The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-06-05
THE PROPOSED FEDERATION
OF COMMERCIAL CLUBS

The conference Oh cOmmercldi
clubs held In Blackfoot on Tuesday
afternoon and evening was one OF
the best meetings in recent years.
OF the sixty men in attendance, not
one proposed anything radical or
fiighty; not one showed DISPOSE
ton to 'resolute" something into
existence or to ask something OF
the legislature, or any foolisnness.
1t was an assemblage of men who
met to consider what might be done
collectively that would be worth
while; something we could ahord to
do, and something that we owe 1t to
ourselves and our territory to under
take. The trend of addresses was in
the direction of doing things that are
being neglected-doing things diff
ferently that are being done wrong
or at some disadvantage; to stop
doing things that ought not to be
done There was no proposal to
raise money to put any pet schemes
across; no intimation that any COM
munity had an ak to grind and want
ed others to turn the grindstone.
Some of the keynotes were sound
ed that we should get better &C
uuainted with our own country
eastern lQduO"Iudt IOPl CoOhtotANO
men of each community should learn
as much as possible of the other To-
calities and their needs and of their
ability to do and to furnish goods,
products and service. All seemed
agreed that where jealousies existed
between communities it is handi-
cap that makes borrowed trouble
become real and blinds its people to
aRPQnfQd
as a condition of progress that all
petty, selfish, local, competitive eff
forts as between localities must be
forgotten and will be forgotten as
the helpful things are undertaken
that look to benefits for all eastern
Idaho, and that as men get the
broader vision and take up the work
on such principles, the other will
automatically cease and be forgotten.
For example, Pocatello seeks to
be a trade center, distributing point
for all southern and eastern Idaho,
and not farming community 1t
seeks to be a consuming center for
the products of the great farming
communities, and not a competitor
in producing what the others do.
Its interests are so different that it
is not seeking what the others seek
settlers. For every new family
that settles anywhere in southern
or eastern Idaho, POcatello has that
much added to the volume OF Its
wholesale trade with the towns where
such family lives. AS homeseekers
arrive in Pocatello not knowing just
where to locate. the chamber OF COM
merce can show them the resources
of the different localities with such
speciaIties as Grimm seed prOduc-
ton In Bingham county, pea seed
production in Bonneville, Jefferson
and Fremont and dairying in all OF
them and help them to find just
what they are best suited to succeed
in POcatelIO can act without pre-
JUDGE in laying correct information
before them as they come, and direct
them to reliable men or commercial
club secretaries in the respective
who will see that they
get truthful information and fair
treatment. Every community wants
it's new settlers to succeed. 1t has
had enough of failures due to wrong
selection of enterprises by people
with conditions, and
the dumping that has been given to
new settlers in SO many ways is
going to be reversed and expressed
in helpfulness and protection.
The Blackfoot meeting was no.
table in that it was attended by rep
resentatives of great colonizing
powers such as the Union Pacific and
the Oregon Short Line who have
worked long to formulate the new
and better code and methods of get
ting new settlers and new capital
to succeeding in productive activi-
ties