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Show I, Are You A Community Obligation or An Asset mil ' BY By George Adams. HI J' T N your qommunity obligations are you a dead beat or have you a good rating. If you say you have no community obligations your ignorance is fjM to be pitied. You are forcing other men to bear I ML the burdens of the community while you slumber ilF m Peaceful inactivity. )W In deflnining community obligations it is best " to start by directing attention to city develop- ment Avhich has been carried on by those who are it not dead beats those who are willing to take care of their share of activities . What sort of a town do you suppose would be built if every one v refused to do his share of the community work? I I I am not writing about any particular city, . all cities and their people are more or less alike i? when it comes to building and development. There have been a few men at the head of every effective city constructive movement. These . i have worked faithfully, unselfishly and the com munity laggard has reposed contentedly and shared in the advantages. "Who agitates a new lighting system or prods ' a slumbering bunch of aldermen into paving ' j the streets? Who stirs up Interest in the sur rounding territory that the merchants may reap 1 the profit from the sale of their wares. Who urges the legislators to enact laws which will be I beneficial to the citizens of communities? Who is in the front rank when visitors are to be en- tertained and when the city should be in its best r garb so that the wanderer shall have a good im- I pression and come again? They are the men who believe in their community obligations. They i i have been in the front rank in every public ) j movement which has had for its purpose a corn- ill mercially better, cleaner, more prosperous com- If1 munlty. The number, count them It the city is Jarge there is a little larger percentage, if the city is small there are only a few of them, 1 but they are the "live wires" who supply the juice in the commercial livelihood of the com-lb com-lb munity. Now let us take an inventory of the community 1 I' obligation dead beat. Exhibit A the knocker, t sometimes dubbed a kicker. He is known the country over as an every present, troublesome, non-producing, nonentity. A knocker and a kicker are about in the same class, although the kicker is the lesser of the two evils because he usually gets in his work where he may be given a little of his own medicine. medi-cine. The knocker is one of those slimy individuals individ-uals who crawls through the grass and bites when the workers are engaged in some good cause and have not time to answer. The favorite favor-ite pastime of a knocker is to criticise the efforts of the live ones, not honest criticism, just plain hammer blows poisoned by a vitrol of jealousy jeal-ousy brought about by" stagnation and inactivity. inactiv-ity. . The knocker has no particular headquarters in this world. When he dies his headquarters will .be hell. At present he engages in his -playfulness in the offices, on the street corner, or over his back fences at home while he is wading through weeds up to his knees. The knocker dead beat is not a worker. He does not share the activities or the burdens depending upon them In a community. If he did he would not have the time to be a knocker. The community knocker is not only dead, but he is a disappointment to his friends, his family, and his only hope in the hereafter is a hard seat in a pew close to blazing fire prepared for such individuals. Now there are some men who are not as far wrong as a knocker, but in their way they are a hindrance, but their disease can be cured. They are the narrow-minded class who are not willing to assist in any community work because they do not see where their purse will be fattened. They do not bear any of the burdens in activity or financially but they share in the development or property value enhancement which comes from the activities of the "live ones." These two do a great deal of complaining, but generally they bask in the sunlight of their own Inactivities. There is another class the community dead-beat dead-beat tight wad. Ordinarily these men would not IHHwbjhMHb ' 3IHI B BB i HllKSlBfuirwln r IHHMBlflKHfllH HB imi BjBilfffiBl-t HBHBBBBBBMBffi-B B 1 1 OVANDO C. BEEBE ...-.. ..,. .,.., ,,.-.,. . , - ...jm.i-Mijftjjs ,...,X -, i. . ,. MJ,ulJiVi.l contribute fifty cents toward a popular subscription subscrip-tion which would bring an army of angels to visit the city. They never contribute to any community proposition, and were these men depended de-pended upon for an ice fund the children in the heat of the summer would die if it took the Ice to save them. They are always grumbling about taxes, they are always complaining about improvement, im-provement, and about the only time they are satisfied is when some community work has so enhanced the value of their property that they can raise the rent, and then they sit back as bloated land lords and growl because it is not more. Their seat will be mighty close to that of the knocker in the hereafter. Which side of the community ledger has your name entered? Are you an asset or a liability to a community? Are you assisting your commercial organizations or are you knocking them? In the first case you are an asset, in the second you are a dead beat. No use blaming an organization organ-ization or a community. You are one of the men who make up the population. Take inventory in-ventory and ascertain if you are doing your share. If you are not, hold your mouth and do not criticise those who are doing their share. Buildings Build-ings do not make cities, paved streets or public parks are only parts in the great vhole, but people peo-ple do make cities, and a progressive fast building, prosperous community Is the one that has a progressive population. Now stop a minute and ask yourself, are you a community dead bear or a community asset? Are you keeping your community obligations B flBB&Lr "i-&iM-i B B MflBBB'. S BhI! BI SHlKwHHMMji-9h. & 4HuJi i HHH RflHIOBlF? Hn HHB-) on. J'-'H ! ? ;1vhTVL wtar l HHHi HI-KBk M-i B bc WaHHH MmmBK. ar BBr AnHH -HBhr&f- BB m hh mmw HHflSL . -Hi Bk? mWKmuuw tSMrjmmmmm HHbKuw flfifi 4&iiH H HlfpV pHflr .MSSBmmmmmm IH & " iiKrWHVlE9cH-Bi H BHHnfcraHBIHflH99BMMNI& Bl A. F. DOREMUS I... , . i ..-... JJili |