
takes In. That does not mean that a
prosperous town is one in which the
people do not spend any money. On
the contrary, prosperous town is
one In which the people do spend mon
ey but IL is one In which they spend
the money at home. As long as the
money Is spent at home. the town
gains by having IL kept in circulation,
but when 1t is spent away from home,
either by being sent to the mail order
houses or by shopping trips to other
cities, the towns capital is impaired
10 that extent and IL enough money is
spent away from home in that way,
the town collapses and virtually goes
into bankruptcy just as does the cor .
poration which disslpates its capital.
The people of community are apt
to overlook the fact that they are
stockholders In their town and that f,
their fortunes are bound up with those
of the community as whole. They
do not realize that II their town falls ,
they will fail with IL. They--or many
OF them at least--send their money
away to the mail order houses In the
great elites. without realizing that they
are impairing the capital of their own
corporation and that IL enough of them
pursue that course they will force their
corporation into certain bankruptcy.
Merchants Not Only Ones Hurt.
Many customers OF mail order
houses say that they are under no
obligation to trade with their home
merchants and this may be true. They
overlook that fact that the business
men Of a town do much for their COM
munlty and are entitled. In return for
what they do, TO the support of the
people In the community, hut leaving
his out Of consideration. they over
ook the fact that they are bringing
about their own downfall when they
Drain their town Of its mouey-its
capital.
The home merchant viii not be the
,nly one that will be hurt when the I
Town goes broke The merchant
,an reduce his stock and cut down his
expenses and get along some way or
ne can sell out and move to some 9TH
n town which has not been so blind
% It's own welfare. Ii Is the great q
body of the people of the community S
including all those who have sent their .
money away TO other cities instead OF y
spending II at home. that suffers most Z
when the hard times come. h
The time for all the people to pull n
ogether for a live town is while the g
own Is still live and not after II is
lead, for when a town dies II is
ong time dead--if not forever.
Learns His Faults