The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1921-09-14
Putting Pep Into
Main Street,
Editorial in the Fargo Forum.
Behold the tin can tourist.

| EIllLOIIdl Ill Iii6 dISO T OIuliis
Behold the tin can tourist.
He reigns supreme these days.
He has come into his own.
| Whether he travels in shiny, pur-
ring limousine, with snappy leather
| luggage, or whether he goes in a rat
ting, coughing flivver with canvas
bags and Tapping bundles tied to the
running board, the motor tourist is
| ubiquitous.
You meet him on every main high
| way, for he generally sticks to the
marked, trails. There is rush and a
roar and a big Six" rumbles by, the
occupants clad ,in linen busters and
begoggled. You turn in time to see
| New York or a California license
/ tag on the rear and some up-to-the-
minute campers equipment neatly
packed On the running board.
Then the f1ivver from Iowa rattles
! into view, with the family slowed
away in whatever room is left after
the tent and the camp equipment
have been packed.
Then comes a medium-prlced car
ate in his new machine.
Nobody who travels one of the mo-
tor trails for day monders any
longer about what is the matter
with the railroads"
He knows.
"The matter" is that the American
summer vacationist is travelling by
motor. Travel hasn't decreased. Ear
from it. 1t is doubling and TRIPPING,
but the tourist goes on rubber tires
and not on rails. He stops at hotels
if they are convenient and not too ex-
pensive, and if they give him good
service. Otherwise he pitches his
tent by the side of the road and starts
his campfire.
Caring for the summer tourist is
becoming one of the biggest business
enterprises in America. 1t would be
interesting to see some statistics II
they could be gathered. We suspect
the total volume of the business
would exceed the steel business or the
automobile business. 1t is putting
new life into all the little Gopher
Prairies in America. The old Grand
Central hotel" finds that it has to dis
card its roller towel and it's tin wash
basins for modern plumbing or go out
of business. 1t blossoms out as a
s4Motor Inn" The village blacksmith
has closed his shop and become the
owner of substantial red brick gar
age. The village druggist has taken
the fly paper and red bottles out of his
window, and put in modern soda
fountain. -
The modern motor tourist expects
modern convenienees in the small
towns, and don't make any mistake
about it-he's getting them. Many
a little village of 1000 or 1000 souls
boasts a hotel that is the equal in
cleanliness, services and comfort of
the best that the bigger cities afford.
The motor tourist lis putting new
life into the small town. He is MAX
ing it Spruce up" and be alive. The
resident of Gopher Prairie is no long
er isolated. He is in touch with New
York or California or Texas or North
Dakota through the motor tourist.
The motor tourist is putting pep into
Main street.
And the towns and cities that are
busiest and most prosperous, are those
which are "cashing in" on the tourist
trade. They plan to give the tourist
what he ants-information, reason
able prices and first-class service on
his car repairs, moderate priced and
excellent hotel accommodations, good
roads and convenient and attractive
marking or canniner facilities