Village Passed By

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 16, 21 January 1936, Page 8

Village Passed By

EVEN DEPRESSION UNKNOWN

In Big Prairie, Ohio, there is a vil lago that tho depression passed by, but then almost everything passed by Big Prarie, says the Christian Science Monitor.

Almost every day there are jobs available in this community of 200-odd persons, but the village is a hard place to get to —it has no public transportation facilities. Only one man is on Government relief, and it is said he didn’t like the idea of working even before relief was started. Every other adult is employed. There is no city government, no policemen, no chamber of commerce. There are no pressing financial problems. The village has its own water system, good roads, gas, telephones, and electricity.

Big Prairio has an excellent school. One recent graduating class consisted of one pupil. The citizens of Big Prairie have considerable local pride and most ot them wish that the trains stopped there. Tho village is on the main lme of the Pennsylvanian Eailroad, and in 1929 five trains made daily stops. But to-day when somebody wants to make a long trip trains must be flagged. Last year a delegation went to Coiumbus to try to get some action on the matter.

‘‘We weren’t disappointed when they turned us down,” said C. ,S. Starner, a bank cashier, ‘‘because there are only two families in town without an automobile."

Mr Starner said that almost every day farmers or storekeepers come into the bank to ask help in locating good workers. Most of the residents are employed by a factory making petrol flatirons.