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Show COMMUNITY SUICIDE I One of the strangest phenomena witnessed in most towns and ;;n!al! ci.ies is the .ppcrent eagerness with which many otherwise good to the tander.ry to commit community suicide. ... Wi.. cite., snow uncommon zeal in boosting any me ems.-t to ootai;. civic improvements, to promote the location of new industries, to secure better educational facilities, and so on- Ye. many of these same proud boosters will deliberately engage in a practice which nullifies all their otherwise laudable efforts and then they wonder why their town doesn't go ahead. We refer to the suicidal habit of buying away from home, which is largely responsible for the failure of many communities to make the progress which their natural advantages should- make possible. The money that ought to be kept at home for the expansion of local trade and industry is sent away to distant cities, never to return, through the indifferent or thoughtlessness of the very persons who should set an example of local pride and loyalty. A trifling saving here and there, usually more imaginary than real, is sufficient to cause the average citizen to forget his duty to his community and to himself, which if performed would mean more in the direction of local prosperity than all his other boosting efforts put together. , 1 Why boost in one dirrection, while committing community suicide in another? |