Milford chronicle., 1924-08-15
A GOOD TONIC FOR MANY A
TOWN

This state and country are full Of
towns of two kinds-thOse that are
going ahead and those that are fall
ing behind. There is no median. A
town that is standing still has start
ed back.
Some of the towns that are going
ahead are not especially blessed with
natural advantages, and some of
those falling behind are rich in such
attributes. So the difference is not to
be found in this field.
Some of the laggards are really
better places to live than some of the
speeders, but the normal individual
walks face forward and does not
care to hitch to a crab community.
What is the matter with these fail
ing towns? What is the cause of
their weakness? Why are they ane-
mic?
These are pertinent questions.
They are important questions, for no
small part of the nations basic
strength should be found in its
towns. And because this is a matter
of importance, we reprint in full the
in the CarrOllton GILL Patriot:
Griggsville, said to be the best-IO-
Gated town in Pike county, had a
population of 1900 fifty years ago. 1t
now has dwindled to about 1900 and
is likely to dwindle still more. A
business man of the town, Arthur
Butterfield, in a two-column letter
to the local paper, asks, Whats the
matter with Griggsville?" and gives
a critical analysis-O the towns past |
history. Butterfield evidently has |
some life and hope left in him, de-
spite the atmosphere of Indifference |
that surrounds him, for he uses his
hammer to some purpose more worth |
while than merely knocking.
Butterfields analysis of Griggs-
vile is a composite picture of many
other towns that are losing ground.
He says, in the course of his article,
that $2,000,0OO has been sucked out
of the town by wildcat mining, oil
and speculation schemes, and the
Pike County Republican, comment
ing on that point, says: after a
man has sunk from $100 to $4,000
in such fake schemes on the pros
pect of 100 or 1000 per cent profit,
he begins to think that everybody is
crooked and a CRATER. After he has
lost his money on a grating game
of that sort, it is extremely difficult
to get his ten-dOllar subscription to
a church, community enterprise or
local industrial project of any sort.
From that time on he is a liability
and not an asset to the community"
"A great many people will say that
the world war caused a lot of trOu
ble," writes Butterfeld, (which is
quite true, but every town in the
world had it's after the war troubles
and some are correcting theirs,
while we are not; and more than
that, our very citizens are helping
the big cities and not helping their
own home town"
Then he tells where a big part of
the money in the country went af-
ter the war. A big mailOrder concern
in Chicago had to borrow S6,000,000
to re-establish its business, and an
other borrowed $5,000,000 for the
same purpose. The Simmons Hard
ware Company, the largest in the
world, had to be taken over by an
other concern, and $5,O000O0 had to
be raised to put it on its feet And so
on with a list of others. Then he
adds: There are thousands upon
thousands of dollars invested by
people in these outside
in the cities, and still they
will not lend one dollar to the busi-
ness man or farmer of Griggsville."
Commenting on the loss in Wild
cat schemes, Butterfield says that in
he same time there has hardly been
4 dollar lost by investing in home
oans to farmers and business men.
The trouble is that lot of people
want to get rick quick-people who
,aIl themselves cOnservative-and
while these people have dropped 81
700. .OOOin these wildcat schemes, he
declares, ''they would not give one
word of encouragement to an enter
)rising young man, and consequent
v this is what happens-the most
ambitious people leave GriggsvlIle
md go where you have spent your
money"
"Dog eat dog" says Butterfield'
has been the policy instead of CO.
,neration. and then he reaches the