Ernest J. Sias

              191?

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The Pep-primed Progress Promoter with a Punch
(From a California Newspaper)

Community Expert and Town Builder


Trnest J. Sias



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His Home Town Back of Him

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CITY OF LINCOLN
GEORGE DAYTON SUP OR ACCOUNTS AND FINANGES AND CITY TREASURER

WILLIAM SCHROEDER SUPT. OF PARKS AND PUBLIC PROPERTY


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CHARLES W BRYAN MAYOR
SUPT OF PUBLIC AFTAIRS
LINCOLN NEBR

CHOMAS J HENSLEY SUPT OF STREETS AND PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT

JOHN WRIGHT SUPT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Mar. 3, 1917

To Whom It Way Concern:

It gives me pleasure to commend the work of Mr. E. J. Sias, of this city, whom I have known for some years.  Mr. Sias is a student of municipal problems and has given much time to the promotion of progressive measures that has enabled the city to secure the growth and development to which it was entitled, and to give to the people measures which promote the general welfare of the community.  He is an able exponent of municipal problems and has a fund of information which cannot fail to be of value to any town or city that is fortunate enough to hear him present his views on civic betterment.

Charles W. Bryan Mayor of Lincoln


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LINCOLN COMMERCIAL CLUB
OFFICERS:

F. H. WOODS PRESIDENT
D. A. GEORGE VICE PRESIDENT
CHAS. STUART TREASURER
N. S. WHITTEN SECRETARY



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LINCOLN, NEBRASKA

DIRECTORS:

M. R. BURKET
AUE. EICHE
C. C. MAROY
L. W. WORAMKYER
S. M. MSKELVIE
CMAS. STUART
L. J. DUNM
B. A. GEORGE
E. E. HENKLE
C. F. LADD
E. D. SAWYER
P. W. WOODS



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February 9, 1917.

INTERESTED PARTIES:

Mr. E. J. Sias is a member of the Lincoln Commercial Club and is well known in his home city as a live wire community interest promoter, He is secretary of the Parmanent Roads League an organization with over a thousand membere which has a three million doliare paved roads program for this county.  He has made an exhaustive study or those subjects which come under the, head of Commercial Club work and is well qualified for the type of work he is doing in his community Interest Campaigns.

Thousands of Home Towns in this sountry need just the kind of stirring up which Mr. Sias can give them.  If your town needs inspiration to see its opportunities for development, if it needs an organizer who can bring warring factions together, if the people in your town need more loyalty and patriotism for their home town, Mr. Sias it just the man you ought to bring to your town.

Yours very truly,
N.S. Written Secretary.



MEMBEN OF INTENATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ROTARY CLUB

OFFICERS

HARRY PORTER President
O. J. ALLISON Vice-President
F. E. WALT Secretary
W. W. HACKNEY, Jr. Treasurer
C. J. BILLS Scrocont-at-.


LINCOLN · ROTARY · CLUBS


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NEB.

OFFICE OF PRESIDENT
1123 O STRCET

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

O. J. FEE
F. M. HUNTER
R. V. PEPPERBERG
VERNE HEDGE
I. B. SAUNDERS


Lincoln is very fortunate to have as one of its citizens Mr. E. J. Sias.  The Rotary Club. recognizing his ability as a business man and organizer, selected him as its Lecturer Member.

I have heard many say.  We wonder why he did not get into some big business and make a million dollars.  But on closer acquaintance we have learned that Sias does not measure his success by the dollars he can pile up, but by the many men and women he can inspire to better things.

He is the kind of man who would rather have a million friends and not a dollar than have a million dollars and not a friend.

Can you wonder why the Lincoln Rotary Club believes in Sias?

Respectfully yours,
Harry Porter




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TELETHOME Basis
The City Young Men's Christian Association of Lincoln, Nebraska
(INCORPORATED)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

J. E. MILLER President
CHARLES STARADER Vice-President
EDWIN JEARY Vice-President
FRED D. MASONARY Recording Seary
G. A. LOVELAND Treasurer
O. N. MAGEE
W. A. SELLEOK
A. R. TALBOT
W. J. BRYAN
M. W. FOLSOM
J. H. HUMFE
F. H. WOODS
F. M. HUNTER
H. R. SIZER SHINN
R. O. WILLIAMS
J. S. EWART
E. L. PAINE
W. T. IROME
B. F. SNAVELY


SECRETARIAL STAFF



W. A. LUKE
General


A. F. WOLF
Assistant Genoral


FENNER E. KING
Boys'


LOREN D. JONES
Social


F. M. ORSENSTRERT
Physical


F. W. PARK
Educational




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February 17, 1917.

To Those Interested:

Mr. E. J. Sias, of our city, is one of Lincoln's first citizens advocating progressive measures for building up a truly great community.  He is a firm believer that co-operation of all for the good of all has in it unlimited possibilities.

