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Show MOST TOWNS 11 AMERICA ARE PAST THE ROOM STAGE. Municipalities are like some Individuals. There is the blithesome time of youth, when the moon seems to be hung with green cheese and nothing short of a Rockefeller or the White House seems to bound ambition when there is zip, pep, push and energy In every movement and when the world hasn't yet had a chance to dull the sharp poinards of expectations. But in later years the young man settles down. He's satisfied everybody every-body can't become a Rockefeller in wealth or a president. The same thing is eventually brought to the notice of some, if not nil cities. A new "settlement" "settle-ment" springs up. The location is good. As n trading center it is ideal. The country around it teems with potential wealth. It possossos a aricty of attractions for newcomers thnt surely must bring thorn along and quickly bulge the population. Itnd speculators arrive and ndd to the fuss. Things boom, and boom and boom. And for awhile it looks as if there is going to be a metropolis where the green sward once held sway. Hut then the boom the bubble bursts and the folks begin to dwindle Or, at least, there Is not the steady and rapid increase that had been expected. Ijtnd prices stop hopping up and up. Rather, they show a tendency to come down. And so the embryonic metropolis comes down to being only a regular town with ordinary possibilities possi-bilities and the customary conservative ambitions. ambi-tions. Most towns in America arc now past the boom stage. Once in awhile a boom breaks loose, but they arc the exception. The nvcrnge American town no longer is trying try-ing to grow as big as New York City. It is attempting at-tempting to live up to its opportunities, is trying to be a better place to live in than ever before, is keen for improvements, wants its citizens to be satisfied witlt it and make it their permanent plnce of residence, and is acting very much like a man settled down and sane. |