Newport's $5,000 Industrial Bounty
The town launches an aggressive campaign to lure a major sawmill or woodworking plant to the Pend Oreille valley.
Newport will offer a bonus of $5,000 for the location at this point of a sawmill with a cutting capacity of 200,000 to 250,000 feet per day, or a woodworking plant to employ at least 100 men. The town presents facilities for manufacturing plants that are unsurpassed in the Northwest. An abundant supply of timber is located in the country directly tributary to Newport, and in the Kaniksu National Forest, there is a vast supply of mature timber that is being sold by the government and can be transported to this point by either rail or water. Newport needs a payroll of larger proportions. To get such a payroll and the attendant benefits of development, the citizens are willing to work together and boost. The offer of a bonus of $5,000 is made in good faith and parties seeking a location for industries can readily be shown that we mean business.
“Newport needs a payroll of larger proportions. To get such a payroll and the attendant benefits of development, the citizens are willing to work together and boost.”
This 'boosterism' reflects the era's obsession with industrial growth and payrolls as the primary metric of a town's success. It mirrors modern economic development incentives where municipalities compete to attract large employers through tax breaks and subsidies.
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