Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-08-24
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW.

Written for the Times Republican.

MY people,, declares ConBreBd-
tional minister OF hill town, are de-
generates: the people all through my
district are degenerates." Another as
poet of the same view Is presented by
Philip Morgan, who says decadent
New England village:
The number of illegitimate children
among us Is so large that definite
amount has been fixed by common con
sent as the proper one to be paid by the
putative father to the parents of the
unmarried mother. Not tnfre-
quently men and women take new
wives and husbands without the form
atty of a divorce or a re-marriage.
Whole families are sunk in slough of
vice and poverty, from which, occa-
sionally, some enterprising son OF
daughter will emerge-perhaps only to
fall back again in moment of tempta-
ton or despair
In the opinion of Mr.. HART the only
remedy for this state of af1airs Is to
upbuild the Industrial, social and re-
ligious life of small towns and rural
communities through some form of
what has come to be known as the So
cial settlement. He SUCCESS, first of all,
the establishment of a model farm, OPP
Grated by an expert argiculturist, with
a school for the study of agricultural
science, something like the English
system OF cooperative farming. Then,
he says, sanitary reform must be insti-
tuted. Let the people be taught some-
thing about diet and cooking, and let
them be warned against the wiles OF
the travelling quacks of all kinds. Next
the social, intellectual and religious life
must be strengthened and enriched.
About the most pathetic thing in village
life oftentimes is its mental poverty
and vacuity. There is little to stimulate
or broaden it's thought, and there are
few wholesome amusements which are
so necessary for mental recreation and
growth. Mr.. HART would teach the peo-
pie to call upon each other oftener, and
to talk about things that are worth
While. He would have them get up,
entertainments, and rehallow card
playing and dancing. He would also
have them stimulate and deepen their
intellectual life through courses OF lee
lures and the circulation of whole.
some literature. BY working patiently
along these lines Mr. Hartt thinks that
rural life may be regenerated, and he
believes that if the right men will come
forward to do the work, men of wealth
who were born in the country will be
found ready to give it the needed sup
port.
The above from the New York Trib-
une will strike many reader as an!
Exaggerated statement. And yet close
observers of the social existence of New
! England, know that this 'Congrega-
tional minister of the hill town." only
lisays what others are aware Of The
last fifty years in New England has
been almost a complete revolution, in
so far as society ties are concerned. Fifty
years ago Gas in iowa today, in New
England "one man was as good as an
lother.' AT that time the daughters
and wives of the mill owners were
behind the looms in the wooden man
ufactories. Today their former places
are entirely filled by foreign help. In
those days of comparatively small
fortunes, there We're no artificial lines
of society drawn. Teaching school was
no more an honored occupation for a
young woman than weaving in mill
and earning better wages. Today the
wife of the mill superintendent Will
receive the school teacher, but does
not recognize the girl who works in the
mill. New Englanders, men and women
who have managed to accumulate
money, are far from being .degener-
| ates." On the contrary they have
| formed an arstocracy, that now ac-
tually draws the lines socially at trades
men. Long ago mechanics and their
families found it necessary to flock by
themselves. 1t Is amusing if 1t were not
4 SO monstrous in it's results to notice the
/ imaginary lines. Aristocratic wealth
| fnot birth) Will not mix now with the
| butcher, the baker or the candlestick
4 maker. A man with a profession. If
nothing but a penny a liner on a daily
paper. is eligible, but the man who
does manual labor on the same paper is
mot invited to society doings. In word
the man who works with his hands is
not now received socially by the
Y favored class
4 And to get out in the country where
these "degenerates' are found. For
fifty years the New England boy has
been leaving the farm. Only the
4 weaker. physically and mentally, have
remained. Evolution has brought the
best to Ohio, then Iowa, then west. De
generacy has remained to stock the
New England farm with a lower grade
of human beings. Only this week q
gentleman from Connecticut was telling
this scribe his experience in that state
while on a bicycle trip. He got lost ane
was compelled TO ask for a night.
lodging at Connecticut farm house
In the first place the house was off thu
. main road. A little Travelled Ian,
brought him to the house in the wood!
two miles from nowhere" In tina
house was only one weekly paper
books. magazines and religious paper.
were not taken. Two women and MAJ
We're the occupants. In conversation
they showed utter ignorance OF tn,
commonest affairs Of the day. They die
not attend church and as for schoo
they guessed" there was one three
!. miles from there. They had positivel!
no amusements, no recreation. and thu
{ fact was they were too poor to bu.
: clothes. They were not living. onl.
barely drawing breath. Not vicious
: but only so because of lack of OPP
portunity And it was not case o
where the love of money is the root o
I all evil. but case of where the wan
n of it and what it brings had let thes
r people of Puritan stock down, down ii