A Reader Says Smiles and Bows Won't Save Port Townsend

EDITOR ARGUS: In a recent issue of your excellent paper I was attracted to an article headed "Can we do Anything for our Town?" The answer of every person of ordinary intellect would be in the affirmative; but when we consider the numerous methods which the author proposes to make use of to improve the town, we are forced to the conclusion that he is possessed of a very shallow mind, and in the ideas he suggests in which he handles the subject we feel free to assert that he is of the sentimental kind. He goes on to moralize in this manner: "While we are building and improving our town, we may be tearing down our sister towns, thereby injuring them in a greater extent than we may be benefited." Now what does he suppose our neighbors in Seattle or elsewhere care about the rise or fall of this town, so long as they are flourishing? I say they do not care a straw — so it should be with us: where our homes are and our interests are, there let our minds be concentrated for its welfare. It is preposterous to sit passive and indifferent while trade that justly belongs to us is departing from us, and after it is all lost, to turn around and cry out "Can we do anything for the town?" The "healthy business" that our merchants are doing might have been trebled by this time had they been wise and far-seeing men; but having failed in this, the progress they make is so slight as to be invisible. He goes on to say "labor is plenty for those who wish it" — that we do not doubt, if they will labor for little or nothing; then he says "hunger is unknown in our midst." The idea of a person going hungry when he can live on the small sum of 20 cents per diem is ridiculous; therefore hunger being a stranger does not reflect any great amount of credit on the town. He finally winds up by suggesting that "if we teach our children politeness, etc.," it will be an inducement for others to come, and by these means he expects to cause Port Townsend to flourish and prosper — not thinking that smiles, bows and suave manners are not calculated to supply the cravings of a hungry family. I must leave sentiment alone and come down to reality, for he has to deal with stern matters when he considers the advancement of this town. It requires capital and energy to develop it; then labor will be more plenty, trade will turn and money circulate freely. Unless a more public-spirited and liberal feeling, with [energy] and capital, is practiced among us in our social relations, a hundred years from now will not see Port Townsend much advanced above her present status. WAUHOVER.