The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-05-27
SATURDAY. MAY y. 1922.
SECURING INDUSTRIES.

Not long ago a business organization
of speculative character, wishing to To-
cate in Vermont village, asked the
local chamber of commerce to erect a
building having a floor space of $4,000
square feet and to lease this factory to
the corporation at such a figure as to
insure a fair return annually upon the
capital invested. The thing which it
was proposed to manufacture seemed to
have merit; and it was the plan of the
directors OF the enterprise to start oper-
atoms on a large scale. If the venture
proved successful, it would mean much
to the economic future of that small
village After careful consideration, the
directors of the chamber of commerce
agreed that it would be unwise to i'm
pose such heavy financial burden upon
/ the citizens as would be necessary to
build a suitable plant: and went on
record in favor of attempting to secure
for their village number of industries
of diversified character with capacity
for growth, rather than to stake all upon
a single industry
That principle is a sound one for any
| Vermont community to follow. Diver
| sity of industry is the best possible in
surance against periodic economic sick
ness-perhaps economic death. When
town gives all of its financial and moral
support to one potentially large business
and that business fails, the community
has suffered a blow, the effects of which
will not disappear for decades. Nothing
casts greater gloom over the village or
the small city than the presence in it of
great, empty, rotting buildings-ghosts
of former prosperity.
Furthermore, a One-industry town is
unduly sensitive to business depressions.
Quite frequently it happens that such
a town is booming one year, only to be
plunged into the depths of an economic
crisis the next It is a curious phenome-
non of the business depression that diff
ferent industries are affected at differ
ent times. Very often, in a town having
various types of industries, the one to
suffer first will be on the road to recov-
cry before the last has felt the reaction
III DuSAHtSS activity. Cuc0 a Town Is
never entirely Frustrated in an economic
sense. BrattleborQ is a good example
Then, too, chambers of commerce in
Vermont have a weighty responsibility
IN selecting so-called high-grade indus
tries. Nothing more unfortunate could
happen to a high-grade town than to
have a low-grade industry locate in it
The demoraIizing effect would be felt at
once. Every time a high-grade industry
locates in a community it is easier to
attract others of the same sort. Every
time a low-grade industry enters, the
door has been opened to more of that
TYPE and it becomes increasingly diff
cult to secure those which are most de,
'sirable
What is a high-grade industry? 1t is,
perhaps, impossible to define it with ex-
1ctness, but in general way it may be
aid that it is one which employs So
called skilled labor; which pays a liv-
ng wage; which realizes that the con
ented workman is the efficient work
nan; which asks less about bonus-giv
ng than about the schools, the churches.
he community house, the playground.
which make the environment a proper
me for the workman to rear his children
md to turn his own leisure into whole
hsome recreation !