He says, we all want sky-scrapers, good roads, farms, factories and the like, but if we are going to tell a stranger about 'our home town or community' we are sure to mention those things that show we believe in each other — namely, our parks, schools, hospitals and homes.

Any community will be the better for having had this man in their midst.

Respectfully,
W. A. Luke General Secretary.



Offags

EMERSON E. SMITH. President
Adv. Mgr. Spier & Simon
O. J. FEE.  Vice President Mgr. Evans Laundry
ROSCOE TAYLOR. Secretary
Adv. Mgr. George Broe. Printers
H. R. KELSO, Treasurer Mgr. Lee Breon & Duster Co.



LINCOLN AD CLUB
AFFILIATED WITH

ASSOCIATED ADVERTISING CLUBS OF THE WORLD


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TRUTH



Beard of Directon

E. W. NEISON Rudge & Guensel
K. L. MURRAY Lineedn Pure Butter Co.
LEO, SOUKUP Lincoln Cleaning & Dye Who.
A. E. EVANS American Laundry Co.
H. V. WESTFALL Miller & Paine




Educational Committee

H. V. WESTFALL
O. J. FEE
F. I. RINGER

Program Committee

E. W. NELSON
K. L. MURRAY
J. S. BROWN

Publicity Committee

W. A. ROBBINS
FRED ARCHIBALD
LEO SOUKUP

Membership Committee

A. E. EVANS
W. R. BOYD
W. M. HYTE

Entertainment Committee

O. J. ALLISON
SAM NORTH


Action Vigilance Committee



LINCQLN, NEOR.,[Feb. 14th 1917]

To those Concerned;

It is a pleasure to commend a man so worthy of commendation as Ernest J. Sias; who is well known to me as an active member of the.  Lincoln Ad Club. Mr. Sias has, on more than one occasion, favored the Club with his forceful talks along lines of community building and business betterment.


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Mis lectures on the problems of the Home town and community building are carefully thought out and built on first hand information gathered in the hundreds of towns he has visited.  He imparts this information in a pleasant and logical way, punctuating his remarks with many apt illustrations and sprightly stories.

His message comes straight from the shoulder—is inspiring and stimulating and above all—educational.  No person who has heard Sias once, will miss the opportunity to hear him again.

I commend him to your most careful consideration,

Sincerely,
Emerson E. Smith President.






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The Home Town Problem

America is just awakening to the fact that two-thirds of her home towns are dying.  This alarming discovery has startled the most eminent students of our national welfare and has prompted some far reaching investigations.

The urban population of the United States ninety years ago was 4 1/2% of the total population, fifteen years ago it was 33 1/3%, today it is 50%.  At this rate in three more decades 85% of all the nation's people will live in towns and cities.  While people are crowding into the cities at an increasing rate, two-thirds of our home towns are dying.



MODERN CONDITIONS
This condition may be accounted for by the remarkable transformation which is taking place in our industrial, business, and social life.  Good roads and automobile transportation practically annihilate distance and bring the outlying rural districts almost within the cities' suburbs.  Every year seven million catalogues go into seven million homes and are read by an average of five persons each.  Thus thirty-five millions of people are being educated to send over the heads of the home town merchants five hundred million dollars to build the big cities and kill the home towns.



SOME TOWNS ASLEEP
Many towns are content to see their buildings go to decay; to deny themselves the conveniences of water and sewer systems, paved and well lighted streets.  They are satisfied with inadequate school facilities.  Without a city park.  With little or no support for the home town band.  With poor churches and half paid ministers.  With little or no co-operation between the town and country.  With jealousies and strife between the business men.  With apparent lack of civic pride and public spirit.  Without loyalty or love for the home town.  No one cares to move into such a town.  The boys and girls move away as soon as they are old enough to go.  The ones who remain are left to wonder why that town does not grow.  Only the towns which are fit can survive.



OTHER TOWNS AWAKE
Other towns are thriving and prosperous because they are learning how to counteract the cities' lure by building the lure of the home town.  Merchants co-operate to give better service.  A Community Club promotes the business and social welfare of the community.  The farmers and business men work hand in hand.  Carefully selected men are chosen to serve on the town board or city council.  Knowing that good roads are one of the communities' greatest assets, the town and county have joined forces to improve the highways.  Knowing that an attractive looking town draws trade and population the town is painted up and lighted up.  Weeds are kept down, lawns mowed, streets are beautified, alleys and back yards are kept neat and clean, and civic pride is everywhere in evidence.  Such communities are bound to grow and the people in them bound to prosper.



WHAT ABOUT YOUR TOWN?
But even these towns are not without their problems.  Is your town getting all the trade which should come to it?  Are the highways leading into your town such as to bring people your way?

