The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1908-10-01
NEW NATIONAL IDEAL,
UpbuiIding of Town and VILLAGE
UpbuiIds the Race.
SALVATION OF THE COUNTRY.

1t Depends Upon Checking the Tend
ency of the People to Gather In
Conaested Centers-How the Mail
Order System Kills Rural Life.
From an editorial article by George
II. Maxwell in Maxwelfs Talisman the
following pertinent extracts are taken:
There are many country merchants
who see their trade gradually slipping
away from them, leaving the country
town and going to the great cities by
the channel of the mail order trade.
| There are many country editors who
see the prosperity Of their towns de-
! pleted and circulation and advertising
| income reduced for the same reason.
There are very few. however, who
realize that their problem is a national
one and that it IS, wrapped up in and
part of the great fundamental ques-
| ton whether this nation shall he per-
| petuated or shall be destroyed by the
| physical degeneration Of humanity. the
| social unrest, industrial discomfort.
moral and political corruption and class
hatred bred in the city .slums and ten
! ementS and certain to eliminate in
anarchistic crimes. riotOus mohs and
all destroying social upheavals as the
result of some long continued period
Of industrial and commercial depres-
sion
The fact is that the upbuilding Of
the country town and suburban vii
lage as an antidote and safeguard
against the poisonous social. moral,
physical and political consequences of
herding millions Of our working peo-
| pie together in the unna tural congested
life of the tenements is the one great
| question that rises above. all others in
Importance as a problem that this ma
| ton must solve. Unless 1t does solve
it it will suffer death from human de-
| generacy-the fate of so many nations
and civilizations that have risen in the
past only to be destroyed. Ours will be
likewise destroyed unless we take heed
in time.
The danger arises from the conges-
| llO1i vi BOI)uldtlOu III CLUES anu 1IOu1
nothing else
The solution lies in checking the fur
Their growth of cities at the homes Of
Industrial workers and scattering those
homes into and among suburban home
croft villages and in country towns
and rural settlements
To do that trade and industry must
be decentraiiZed. Industries Of all
kinds must be established in tie sub
urbs Of the cities on i'll the towns III
stead of in the congeSted certers. That
is something that requires an organized
| campaign, but first ii requires Il cur
rent of right thought in the minds Of
the people.
1t requires that everything should be
done that can be done to hold in the
existing towns and villages the trade
that now naturally centerS there. Any
part Of it, small or large, that is di
verted to any of the huge central mall
order concerns in the big cities and
thereby taken away from the locality
where it originates and belongs Is an
influence that promotes just to that
extent the growth of the evil that is
eating at the heart of our national life.
Whatever is needed to supply the needs
of every household in every rural com
munity should be sold over the counter
Of local store and not through the
| poStoffice and the mail trade.
Then comes the question Of the
growth Of towns and villages. There
is where the country editors and mer-
chants can help themselves Once get
it into the minds of the whole Amer
lean people that the salvation Of the
nation depends Oh the upbuilding OF
| the country towns and suburban vii
lages-get the idea planted and deeply
rooted 50 it will grow itself-and q
thousand Influences will enter the field
and enlist for this great campaign for
rural and country town and village
development to check the oyergrowth
Of cities, with all its resultant evils.
1t cannot all be done at once. The
first thing is to get public thought ac-
! lively aroused and turned into right
channels There must be a complete
common conception in the minds Of
millions of people Of this new national
| ideal. Then there must be united, con-
certed and vigorous action to realize
that ideal The facts and arguments
| to support it must be disseminated
through a great educational campaign,
| entirely separate and apart from poll