The phenomenon of dying rural towns

The other day I was in a town about 100 miles from here. Townsend used to be a dynamic place, but there are a lot of empty storefronts there now.

The phenomenon of dying rural towns is becoming more obvious all the time. Deer Lodge, for example, used to be well to do. The Anaconda smelter, the saw mills, the railroad, and the phosphate mine were all available as good employment. The firms paid...