Does your board of health make adequate inspection of your dairy products, your water supply and your garbage disposal?  A town of five thousand people in Nebraska recently had twenty cases of typhoid fever with five deaths before it was learned that the disease came from the milk supply.

What about the vice and immorality of the young people of your community?  The remedy may be found in supplying the right kind of a recreation center.  A swimming pool might be substituted for the questionable loafing places.  A roller skating rink under proper supervision may be better than the unregulated public dance.

Towns recently gone to the dry list have a new problem to face.  The saloon was maintained by its appeal to the social instinct.  The law of substitution is perhaps a safer course to pursue than the law of elimination.  A clean, well regulated social center is better and the cost to the community far less than the dives and dens often established by irresponsible men, with the prosecutions which follow.  The wealth in better citizenship is a big dividend.





Calling a Community Expert

Great industrial and commercial establishments have learned the advantage of calling in an outside expert to look over a plant and give expert advice as to changes which should be made.  This expert goes thru a factory from office to shipping room.  He watches every detail as the raw material is transformed into the finished product.  He notes the improvements which should be made to lower the cost of production and increase the output.  The advice of one such expert has been known to double the net earnings of a factory.

A number of cities within the past few years have employed an expert to spend from six months to a year, providing him with offices, clerks, and equipment just to make an industrial or social survey of the city and to tabulate the information gathered for the cities' future use.



TOWNS SEEKING ADVICE
In a similar manner towns of smaller size are seeking expert advice for the community welfare.  Needs are being keenly felt for a community awakening.  Each town has its own peculiar problems.  An outside man with wide experience in community needs can often see things which the home folks have overlooked.  At least he can say things and receive a hearing where oftimes the home man cannot.



A COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN
In his Community Interest Campaigns Mr. Sias makes a personal survey of each community and gives that community such instruction and advice as it needs.  He conducts under the auspices of the Commercial Club or Improvement Club with the co-operation of the Woman's Club, schools, churches, and farmers club when such is possible, a 3-day or 6-day campaign, with conferences in the afternoons and a mass meeting of citizens at night.  Preferably beginning Tuesday night and ending with a union meeting of all the churches Sunday night.  Usually the home band or orchestra preludes the evening lecture.  Sometimes the high school or church choruses furnish the music.  The campaign is usually financed by a subscription or a public offering so that no admission fee to the lectures is charged.  Carefully worked out plans for publicity and for getting an audience are outlined in a campaign booklet which is supplied to the committee in charge.



EVENING LECTURES
The evening lectures are so arranged and presented as to stimulate a greater patriotism and loyalty on the part of the people towards the home town.  After personal observations which he takes thruout the community he adds plenty of local color to his addresses.  Pointing out the community needs and how those needs may be supplied.



AFTERNOON CONFERENCES
The afternoon addresses and conferences for merchants, Commercial Club directors and committees, town or city council, Woman's Clubs, etc., while they do not reach so large a group as the evening lectures, they are considered fully as valuable.  Here new light is thrown on difficult problems, opportunity is given for questions, and a definite program is arrived at in which all are pledged to work together for the future development of the community.

A civic conference, participated in by representatives of all the civic, educational, religious and commercial bodies is a great get-together meeting and results in high enthusiasm and definite resolve for the future welfare of the community.

Where it is possible a community dinner is arranged for Friday evening which is followed by the evening address.



AN EXPERIENCED MAN
Mr. Sias has been on the Lyceum and Chautauqua platform for twelve years.  During this time he has lectured in over two thousand towns, most of them ranging in size from five hundred to fifteen thousand people.  He has made a first hand study of community problems in these towns, covering thirty-five states.  The matter of municipal government and the management of public utilities are subjects with which he has also familiarized himself.  He is qualified to give the reasons why some towns grow and other towns die.  He always knows his ground and subject before he speaks.  He is thoroughly sincere and is devoting his time to helping save the home towns of this country.

If you are interested in securing Mr. Sias for ONE LECTURE or for a COMMUNITY INTEREST CAMPAIGN the conditions on which he will be willing to come to your town will be supplied upon request.



ADDRESS HIM AT LINCOLN, NEBR.





Community Interest Campaign

EVENING LECTURE SUBJECTS

HOME TOWN PREPAREDNESS.
CO-OPERATION AND THE LARGER TRADE.
WHERE FORTUNES ARE MADE.
THE COMMUNITY'S FUN.
THE ROADS TO TOWN.
THE OLD-TIME RELIGION AND THE NEW-TIME NEED.



Subjects for Conferences

WOMAN'S PART IN COMMUNITY PROGRESS
THE COMMERCIAL CLUB AS A COMMUNITY-BUILDER
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT
HARNESSING ALL THE FORCES