Smyrna times., 1925-02-11
BOOSTING YOUR HOME TOWN
H. w. Carly, Vice-President of the
Salisbury Chamber of Commerce
Awakens Need for Personal Effort
Awakens Ne

H. w. Carty, vice-president of the
alisbury Chamber of Commerce, and
head of the Merchants Division, gives
us these thoughts for publication, now
that Smyrna is about to organize a
Chamber of Commerce. He says. "a
citizen receives from a community as
he puts in it and that the class of
people who want to draw benefits
from a community without having
previously contributed to its welfare
and its upbuilding are selfish, narrow
and a detriment to a well being Of
that community. The responsibility
of the business man cannot be dele
gated. The man who attempts to get
someone else to perform his part of
community work admits that he is
either incapable of doing so or is not
willing to, and in either event he is
not entitled to share in the prosperity
and we'll being that others have
brought about. The man who is so
engrossed in his own business that he
does not have time to help in COM
munity problems admits that he is
selfish and greedy and that he has no
use for the community except in so
far as he is able to take advantage of
it for his own personal gain. The
man who never has time to attend
meetings, who is so tired after his
days work that he cannot get out for
a short time, who has a business
meeting on hand and who always has
a bunch of excuses to offer, might
just as we'll come right on and admit
that he is thoroughly selfish, that he
is not willing to assume his share of
community responsibility, then he
would neither mislead himself nor at
tempt to deceive others. He could be
placed in the class of those who seek
only selfish, narrow personal profit
and gain in this life and are willing
to take chance to buy their own way
into the next world. The average town
boasts of it's inhabitants, fifty percent
of this number comprises people who
follow the line of least resistance,
they are disposed to sit back and see
the other fellow go ahead, always
complaining of hard luck and lack of
opportunity.
Less Criticism and More Cooperation
"There is a certain percentage of
people who pull the other way. In
stead of cooperating they criticise
and adopt a destructive rather than a
constructive attitude, this of course
is detrimental to the spirit of pro-
pressiveness. Then we have Ger
tain number of people who are good
loyal citizens, who believe in the well
fare of the town and work for its
prosperity. Because of this small
minority of enterprising citizens pro
gress and growth also Improvement
of the town is slow. We naturally
resent this attitude of indifference Ot
the individual who is financially able
to help but is content to sit back anC
take no part in the development Of
his own town. Cooperation is abso.
lutely essential to the development
and ultimate success of any project
If the entire population would coop
crate and spend a part of their money
for public improvements we would
soon develop into the finest and rich
est section of the world A ChambeI
of Commerce or Board of Trade is {
piece of machinery made up of pro
gressive men who are willing to max,
a personal sacrifice for the buildin@
up of a community. The definition
of the whole work is service. No
with the view of fostering any on,
individual or a group of people fnan
cial gain. You show me a commun
ity that is organized and l will SHOW
you a prosperous people. We hav,
all heard the definition of an optomis
and a pessimist. An optomist is ont
who can see a light which is not burn
ing. A pessimist is one who blow
it out. Any community that is op
tOmistic enough to organize and en-
list the business interests which in
cludes every progressive and success
full farmer should be enlisted in al
organization in which we have the co
ordinated effort of the people en-
deavOring to promote the welfare O
that community.
We Live in a Progressive Section
Nothing stands still. We ar
either going forward or we are goin,
backward, and it is indeed very graf
flying to know that we live in sec
tiOn that is progressive, the soil being
adapted to produce most any croI
with splendid roads and good rail an,
water facilities which make condition
very favorable. Whenever l hea
people say there is nothing we can d.
to improve the conditions in our com
munity or what is the use of trying
our people do not take any interest
, ETC., it causes me to feel as tho
should ask the people of that com
munity the name of the undertake
whom they are contemplating EN-
: ploying to bury the place. 1t is