Business needs support

The article in your May 4 issue about the closure of Spokane Shaver was another sad chapter in the demise of the small business. I dread the day when all that remains are chain stores and shopping malls that are managed by stockholders and board members who live thousands of miles away or overseas.

Small family businesses are the grass roots of the American economy, and I will go out of my way and, yes, even pay a little more to support a neighbor before I contribute to the Dow Jones industrial average.

Calvin Coolidge once said “the chief business of the American people is business,” and when the connection between the people and business is weakened the character of our nation will be diminished. Some will say – and rightfully so, I fear – that this is progress, but what the rest of the world may hail as milestones too often resemble tombstones to my old eyes.

Mike Nelson

Mead