The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1929-10-10
Small Town Has Varied
Problem, Governor Ayers
ChristiansOn Points to Dangers in
Organizing of Wealth and
Industry

Dawson, Mimi, Oct. 5The
small town is facing problems and
conditions which are new and per-
picking, Governor Theodore Chris
Hanson declared today in the prin-
cipal address at celebration of the
opening of new pavement on
Main street.
The paving of the principal thor
oughfare of Dawson, former home
of the governor, was completed al
a cost of $4,000.
New economic border lines have
been established, he said, changing
the old order and beginning new
era, for the small town.
II can see in this improvement"
Governor Christianson said, great.
er significance than any of the
more obvious benefits. The cement
the confidence which the people of
Dawson have in the continued
progress of the city. In large
sense, paving Main street symbo-
Lies the faith which America has
in the future of the small town.
Main street has not escaped the
economic and industrial forces
which are reshaping America, Gov.
ernor Christensen told his aud
fence. Since 1920, he said, three
million people in this country have
left the farm and moved to town.
The trend has not only been from
the farm to town but also from
the small city to the large. This
has resulted in a net gain of eight
million people for the great cities,
a phenomenon unprecedented in
history, the governor said.
"The farmer, far from gaining
from the shift cityward, Is due to
find his situation becoming more
and more precarious as result of
the increasing political power of
great industrial centers."
Coincident with the concentration
of population has been a centraliza-
ton of control of the agencies and
means of production and distribu-
ton, no less hazardous to the re
public, Mr. Christensen asserted.
Control of business and industry
on national and even an interna-
tional scale, by means of holding
companies, interlocking director
ates and other ingenious devices,
perfectly legal but none the less
dangerous unless subjected to wise
and sound governmental regula-
ton, is one of the significant de-
velopments of the present decade -
he said.
Formerly mergers represented
concentration of control and own
ership. Today they represent con-
centration of control but diffusion
Of ownership. A few hold the pow
er and what goes with 1.-THE many
hold the bag.
''The new form of business or
ganization is due to influence pro-
foundry the life of the small town,
America was built by men of
independence, of initiative, of cour.
age, of fine sense of individual
responsibility. America was built
by masters, not by servants. If
America is going to be saved, she
will be saved, not by those who,
walking in the way of least re-
sistance, become followers but by
those who, venturing forth, be-
come the leaders of men.
IT believe that there is in every,
organization, as well as in everv
organism, something that limits its
growth. The principle that con-
trolls that growth or organisms,
limits the expansion of organiza
tions. When organizations become
so large as to be unwiedly, they
fall under their own weight.
1--WE may assume, therefore, that
the process of concentration in bus
mess cannot continue indefinitely,
that there are indications that de-
Capitalization has already set in
the governor concluded. .