Page 4 ? • -t* ; Ei*ter Edition

/ CAPE KAY COUNTY TIMES, SEA ISLE CITY, N. J.

Pridny, April 6,1917

HOW TO ORGANIZE THE COMMUNITY k By Dr. William Byroh Forbush. s W, It has been said that if three Yankees should r be cast adrift on a desert island they would at * once call a town meeting and elect a committee. It is a good Yankee notion. Whenever a |> number of persons propose to do something Pi worth while, organization is necessary. It may f be simple, but it should be definite. In a community welfare movement fortunate is the town that already possesses an organizap taon that can be utilized. Often an apparently k decaying civic society needs nothing but a fresh 1 ■ program and one or two new leaders to prove r- just the agency wanted for the town’s redempb tkm. & Sometimes this organization is the Commerr cial Club or the Board of Trade. Too many S' boards of trade get contented by bringing a rp new factory to town, and then fall asleep. It is [ • our conviction that no commercial organization & gets the best life of the town at work or fulfills r its function unless it takes up each year at least I one task that is more than merely commercial. I What is the use of bringing new people to town [ unless the town is becoming a better place to k live in? WTiat is the sense of encouraging £ families with children to come to live with us, if S' the mortality of children among us is larger & than it ought to be? Matters of public health y and beauty thus have a very close relation to t business. Then when a commercial organiza- ? tion occupies itself with nothing but getting J more business it fails to use the abilities and V assistance of important members of the com- ‘ munity. A purely business organization will interest the store-keepers and bankers, but why not have a society in which the physicians, the r ' clergymen, the school teachers, the clerical class and the retired men of wealth can show their interest in the town. Specific Campaigns For Commercial Clubs. h No organization is in a better position to put < through short-time specific improvement campaigns than the local board of trade. It has the machinery, the access to the public, semi-official It backing and usually a large membership. Take the "Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaign’ 7 which is becoming so popular and useful. Often the commercial organization takes entire charge of this. In Asheville, N. C., such a club issued a “proclamation,” setting apart a special f week for the purpose. In Buffalo a circular

A street in Ocean City, typical of all the streets of that resort. Note the width of the highway, and the handsome houses that line it on both sides. Most of these houses are the summer residences of .Philadelphians, who make up the bulk of the populatiou of America’s Greatest Cottage Resort.

was put in every home, with the co-operation of the mayor and city officials, by the Chamber of Commerce, telling each householder exactly what to do. Women’s Organizations in Town Betterment Work. Some men say: “Let the women do it They will, anyway.” This sublime faith in the energy of organized womanhood is usually justified. Every town has at least one woman’s club, and most small cities have local federations of all such clubs in the city. These organizations meet frequently, usually have special committees on such matters, and have close access to the children and the schools. The range of the activities of women’s clubs is extraordinary. They may begin, as in one town, with the placing of painted barrels on the street corners for the depositing of papers* and litter. They may prove as successful as that small club in Salisbury, N. C., which has

secured for that town a splendid Community Building, with auditorium, public library, restroom, creche, and headquarters for the leading literary, social and service organizations of the city. It is advocated by some that hoards of trade confine themselves to better business, and leave matters of general town improvement to the women's clubs. Your town msy do as it will, but does it not seem a shame that men should leave such difficult and often expensive concerns as public health, playgrounds and social centers to the weak shoulders of the women ? Are we not shirking a privilege as well as a duty? Other Ways of Getting Leadership. It has been suggested that in towns that hold Chautauqua the Chautauqua guarantors should become the nucleus of civic responsibilities. It is true that they often indu ’e many publicspirited persons—indeed, in r.iany towns no other fellowship number* - so many, unsectarian and non-partisan. There ought to be the clos-

est relation between the Chautauqua program in the summer and tojriea of community welfare in which the town Irinterested in the winter. But these guarantors have their definite task, and it is a big one Let them as individuals unite in every dvic campaign. But this is sorqething even bigger, because it lasts all the year, and it should utilize the services of many more people, and of many people who would not be expected to extend financial guarantees. Wherever there is no spedfic dvic organization, start one. It may begin with one man, and his telephone, for the telephone is always a willing booster. Let them call together half a dozen other boosters. When they meet they should try to get with them the mayor, the liveliest' newspaper man, a leader in the women’s dubs, and then or very soon after, every force that can help and every influence that pould hinder, if it is ignored. At one of these eariy conferences do two things, Organize, and Dedde upon orte definite thing to be done. Get as many men and women as possible to WORK, each at some specific thing. Committees to work, and chairmen to think and work, are essential. Have enough committees to set everybody to work, but not so many as to complicate and confuse. rKH>oooocB>ooogca?ogaa3a»aKMac^^

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Our high reputation as Street and Road builders is the result of shill, industry, energy and fair dealing that enters into every contract we undertaKe.

OFFICE: 739\ ASBURY AVENUE Oce*. £ity, N. J.

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