Imperial Valley press., 1920-07-02

There is nothing deader than a dead |
town. Try as hard as it may to con-
ceal the facts, the truth is written all
over it so that he who runs may read.
No camOuhage Of bluff 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 it.
The worst of it is that once a town
dies it stays dead. There have been
exceptional cases in which dead towns
have been revived, have taken on new
life ard 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
| place to launch q new business or q
| new location for an old industry, is
! not going to pick out dead town.
| He is going to select a town in which
| money is plentiful, town whose busi-
/, ness men are progressive and whose
residents, as whole are prosperous
| and contented. There are too many
! i've 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 town in the first place and
lhat is a lack of money. A town is
Just like corporation and the money
| possessed by its inhabitants is its cap
ital. If this capital is depleted the
town will fail just as the corporation,
| whose capital is depleted through poor
| management or other causes, falls.
| And 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
4 from home in a way that brings no
| return benefit to the community. 1t
lakes no great amount of thought to
be able to realize that the town, like
the individual, cannot last long if it
| s paying out more money than it
takes in. That does not mean that Il
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 it is one in which they spend
| the money ut home. AS long as the
money is spent at home, the town
gains by having it kept in circulation
but when it is spent away from home
l either by being sent to the mail order
houses or by shopping trips to Other
cities, the towns capital is impaired
to that extent and if enough money is
s | spent away from home in that way
the town collapses and virtually goes
into bankruptcy just as does the cor
poration which dissipates its capital.
The people of a community are apt
to overlook the fact that they are
| stockholders in their town and that
their fortunes are bound up with those
| Of the community as whole. They
do not realize that if their town fails
they will fail with it. They-or many
Of them at least-send their money
away to the mail order houses in the
great cities, without realizing that they
are iinpairing the capital Cf their own
corporation and that if 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 IL town do much for their com
munity and are entitled, in return for
what they do, to the support of the
I people in the community, but leaving
this out of consideration, they over
look the fact that they are bringing
about their own downfall when they
drain their town of its mOney--lts
capital.
The home merchant will not be the
only one that will be hurt when the
town goes broke" The merchant
can reduce his stock and cut down his
expenses and get along some way or
he can sell out and move to some 9th
er town which has not been so blind
to its own welfare. 1t is the great
body of the people of the community
including all those who have sent their
money away to other cities instead of
spending it at home, that suffers most
when the hard times come.
The time for all the people to pull
together for Il live town is while the
town is still live and not after it is
dead, for when a town dies it is u
long time dead--if not forever.
Learns His Faults.
A