Licking Valley courier., 1921-01-06


come complacently to accept them as
part of the natural order of things; or
else have imagined that the way to git
rid of them is to "bOOst the town" and
have 1t grow. If only people came In
and land went up and few men grew
rich on account of that, all was wei,
we need not concern ourselves about
the noble trees that were cut down;(
the clear springs that became defied'
5or the poorer families that were ever
crowded into less and less desirable
homes.
Surely there is another type OF city,
a finer and higher town ideal The
city that shall be all beautiful, the
! town that desires more Inhabitants
less than better and happier citizens
surely these things exist not only In
Imagination, but somewhere in the
developed they viii add more to the
satisfaction and daily serenity Of life
iOf the city's people than would new
factory, the building Of which would
soil the vista and make necessary the
cutting down of the inomemorial elms
and stately sycainores When the city
has realized this, beauty in any part Of
it will be cherished, and untidiness or
unwholesOmeness In back yard Will
be considered q crime against the COM
munity.
Then, IL the promoter of the new
factory comes 10 town, we can imag-
inc the city's head men taking him
far down the river bank and saying
Here. we think, would be a good
place for your plant. You see that
your smoke will drift away from the
town; the railroad spur you need will
run behind this bank almost out Of
sight; and up there on that slope will
be fine place for your workers to live
If you wish to build village fol
them. We shall insist on paved
. streets, liberal front yards and gard
ems, neat exteriOrs and modern con
veniences for these houses. We ar
willing to help you all we can in get
ting all the land you need alta reason
able price, and our city engineer AM
architect will be at your service"
"Small chance for this city to ne
cure the factory after such talk"
am not sure.
: II a few towns said It, the mei
who wished TO build the mills woult
consider IL seriously. Then, IL the,
should be the kind of citizens our city
needed, they would begin to see some
, thing in 1t. The town that consider
ed first Of all the welfare Of its clti
zens would not b4 bad town for al
honest business enterprise to locate
in. II the town cared enough for the
men who worked in the mills to insist
: that they have neat homes and attrac
tive surroundings it would surely d.
its part to keep the mills going ant
the pay-cheeks coming.
Some manufa cturers think of thei
employees as co-workers In a great en-
terprise rather than as a lot of hire
lings whose only mission in life is +
add to the factpry's dividends. Sucl
{ men would not be driven away by
! regard for beauty and an insistenc
upon decency. The other type Of EN-
: ployer our little city by the rive
would not need.
In our town, too, ] can imagiA
that with the ruts and mud-holes al
cd, the broken sidewalks repaired, tn
old wooden landmark Of early day
condemned as a menace ther
would begin to come a feelin
5 that maybe Bigburs did not. need I
: be a city after all. There might com
$ rest room for visiting shopper
L The merchants and farmers could joi
to build 1t and Il would help to mal
II them nelghbors- Then the merchai
might decide he had just as soon sc
% to the steady customers he lad know
for years as 90 folks he had nev,
. heard VI and whose tastes and whin
he did not know. II would I've an en-,
step for the rest room To an ente
tainment hall, and there the nedC
opera house would bel With clean,
streets the yards would brighten u
and after n while the terep hone lin
:, men might find out that they coul
8 string a few wires without cutting a
g towns finest trees to peTces- WhC
). that came to pass, anything would
poslble-a. clean court house, saI
tary inspector who really insrecte
g everything, in fact, necessary 10 NAL
the people o. the town proud Of II al
.. glo1 live there. y
" .tLAville, dreaming Of eli
ture bigness, while d
roam through the street