The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-08-28
new NATIONAL IDEAL,
Uphuilding of Town and Village
Upbuilds tire Race.
SALVATION OF THE COUNTRY,

1t Depends Upon Checking the Tend
ency of the People to Gather In
ceneested centers--How the Mail
Order System Kills Rural Life.
From an editorial article by George
Il. Maxwell in Maxwel's 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 ana
q part of the great fundamental ques-
ton whether this nation shall be per-
petuated or shall be destroyed by the
ghvsical degeneration Of humanity. the
social unrest, industrial discomfort.
moral and political corruption and class
hatred bred in the city slums and ten
erents and certain to eliminate IN
anarchistlc crimes. riotous mobs and
ALI 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 or
herding millions Of our working peo-
pie together in the unnatural congested
life of the teneInents Is the one great
question that rises aboTe all others IN
importance as problem that this ma
tion must solve. Unless it 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-
tion Of population in cities and from
nothing else.
The solution lies in checking the fur
tier 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 decentralized. Industries OF all
kinds must be established in the sub
urbs of the cities or in the towns in
stead Of ia the congested centers. That
IS something that requires an organized
campaign, but first it requires cur
rent of right thought in the minds OF
the people.
It 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-
rerted to any Of the huge central mail
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
ununity should be sold over the counter
of local store and not through the
postoefice 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
1t into the minds Of the whole Amer
ican people that the salvation Of the
nation depends on the upbuilding of
the country towns and suburban vii
lageS-get the idea planted and deeply
rooted so it will grow itself-and
thousand influences will enter. the field
and enlist for this great campaign for
rural and country town ami village
development to check the ovcrGrowth
of cities, with all its resultant evils.
1t cannot all be done ut once. The
fist thing is to get public thought ac-
lively aroused and turned into right
channels. There must be complete
common conception in the minds of
millions of people of this new national
5deal. Then there must be united. con-
certeG and vigorous action to realize
that ideal. The Facts and arguments
10 support it must be disseminated
through great educational campaign.
entirely separate and apart from poll
tics
The Card Advertisement.