Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-02

| from new industries started within the
communities themselves.
In this battle of the SmokeStackS
cities and towns are spending time
money and effort to attract industries
| from other communities. They are send
ing to Russia for American-made sad
dies
Washington has talked for a lone
time about the need of white-collal
industries, in order to make us as Q
commercial and industrial center self
sufficient. in order to give our children
opportunities in business life which are
afforded the children of other cities
Yet, while there has been much talk
Twain said about the weather, Every
body talks about it, but nobody does
anything about i'll" We sit back and
expect some one from other cities to
bring to us these industrial develop
ments, whereas the only sure and
prompt method is to do the job our
selves.
Business men in hundred cities are
moving together in great program OF
self development. These cities are de-
veloping new products and exploring
their local resources and are building
soundly and well.
Companies and individuals who earn,
spend and invest their earnings within
their own territory are contributing to
the prosperity of every man, woman
and child in the community. They are
advancing their city's standing, in
creasing the value of their own and
their fellowman's labor and making
possible the parks, schools and libraries
around which their lives grow richer.
Is Washington "city of the blind?
Do we need more near-sighted citizens,
men who will look about them instead
of looking into the alleged greener fields
Of other communities?
Cites Value Of Sentiment.
After all, it is a state of mind which
is made up of knowledge of local con-
ditions, galvanized by imagination and
sentiment. Don't pull away from that
word sentiment" know it is in bad
odor. It has been confused with "senti-
mentality" which is another thing en-
tirely. It Is supposed to be a quality OF
femininity-that the hard-boiled bust
ness men who would be successful must
fight as the plague any evidence Of SEN
timent. Yet say to you that the value
of sentiment in the building Of mans
business or in the building Of a COM
munity is all important.
WAY RO41b Oub WA4AJ CCClAlo q pea
picking paradox? Henry Ford, as the
master of mass production, which rele-
gates so many things to the past, is at
the same time wholesale collector of
antiques. I recently spent delightful
day at Dearborn and had the oppor-
tunity of seeing Henry Ford is his work.
aday clothes. I went through his col
lectionS of old wagons, and glassware,
and buckets, and rugs, and shawls, and
grist mills, and cider presses, and looms.
He has even bought old inns and tav-
ems and school houses and exhibited
them intact. In his town of Dearborn
he has reproduced independence Hall
and Edison's laboratory.
Let's not fool ourselves that this Is
mere eccentricity. 1t is a practical SEN
timent and see no incompatibility of
purpose in the genius for mass produc-
ton that thrives on making the old
fashioned obsolete and the disintereSted
concern to preserve the substance of q
oygone age.
The business man in the community
who insists that business is only bust
ness is out of touch with the times.
City Has Many Assets.
The city of Washington has many
assets, but second to none is the senti-
ment builded into every paving stone
and brick chimney. It should be capt.
talized. Every big institution which is
succeeding finds way to do business
on sentiment The public relations
counsel appears on the scene. He is
employed not only by business. but by
political parties, by celebrities big and
little, by causes and movements of one
sort and another, by governments and
by church organizations. His Job Is to
build up favorable public sentiment to-
ward the person or the enterprise he
represents. He is useful because Senti-
ment is valuable.
The same sort of thing Is done by the
sales manager, the advertising manager,
the designer, the stylist, the merchan-
diser. They are developing sentiment
favorable to their company's product, to
its policies and to its personnel.
Why, the very location of a business,
the building in which it is housed, the
manner in which it receives visitors, the
furniture itself, determine the public's
feeling about that business. They all
play part in signifying whether SEN
t1ment shall be favorable or unfavor-
able, an asset or a liability, state of
mind, constructive or destructive.
As with corporations and firms, so
with cities, for cities, like individuals,
have personalities, and, being thus en-
dowed, they manifest characteristics as
identifying and as definitive as those of
their citizens.
The New Yorker is ready to receive
your ideas. He either is or is not in
terested, or wants what you have to tell
him or sell him, or does not want 1t,
and loses no time in delivering his ul-
tlmatum. That is the personality of
New York
Washington's Atmosphere.
Washington has a different atmos-
phere. Here are gathered men from the
four corners of the United States and
from the seven seas, each in his own
way representing somebody or some pur-
pose. Men gather here from all points
OF the American compass to settle
things, to win approval for this and
that. Every viewpoint and every shade
Of opinion has its eXemplar and its adj
vocate, and never do they fail to make
the most of public sentiment.
Do We know our Washington? Do we
thrill as we daily come across remind
ers OF the great responsibility that at
tacheS to citizenship in a city such as
ours? For Washington, as no other city
on this continent, enshrines patriotism
and preserves the deep wells of old
faiths: Here the humanity and power
ana glory OF a great people come to an
impressive focus. Here is the fountain
head Of national law and order and
progress.
Great Things Expected.
Great things are expected of this ra-
olant and majestic city. And the point
Is that there is no citizen so lowly. no
business man so obscure that he does
not tn SoYnp e.ytanf hold the ray,,,Iot 49,
OF Washington in his keeping.
He may be the one to do a fine serv-
ice or a fragrant disservice which viii
confirm or shake the faith or adnnira-
ton Of some visitor to Washington, and
go echoing around the world for good or