By E.C. Branson
The cityward drift spells the doom of drowsy little towns lacking civic pride and enterprise sufficient to develop superior residential advantages. When country people move they go with a hop-skip-and-jump over dull little towns into census-size cities—in this and every other state.
As a result, 93 of our little towns dwindled in population during the last 10 years, and 40 more faded from the map. The lesson from the 1920 census reads to small town capitalists who own building lots, enjoy rent revenues, sell merchandise, and operate banks is: Make your home town the best place on earth to live in, develop local manufacturers set in garden cities, or move in self-defense into progressive centers, or reconcile yourselves to stagnant community life with all its menaces to family integrity and business opportunity.
If the 413 little country towns of North Carolina can be brought into right relationships with the surrounding trade areas—as for instance in Garnett, Kansas—they will not only save themselves, but also the country regions round about. The small-town approach to country life problems is a hopeful approach, if only country bankers, country merchants and country ministers can be brought to realize it.
From the University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., May 4, 1921
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